Host and ASA CEO, Peter Kaldes, is joined on LeverAGE by Nkenge Harmon Johnson, the President and CEO of the Urban League of Portland, Oregon. The mission of Urban League of Portland is to empower African-Americans and others to achieve equality in education, employment, health, economic security and quality of life.
The Urban League of Portland's adult and senior services program is the only one in the state focused on providing services for older African Americans and is the only Urban League chapter in the nation to host a senior activity center where elders can visit Monday-Friday (pre-COVID). ULPDX continues to provide services and supports remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Peter and Nkenge discuss her work at the Portland chapter of the Urban League and how they continued to support their community during both COVID-19 and the recent Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, as well as the federal response.
Mentioned in this episode:
Planning an Inclusive Car March
Host and ASA CEO, Peter Kaldes, is joined on LeverAGE by Nkenge Harmon Johnson, the President and CEO of the Urban League of Portland, Oregon. The mission of Urban League of Portland is to empower African-Americans and others to achieve equality in education, employment, health, economic security and quality of life.
The Urban League of Portland's adult and senior services program is the only one in the state focused on providing services for older African Americans and is the only Urban League chapter in the nation to host a senior activity center where elders can visit Monday-Friday (pre-COVID). ULPDX continues to provide services and supports remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Peter and Nkenge discuss her work at the Portland chapter of the Urban League and how they continued to support their community during both COVID-19 and the recent Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, as well as the federal response.
Mentioned in this episode:
Planning an Inclusive Car March
Peter Kaldes
Welcome to LeverAGE the podcast on the politics of aging. I'm Peter Kaldes, CEO of the American Society on aging. And today, I'm joined by Nkenge Harmon Johnson.
Peter Kaldes
Nkenge Harmon Johnson is the CEO of the Urban League of Portland, one of the Pacific Northwest's oldest civil rights and social service organizations, which works to empower African Americans and others by investing in stable housing, fostering workforce development, community health, education and well being for young people, adults and older adults. Armand Johnson has a law degree from Howard University School of Law. Before leaving the Urban League of Portland, she served as communications director for Oregon's governor john Kitzhaber, and for three years in the Obama administration as Deputy Assistant us Trade Representative for public and media affairs. Earlier Harmon Johnson works as a public affairs leader for Michigan senator Debbie Stabenow and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Today we'll be addressing the issues of equity and justice and how they intersect with Harmon Johnson's very important work empowering African Americans and others to achieve equality in education, employment, health, economic security, and quality of life. Nick ngay. Welcome to leverage.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
Peter, I'm delighted to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
Peter Kaldes
So first off, can you talk to us a little bit about your work at the Urban League.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
I'd love to talk with my work with Urban League. I've had a lot of cool jobs. And this one is my favorite, I admit it. The Urban League is a 75 year old civil rights and social justice organization that makes us one of the oldest in the Pacific Northwest. As you mentioned, we offer a robust mix of direct services and advocacy devoted to making all of Oregon and Southwest Washington more livable for African Americans. And for all of us, we call this region home. What that means, quite frankly, is that unlike many nonprofit organizations, we don't focus on an issue or on a small jurisdiction, we cover the entire state of Oregon and Southwest Washington, and we're in service of black people. So over the years, our programs and services may change in order to meet the needs of the community that we serve. For me, that's very exciting. That means my job as president equals overseeing seven different nonprofits practically, because we have our education and youth services. We have our community health workers, committee, community education workers, that programming, we have our housing program, I think what we're gonna be talking a little bit more about is our adult and Senior Services Program. But we also offer a Peter, an advocacy program. And what we mean by that is, we don't just help folks with the nuts and bolts, the social services that they need. We also take our voice to the seats of power, and we help community members use their own voices before the public officials who work for them to make our community a better place. But sometimes that means advocacy days for the legislature. Sometimes that means visits to the county commission, where we have our seniors give testimony and talk about their own needs for services local community. Other times it means taking us down to city council so that they can talk directly to city council members. And speaking in a language that we know lawmakers understand to try to make change and local communities for themselves. So I love this job. It's a little bit of everything. But 75 years sort of demonstrates that we've got a special sauce that really does help make a difference.
