Retired professor to sign family memoir at Orca

THE OLYMPIAN | • Published August 04, 2009

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S.R. “Rudy” Martin Jr., one of the academics who helped to create The Evergreen State College, will sign his new memoir, “On the Move: A Black Family’s Western Saga,” at 6 p.m. Thursday at Orca Books, 509 E. Fourth Ave., Olympia.

By the time he had turned 25 in 1960, Martin had graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and had become the first black teacher at a California high school. The next year, he became the first black faculty member at one of the state’s oldest junior colleges. He went on to teach the first African-American literature course ever offered at Washington State University, before being invited to help start Evergreen.

Yet Martin’s book focuses less on his own personal history and more on that of his family to help readers understand the African-American experience west of the Mississippi. Martin has chronicled the story of his forebears from emancipation to their exodus from the South and Texas.

The book has a hardcover price of $24.95. For more information, go to orcabooks.com or call 360-352-0123. And look for a review of the book by Barbara Lloyd McMichael in Sunday’s Olympian.

Take the kids

It’s Family Day at Lacey Community Market from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. The day features entertainment for all ages, a Tumble Bus and free activities provided by Lacey Parks & Recreation. Lacey Community Market is in Huntamer Park on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Woodland Square Loop. For more information, call 360-491-3214.

What’s happening

TODAY

Open swim at River Ridge High School pool: 1 to 3 p.m., 350 River Ridge Drive, Lacey. The River Ridge pool is open to the public for swimming Mondays through Saturdays (closed Aug. 15) for $4 per person. The Timberline High School pool also is open for swimming from 1-3 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Call Lacey Parks & Recreation at 360-491-0857.

THURSDAY

Capital Playhouse’s Kids at Play presents “Footloose”: 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Minnaert Center for the Arts at South Puget Sound Community College, 2011 Mottman Road S.W., Olympia. Tickets are $17 for adults, $12 for seniors and youth. Call 360-943-2744.

FRIDAY

Publishing Party for Skie Bender, author of “Short Lived”: 7 p.m. Friday, The Press, 406 Washington St. S.E., Olympia. “Short Lived” follows the adventures of Bender and her dog as they travel across America in a 25-foot camper. Free. Call 360-239-4104.

SATURDAY

Tanglewilde’s Fun Day and Community Garage Sale: Fun Day events run from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday in Tanglewilde Park in Olympia and feature entertainment, food, vendors and kids’ activities. More than 60 garage sales will be going on between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. in Tanglewilde and Thompson Place. The day concludes with a water expo at 5 p.m. at the Tanglewilde Pool. Call 360-456-7316.

23rd annual Bon Odori Festival: 5 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday on Water Street between Fifth Avenue and Legion Way, downtown Olympia. The Japanese dance festival features traditional dances, taiko drumming, a martial-arts demonstration, food booths and a candlelight vigil for peace. For details, call 360-791-3295.

Today in history

In 1790, the Coast Guard began as the Revenue Cutter Service.

In 1830, plans for the city of Chicago were laid out.

In 1944, Anne Frank, 15, was arrested along with her sister, parents and four other people by German security after they had spent two years hiding from the Nazis in a building in Amsterdam. (Anne, who’d kept a now-famous diary during her time in hiding, died in March 1945 at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.)

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed a measure establishing the Department of Energy.

In 1987, the Federal Communications Commission voted to abolish the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio and television stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues.