t • ♦ r
Page 10, Section II, Portland Observer, February 10, 1988
People
&
Commitment
Opportunity
The Urban League &
Celebrate Black
History Month
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VOU l H
OPPOTZlHliZV
iC hooL ¡ne.
YOUTH OPPORTUNITY SCHOOL
3710 N. Mississippi
Portland, OR 97217
(503)288-5813
Employment Services
Adolescent/Parent Treatment Program
Youth Services
W hitney Young Learning Center
Senior Citizens Services
PNB-Free Phone Location
The Urban League of Portland
10 North Russell
280-2600
As Part of Black History Month Jyj
►
t- T.V
We Salute
A.D. Griffin
and His New
Age Paper,
the First Black
Newspaper in
Portland and
one of the
Pioneers of the
4 Black Press in
i , Oregon
it
Statu
‘ ”^1. Kirso».
KUSALANA
Corb»t<
fdacleay
S^KoCsey.
According to Oregon Historical Society
jrds, the first black newspaper published in
;gon was called The New Age. It was
nded by A.D. Griffin, a black journalist
m Spokane, Washington, who, in 1896,
1 founded Spokane’s first black newspaper,
New Echo. At The New Age, A.D
iffin’s title was Editor and Proprietor and
paper’s offices were located at 264 Morrison
eet. A one-year subscription to the weekly
aer cost $2.00.
The oldest surviving copy of The New Age,
lume 4, Number 43, was published on
:urday, January 27, 1900 and is eight pages
lg. The lead page included a column of
vertisements including an ad for The
lited States National Bank, Beau
ummel —“The Best 3 Cent Cigar Made,”
d Oregon Kidney Tea to help relieve
ckache. Ankles included numerous
¡patches from the fronts of the Boer War,
d an article about the fiery destruction of
e Standard Oil Company warehouse in
inland.
Inside pages included ads from as far away
The Dalles. Baker, Pendleton, Astoria and
_
Straight 10 Cent Saloon in the City." Other
pages contain endorsements for Republican
Candidates for federal, state and local offices,
and one of the first civil rights pieces in
Oregon history. “What the Negro needs is
education and money and the race question
may in the near future be solved. All the
Negro asks is legal and political rights This
the Negro demands and must have. The final
pages contain a column for children, notes on
the latest fashion trends and an ad for Vin
Mariani Wine, “The Ideal French Tonic” for
curing malaria."
The New Age eventually carried
advertisements from firms in cities as far away
as Salt Lake City, Utah, Butte and Helena,
Montana, and Seattle and Everett,
Washington.
The paper ceased publication, a victim of
the increasing quality of civil-rights editorials
and a decreasing number of white subscribers.
Portland's second black paper, The
Advocate, was started in 1903, by E D
Cannady. The Advocate really took oft when
Cannady married Beatrice Morrow, the first
black woman lawyer and perhaps the most
□ rriru la te and outsooken civil rights activist of
- w w
Your Best Choice For
Fred Meyer
*
your donation to help preserve a part o f our city s heritage
i
her time in Oregon. Beatrice took over The
Advocate as her pet project. In 1932, she also
became the first black woman to seek public
office when she ran for and received 8,000
votes in her race for a seat in the state
legislature. The Advocate ceased publication
in 1936, when Beatrice move to California.
In 1938, Portland jazz musician William
McClendon and a shipyard worker started the
original Portland Observer. The hard times of
the late 1930s soon killed the Observer.
During World War II, frustration with racist
union policies led McClendon to reestablish
the paper as the People’s Observer. In 1943,
The Northwest Clarion gave the Portland
black community a second voice. During the
late 1940s and early 1960s, both papers
wound down and eventually ceased
publication. In the late 1960s, Albina church
and civic leaders attempted to fill the gap
with the short-lived Oregon Advance Times.
Today, Portland is served by two of the
finest black papers in the nation, the Skanner
and the Portland Observer. Both are going
strong and providing Portland's black
community with a much needed voice.
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