Peter Kaldes
Well, I'm so glad to hear that because I know many of our ASA members are or come from communities that have strong urban League's in them. So could you talk a little bit about the services you provide for older adults.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
Happy to. Our Urban League is one of more than 80 urban affiliates across the country. So one of the cool things about it is that all of us are very different. Unlike some other sort of national chain service organizations you might find have very similar programming. Each Urban League is pretty distinct based upon the needs of the local community. In our case, I am honored to be the only one who runs a distinct service locations for senior citizens for older adults. In other words, we run a Senior Activity Center, which means Well, during normal times, we can talk about what it means during COVID times, but free COVID free pandemics, it meant that we have a place that our elders can go to Monday through Friday, and hang out with each other. They can play music, dance, get involved in arts projects, they can get a nutritious meal and participate in sports, whether that's, you know, martial arts or beanbag baseball, we go on trips together, we also do education sessions on nutrition on medical cannabis, whatever it is that our elders tell us, they want to learn more about, it's our job to help provide them. Whatever it is, our elders tell us that they want to be involved in to keep themselves healthy and happy. It's our job to help provide it. So the Senior Activity Center theater, I call it an after school program for seniors, because it really is the place where they can come together, build a community of their own with the support of the Urban League that helps them to age in place. Because we provide wraparound services. So the inner city center is one thing that I'm superduper proud of and happy to talk more about. But it's just one part of our adult interior Services Program, which is the only program like it in the states that serves African American seniors. Now, we serve all comers, because that is part of our mission African Americans and others. But we're the only ones focus on coding through the programming for African Americans, and includes home visits to some of our seniors, making sure they have what they need to stay in their homes and be healthy and safe. Whether that means they need someone to help come in and take care of some cookies or come in and take care of a little cleaning, or just come in to make sure they've got the right smoke detectors in the right places. Our staff can do those assessments, and then help them get what they need. Sometimes, it seems more than that. But we can talk more about the details if you're interested. But it's a really robust package of services that we offer for older adults in our community. And we've been doing it for more than two decades. It's pretty powerful work.
Peter Kaldes
Now, how has the pandemic impacted that word?
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
Hmm. That's where it gets interesting. So I mentioned that our active Activity Center is a place where elders can go every day, the bridge club meets on Thursdays and there's a bingo club, and there's a knitting circle and all these other things that happen in person. In fact, we have a bus in a bus driver, where we go and take our seniors up and bring them to the center, especially those folks who have been displaced by gentrification who were too far away to walk or take a bus to another bus to get to us. It's a very high touch in person service delivery model. Well, since that needs to be different during the tough pandemic we're facing, we found other ways to continue to serve those same group of elders, for example, those home visits that we have been making, my team of case managers and social workers still make home visits. But now their porch visits, it may mean that we're standing in the bottom step of the porch, and her client is standing inside their doorway. And both are wearing masks and we're having a conversation that way. It means that we've turned our bus that are subtle to pick folks up into a food delivery van. So we go and grab items, food and sanitizing items that our seniors need, and we deliver them to their home, in no touch fashion.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
So there are some things that we've picked up about the services that we deliver, but they're also additions that we've made. So Peter, I know that you know this, and probably many people in your audience know, one of the most important things necessary to help keep our seniors face is that social interaction, right? It's human contact, it's engagement. It's what we all need. And often it's what our seniors go without, well, how can we replicate that in this age where we need to stay away from each other in order to keep each other safe into technology. So we have some of our groups, to the phone and to video. So that knitting circle I mentioned and some of the crochet groups. Now we have someone go and drop off crochet packets. You know, it's a Ziploc bag, it's got everything you needed it for a particular project. We asked our seniors to complete the project, whatever the timeframe is, they date the the group has agreed to, and then they take pictures on their cell phones and send them to us. And we're able to put them together a little group snapshot, if you will, and share with everyone else so everyone can see everyone's project just like they would do if they were in the center together. And then they get on the phone together for a conference call and talk about it. So they still have the same group of jokesters they still have their say group to encourage each other. They're just doing it telephonically instead of in person. It's a different deal and it's more time intensive, but it's definitely worth it for us and for the people we serve
Peter Kaldes
Nkenge, you are echoing the kind of resourcefulness that so many of our ASA members displayed during this pandemic, you know, quickly pivot to creative ways to deliver much needed services. But I'm wondering, one thing that we've heard often from our membership is that they sometimes just don't know how to pivot so quickly, how could you describe a little bit about, you know, your staff or the Urban League capacity to be able to pivot so quickly?
