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M artin L uther K ing J r .
2021 special edition
January 13, 2021
Stepping Up and Standing Up
Martin Luther King Jr.
c ontinued fRoM p age 9
She went on to later direct a
neighborhood health clinic in Seat-
tle, and in the mid-1980s joined the
Black Women’s Health Project in
Atlanta, where she served for eight
years as National Self-Help Direc-
tor. Following that, she moved to
Austin, Texas to work for the Texas
Urban League and was special ad-
visor to then-Texas governor Anne
Richards.
After returning to Portland in
2007, Gary-Smith was a director
for Cascadia Behavioral Health
Care and in 2011, was chosen to
lead the MRG Foundation, a lead-
ing social and racial justice funder.
She has received many honors
over the years, and last March was
named an Outstanding Oregon
Woman of Achievement by Gov.
Kate Brown.
After all those years of work,
Gary-Smith decided to retire, but
that didn’t last long. When former
Portland NAACP President E.D.
Mondainé resigned in October af-
ter being exposed in the Portland
Mercury for alleged physical and
sexual assault, she answered the
call.
Gary-Smith was not sorry to see
him go. She said she and female
other members of the Portland
NAACP had been overlooked and
experienced sexism and ageism
under that past leadership, which
was “very male dominated,” she
said.
Not any more. The new leader-
ship, with Gary-Smith as president,
is almost all female now, she said.
“We do shared leadership,” she
said. “I believe in learning and
leading, and that you can do both.”
Gary-Smith didn’t accept run-
ning for chapter president right
away, but after many entreaties to
lead the organization, she eventu-
ally decided she had to follow her
mother’s advice to “walk the talk.”
Though she had planned to re-
lax and travel in retirement, she
answered the call to lead and then
recruited more young women of
all stripes, including more radical
members to join her.
“I was quite radical back in the
day,” she said. “I know how to sit
at tables, but sometimes you need
to flip the table and build a new ta-
Sharon Gary-Smith
ble that seats more people.”
She describes herself as “an
angry, gentle Black woman,” who
knows how to channel that anger
into constructive action.
“Age and experience tempers
you,” she said. “I know how to sit
in board rooms…and I know those
marching around the building —
that used to be me.”
But she has high hopes for the
future of the Portland NAACP,
where membership and donations
skyrocketed after the killing of
George Floyd by police officers
in Minneapolis. Support for civ-
il rights and the NAACP have
grown from many white folks who
feel guilty about the treatment of
Blacks in this country, and that is a
good thing, she said.
“I don’t want guilt to be the only
reason they donated,” she said. “I
want them to be involved and say,
‘How can I be an ally for racial jus-
tice in this country?’ “
The guiding light for Gary-
Smith’s leadership are the teach-
ings of Dr. King, she said, a philos-
ophy for peace and racial progress
that applies to everyone.
“Whites can be our accomplic-
es,” she said. “Not just because
they felt bad about George Floyd,
but about the continued racism in
this country, and the unequal dis-
proportionate harm to us.”
Now is the time for reckoning,
for dialogue and for the nation to
heal, she said.
“It is time for great opportuni-
ties and the NAACP should be at
the forefront for the right reasons,
with others who are seeking jus-
tice,” Gary-Smith said.