This paper has frequently written about city leaders who ignore the plight of Portland's African American citizens. Now it has happened again.
Last year Mayor Tom Potter, along with Commissioner Eric Sten, launched the Home Ownership for Minority Equity Steering Committee — in part because the city had overlooked the role race plays in Portland's housing market.
What is the color line in Portland's housing market? Between Whites and Blacks with similar incomes, the loan denial rate is nearly two times higher for Black loan applicants. At every income level, African American and Latino households are turned down for home loans more often than Whites.

Veterans of the Tuskegee Airmen, the group of Black pilots that surmounted segregation and racism to become one of the most esteemed fighter groups in World War II, tell nail-biting stories of their war experiences during a presentation at Milwaukie High School on March 17. Pictured here, from left to right, are Alexander Jefferson, Richard Macon, and Bill Terry. On March 29, the Tuskegee Airmen will be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, the highest civilian award given by the U. S. Congress, and the Black Press recently honored the Tuskegee Airmen with its Historic Military Service award (see related story, page 14.)

A new deal between Planned Parenthood and the Portland Development Commission will add at least 100 jobs to a rundown section of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Beech Street Partners, LLC have released plans to build a three-story, 45,000-square-foot building at 3701, 3739 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., at the corner Beech Street. It's a stretch of MLK that is starting to see economic recovery...

It's been four years since they lost their mother, daughter, wife and sister in a mysterious walk-up shooting, but the family of Asia Bell may finally get their day in court. Last week, nearly four years after the case went "cold," Portland Police arrested four people in connection with Bell's murder.

A new series of maps, which spans Portland's inner-city neighborhoods as well as its suburbs, uses colorful graphics to highlight the region's most glaring social inequities.
In one map, swaths of pink, punctuated by slashes of magenta, coat a familiar map of Portland's most urban neighborhoods. All of the pinks – magenta being the worst – represent the minority homeownership gap in Portland. In some of the most traditionally Black neighborhoods, particularly in the Overlook neighborhood, the gap between White homeowners and homeowners of color is nearly 15 percent.

"Human Right" police officer Alice Kungu, escorts four prisoners through the streets of Seattle during an anti-war protest on March 19, marking the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.  Thousands of people marched in Seattle and in Portland this week to protest the war and to call for a complete withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The protestors in both cities joined hundreds of thousands of anti-war demonstrators who marched in cities throughout the world on March 18 and 19 to protest the America's continuing involvement and support of military action in Iraq, as well as the Bush Administration's recent threats against Iran.

Journalist and author Jack Hamann kneels next to a grave in Discovery Park's  military graveyard, where his investigation into the wrongful court martial of 43 Black soldiers during World War II in Seattle began nearly 20 years ago. Hamann is being honored as a Horace Mann Award recipient later this month.

Students at Seattle's New School won't have to go far while their new site is being built.
Seattle Public Schools announced last week that the nearby Columbia Building will house the New School while its permanent South Shore site is under construction.
Located less than three miles north of the permanent South Shore site, the Columbia Building allows Seattle Public to keep the New School in Southeast Seattle, helping to maintain the school's connection with the Rainier Valley community.
"Every decision is driven by academic achievement," SPS Chief Academic Officer Carla Santorno said. "We are particularly pleased that locating the New School at the Columbia facility while the permanent building is being constructed will keep our students close to their families and their community."

Welcoming new Oregon Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Bill Rausch are, left to right, Nancy Tait, outgoing board president, Board Treasurer Anjelica Ruppe and Noell Webb, board member. Rausch announced the 2008 season at his first meeting with the board last week

Incoming Oregon Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Bill Rauch recently unveiled his inaugural season. 
While continuing to maintain a strong commitment to Shakespeare and American classics, Rauch has also put his unique stamp on the playbill by including an epic text outside the Western canon, two new plays, a world premiere production that will head to Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center in July, and the first-ever 20th-century play to be produced on OSF's outdoor Elizabethan Stage. Joining OSF on the 11 artistic teams is an unusually high number of guest directors and designers new to OSF.

Leilani Jones of Washington and Sharitha McKenzie of Oregon.
Of the eight African American women competing in this year's Miss USA Pageant, two of them are from the Pacific Northwest.