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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 2010)
Page 4 The Portland Observer Black HistOiy Month February 24. 2010 Black Oregon Pioneer Legacies Revealed Group wants to establish museum (AP) — The legacy o f John W. Jackson is slowly being uncovered, helping to illuminate the state's early African-American history. The discovery of Jackson, a black pioneer, Civil War veteran and re spected farmer who lived in the Sa lem area in the late 1800s, may not have happened if it weren't for a chance meeting last summer at the World Beat Festival in Salem. Gwen Carr o f the Oregon North west Black Pioneers learned that a Salem family came across references to a slave while delving through old family records for details about their ancestor Adam Stephens, a well- known pioneer who has a Salem school named after him. Both Stephens and Jackson were members o f the Hayesville Farmers Club, and, as it turns out, their grave stones are not far from one another at the cemetery. There are two stones for Jackson, one that was placed by a veterans organization to honor his service in the Civil War. Jackson now joins a growing list of Oregon's black pioneers, all o f whom the Oregon Northwest Black Pioneers plan to feature in an Afri can-American museum in Salem. One census record and grave stone at a time, Gwen Carr and her colleagues are uncovering Oregon's black history and learning that it extends surprisingly further than once thought. "Most people think that it's rel Although most o f Oregon's black egated primarily to the Portland area, history dates to the m id-1800s, there and for the most part it has been," is a record o f black people arriving C arr said. "But in addition to that, even earlier. Portland author Eliza we are finding that it extends to beth McLagan describes the first every com er o f the state, from the recorded instance in her book "A shores o f Tillamook and Clatsop Peculiar Paradise." County all the way to the northeast "On Dec. 21,1787, the Lady Wash to Wallowa County and even down ington set sail from the Cape Verde in Southern Oregon in Malheur and Islands, heading south and west to Harney counties." ward Cape Hom and into the Pacific The all-volunteer group, founded Ocean, then turning north to explore in 1993, has discovered that there is the coast o f the North American con early African-American history in tinent. Among those on board was 27 o f Oregon's 36 counties. Marcus Lopez, the first black person Louis A. Southworth (1830- "That surprises a lot o f people; to set foot on Oregon soil." 1917), was a respected frankly, it surprised us," Carr said. Interestingly, some o f these early homesteader near Waldport on "But I think it just attests to how rich d iscoveries w ere at a tim e in the Oregon Coast and later our history is here, and we find great Oregon's history when black people donated land for a school- pleasure every time we find just a weren't even allowed in the terri house. tidbit o f information." tory. By 1844, Oregon had declared Because so much black history both slavery and the residence o f research already has been done in blacks within the territory to be ille the Portland area, she said, the group gal. chose to focus initial efforts on the Organizers are in the process o f Mid-Valley. So far they've identi developing plans for the museum, fied more than 100 black pioneers in including identifying a location and Oregon, with the majority in Marion se c u rin g g ra n ts and o th er and Polk counties. Those findings fundraising opportunities, as well will be published in a book by the as collecting artifacts. Oregon Northwest Black Pioneers, It would be the first statewide which they hope to publish in the African-American museum in Or summer. egon, and organizers envision it as Last year, the group placed a a full-scale operation that would gravestone at Pioneer Cemetery in attract visitors from across the na Salem in memory o f the 43 black tion, in a central location with ample pioneers buried there. Each o f their meeting space. names is etched in the stone. Building a museum from the There never has been a large ground up is no easy task. population of black people living in It begins with developing a com Oregon. Even today, they account pelling subject-something the Or for about 2 percent o f the popula egon Northwest Black Pioneers al tion. ready have done. Experiences For A — lifetime R e m e m b e r in g Black History - K Month Doctor Survives Racial Hostility B rooks S taffing A D ivisio n of S. B rooks & A sso cia te s, Inc A Full Service Staffing Company Brooks Staffing 503.284.7930 1130 NE Alberta Street Portland, Oregon 97211 Fax: 503.284.7977 www.sbrooks.com jobs@ sbrooks.com DeNorval Unthank, doctor and civil rights activist, spent m ost o f his life confronting social and in stitutional racism. After m oving his family to an all white neighborhood in Port land in 1929 and opening a private medical practice in the city, he and his family were frequently targets o f racial hostility with broken w in dows, threatening phone calls, etc. Refusing to submit to racism, he worked to overcome the economic and social barriers in Oregon. In 1958, the Oregon M edical Society named him D octor o f the Year. For his role in bringing down racial barriers, the city o f Portland named DeNorval Unthank Park in North Portland in his honor in 1969. Unthank was the recipient o f several citizenship aw ards, the first African American member o f the Portland City Club, president o f the local chapter o f the Na- DeNorval Unthank tional A ssociation for the A d vancem ent o f C olored People, cofounder o f the Portland Urban League and sat on O regon’s Com m ittee for Equal Rights and the Council o f Social Agencies. Thanks to the Black Pioneers o f the Pacific N orthw est for this story.