History Minutes: Community Organization

   Grand Emancipation Celebration // OrHi 81181

After the Civil War, African Americans continued to migrate to Oregon in small numbers.  As in other regions of the United States, they faced virulent racism and entrenched legal discrimination.  Local and state officials imposed restrictions on African Americans, including segregation in housing and education and a ban on women and non-white minorities owning firearms.

Facing both social exclusion and legal discrimination, blacks in Oregon—most of whom lived in the Portland area—created community organizations to strengthen the community from within, while also reaching out to whites.  They founded religious institutions such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Portland and aid organizations such as the Portland Colored Benevolent Association, which was intended “to relieve the distressed, take care of widows, educate orphans, and bury the dead.”

In the late 1860s and early 1870s, black Oregonians marshaled artistic, religious, and business leaders from within their local communities for events such as the “Grand Emancipation Celebration,” held in 1869 on the sixth anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and a gathering in 1870 to honor the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment.  The public was invited to these celebrations, which promoted an inclusive vision of American society in which all citizens would enjoy the same rights and privileges.