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January 30, 2019
NAACP Generations
c ontinueD froM f ront
Vancouver NAACP assistant
treasurer and artist, is aimed at
exploring the NAACP’s early his-
tory in Vancouver, the evolution
of the Vancouver branch, and its
contemporary stories and accom-
plishments.
“The NAACP has been real-
ly active in this area, been active
since the 40s,” Carter told the Port-
land Observer. “It kind of ebbs and
flows with the time, but we still
have a strong membership. And
the ebb and flow comes with the
activities and people who are really
active in it. But we’re still growing
and we’re still keeping it alive.”
Other free events as part of
Black History Month observances
include a community art exhibit
at the Angst Gallery at 1015 Main
St., Vancouver, on Friday, Feb. 1;
and “Soundtrack for a Revolu-
tion,” a documentary film screen-
ing and discussion on Feb. 27 at
the Old Liberty theater on 115 N.
Main Ave. in Ridgefield.
Vancouver NAACP’s forma-
tion in 1945 followed the largest
single increase in Vancouver’s
African American population be-
tween 1940 and 1944, going from
just 18 people to a population of
8,825. That boom coincided with
a surge in the black population in
the Portland-Vancouver area with
the establishment of three Kaiser
Shipyards to build ships for World
War II.
A number of black residents
were segregated in wartime hous-
ing at that time, which spurred a
local group of concerned citizens
to join and create the Vancouver
NAACP, 33 years after the cre-
ation of the national organization
was established, and 29 years after
Portland’s NAACP was formed.
The Vancouver NAACP then
worked with Vancouver Housing
Authority to integrate housing,
specifically in the McLoughlin
Heights neighborhood of Vancou-
ver, which was a primary location
of the black population back then,
and the largest wartime housing
project on the west coast at the
time.
After the war, the NAACP
Vancouver worked to combat and
eradicate the racial discrimination
that confronted many of the black
families who decided to stay in
Vancouver in search of upward
mobility through jobs, housing
and education.
It was due in part from NAACP
Vancouver and Urban League of
Portland, that both Washington
and Oregon created Fair Employ-
ment Practices Commissions in
1949.
1989.
Though Joshua passed away in
at the age of 92 in 2012, the award
that carries her name still exists
today, and honors others in the
community who work to eliminate
racism.
The history of African-Amer-
icans in the Pacific Northwest is
rich.
The first black man thought to
have set foot in the Pacific North-
west, Marcus Lopez, touched
down at Tillamook in 1788, as
a crew member of Capt. Robert
Though Joshua passed away
in at the age of 92 in 2012, the
award that carries her name
still exists today, and honors
others in the community who
work to eliminate racism.
Though this opened some jobs
for African Americans, many still
left Vancouver after the shipbuild-
ing jobs ended, unable to find ad-
equate employment and housing.
By 1960, the black population in
Vancouver dropped to just fewer
than 500.
Nevertheless, the Vancouver
NAACP survived that whole time
and continues to work toward im-
proving the lived experiences of
the over 4,500 black residents who
call Vancouver home today, about
3 percent of the total population,
according to the 2010 Census.
One of the founding members
of Vancouver NAACP, Val Joshua,
led the group as president for 29
years—from the early 70s to the
early 2000s—and helped the orga-
nization grow. Her efforts helped
to desegregate housing, teaching
and places of worship in Clark
County and she was honored by
the Clark County YWCA, a civil
rights organization, with the Val
Joshua Racial Justice award in
Gray’s Lady Washington.
Some black slaves brought to
Oregon in the mid to late 1800s
sought refuge in Washington due
to Oregon’s exclusionary laws.
Despite being a “free state” that
did not allow slavery, Oregon
outlawed any black person from
residing in the state at the time.
When the Washington Territory
was carved off from Oregon ter-
ritory in 1853 it did not adopt the
same laws. Only 20 black people
were in the Pacific Northwest at
the time, according to a US Cen-
sus from 1860.
There were even black pioneers
who each settled in Washington
state in the mid 1800s—George
Washington Bush in 1844, and
George Washington in 1850.
Bush’s son, William Owen Bush,
was later elected to the state leg-
islature and introduced Washing-
ton’s first civil rights act, which
prohibited racial discrimination in
public places, in 1889.
From 1899-1900, the all-black
1940s newspaper columnist Hattie Cox wrote about the who’s
who of the black community of McLoughlin Heights in Vancouver,
which housed thousands of African Americans to work in the
Kaiser Shipyards. Hattie wrote for the black newspaper The
People’s Observer, which The Portland Observer pays homage to in
its name.
“Buffalo Soldiers” from Company
B of the 24th U.S. Infantry Regi-
ment were stationed at Vancouver
Barracks, which was the first time
in the history of the post that a
unit from one of the Army’s four
African American regiments com-
prised the post’s regular garrison
of troops.
A retired Buffalo Soldier and
Medal of Honor recipient, Moses
Williams, was even buried in Van-
couver shortly after moving there
in 1899. A regional black news-
paper at the time, Portland New
Age, reported the black soldiers
received racial prejudice from
some, though no lynching’s or di-
rect violence towards them were
recorded.
To find out more about these
histories, and the current priorities
and future aspirations of Vancou-
ver NAACP, join a panel discus-
sion with past and present Van-
couver NAACP presidents, and
moderated by historical author
Jane Elder Wulff, for “NAACP
Generations” on Thursday, Feb.
7 at Clark County Historical Mu-
seum, 1511 Main St. Vancouver.
Doors open at 5 p.m., and the
event starts at 7 p.m., and tickets
are $5 and under.