Rural Town Looks Racism In The Face Metaline Falls Plans Mlk Celebrations
On Eustacia Reed’s first day of school as a first-grader, her face made a girl scream and run away.
“The little girl had never seen a black person in her life,” explained Reed’s mother, Sherrie Bays. “My daughter asked me, ‘Mom, why did she do that?’ Those are questions that are hard to answer.”
Reed, now 16, is one of only 10 people in Metaline Falls who aren’t white.
Racial incidents aren’t widespread in this community of 315, residents say, but when they do happen, they aren’t ignored.
To encourage tolerance, Metaline Falls will host a series of events Saturday to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which officially falls on Jan. 20. This is the first event of its kind here, making Metaline Falls one of the few rural towns to publicly celebrate the national holiday.
“This community is so white that most people don’t have a chance to meet people of different races or backgrounds,” said the Rev. Paul Clay, pastor of Metaline Falls Congregational United Church of Christ. “But even in little towns like this, we need to focus on our own attitudes.”
Unemployment is high in this rugged region just 12 miles from the Canadian border. Many residents used to work in mines, but those shut down in the early 1970s. Now, most people work in forestry or for the school district.
Metaline Falls was once the home of the late Robert Mathews, the leader of a racist terrorist group known as The Order.
Now it is home to a growing arts community. Last year, the city was included in a book of 100 best small arts towns in America by author John Villani.
The arts community helped organize the Martin Luther King events.
Saturday’s activities include a performance of Street Sounds, a nationally known black quintet that sings blues, rap and music of African origin. The town also will host a soul food barbecue and a panel discussion on prejudice in Pend Oreille County.
Organizers hope the event encourages people to reflect on their own prejudices, as well as discourage discrimination within the community.
“We’re kind of limited here, not exposed to much,” said Eva Gayle Six, the artistic director at Metaline Falls’ Cutter Theatre. “If a crisis situation happens, we’re very vulnerable to it.”
Six and several others have spent the past year planning the Martin Luther King events. They came up with the idea in 1994, when they heard Street Sounds perform in Eugene, Ore.
Organizers also hope the celebration will teach younger generations - some of whom may later leave for bigger cities - how to live with different kinds of people.
“We need to nip racist attitudes early so that they don’t culminate into something ugly,” Six said.
Many people are in favor of the events, Clay said, but there are others who “have views that go in a different direction.”
There are people who say they’re not prejudiced, he said, but the way they treat others contradicts what they say.
Bays and her five children - who are all of mixed white and African descent - used to receive crank calls. Sometimes, they get teased in school. But they’ve also taught the community to be more open, she said.
“We’ve had our ups and downs here,” Bays said. “My kids are good kids and they deserve the same opportunities as everybody else.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Metaline Falls
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