North Williams and Russell Streets, early 1960s

History: African Americans in Oregon

The history of the first known African American to set foot in Oregon is a brief one. Marcus Lopez, a cabin boy on Capt. Robert Gray’s ship Lady Washington, was killed by Indians with other shipmates near Tillamook in 1788. But tales of York, Capt. William Clark’s slave, who accompanied the 1804-6 Lewis & Clark Expedition, were told for years by Indian tribes who encountered and admired him.

Today’s African-American community in Portland dates back to the beginnings of the transcontinental railroad. Many black workers made Portland their home in order to have access to Union Station and jobs on the railroad.

Columbus Sewell, Pioneer, ca.1862 Vanport City Vacation School

When the Portland Hotel opened in 1890, the workers brought here from the South earned wages high enough to buy homes and start their own businesses. This was the beginning of the black middle class in Portland. In 1927, a bellboy at the Portland Hotel, Wyatt Williams, became one of the first black lawyers admitted to the Oregon State Bar. Eventually promoted to bell captain, he continued to work at the hotel while practicing law on the side.

World War II brought a great influx of African Americans to Portland. Thousands worked in the shipyards and lived at Vanport, a wartime housing project that was destroyed by flood in 1948. (See: Did You Know.....)

Local members of the NAACP, the Urban League and other organizations fought tirelessly for civil rights. Their efforts brought about the removal of discriminatory laws that had been on the books in Oregon since pioneer days.

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