The King Neighborhood Association (KNA), World Arts Foundation, Inc. (WAFI), and the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods (NECN) will hold a celebration on Saturday, April 26th to honor the 25th anniversary renaming of Union Avenue to Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Portland. The celebration, open to the public, will be held at the Boys and Girls Club at the Blazers location, 5250 NE MLK, from 3 – 4:30 pm. A new United States flag will be raised at the Boys and Girls Club during the event.

KNA, WAFI, and NECN join together to invite the community in celebrating the naming of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. Twenty-five years ago, after years of work by citizens who sought to bring Dr. King’s vision of peace, justice, and truth closer to reality in our community, Portland’s City Council voted to change Union Avenue’s name to Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard on April 20, 1989.

The public is invited to join the celebration, hosted by the Boys and Girls Club at the Blazers location. We will honor past, present, and future – those who have led the way in seeking truth and justice, and in particular the community members who worked to honor Dr. King with a street naming; those among us who work for justice and reconciliation today, and the youth in our community who will lead us into the future.

Photo taken in the offices of the Skanner newspaper; credit: Teressa Raiford.

Speakers at the celebration will include Donny Adair (of WAFI); Teressa Raiford; Alan Silver (of King NA); Jules Garza; organizers of the Oregon Black Museum;  and Imani Muhammad.

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.” -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Pictured: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walks between seven-year-old Eva Gracelemon, left, and 10-year-old Aritha Willis as he escorts black school children to formerly all-white schools in Grenada, Miss., Tuesday morning, Sept. 20, 1966. Violence erupted at the school when the schools were integrated. (AP Photo)