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
I'm happy to because it's something that I'm very proud of the Urban League of Portland actually changed its approach to serving the community a week before our governor declared a public health emergency. So in Oregon, you know, schools were shut down, and offices were told to go on sort of different practices to continue to keep their doors, open restaurants, all that all those sorts of things. Well, a week before that happened, we had already changed our practices, we had already sent staff to be on remote posture. And we were by appointment only. And that's very hard for an organization like ours, where the community shows up at our door, we're much more like a library than we are similar to some nonprofits, because people just show up, and they need things. And our staff said about the business of helping them find those things. So in a high tech business like ours, how do we then flip it so quickly? Well, one, I'm really delighted to say I've got a strong team. And we've been paying attention before the governor said, Hey, we're gonna shut things down here. So we were ready for it, technologically speaking. But also in terms of executive planning.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
Every member of my staff has a laptop, that's two years or fewer, and age. And that's a huge deal. We didn't have to worry about people toting desktops and trying to figure out how to connect from home or any of those issues. Most issues of my staff, almost are most members of my staff have had iPhones, I will admit that when my director came to me and said, Hey, we really need to move to a mobile phone model, rather than a desktop model for our team. I was nervous about that, as the boss of the place, I was nervous, you know, cell phones, what does that mean? How's it going to work? Are people really going to be using these for work, and we're gonna have other issues pop up. But luckily, our team had cell phones already. So they could afford their desk, phone, and head on home very quickly, and still become be in constant contact with their staff. I think for us due to the other, the real secret sauce for us, is that as urban leaders, we are who we serve. So our clients are our MP, they are our old teachers, they are our neighbors, our friends are community members. And so each member of my staff feels that they can't let those folks down. We are who we serve.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
And that meant that they were invigorated and willing to do what it would take to keep serving people, even through the awkwardness of trying to figure out well, how do I get this form signed now, but I can't, you know, get posted in 60 to somebody? And how do we get this other thing done now that, you know that organization is closed? They didn't go to you know, our partner organization didn't go to by appointment? Only they shut down for a month? How can we still keep the ball moving forward for folks, but because my staff is so committed to the community, they just didn't stop. And that, frankly, is the way we were able to be successful, in addition to our technological advances.
Peter Kaldes
That is terrific. And I know it is also thanks to probably some generous donors, some private foundations, some local States federal funding, that I'm sure you've managed to stretch to the nth degree.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
Have you been keeping up my balance sheet? Peter? Fact of the matter is, yes. There is. I mean, it's interesting. On the one hand, there are fewer resources, because now suddenly the tax base has shifted. And so we're hearing from all of our, our government partners, hey, listen, be advised that you know, what we told you was going to be our funding level this year might have to change. But at the same time, we know that cares Act funding from the Fed has made a big difference. It infused local dollars quickly when we needed them so that we could we could respond appropriately. And then yes, no question about it. We've got donors that have been, have been really generous with us have been thinking of how to reach out to the community that we serve. I mean, but let's be honest, right? It's not just simply because of the pandemic, the health pandemic, it's also because of the racial injustice pandemic that we're facing, that's gotten a lot of donors attention to say, Hey, where can I give them dollars? Well, I know I'm helping to make the lives of black folks in Oregon and Washington better. Oh, the Urban League. That sounds great. So we certainly got some donors from that pool too.
Peter Kaldes
Well, that's what I want to turn to now actually. And, you know, obviously the urban League's work. Working with older adults has been tremendous. impactful these last two decades. Portland was recently put on the map for, for other reasons this past summer. And I wanted a segue into the work you're doing in the more than, you know, hundred or so days of Black Lives Matter protests, and sort of how Portland has become this epicenter of the Equal Justice Movement. Could you just sort of talk us through a little bit what you were doing how you were doing it at the start of the movement?
