MLK Day in Portland: Hundreds attend litter cleanup event, breakfast honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

Portlanders fanned out across the city Monday morning, filling bags with litter lining streets and sidewalks, as events commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday got underway.

More than 300 volunteers were expected to join the trash collection efforts at four locations throughout the city: two downtown, one at Providence Park and another in Southeast Portland. The event was one of several celebrating King’s life and legacy on the federal holiday bearing his name.

Meanwhile, about 400 people tuned in to The Skanner Foundation’s 35th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast, which was held virtually Monday morning.

Speeches came from Oregon Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden as well as Gov. Kate Brown and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. Portland singer-songwriter Tahirah Memory and saxophone player Mike Phillips were among those who performed.

Keynote speaker General Arthur T. Dean, executive chairman of the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America Board of Directors, spoke about addiction and the effort to remove unused and unwanted prescription drugs from communities.

“Dr. Martin Luther King was a drum major for peace,” Dean said, noting that King spoke about the importance of “collective work to benefit all within the community.”

Brown addressed Oregon and the country’s history of racism and said she counted herself as “one of the many white politicians whose good intentions haven’t done enough to tackle the scourge of systemic racism.”

“While our state’s and certainly our nation’s long history of racist policies will not be deconstructed in one legislative session or a budget cycle,” Brown said, “I know we can dismantle the institution of racism the same way that it was built — brick by brick.”

King, a civil rights icon, was assassinated in 1968. Had he survived, he would have turned 92 last week.

A pair of marches are scheduled for later Monday in Portland.

— Jim Ryan and Lizzy Acker

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