The Oregon Encyclopedia

An Authoritative and Free Resource on All Things Oregon

Avel Gordly (1947-)

February is African American History Month

Avel Gordly (1947-)

In 1996, Avel Louise Gordly became the first African American woman to be elected to the Oregon State Senate. Gordly was born in Portland on February 13, 1947. Her father, Fay ...

Beatrice Morrow Cannady (1889 - 1974)

February is African American History Month

Beatrice Morrow Cannady (1889 - 1974)

Beatrice Morrow Cannady was the most noted civil rights activist in early twentieth-century Oregon. Using her position as editor of the Advocate, Oregon's largest, and at times the only, African American ...

Billy Webb Elks Lodge

February is African American History Month

Billy Webb Elks Lodge

The Billy Webb Elks Lodge, a modest, shingle-sided building located at 6 North Tillamook Street in Portland, is a reminder of the city's largely segregated history and is a key historical ...

Black Cowboys in Oregon

February is African American History Month

Black Cowboys in Oregon

The history of African American cowboys in Oregon begins well past the state’s frontier era. There were almost no black cowboys in Oregon during the nineteenth century and only a few during the ...

Black Exclusion Laws in Oregon

February is African American History Month

Black Exclusion Laws in Oregon

Oregon's racial makeup has been shaped by three black exclusion laws that were in place during much of the region's early history. These laws, all later rescinded, largely succeeded in ...

Black Panthers in Portland

February is African American History Month

Black Panthers in Portland

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) was founded in October 1966 in Oakland, California, by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, two young black men who met at Merritt Junior College. The ...

Blacks in Oregon

February is African American History Month

Blacks in Oregon

Periodically, newspaper or magazine articles appear proclaiming amazement at how white the population of Oregon and the City of Portland is compared to other parts of the country. It is not possible ...

Buffalo Soldiers at Vancouver Barracks

February is African American History Month

Buffalo Soldiers at Vancouver Barracks

For thirteen months beginning in 1899, a company of 103 soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 24th Infantry—one of four African American regiments known as Buffalo Soldiers—garrisoned at Vancouver Barracks in Vancouver ...

DeNorval Unthank (1899-1977)

February is African American History Month

DeNorval Unthank (1899-1977)

In 1929, Portland was a city deeply divided. Its small population of African Americans lived uneasily among their white neighbors. Only three years had passed since Oregonians had voted to amend their ...

Golden West Hotel

February is African American History Month

Golden West Hotel

The Golden West Hotel, located at Northwest Broadway and Everett Streets in Portland, was the first hotel in the city to accommodate African American patrons. For twenty-five years, from 1906 through 1931, it ...

Harriet "Hattie" Redmond (1862-1952)

February is African American History Month

Harriet "Hattie" Redmond (1862-1952)

Harriet “Hattie” Redmond was a leader in the long struggle for Oregon woman suffrage, especially during the successful campaign of 1912. The right to vote was especially important to Redmond as a ...

Holmes v. Ford

February is African American History Month

Holmes v. Ford

On April 16, 1852, a former slave named Robin Holmes filed suit against his white former owner, Nathaniel Ford, in the only slavery case adjudicated in an Oregon court. Holmes was one ...

Kathryn Hall Bogle (1906 - 2003)

February is African American History Month

Kathryn Hall Bogle (1906 - 2003)

A freelance journalist, social worker, and community activist, Kathryn Hall Bogle is remembered as “one of Portland’s earliest and most passionate advocates of racial diversity.” She wrote articles for many African ...

Lizzie Weeks (1879-1976)

February is African American History Month

Lizzie Weeks (1879-1976)

Lizzie Koontz Weeks was an African American activist in Portland in the years after women in Oregon had achieved the right to vote in 1912. She organized black women to empower them ...

Maxville

February is African American History Month

Maxville

Maxville, in northeast Oregon east of the town of Wallowa, was home to African American loggers at a time when Oregon’s constitution included a provision excluding blacks from the state. Maxville had ...

Thelma Johnson Streat (1912-1959)

February is African American History Month

Thelma Johnson Streat (1912-1959)

Thelma Johnson Streat was a multi-talented African American artist who focused on ethnic themes in her work. Born on August 29, 1912, in Yakima, Washington, to James and Gertrude Johnson, she moved ...

Triple Nickles -- 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion

February is African American History Month

Triple Nickles -- 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion

The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, nicknamed the "Triple Nickles" (using the English spelling of 'nickel'), was a World War II African American unit of the U.S. Army stationed in Pendleton in ...

Willie Mae Young Hart (1915-2017)

February is African American History Month

Willie Mae Young Hart (1915-2017)

In addition to the community organizing that characterized so many of her contemporaries, Willie Mae Young Hart made a habit of breaking the color line. She helped operate Portland's first black-owned ...

York (ca. 1770-?)

February is African American History Month

York (ca. 1770-?)

York was William Clark's slave and an integral member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, sent by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the Louisiana Territory and the Oregon Country in 1804-1806 ...

Research Categories

Become a member of the Oregon Historical Society, GET THE QUARTERLY, have some cheese

As far as encyclopedias go, The Oregon Encyclopedia may be the greatest encyclopedia of all time. It has all the best entries, the best authors, and the best photographs—thousands of them. The OE is part of one of the greatest research libraries in the West, which is located in the largest historical society in the state—the Oregon Historical Society. All sorts of history things are here, including a pardon signed by President Harrison for an Oregon bootlegger, a photo of Santa Ana's cork leg, the film "The Haunted Camera" directed by a 15-year-old Medford girl in the 1930s, and an animatronic elf (or three) from SantaLand. Millions of history items are catalogued, carefully stored, and kept safe at OHS. Come visit! Even better, with an annual membership to the Oregon Historical Society, you'll help keep all that history in good order; you'll get a subscription to the Oregon Historical Quarterly; and you'll be invited to special events, cheese included. You'll also have access to many other historical and cultural institutions around the state. Excellent!

Click here to join Oregon's public history community

YMCA children's band in Portland. Photo by Elizabeth Hall.

February is African American History Month

"Periodically, newspaper or magazine articles appear proclaiming amazement at how white the population of Oregon and the City of Portland is compared to other parts of the country. It is not possible to argue with the figures—in 2013, there were an estimated 78,600 blacks in Oregon, about 2 percent of the population—but it is a profound mistake to think that these stories and statistics tell the story of the state's racial past. In fact, issues of race and the status and circumstances of black life in Oregon are central to understanding the history of the state, and perhaps its future as well." - Darrell Millner

Click here to read Darrell Millner's essay on Blacks in Oregon

Looking for history in All The Places?

The Oregon History Wayfinder is an interactive map that identifies significant places, people, and events in Oregon history. Each point on the map connects to the historical records and scholarship on the Oregon History Project and The Oregon Encyclopedia, two of the digital history sites created by the Oregon Historical Society. The Oregon History Wayfinder is supported in part by the Oregon Heritage Commission.

Click here to get out the map

Upcoming Events

History Pub: McMenamins Old St. Francis School in Bend

"The Sea Also Rises: History & Climate Change in the Pacific Northwest." Presented by Sean Munger.

Feb. 26, 2019 at 7 p.m.

More details...

Location

McMenamins Old St. Francis School
700 NW Bond Street
Bend, OR 97730

Google Map...

Welcome to the award-winning Oregon Encyclopedia

Western History Association, Gene Autry Public History Award, 2012.

AASLH American Association of State and Local History, Leadership in History Award, 2011.

NCTE logo National Council of Teachers of English, Multicultural Program Award, 2009.

OHS Digital History Projects

In addition to The Oregon Encyclopedia, the OHS Digital History Projects include the Oregon History Project and Oregon History Wayfinder.

Oregon History Project

Oregon History Wayfinder

The OE is Green!

The Encyclopedia's editorial process is completely paperless. Our authors and editors use a one-of-a-kind online workshop developed by Portland State University. We've published hundreds of authoritative entries on Oregon history and culture without hurting a single Douglas Fir. Donate your green to The OE and keep us—and the trees—growing.

Additional Funding

This project has been funded in part by the Oregon Heritage Commission and the Oregon Cultural Trust.

Project Partners

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