M artin L uther K ing J r .
January 13, 2021
2021 special edition
Page 9
Stepping Up
and Standing Up
New NAACP president
learned about civil rights early
b eveRly c oRbell
t he p oRtland o bseRveR
It wasn’t the leadership she sought, but Sharon Gary-
Smith’s entire life has prepared her to be the new president
of the Portland NAACP.
“I come from a family where you didn’t get a choice
about stepping up and standing up,” she said. “The idea of
doing the work of justice — moving racial and social justice
forward — you did it. You didn’t have a choice.”
Her parents were local activists and taught her the les-
sons of the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King
and the importance of advocating for change at an early age.
Born and raised in Portland, Gary-Smith is the eldest of
four daughters of Bobbi Lou Mosley-Gary and Frederick
Douglass Gary Jr. Her father was a graduate of Tuskegee
Institute, now Tuskegee University, the historically Black
college in Alabama which molded his outlook, she said, and
the family took pride in his being a “Tuskegee man.”
“For us, our family, and our community, Tuskegee res-
onated with them. Their students, young men, came out
prepared to support their community,” she said. “We un-
derstood George Washington Carver’s legacy, which they
didn’t teach us much about in school.”
Her mother was also involved in her community, urging
others to get involved in fighting for justice.
“She was supposed to be a stay-at-home mama, but she
went to the streets, telling other mothers why they needed
to get out and fight,” Gary-Smith recalled. “She was a pistol
and we were fed justice and resistance with food every day
by
Sharon Gary-Smith, newly elected Portland NAACP president, is from a Portland family historically rooted in
advocating for racial justice. “An angry, gentle Black woman,” who knows how to channel that passion into
constructive action. “Age and experience tempers you,” she tells the Portland Observer, “I know how to sit in
board rooms…and I know those marching around the building — that used to be me.”
and were taught resistance to injustice at every meal.”
They also shared their own histories to support their ac-
tivism.
“My father was born in Hampton, Virginia, where he
learned about living in a segregated state,” she said. “My
mother was from Kansas City, Missouri, the “Show me
state,” but more importantly, it was the historical swing
state (in the vote) on whether slavery would continue.”
These were the “missing pieces” in her education that
her parents filled in through their own teaching, day in and
day out.
The family was considered Black middle class, she said,
and she and her sisters were taught, “To those much is giv-
en, much is expected.” The advice was reinforced with a lot
of support and encouragement.
“They told us little Black girls, ‘You’re smart, you’re
bright and we expect you to be excellent.’ My parents set
the standards, not the school. ‘You have an excellent mind.
You’re smart.’ ”
Gary-Smith used those smarts when she began her pro-
fessional career in the mid-1970s when she was chosen to
lead the city’s anti-poverty agency, the Portland Metropol-
itan Steering Committee, a $4 million agency organization
that managed 22 community-based programs.
c ontinued on p age 22