The Board of Commissioners Thursday proclaimed February Black History Month in Multnomah County.
The proclamation marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibited racial discrimination in voting, and the 150th anniversary of the signing of the 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery.
“Had the Voting Rights Act not passed, I would not be here today,” said Commissioner Loretta Smith. “So many people were injured or died to make sure we had the opportunity to vote.”
Smith brought forward the proclamation, and said Oregon must take a hard look at its own history, one that began with a Bill of Rights that excluded African Americans and Chinese Americans from access to, among other things, voting.
Smith said the proclamation gives residents a chance to honor black Oregonians who stood up to segregation and racism, such as Harriet "Hattie" Redmond, who registered to vote in 1913 following a successful campaign for equal rights.
“We look back and the black pioneers of Oregon, the first residents who dared to exists in a place where the law said they could not,” Smith said. “We look at the men and women and families who came to the Kaiser Shipyards, including my grandfather, and made up the city of Vanport and the Albina neighborhoods.”
Black history is American history, she said. And someday perhaps it will be considered as such in our classrooms and textbooks.
“We are working every diligently towards that day,” Smith said. “But we are not there yet.”
Marlon Marion, African American Student Services Coordinator and Presidents Equal Access Liaison at Portland State University, said it wasn’t until he moved away for college that he began learning about black history beyond Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Harriet Tubman. And it was that history that made him change the way he saw himself.
“Learning about my history made me start to see my role in society in a new way,” he said. “I got a more positive way at looking at myself and that there was no reason for me not to participate.”
Multnomah County Chief Diversity and Equity Officer Ben Duncan also addressed the board during Thursday’s meeting.
"While we acknowledge the gains we have made, and there are many, we must remain vigilant," said Duncan. "We should be eliminating, not erecting, barriers. And as we think about our own state and our own county, both our history and our future, we are reminded of how far we've come and where there is opportunity, like linking DMV registration to voting registration that would add 300,000 eligible Oregonians, and our continuing focus on outreach. We can make Multnomah County and Oregon the most open and accessible democracy in this country."
