Born October 26, 1935 in Sumter, South Carolina, Gloria Conyers Hewitt grew up persistent. Her father, Emmett C. Conyers, and her mother, Crenella Conyers, thought that their children should attend college as they believed that was the only opportunity for improvement for African Americans. While … Read MoreGloria Conyers Hewitt (1935- )
Tuskegee Airman Jack Daniels Holsclaw was born in Spokane, Washington, on March 21, 1918. His father, Charles, was a clerk in a downtown store, and his mother, Nell, was a manager at Pacific Telephone and Telegraph. Holsclaw attended North Central High School in Spokane, where … Read MoreJack Daniels Holsclaw (1918-1998)
Leading African American anthropologist Lee D. Baker was adopted in 1969 by white parents who lived in Yakima, Washington. They traveled from their home to San Diego, California to adopt 3-year-old Baker. The family continued to live in Washington for a short period of time … Read MoreLee D. Baker (1966- )
Lizzie Koontz Weeks was an early suffragist, activist, and the first black social worker in Portland, Oregon. Weeks was possibly born in 1886 in Washington, D.C. to mixed-race parentage. Although not much is known of her early life, she moved to Portland, Oregon where she … Read MoreLizzie Koontz Weeks (ca. 1886-1976)
Jo Ann Hardesty is the first African American woman to serve on Portland’s City Council and the third black woman to serve as an Oregon State Representative. Hardesty was born as one of ten children on October 15, 1957 in Baltimore, Maryland where her father … Read MoreJo Ann Hardesty (1957- )
Visionary businessman Onie Burnett Granville, a Los Angeles, California Realtor, founded two black-owned and operated state-chartered banks in the 1960s, the Bank of Finance in Los Angeles in 1964 and the Freedom Bank of Finance in Portland, Oregon in 1968. Both banks were the first of their kind in their respective cities and among the … Read MoreOnie Burnett Granville (1916-1998)
Freedom Bank Interior With Portland Mayor Terry Schrunk and Others, 1970 Image Courtesy of City of Portland (OR) Archives In 1968, a group of businessmen in Portland, Oregon saw the recently founded Bank of Finance in Los Angeles, California as a model for their creating the first black-owned commercial bank in the Pacific … Read MoreFreedom Bank of Finance (1969-2000)
Harriet “Hattie” Redmond, a prominent black suffragette in Portland, Oregon, was born around 1862 in St. Louis, Missouri, to emancipated slaves Reuben and LaVinia (Vina) Crawford. She and her two brothers, along with her parents, had moved to Marysville, California by 1871. After a short time in Hood River, Oregon, the … Read MoreHarriet Redmond (1862-1952)
Justice Adrienne C. Nelson is the first African American justice on the Oregon State Supreme Court, having been appointed on January 2, 2018. Justice Nelson graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville with degrees in English and Criminal Justice and earned her Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University … Read MoreAdrienne C. Nelson (1967- )
Image Ownership: Public domain The Cockstock Affair is argued to be the justification that white settlers used to install Oregon’s exclusion laws against African Americans in the 1840s. As the details of the Affair have been widely debated, there are different ways of interpreting the events, causes, and … Read MoreCockstock Affair (1844)
