More than 100 people gathered in North Portland on Saturday for a rally and march against gun violence organized by a group of Black faith and community leaders.
The so-called “March Against Murder” drew speakers from across the city, all of them Black men and one woman who has lost two sons to gun violence.
Their message: That both government officials and the community need to step up to curb the epidemic of gun violence that’s swept through the city.
Portland has had 33 homicides in 2021, including four in the past week and a half alone. That puts the city on track to surpass its annual record for homicides of 70, set in 1987.
Royal Harris, a Multnomah County Health Department employee and former gang outreach coordinator for the City of Portland, organized Saturday’s event and invited the slate of speakers.
“This is about the community,” Harris told the crowd. “This is about people who talk about this all the time.”
In a fiery speech that drew on his pastoral experience, Portland school board member-elect Herman Greene urged the crowd to reach out to Black boys and men, particularly those at risk of recruitment into gangs.
“I’ve got to talk to people nobody wants to talk to,” he said. “If you want to stop shootings, you need to talk to shooters. If you want to stop the killings, you need to go where the killings are happening.”
Greene lamented the event’s turnout, which drew far fewer people than many other protests against systemic racism over the past year.
“This park should be filled with people,” Greene said. “If we don’t stand up for other Black and brown people, then nobody will.”
Oregon Sen. Lew Frederick, D-Portland, also urged folks in the crowd to build community in an effort to make young men feel like they belong in their neighborhoods.
“Just say, ‘Hello,’” Frederick said. “You just need to acknowledge that they are here.”
Other speakers said Black Portlanders need more institutional support.
Lakayana Drury, the executive director of a nonprofit that works with at-risk youth, challenged government entities to create well-paying jobs for Black Portlanders.
He called on Portland Public Schools to hire 100 Black teachers over the next 10 years. Drury said the Portland Police Bureau and Portland Fire & Rescue should each hire as many employees in the next decade as well.
He also demanded that private companies step in to help, starting with one of the region’s largest employers: Intel.
“I’m asking them, right now, to give every Black child a computer,” Drury said. “If you don’t want a Black child to have a gun at 15, give him a computer by 5.”
He also said AT&T and Verizon should provide free wireless hotspots for the city’s Black children.
“This is not an over-investment,” Drury said. “This is making up for historic underinvestment of resources in our Black communities.”
The crowd rallied at Peninsula Park for about an hour before marching down North Rosa Parks Way to Woodlawn City Park about a mile away. Once there, Harris addressed the crowd again from atop a picnic table before another set of speakers took turns.
The speeches followed similar themes, namely that it would take both community and institutional support to curb the rash of gun violence that’s plagued some Portland neighborhoods over the last year.
Drury, the nonprofit executive, told The Oregonian/OregonLive he hopes support will come, especially because there isn’t a quick-fix solution for the issue. Frederick, the state senator, lamented that he’s been attending similar events for the last three decades.
Drury thinks it could take another 20 years to fully break the cycle of violence.
“We need better schools, but better schools are not going to solve the gun violence problem today,” Drury said.
Elsewhere in Portland, hundreds gathered at City Hall to rally in support of the Palestine. A crowd also gathered at Revolution Hall to protest against systemic racism and police brutality later in the day.
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