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1948 was the year President Harry Truman integrated the United States armed forces. Three years later, Oregon passed a law that legalized interracial marriage; and in the 1970s Portland students were bussed across town during the desegregation era of public schools.
This Monday marks the 25th year since Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday was first officially observed. The day commemorates what King stood for: to advance equal rights for all Americans. On Monday's program we'll hear from people who have first-hand stories about integration.
Do you have experience with integration or desegregation? Were you part of the civil rights movement? Tell us your stories.
GUESTS:
- Lew Frederick: Supporter of the 25th Annual MLK Jr. Breakfast
- Martha Rutherford: Wife in an interracial marriage for nearly 52 years
- Skipper Osborne: 1967 Graduate of Jefferson High School
- Oralee Stiles: Former member of Portland's Community Coalition for School Integration
Photo credit: YardSale / Creative Commons
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From everything I have read black men are much more likely to abandon a woman bearing his child than a white father. Aren't something like 75% of black babies now born out of wedlock? In Africa most black men who go to the city to work have one wife in the village and another wife in town and spend most of their money on booze, smokes, jewlery and other women.
It is women in Africa who work, save money and pay for their children's school fees, books and clothing. Papa plays almost no part in any of this except as a sperm donor. The situation in the US is fairly close to the African norm.
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Gereng,
Trafficking in gross racial stereotypes doesn't really further this conversation.
Dave
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When is something a gross racial stereotype and when is it a fact that can be introduced and debated? By US Census Data, rates of black children born to single parents is over 70% and is epidemic and worsening.
If black poverty is a social issue, then a major factor--if not THE BIGGEST FACTOR-- is being born to a single parent. Paternal abandonment is not a crime but is huge moral failing. And we cannot address black poverty without addressing paternal responsibility.
The sociological meaning of FATHER has a whole different context in the majority of black families and now in black culture. Like Obama's father, the men are never around. Obama met his father twice after he left the toddler. And his father was an alcoholic which contributed to his early death. He had a family history of abuse and also possibly had several wives on several continents. See Obama's autobiography "Dreams of My Father."
Ask your black friends about the role of their DAD in the family--it can be eye opening.
Is it a stereotype if it is the predominant condition?
OR is it a simple fact in plain sight that must not be mentioned?
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Jacob,
I think you started to answer your own question. Data from trusted sources is always welcome. "In Africa most black men who go to the city to work have one wife in the village and another wife in town and spend most of their money on booze, smokes, jewlery and other women" doesn't seem particularly rigorous or fact-based to me.
Dave
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Dave, there was a sociological study done and a book written back in the 1970s or 80s that showed that the problem with black fathers was that they could not get jobs because of racism and so were not in stable relationships being able to pay rent and support their families.
But the propaganda has been to blame the victims of racism instead of blaming the racists.
People will still love each other and have sex no matter what their financial circumstances, and quite often babies are the result.
I remember that nasty racist President Reagan telling the lies about Cadillac driving black welfare mothers in his anti-social speeches against helping our fellow man (and women and children).
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Comrade Tom,
If I can quote your fav, Reagan, "There you go again....." Another allusion to a study and book that happened 40 years ago that has no trace, no link and no basis of fact. If it was written, the lack of citation and subsequent re-publication indicates that it probably was untrue. Political self-published drivel--it wasn't your OWN study was it?
I would you recommend you read President's Obama book on his father, "Dreams of My Father." It wasn't simple racism that caused Obama Sr. to abandon his son and wife. IT was a very ordinary and predictable story: 100 years ago we would call him a 'CAD'. Bedazzle and make love to a teen age girl friend. Impregnate her. Abandon her. A typical story, but most times, the baby doesn't become President of the United States.
The 1st Black President is also a constitutional scholar. He is not a simple MLK Reformer. He has some pretty fierce words for the state of Black American Fatherhood. He is a post-Racial president. And he is aware of both rights and responsibilities--both are essential in a Democracy.
Just because we had a dysfunctional racist society behaving badly in the 60's, doesn't excuse men from behaving badly. Yes Obama knows the score and he seems bitter.
It is not simple racism. It is not OJ Simpson pleading, "Is it Because I am Black."
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As a child in rural Montana during the Civil Rights movement, my memories are filtered through the news of the time and sermons from the pulpit. These reports from faraway places cast a light on the shameful practices so foreign to what America is supposed to stand for. Fortunately it also cast a light on those willing to risk their lives for what they believed. Although the fight focused on rights for blacks, taking the long view means a look at the broad ramifications of the civil rights movement. It also improved the lot of women in this country, advanced the cause (and services) for the disabled and laid the groundwork for gay rights. And yet, although much progress has been made for the original intent, the racial divide and revisionist views of some whites -- as evidenced by some recent bizarre Civil War remembrances -- continue to haunt our country. Progress sometimes is grindingly slow.
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To Jacob above. If 10 yrs in black Africa and Belize and working in black communities along the coast of Colombia for another period, mean nothing in terms of observation and knowledge of people we were trying to assist, then, yes, such info is merely biased and meanmingless nonsense. I know Miller thinks every opinion that does not accord with his own, is biased rubbish. He has made that clear on other occasions.
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To Change the Subject a Bit...Martin Luther King Day is a hollow holiday lacking traditions and purpose. Note: I am a believer having made a pilgrimage and visited the AME Church in Selma, the Edmund Pettis Bridge, and the Freedom Trail to Montgomery.
Millions of Americans will be taking a day off from work. But I guarantee less people will be spending their free time mediating on the collected works and teachings of MLK than getting an inane tattoo today--that they will later regret.
Holidays have tradition, like Turkey on Thanksgiving, Christmas Trees, and Easter Eggs. It is too cold to go on a picnic in January, most Americans will probably go to the mall and have a Starbucks.
Now there is an Unofficial holiday that really unites the country. Everyone simultaneously and synchronously gathers family and friends, talks and reminisces, prods and chides friends, cheers, becomes happy or sad, blogs, tweets, eats, drinks, and even goes to the bathroom at the same instant-- nationwide! It is Superbowl Sunday.
It is the celebration of black athletic excellence. Over 85% of NFL players are black. The Superbowl is a successful tale of racial integration, tradition, and a unifying event for the entire nation. Many holidays like Christmas or Easter exclude Jews or muslims. Superbowl Sunday is Nonreligious. Everyone eats Nachos and Beer!
We are divided into two teams all based on brotherly rivalry and fun. IT is more of a male-male bonding Bromance holiday, but even women are embracing the tradition: Great Half time shows with Janet Jackson(sic), Cher or Lady Gaga. Great humorous commercials that people talk about on the water cooler for days. Beer, Hamburgers, Hotdogs and guacamole. Touch football during halftime. The Puppy Bowl and Kitty Bowl on Animal Planet.
Superbowl Sunday may be Bigger than Thanksgiving for shared activity traditions!
And everyone comes to work on Monday hungover.
I propose to move the dead Black holiday of MLK to the Monday after the Superbowl Sunday. Make it a super celebration of black achievement and culminate it with Football and Feast and Fun(Loyal order of FFF). Let Americans get over their hangovers on Monday, for a well deserved three day holiday. And let them be grateful to MLK and celebrate his teachings through nonviolent protest while sleeping in late and recovering in their warm beds.
I think MLK in his concern for the common man would approve. As only Nixon could go to China, only Obama can make this a reality. Peace through NonViolence! Stop Hungover Monday!
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This is my story about Richard Walker, one of the bravest people I have ever known.
I lived in Birmingham, Alabama, during one of the most turbulent times in our history. The year was 1963, and during that year the tragic, horrendous, bombing of the 16th St. Baptist Church, with the loss of the lives of four young girls, took place. It was also the year that dogs and fire hoses were used to disperse children marching for freedom in Birmingham, and the year of Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
In September of 1963, I began my senior year at Ramsay High School in Birmingham. This was also the month that the public schools of the city were desegregated. That statement should be qualified: only three of the many schools in the city received African-American students, one elementary and two of the city’s six high schools. Ramsay was one of those schools, and as such was the scene of protests by members of the National States’ Rights Party and others, resulting in clashes with police, sheriff’s deputies, and state troopers sent to maintain order. All this to try to prevent one lone African-American student from attending Ramsay.
Richard Walker started his senior year at Ramsay High School a day or two after the rest of us registered for classes. The registration process, called “Running for Classes”, was a rather chaotic affair, and, it was feared that Richard might have been in danger during that time. He was to spend a lonely year at Ramsay. He was not assigned a locker out of fear that it would be damaged, ransacked, or possibly booby-trapped. Thus he had to carry all his books with him to every class. Coach Mutt Reynolds, the head football coach, assigned the varsity football team as special monitors to assure Richard’s safety. I only know of one occasion when he was bumped in the hall, causing him to drop all his books. Otherwise, he was not molested in any physical way. However, he was isolated in almost every way. He ate lunch alone at a table made for six. On one occasion, part way through the year, a young man from Connecticut transferred in to the school. At lunch time he saw Richard seated alone, and took his tray over and spent the lunch period with him. He never came back to Ramsay, however. The boys’ advisor, Mr. Alley, fearing that he was in physical danger, called his father and suggested that he come pick his son up before school let out for the day, and told him that it might be best for him to attend another school.
At the risk of having all this deleted, I am splitting this into two due to the restriction on the size of one's comment
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Richard Walker - Part two:
I only had one class with Richard. Our senior English class was taught by Mrs. Virginia Blue. Mrs. Blue and I knew each other well. I had been in her homeroom (they were called session rooms in Birmingham) since my freshman year, and I had been in one other of her English classes. The class was not full, and everyone sat toward the front of the classroom – everyone, that is, except Richard. He sat alone on the back row. After class that first day, Mrs. Blue called me up to her desk. When the classroom was empty, she asked if I would mind sitting on the back row with Richard. Not next to him, mind you, but at least on the back row so that he would not be totally alone back there. I agreed, and the next day took my seat on the back row. I was not asked to talk to him or befriend him. Indeed, this act would have likely put me, or anyone else who dared to do that, in danger. Regrettably, I could not summon up that much courage. Thus began, however, a year of a kind of friendly competition. Although I could not talk to Richard, we could make eye contact, and, since more often than not we were the only two who would raise our hands to answer a question, we would eye each other every time that happened. That eye contact and the slight smiles that we exchanged during that class were the only communication I had that year with my lone African-American classmate.
It would be five years before we ever spoke. In 1968, I was shopping in a downtown department store when I saw Richard. I was now a teacher at our alma mater, and, it turned out, Richard was now a medical student, having earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama that year. We exchanged greetings, and his warm smile and firm handshake acknowledged that surreptitious friendship from five years before.
I believe that Dr. Richard Walker is still practicing medicine in Birmingham.
RB - Portland
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My parents could not be married in Oregon in 1953 so they did so in Stevenson, Washington. During the 1970s my family refused to buss me from a NE public grade school to a suburban grade school.
90 percent of the students attending my grade school were black. My family asked why white students from the suburbs weren't being bussed to predominantly-black inner city schools.
I attended a historically black college for a few years and learned that Civil Rights aren't just for blacks and other minorities.
Dr. King sought to free ALL of us from our chains of fear, ignornance and hatred. Too many become obsessed with Dr. King's race or his eloquent oratorical style, but too few take action on Dr. King's quest for hope, unity and peace.
It's unfortunate that many refer to MLK day as a "black holiday" which is more a nuisance than a day to reflect on the teachings and actions of one of the world's special people.
Dr. King infused us with compassion and love as did Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi and numerous other enlightened souls.
Be enlightened and compassionate. Throw off manacles of suffering and illusion. Be free.
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Do you honestly believe what you have written?
King and his message was a construct cobbled together by his communist handlers and supporters. MLK was a world class plagiarist. He plagiarized everything he wrote in college right up to and including his doctorial dissertation. In fact in one Canadian university King's college plagiarism was so notorious that his work was used as an example in a course on composition. Thus he was both a cheat and a liar. If anyone but this black had been found out in college to have cheated in everything he wrote, they would have been tossed out on their ear. When his dissertation was found by the faculty at Boston University to have been copied, they decided to go ahead and let him keep his Ph.d.
By the admissions of his own staff King was a heavy drinker, smoked pot, was a serial adulterer (used whores and female members of local congregation in almost every town he visited. His aids had standing instructions to find him a woman for afters.) So much for his personal morals and education.
As a great speaker? Many of his speeches were written for him, as he was frequently too drunk or hung over to write anything half way coherent.
Lionizing this deeply flawed man is simply one more stupidity that Americans seem unable to comprehend or avoid.
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I was only six years old but I remember the phone ringing and my dad's hesitant voice as he spoke. Dr. King was on the other end of the phone asking for my father to come down to Selma to help prevent the anticipated violence. My dad being small in stature was telling his friend Martin that he did not think his presence would make any difference and after all, he had a family and a congregation up in New York that he had to take care of. "But Murray,” argued Martin, "I need you down here. There's going to be trouble and I know you can help soothe these folks.”
Reluctantly, my father got off the phone and called the president of the board of the congregation. Dr. King was requesting that he come down to Selma for the March on Sunday. "Murray, you get to the airport, your ticket will be waiting,” the president ordered.
On March 7th, 1965 my father, a first generation American Jew, got in the back of the line to march from Selma to Montgomery Alabama to secure the right for all Americans to have right to vote. As luck would have it, when they started marching the crowd was ordered to turn around so that the people in the back were in the front. There he was in the front of the line walking and singing. “We Shall Over Come.” Later he told us how uncomfortable he was when mile after mile his legs became chafed. “But that was nothing”, he recalled, “all of the sudden the police with sticks and their dogs came and rounded up the first 100 men, put us in wagons and put us all in a one man cell.
”My father died this year. He was nothing more, nothing less than my dad. When I asked him many years later, what gave you strength to leave us and go down there, he simply answered by saying,” if one kind of group is picked on the next one will be my group. I went for all of us.”
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Off topic but the OPB television schedules has something wrong with it:
http://www.opb.org/television
"Bad Gateway
The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream server."
Whatever that means.
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You might need only to refresh the browser window, Tom.
On a tangentially related note, my partner and I turned on our radio to listen to Weekend Edition Sunday, and were treated to what sounded like the audio program from Sesame Street. Not that we were offended, just not expecting it. (Elmo isn't on WESun that often.)
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Penny, I tried refresh and everything else I could, going back through all of the pages to OPB Home and all and it didn't work. I did all that on Saturday, Sunday and now today.
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Yep, totally OT, but -- I had the same problem all day yesterday.
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We have decided as a nation that we see fit to have a legal holiday to remember the birthday of Dr. King, but we scarcely does the holiday ever fall on Dr. King's actual birthday, January 15. This year, once again, it is being observed two days late. (We do this to some of our most revered presidents, too...see: President's Day.)
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True, but 3-day weekends are more convenient for most people.
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Soggy, you've been misled if you think that three-day weekends are set up that way for the masses. The truth is they were done that way for the convenience of the Congress and the Unions that represent Federal Employees (read: Postal Workers) so that THEY can have a more convenient schedule.
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All I said is that they are more convenient, nothing more, nothing less.
Never spoke about the orgins, because I don't care, they work alot better than a "floating" holiday.
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I grew up in the deep South, and attended school during desegregation (in the 70's). I was bussed to mostly African American schools as a white student. Many of my white peers were pulled out by their parents to attend private schools. My acedemic education may not have been better than these peers, but I feel like I learned so much more culturally and about life in general from my experience.
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We are all captive to our life experiences. Usually these do not match what we learn in school.
No people on earth are more insular than the average American. Every Europeran or other non American will attest to that fact. Americans know so little about the harsh reality of life outside their idealized little cacoon.
When anyone reports on that reality and it offends the sensitivities of our idealistic, but naive forum censors then the offenders are quickly reminded by said censors that this is THEIR forum and not a public forum though the taxes of all support it as such.
I suppose Mr. Miller would prefer that everyone contributing were in lock step with his own prejudices, but, alas! some are not. Many of us lesser mortals are flawed and can only speak on the basis of our own adult experiences, experiences that when they confound those of the censors are decried as biased and out of court. I guess all that verbage about travel being educational is just more blather...unless of course, it is Mr. Miller's travel back and forth across Portland or to Israel or wherever.
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Great show, Emily! Thank you for you're excellent interviews.
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I first saw Oregon's reaction to "racial" issues in Medford in 1962, when the weather station at the airport brought in a black man and crosses were burnt on his lawn. I then saw a lot of change and anger in folks through my college years, finally seeing some feeling for folks with the march for Martin Luther King after his death. I went to Viet Nam, and was friends with folks in the "Boonies" where most white folks didn't go. I came back to OSU, built and ended up teaching "Minority Entrepreneurship" at the Business school, while setting up a black controlled business in Portland. I then became the first victim of reverse discrimination in teaching minority issues, as I was replaced by another white guy who had taken his wife's Hispanic name.
On Martin Luther King Day, I sputter a bit, as I was exposed to a lot of dialog and feel it is the discussion between Malcom X and Martin Luther King that is more important than making one of them a "saint" and forgetting the other. As the Chinese say, "It takes some deaths for progress." Those with engrained "...so carefully taught" biases must leave us and we must hope that each generation has fewer so taught folks.
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Mike,
Happy MLK Day to you. Just saw a story on a mostly black high school in Memphis, Tenn where 20% of all the girls were pregnate. Now that is a score.
I truly try hard to see and appreciate what integration has done for America. What I see are degraded schools, the institutionalization of vulgarity in the entertainment industries, rap and other degenerate noise passing for music. I see prisons filled with a disproportionate number of blacks. Etc, etc. I've watched whites in big cities cross a dark street when they see black males approaching. I've read that black taxi drivers in big cities refuse to carry other black males after dark. Humm...wonder why that is? Prejudice, I suppose.
We have degraded every aspect of white society to the level that most blacks are comfortable with... I don't see how Americans of European ancestry have gained more than they lost through integration. If I fail to appreciate fully black contributions to sports, I may be excused as I know little about our national obsession.
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Thank you for this show. I'm really enjoying it. Has Martha Rutherford published any of her reflections?
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Martha Rutherford says that no, she has not published any of her reflections -- yet.
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My story sounds pretty minor in the grand scheme of things but it made a big impression on me when I was 12 years old.
I was in seventh grade and my school, Lake Oswego Junior High School, decided not to recognize the new MLK Jr. holiday. I'm not sure how it started but a group of us began a "sit-in" in the school's lobby in protest. The number of sitters grew and grew throughout the hour and it seemed like about 100 students at it's peak.
Sure, part of it for us kids was an attempt to get another day off school. And I'm sure some us didn't know what we were doing. But mostly, I beleive, we were starting to understand civil rights and found an occasion to practice non-violent disobedience in a cause we believed in. There were only a few black students in our school and our contextual understadning of race relations in America was pretty limited. But everything we had learned about MLK Jr. led us to think he was a great man with a noble cause.
The bell for afternoon classes rang and nobody moved. The principal came out, said something to placate us, then communicated the need to return to class. I'm not sure how long we sat after the lunch bell rang; I'm hoping it was a long time, in actuality it may have only been 5 - 10 minutes extra. What I do know is that today, all Lake Oswego shcools are closed in respect to this holiday.
Please take a moment today to observe the teachings of this great American.
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On the show, it was mentioned several times that Martha & Bill's wedding pictures were on the website, but I can't find them anywhere! Maybe I'm just missing the obvious, but would someone point me to the link? (I'm actually wondering if my parents were at the wedding -- would love to send the link to my mom!)
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The photo of the Rutherfords' wedding can be found on Think Out Loud's Facebook page.
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To Gereng and all those arguing with him/her:
Whether or not there is any factual basis to his/her incendiary racist statements is not the point. The point is, what do these statements have to do with this article and how do they address the question, "Were you part of the civil rights movement? Tell us your stories." The answer is, they have NOTHING to do with the subject under discussion and have no place in it. All they do is to provoke good people and promote anger and divisiveness, and in the end they just serve to prove a related point, which is that yes, Virginia, racism is still alive and repellent on the 25th celebration of Martin Luther King day. Leave the bait alone and let us continue to bring the conversation back to union and progress and constructive ideas.
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Gosh, Gillian sorry to have upset you. That's the last thing I wanted to do. Heaven help us if we get off topic. Yes, racism is well and alive everywhere on the planet and maybe even in the Galaxy.
Sorry for that, as well. Again, sorry I wasn't part of the Civil Rights movement. I was busy elsewhere. Am I provoking "good people"? I don't suppose I am included in that category inspite the fact I spent most of my working life directing development and humanitarian activites in some of the most dangerous places on the globe. Catching along the way TB, dengue fever, filaria (elephantisis), and brucellosis to name the most serious. I think I have earned the right to express my views on the topic . If my views upset you, don't read them.
I hate to split hairs, Gillian, BUT the topic is integration NOT civil rights. Surely by any reasonable measure immigration policy lies at the very core of integration? By the way, I am much too old to become angry over such matters. My interest in the human disaster we are creating for ourselves is purely theoretical.
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What is integration?
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While Oregon may ahead of the rest of the country in legalizing inter-racial marriage, anti-miscegenation laws were still on the books in many other states, until a SCOTUS decision in Loving v. Virginia in 1967 (if I recall the year correctly) overturned them.
Also, did anyone know that ARIZONA refused to recognize Martin Luther King Day until the NFL threatened to boycott the state with the Super Bowl?