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
Oh, goodness, you know, it's interesting for me, and what I've been telling some folks as welcome, thanks for joining us. Those of us who've been focused on making life better for black folks. Well, frankly, for my whole career, but certainly in the past five years that I've been the president of the Urban League of Portland, are glad to see other people coming awake to this moment, coming awake to the need to be different and to build our organizations differently. So they can really be in service to all of us. For me, as an Oregonian, as someone who, you know, grew up here, it's, it's very striking, to see how many people who I've known and done business with for years, be astonished by what we're experiencing. Some of them can hardly fathom the fact that injustice went so deep in our community, especially, frankly, when a lot of folks who over have grown very fast, and in the past 10 years, so we have a lot of newcomers to our to our state, it's a beautiful place to live, the cost of living was quite affordable. It's, it's gotten crazy. I'm in Portland, some of our other communities.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
But it's been a real draw for people from other parts of the country. And they came here and in large part, some of them because of the progressive politics. Well, it turns out that progressive politics and name does not equal justice for black and brown people in our state. So for me, it's great to have more partners who want to do this work. But I have learned nothing new about what industry looks like. I just have more partners to help me fight it, which is really exciting. But Peter, you mentioned how we're sort of this Epicenter and other folks in the country are looking at Portland. That's just plain weird, right? It's nothing that I think we can be asked for nothing that we want. And in some ways, I don't know that we deserve it. And, you know, maybe we do in the sense that you better believe that there are protesters who have been on the streets of Portland and other communities in Oregon, let me be very clear about that. Not just the big city that gets all the attention. But in Salem, Oregon, I was driving past of March for Black Lives, just last Friday afternoon. In other smaller communities in Oregon, there are protests every weekend. So that Oregon would get the kind of attention that it's getting. It's good for us locally, because it keeps the heat on it means that local leaders, business leaders, elected leaders have to be about the business of doing better because the world is watching. On the other hand, it's really nice to be in solidarity with demonstrators and protesters, and activists from other parts of the country, because we are literally all fighting the same fight right now. Go figure.
Peter Kaldes
It is it is amazing. We've heard it as well, you know, I'm really proud to be leading the ASA now, at a time when so many of our leaders in the aging space are looking to us for leadership on how to address these issues, sort of Finally, I mean, you have so many aha moments. And you have so many people who have just been saying, Well, you know, it's about time, it's about time that people who look like me, you know, a bunch of white guys start actually talking about these issues in a real, candid and practical way so that we can be strong allies. I'm wondering, from your vantage point, you know, what's been the reaction of the older adults with whom you work, you know, so many of them lived through the civil rights era of the 60s and 70s. To see this unfolding in their front yards must be devastating.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
You know, I'm lucky to be in close contact with many of my elders, as some folks who helped raise me in this works. The first black woman, state legislator, Margaret Carter, I had been a mentor of mine since I was a little girl. And she's still out doing this work. And I had the chance to talk to her and learn from her and, and demonstrate to her all that I have learned over these years as we continue to fight some of these fights that really should be behind us by now. Hearing from folks like her and other elders and on the one hand, they're delighted because some things are happening. On the other hand, they're deeply disappointed that we have to do this again. Because the work that I'm doing now resembles very much work that was done 40 years ago, 50 years ago, 80 years ago. In fact, here we have an archive that's kept at Oregon State University, the library there, and it's online. If any folks are interested, you can go to our re State University Library System, and look for the Urban League of Portland archives. And they're amazing. You see things like white papers, talking about redlining, and how black folks are prevented prevented from getting mortgages in Portland, because the banks that aligned against us and his local community, fatherhood aligned against us. Well, as we repeated the pattern of interpretation, just in the past 20 years, those writings from decades ago, were very much applicable come out, I've been able to cut and paste. And that's a real shame.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
Similarly, transportation as the buses were being desegregated, and you can see documents that were written for black riders to say, here's how you ride the bus now that you can, you know, be in the front with, with the white folks it instructions for how to keep black bus riders safe on public transportation, because they were afraid there would be some backlash from white riders, to those sort of step by step guides could be printed today, for black folks who are trying to just be out in the public square, how to keep yourself safe from whether it's a white supremacist, or whether it's on one and police attention. It's really shocking to me to see those things, but it's hurtful some of my elders to see us repeating those same patterns.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
On the other hand, though, a number of my elders have said, Listen, we know how to do this. And we feel that there's an opportunity now and energy now that we haven't seen in years past, let's make the most of it, and really make these changes stick. That's what I'm hearing from them. Absolutely, absolutely. It says if, you know, the sort of nagging that you would hear from our, you know, elders is, is finally coming to fruition this sort of apathy that they were concerned about the sort of indifference that possibly folks were concerned about is, is finally being noticed, and people are overcoming in.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
I know this is your program. But I am curious to know, how are people in other places, elders and other places responding to the protest moment? I know locally, I heard from one of my, my middle school math teachers, she reached out to say, We are so proud of you. And to be quite clear, we had thousands of young people in their, you know, teens and early 20s. protesting night after night after night, taking bridges, taking highway taking roads, taking over parks, and non violently protesting, and demonstrating for the movement for black lives from the very beginning. And this elder called me to say, listen, we're so proud of you. But we can't be out there because of the COVID pandemic. We can't risk our health to go out there and stand with you in March with you and share with you. What can we do, though, to show you young people that we're behind you, we believe in this, we're just not out there because we're trying to protect our health. She posed the challenge needed to try to figure out ways to help them be involved and to help this sort of the younger generation know that they've got the support of their elders, even though they couldn't show up in person. But it was really sort of a quandary for me. And I'm wondering how how if you've heard from other of your members about it, just folks wanting elders wanting to be out in protest, but at the same time, feeling like they need to stay home and stay away from mobs of people, crowds of people in order to keep themselves busy.
