Patricia Roberts Harris was an American politician, diplomat, and legal scholar. She served as the 6th United States secretary of housing and urban development from 1977 to 1979 and as the 13th United States secretary of health and human services from 1979 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. She previously served as the United States ambassador to Luxembourg from 1965 to 1967 under President Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her public career, Harris was a trailblazer for women and people of color to hold a number of positions, including the first African American woman and woman of color ever to serve in a presidential cabinet and the first woman and person of color appointed to two different presidential cabinet positions. She was the first African American HHS secretary and just the second black HUD secretary, as well as the second woman to lead either of those executive departments. Furthermore, she was the first black woman U.S. ambassador, the dean of a U.S. law school, and a member of a Fortune 500 company's board of directors. A member of the Democratic Party, she ran for mayor of the District of Columbia in the 1982 mayoral election but was defeated during the primaries, ultimately finishing second to incumbent mayor Marion Barry.
Elizabeth Furse was a Kenya Colony-born American small business owner and former faculty member of Portland State University. She was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 1999, representing Oregon's 1st congressional district. She was a Democrat, and was the first naturalized U.S. citizen born in Africa to win election to the United States Congress.
Patricia Hill Collins is an American academic specializing in race, class, and gender. She is a distinguished university professor of sociology emerita at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is also the former head of the Department of African-American Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Collins was elected president of the American Sociological Association (ASA), and served in 2009 as the 100th president of the association – the first African-American woman to hold this position.
Maurine Neuberger-Solomon, best known as Maurine Neuberger was an American politician who served as a United States senator for the State of Oregon from November 1960 to January 1967. She was the fourth woman elected to the United States Senate and the tenth woman to serve in the body. She and her husband, Richard L. Neuberger, are regarded as the U.S. Senate's first husband-and-wife legislative team. To date, she is the only woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Oregon.
Norma Jean Paulus was an American lawyer and politician in the state of Oregon. A native of Nebraska, she was raised in Eastern Oregon before becoming a lawyer. A Republican, she first held political office as a representative in the Oregon House of Representatives, and then became the first woman elected to statewide public office in Oregon when she became Oregon Secretary of State in 1977. Paulus later served as Oregon Superintendent of Public Instruction for nine years. She made unsuccessful bids to become Governor of Oregon and United States Senator. Prior to her death on February 28, 2019, Paulus lived in Portland, where she was involved with several non-profit groups and sponsored a ballot measure to create open primaries in Oregon's statewide elections.
Cora Mae Brown was the first African-American woman elected to a state senate in the United States. She won her seat in the Michigan Senate in 1952. Brown was a Democrat who represented Detroit.
Betty Cantrell Roberts was an American politician and judge from the U.S. state of Oregon. She was the 83rd justice of the Oregon Supreme Court. She was the first woman to serve on the Oregon Supreme Court, and had also been the first woman on the Oregon Court of Appeals. Roberts served from 1982 to 1986 on the high court and from 1977 to 1982 on the Court of Appeals.
Samuel Spencer Johnson was an American businessman, legislator, and philanthropist in the state of Oregon. He owned saw mills and large tracts of timber land near the Metolius River, Black Butte, and Sisters, Oregon. He served seven terms in the Oregon House of Representatives; and along with his wife, founded the Samuel S. Johnson Foundation. He also served as mayor of Redmond, Oregon, from 1979 to 1984.
Margaret Louise Carter is an American politician who was a Democratic member of the Oregon Legislative Assembly from 1985 to 1999 and 2001 to 2009 and was the first black woman elected to the state's legislature. She served in the Oregon House of Representatives until 1999, and then in the Oregon State Senate from 2001 to 2009. She served as President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Vice Chair for Ways and Means, and as a member of both the Health and Human Services and Oregon State Hospital Patient Care committees. She announced her resignation from the Senate effective August 31, 2009, and took a post as Deputy Director for Human Services Programs at the Oregon Department of Human Services. In 2015, she was reportedly considering a return to the senate.
Mary Alice Ford was a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Oregon. A native of California, the moderate and pro-choice Republican served in the Oregon House of Representatives for 15 consecutive years representing Washington County.
Irma Muse Dixon is a social worker, manager, and African-American politician, the first to be elected to the Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC). Dixon represented the Third District on the PSC from 1992 through 2004.
Nancy Ann Ryles was an Oregon politician. She served in the Oregon House of Representatives, the Oregon Senate and as one of three members of the state's Public Utility Commission. She was known as an advocate for education and for equality for women and minorities. An elementary school in Beaverton is named after her.
The Advocate was a four-page weekly newspaper in Portland, Oregon, established as a news source for Portland's African American community. It was founded in 1903 and was covered as an active entity in other Portland press until at least 1936. The Advocate was known as Portland's second oldest black newspaper. In 1933 when the paper ceased publication it was the only remaining black-owned newspaper. In its early days, it was known as the Mt. Scott Herald and possibly as the Beaver State Herald. The Advocate covered a variety of topics for both the white and black communities in Portland. The Advocate covered segregation, lynching, employment opportunities and other issues at the beginning. Microfilm of the paper is available through 1933.
Beatrice Morrow Cannady was a renowned civil rights advocate in early 20th-century Oregon, United States. She was editor of the Advocate, the state's largest African-American newspaper. She was also co-founder and vice president of the Portland, Oregon chapter of the NAACP.
Frank Livezey Roberts was an American politician from the state of Oregon. A Democrat, Roberts served in both houses of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. He served two terms in the Oregon House of Representatives and most of five terms in the Oregon Senate before resigning due to poor health. Roberts was married three times, including to Barbara Roberts, who was the first woman to serve as Governor of Oregon, and to Betty Roberts, who was the first woman to serve as a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court.
The Oregon Commission for Women established the Oregon Women of Achievement in 1985 to recognize the accomplishments of Oregon women and to demonstrate appreciation for their endeavors. Qualifying candidates to be nominated for the Oregon Women of Achievement are exemplary role models who promote the status of women in society, are committed to diversity and equity and have earned recognition for success and leadership in their fields. As of 2013, 81 women have been honored by the Oregon Commission for Women.
Adrienne Camille Nelson is an American lawyer and jurist serving since 2023 as a United States district judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. She was previously a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court from 2018 to 2023 and a judge on the Multnomah County Circuit Court from 2006 to 2018.
YWCA of Greater Portland is a charitable organization with a mission to eliminate racism, empower women, and promote peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all. The organization serves Multnomah County in four major areas of programming including youth services, domestic violence services, senior services, and social change.
Juneteenth, a celebration of emancipation from slavery, was introduced to Oregon in 1945 by Kaiser Shipyard worker Clara Peoples, was recognized by the city of Portland in 1972, statewide in 2013, and federally in 2021.
