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February 20, 2008
B lack H istory M onth
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Pioneering Oregon’s Civil Rights
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dre C itize n s of t I ic llhited States a»id ifStdtc'
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x enforce dhy law which shall iifiidoe rficprivi-
5-legcs or immunities </ciri/cns 4 the UnitrJ
< Srdtes: nor shall d ily State deprive any person
' of life lih e rty . or properry, without due
' process of law: hordeny dny person w i t h i n
' jf$ jurisdiction the equal protection
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First activists challenged discrimination with passion
Beatrice Morrow Cannady was
one of O regon's pioneer civil-
rights promoters.
Born in Litig, Texas, on Janu
ary 9, 1890, she moved to Port
land in 1910, where she met her
first husband, Edw ard Daniel
Cannady, a waiter at the Portland
Hotel and the editor and co
fo u n d e r o f th e A d v o c a te ,
Portland’s only A frican-A m eri
can new spaper at the time.
Beatrice C annady soon be
came an active m ember of the
c ity ’s small A frican-A m erican
com m unity. In 1914, she helped
found the Portland chapter of the
NAACP and quickly became one
' dt the laws.
photo courtesy op h ip
O regon H istorical S ociety
This 1964 photograph shows Sylvia Thompson (left) with her daughter, Addie Jean Haynes, and
her grandson, Bryan Haynes holding up a poster-sized copy o f the Fourteenth Amendment at the
Portland office o f the NAACP on North Williams Avenue.
Fighting Laws of Discrimination
Portland’s chapter of the NAACP stayed persistent
The national NAACP formed
in 1909. A Portland chapter
opened in 1914 with Dr. J.N.
Merriman as its first president,
and Beatrice Morrow Cannady,
the editor of an African-Ameri
can newspaper, the Advocate,
as the chapter’s first secretary.
One of the chapter’s earliest
goals was to remove the exclu
sion laws from the state consti
tution. After numerous failed
campaigns spanning thirty years.
Oregon voters finally repealed
the exclusion laws in 1926 and
The Fourteenth Amendment,
which Congress passed in 1868,
gave African Americans the
rights of American citizenship
— including stateeitizenshipand
the right for men to vote. At that
that time, American women did
not have the right to vote.
The Fourteenth Amendment
effectively overruled exclusion
laws written into the 1859 Or
egon State Constitution, which
sought to keep African Ameri
cans from settling,owning prop
erty or voting in Oregon.
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1927.
The Portland NAACP also
worked for civil-rights legisla
tion in Oregon, fought to get
African Americans into labor
unions and opposed discrimina
tory the city’s housing policies.
In 1964, the NAACP chapter
marked their 50th anniversary
by a moving into new offices on
North Williams Avenue in the
Albina neighborhood of Port
land. The new office also housed
the NAACPCredit Union and a
vot^r-registration office.
PHOTO COI KTF.SY OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL
Beatrice Morrow Cannady,
shown here in a 1929
photograph, was one o f
Oregon's pioneer civil-rights
advocates for African Ameri
cans.
GREGOR! R OLILVEROò
“W hen evil
w o rd s
*
o f h a tr e d ,
m e n s h o u t u g ly
good
m en
m u st
co m m it th em selv es to th e glories o f love.
B lack H istory T imeline ____
1887
St K IETY
of the sta te 's most outspoken
civil-rights activists.
Regularly challenging racial
discrim ination in public talks and
in the pages of the Advocate, she
became assistant editor o f the
paper in 1912, taking overas chief
editor and ow ner in 1929. She
wrote scathing editorials about
the routine discrim ination prac
ticed in Portland and elsew here
in Oregon during the 1910s, ‘20s,
and ‘30s, noting that "not even
the pulpit has been as effective
for the advancement of our Group,
and for justice as the press."
A graduate of the N orthw est
ern School o f Law, Cannady
helped craft the state's first civil-
rights legislation, which would
have m andated full access to
public accom m odations without
regard to race. Though the legis
lation initially failed, in 1925
Cannady worked on the success
ful campaign to repeal O regon's
notorious "black laws,” which
prohibited African A m ericans
from settling in the state and de
nied voting rights to people of
color.
Cannady left Portland for Los
Angeles in the 1930s, where she
lived a quiet life until her death in
1974.
W here evil m en w ould seek to p e rp e tu
ate an u n ju st statu s quo, good m en m ust
continued ÂU from A4
s e e k to b rin g in to b e in g a real o rd e r
A ban on interracial marriages in the Washington Territory is lifted.
o f ju stic e .”
1889
Washington gains statehood. The state constitution includes a ban on racial discrimination in schools.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Gregory P. Oliveros
Attorney At I .aw
1897
California passes its first civil-rights legislation.
O liveros & O ’B r ie n , PC
1914
9200 SE Sunnybrook Blvd., Suite »150
The Portland chapter of the NAACP. the oldest continually chartered
chapter west of the Mississippi River, is founded.
Clackamas, OR 97015
503-786-3800
1926
Oregon repeals its exc lusion law, amending the state constitution to remove
it from the Bill of Rights.
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1927
The Oregon State Constitution is finally amended to remove a clause
denying blacks the right to vote.
1948
The Supreme Court declares California'slaw banning interracial marriages
to be unconstitutional.
1951
Oregon repeals its law prohibiting interracial marriages.
W.E.B. Du Bois, civil-rights
leader, scholar and one o f
the founders o f the NAACP.
1959
Oregon voters ratify the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution ol the
United States.
Salutes
Black History Month
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