Peter Kaldes
I think it's a great question. And early on, when protests were popping up across the country, we issue the ASA issued guidance on how to do it safely. And one of the things we recommend to doing is carpooling, being in a car safely, if you want to be out and just stay mass, but be in the car. But too, we also encourage everyone who reads newspapers to start writing letters to their editors about why they support the movement. So many folks understand the power of local printed press. And so many older adults are more likely to read the local media in newspapers than anything else. So those are the two ways we were helping but then we heard from people who one of two things happen one, they were reminiscent of their past when they were activists. But too, I think some people were scared. I think some people who were from a generation of or maybe a little older, were scared of the disorderly conduct the invitation of the notion that, you know, people were either being quote unquote hooligans or inviting other more opportunistic protesters to come in and basically destroy their towns. And I think there was a real palpable fear by some folks as well. Overwhelmingly, though, I think people who are boomers now, we're reminded of their their work in the 60s and 70s.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
Thank you. That's interesting.
Peter Kaldes
I think as we're talking on this topic of protests, I think what was jarring for a number of us was seeing the federal response to the local protests, you know, you and I both have worked in the federal government and you understand, you know, the basics of jurisdiction and how law enforcement works. And and I'm wondering, could you share your thoughts on the federal response?
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
Peter, you're setting me up. Listen, um, you know, I had the the opportunity to testify before a Senate subcommittee or US Senate subcommittee this summer on this issue. And so I have strong thoughts about it. And I've said them publicly before, but I, you know, the short version is this. What the federal government is doing in Portland and in Oregon is outrageous. And it should not be allowed folks in other states who wonder what's, what's happening, or why it's happening, or we've never seen anything like this before? You're absolutely right. This is not the way the federal government normally behaved, nor should it be. they've not been invited into the city of Portland, and yet have shown up with a very robust and dangerous police response that, in fact, escalated the danger and increase the harm to folks locally, all under the guise of being tough.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
It's very disappointing, because we've had so many thousands of people out demonstrating and protesting who, and many of them for the first time, right? We're not talking about folks who who necessarily had done this before, people like me who've been to, you know, I can't tell you how many protests and marches and rallies over the years. And for them to be met with this response. They were shocked. They were saddened, but they were also revitalizing, energized about the need to stand even summer, certainly for the movement for black lives, and for black people. Because they thought, Wait a second, what we're saying is that black folks have the right to live in peace.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
With justice in our community, that's what we're here for. Why are we doing such a strong response in the federal government to oppose that, but if that's what's happening, we have an even bigger problem than we thought we did. And it's the problem of fascism from our federal government. And Peter, I can't tell you how weird it feels to say that out loud.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
As an a, you know, as an American Girl, that we believe we have a problem with fascism, and the US federal government, but we don't just believe it. We see it here in Oregon in action. Right now, I will share this with you. The police in Portland. The Portland Police Bureau officers and Oregon State Police troopers have been deputized by the federal government local leaders, at least the mayor of Portland, thought they'd been deputized for a weekend when we were expecting to have a white supremacist, a major rally. Because of course I put another response to the movement for Black Lives in Portland is that white supremacist from different parts of the country has been flowing into our community to try to intimidate and oppose protesters.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
But the heightened police response to that large expected rally included deputizing local law enforcement by the feds for whatever their rationale was. But they didn't just do it for the weekend. If you read the fine print, it says that they've deputized local ones local and state law enforcement for the rest of the year. And our US Attorney for Oregon has said that they'll be looking for arrests and made by local Portland Police and state police officers at demonstrations that are happening our community, the Fed will be looking for the opportunity to charge Oregonians with federal crimes.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
So while there is no federal property involved, while there is no federal issue involved, local apps, potentially a local crime created. Are you just starting his bed that he's going to seek to turn those into federal upon? Think about the chilling effect that has on would be protesters think about the extra juice it gives to some of these police officers who are simply escalating night after night. Now they know they have an extra tool behind them to threaten, and to punish people who are simply seeking to express their voice and the right of Black Folk to live free in this country. It's discombobulating for me, as someone who believes in Ma, who believes in government and with a proud, you know, federal government alum, it is something I never expected to see in my lifetime. And in fact, here it is, and we're living it.
