Local NAACP calls community to action against ICE detentions

Demond Hawkins’ parents raised him with clear moral directives and a warning: What’s right is right, what’s wrong is wrong, and stay out of trouble.

Hawkins, president of Eugene Springfield NAACP, lived with his head down for most of his life, until the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

“He was my height, he was my build, we were the same age,” he said of Floyd.

When he saw people dismissing Floyd’s death because of details of who Floyd was, Hawkins could not stand by any longer. He joined the NAACP and started getting involved in local civil rights activism — what the late civil rights activist and congressman John Lewis described as “good trouble, necessary trouble,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins shared his story in honor of Lewis’ legacy during a July 17 event at the Clear Lake Community Center. In front of an audience of more than 100 people, Hawkins spoke about the Trump administration’s current immigration crackdown and how he sees it as a call to action as urgent as Floyd’s murder.

“This immigration issue is not just an issue of one population or another, it’s a Black issue, too,” Hawkins said. “It’s a human rights issue.”

Unity as the antidote against fear

Hawkins spoke about the recent public arrest of an Iranian man at his child’s preschool in Beaverton as an example of what United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are doing to aggressively enforce immigration law since President Trump took office.

The man did not have a criminal background, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting reporting, but he had overstayed his visa, according to an ICE spokesperson. His attorney disputed the agency’s assertion that the man was in the United States unlawfully.

“Immigrants are being detained, deported and dehumanized,” Hawkins said.

He connected the language the president has used to describe immigrants to the language people have used in the past to describe Black people, Arab people, Native Americans and other minorities.

“Rapists, drug dealers, murderers,” he said. “They use these things like excuses to come after people and to excuse not doing what is right.”

Cassidy DiIenno, who is a postal worker and American Postal Workers Union steward, attended the event to show solidarity in the fight for civil rights and to look for ways to get her union involved. She said much of what her union stands for aligns with the NAACP’s mission.

“The best way we see results is when everyone stands up for their rights,” she said.

The Good Trouble Library

The growing Eugene Springfield NAACP branch is now housed in the community center, a building that used to be Clear Lake Elementary School in the Bethel neighborhood. It was recently transformed into a center for nonprofits and youth service providers focused on historically underserved community members.

Drae Charles, Eugene Springfield NAACP executive director, said the organization outgrew its old location at the Mims House in downtown Eugene with the recent growth of its full-time staff.

“There is more community need than has been present for some time and not enough of the NAACP to go around,” Charles said in an interview with Lookout Eugene-Springfield.

The organization now has positions focused on public health, food access and education programming, and leaders are looking to expand their legal and advocacy services to victims of hate, bias and discrimination. Charles said the NAACP supports everyone, but focuses its support on the Black community.

“There is, unfortunately, a greater need still to support the Black community,” Charles said, “and we’re going to continue to lean into that until we see true equality across the board.”

Hawkins also announced the kickoff of the Good Trouble Library during the July 17 event. The NAACP will collect books from now through Aug. 28 for the new free library, which will be at the Clear Lake Community Center. The books will be used by children and youth at the center, and will be available to the public.

Hawkins encouraged people to donate books about Black history, civil rights history and books that have been banned in certain schools and public libraries.

Want to contribute books? Here’s how

• Drop off books at the Clear Lake Community Center’s front office, 4646 Barger Drive in Eugene
• Contact the Eugene Springfield NAACP directly by phone or email to make a special delivery or coordinate a pickup
• Purchase books online and have them shipped directly to Clear Lake Community Center, 4646 Barger Drive, Eugene, OR 97402