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
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503.284.7930
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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.