PORTLAND — Sam Kubishta of Griswold High School and McKenzie Rose of the Echo School District recently competed in the National History Day 2021 Virtual Documentary Showcase. They were among
Pioneering Black journalist Beatrice Morrow Cannady took on Oregon’s Ku Klux Klan, challenged official hypocrisy
Updated Feb 19, 2021;
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Beatrice Morrow Cannady’s profile is on the rise again in her adopted state.
A Northeast Portland affordable-housing complex called The Beatrice Morrow opened in 2018. The following year, Beatrice Morrow Cannady Elementary School in Happy Valley began classes. A Portland city park soon might be known as Cannady Park.
Such recognition, Oregon civic leaders increasingly recognize, was overdue.
Cannady, who died in 1974 at age 84, was one of the most impactful and controversial Black activists in 20th century Portland, but the passage of time allowed her name to slip from collective memory.
Though often omitted from history books, African American people had feet on the ground side by side with early explorers of the Oregon Territory from Markus Lopius, a servant on the
Lady Washington in 1788 with Robert Gray, to York, a slave on the Lewis and Clark expedition, to Moses Harris, a free black mountain man and legend in the fur trade and later a sought-after wagon train guide. There s also James Douglas, chief factor at Fort Vancouver in the 1840s and concurrent governor on Vancouver Island and British Columbia. Somewhat simultaneous with Douglas rise to political power, legislated race restrictions known as Exclusion Laws were set for Oregon Trail immigration. Racial limitations also applied with the Oregon Donation Land Law in 1850. These federally enforced restrictions, present at the inception of Oregon, created major undeniable barriers. Bearing these inequities in mind, we ve set aside some ink this week to look at some of Oregon s modern a
Portland s Wilson High will be renamed after a Black woman who made history
The school s new name will be chosen out of five candidates. The community has until Jan. 1 to give feedback on a name before the final decision is made. Author: David Mann (KGW) Updated: 12:07 PM PST December 16, 2020
PORTLAND, Ore Wilson High School in Southwest Portland will be renamed after a Black woman who made a historical impact on society.
The board of Portland Public Schools (PPS) decided to change the school s name in July in response to the racial justice movement that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.