Al-Yasha Williams
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Spelman College
Black Women's Clubs and Civil Rights in Oregon: From the Archives to the Future
To demonstrate the Black feminist origins of the civil rights movement of Portland, OR and Oregon at large, this paper examines the original archival materials of the Black women's clubs in Portland from their inception in 1899 through the establishment of the Oregon Civil Rights Bill (1953.) Forms of organizing from the civil rights movements of the global south, identified in M. Bahati Kuumba’s Gender and Social Movements (2001) describe how women's organizing formed the network for political demonstrations, legislation proposal and policy change. Angela Davis's chapter on “Black Women and the Club Movement” in Women Race and Class (1983) further demonstrates how Black women imbedded political purposes within social events that appeared innocuously concerned with home and garden. Through the Verdell B. Rutherford and William H. Rutherford Collection at Portland State University, as well as some archival items owned by the author, this paper argues that the creation of a political community in Portland, which established the capacity for Blacks to live and work in the state, revolved around the concerns and organizing practices of women's clubs which, for the betterment of their families, fought for the integration of Portland’s public schools, businesses and neighborhoods.