Peter Kaldes
There's so much there's so much there Nkenge and I wish we had, you know, hours to continue our conversation, but we don't. But I just wanted to say, you know, as someone who is have basically the same generation, as you grew up in a in a country that valued the democratic principles, that, you know, whether you were a Democratic or Republican, you were anti fascist, you were anti racist. You were anti Nazi ism. This was not these were not complicated principles for you and I growing up. That's right. And why now it is complicated. is, you know, is besides me, I don't I don't know what's happened. I really don't. But all I know is that we have strong leaders like you, in communities across this country who are fighting an extraordinary battle. At aasa. We have members who are doing the same. And you know, one thing I'd like to end our conversation on, is really, why, why? Why are you in this battle? Why do you Why do you Why do you fight every day?
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
You know, I'll answer that question in two ways. Peter, I really appreciate having this conversation with you. It's, it's interesting and quite engaging. So thank you for that. I started reading a piece last week, talking about the many trillions of dollars that our country loses because of white supremacy, and racism and the opportunity drain that both of those things create. So what would black folks in this country build and do if we did not have the fear of being murdered by police officers while we mind our own business? I couldn't finish reading the piece because it was just too heavy.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
But I'm going to revisit it. But that question has been ringing out for me. But you know, I used to work in trade. You mentioned it earlier. I like global economics. I like that work. Instead, though, I'm doing this work, which focuses on my rights, to be free, as an American, my right to have the Constitution and the government live up to its promise. To me, as a daughter of this country, I got to do that before I can think of really, you know, building the next great mousetrap in my garage. Because then I think, to go out and get financing from a bank to, you know, scale up my new mousetrap business, I'm going to find the doors close to me, because that's what white supremacy and racism don't match. What is that we're different. And of course, you can extrapolate that across other groups of color. But it it hits hardest in the African American community.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
So I do this work, because that's not right. Because this is my country as it was my mother's my grandmother's, my great grandfather's going back generations, this is my country. And it will be for me what it is supposed to be as the great American nation. And I will do my part to make itself because I can't stand doing anything but that. So that's, that's my answer.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
I also do this work, Peter. Because when I was a kid, and I was 13, or 14, I thought racism would be over by the time I was 30. I did. I thought that all the old racist those folks who had killed Martin Luther King, and those folks would murdered Medgar Evers and I thought those folks would die off and that we, the younger, smarter generation would come forth, and things would be alright. Our parents were better than those folks. I thought, so the soldiers would die and that would be fine. Well, part of the reason I do this work too, is because I'm paying penance for my my youthful ignorance.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
Because just like people are made and built and grown to do the kind of work that I do now, it turns out that like feminists and racists are also being grown and built at the same time, and also cannot be allowed to us by the public square unanswered. So that's why I do this fight. That's why I do this work in hopes that other people won't have too.
Peter Kaldes
Well, I hope there are more of you than there are of them because we need more fighters like Yuna can gay Nick can gay Harmon Johnson is the CEO of the Urban League. Portland, they can gauge thank you so much for your time today on LeverAGE.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
You know, I'm delighted to spend the time with you. Thank you for inviting me.
Peter Kaldes
Thanks, everyone for listening to this episode of LeverAGE. Be sure to catch our next episode by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts.