Eric Pettigrew is the current Washington State Representative for the 37th Legislative District representing Southeast Seattle, Washington and its suburbs. Representative Pettigrew grew up in South Central Los Angeles. After graduating from Nogales High School in the City of Industry, California, he enrolled in Oregon … Read MoreEric Pettigrew (1960- )
Wallace Fard, also known as W. Farad Muhammad, the Prophet, was founder the first Temple of Islam which evolved into the Nation of Islam or the Black Muslims. Authentic, documented information about Fard is very scarce and there is only a four year period (1930-1934) … Read MoreWallace Fard (ca. 1891-1934)
James Monroe Whitfield, a black abolitionist and colonizationist, was born on April 10, 1822 in New Hampshire. Little is known about his early life except that he was a descendant of Ann Paul, the sister of prominent black clergyman Thomas Paul. Whitfield had little formal … Read MoreJames Monroe Whitfield (1822-1871)
This bibliography lists sources for the history of African-Americans in the city of Portland and the state of Oregon, and less comprehensively, the Pacific Northwest and Far West. A list of Portland and West Coast African-American newspapers and periodicals and a brief list of selected … Read More(2010) History of African Americans in Portland & Oregon: A Selected Bibliography
Leonard Randolph (Lenny) Wilkens was born in Brooklyn, New York, on October 28, 1937, son of an African American father and white mother. He grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section, one of the toughest sections in the city, where he endured many hardships, including the … Read MoreLenny Wilkens (1937- )
In the following article, Janie L. Hendrix, President and CEO of Experience Hendrix and the younger sister of music legend Jimi Hendrix, reflects on the lives of their grandparents, Bertram Philander Ross Hendrix and Zenora Moore. Her article reminds us of the rich entertainment heritage … Read MoreThe Blood of Entertainers: The Life and Times of Jimi Hendrix’s Paternal Grandparents
The African American conductor James DePreist was the nephew of the singer Marian Anderson. DePreist was the Permanent Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Laureate Music Director of the Oregon Symphony, and Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at the Juilliard School. DePreist has … Read MoreJames DePreist (1936-2013)
John Hiram Jackson was born November 16, 1912 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Both his parents were Virginians, and his maternal grandfather, the Reverend Daniel Cave, was a founder of Lynchberg Seminary, an independent black Baptist college. Reverend Cave was the first of a line of Baptist … Read MoreJohn Hiram Jackson (1912-1997)
The Great Migration was the mass movement of about five million southern blacks to the north and west between 1915 and 1960. During the initial wave the majority of migrants moved to major northern cities such as Chicago, Illiniois, Detroit, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New … Read MoreThe Great Migration (1915-1960)
On March 26, 1938, Berry Lawson, a twenty-seven-year-old African American waiter staying at the Mt. Fuji Hotel located on Yesler Way in downtown Seattle, Washington, was reportedly asleep in a chair in the hotel lobby. He was spotted by three Seattle Police Department officers, who … Read MoreBerry Lawson Case (1938)
