The Oregon Northwest Black Pioneers is an all volunteer nonprofit organization based in Salem, Oregon. It was founded in 1993 and incorporated in 1994 to do research and educate Oregonians about African-Americans’ contributions to Oregon’s history. Within the next few years, the organization developed a small resource booklet and study guide on Oregon’s black history and distributed it through the Salem-Keizer School District and Marion County Historical Society. Its original plan was to continue expanding on its research and telling the stories of these pioneers through presentations, exhibits, and books and to partner with school districts and historical organizations to distribute this information statewide.

As an organization, Oregon Northwest Black Pioneers also began fundraising events to provide college scholarships for graduating high school seniors of African-American heritage.

Because of a lack of sustained leadership, the organization was inactive from 1996 to 2004; new leadership then emerged to continue its programs, including research and exhibits, scholarships, and youth development. The organization is now governed by an active volunteer board of directors that works with community volunteers and confers with academic consultants and historical organizations to do research, compile historical information, and present its findings through oral presentations and exhibits and in written form. The board welcomes people of all races in fulfilling its mission, and there is a board-approved nondiscrimination policy in place. People of a variety of races have served on the board and committees, and one of the goals of our strategic plan is to increase the board’s size and range of expertise.

Well-known black history expert Dr. Darrell Milner, professor of African-American history at Portland State University, serves as primary academic consultant. In addition, the organization has renewed a relationship with the Marion County Historical Society and has been collaborating with this group as well as the Polk County Historical Society in doing research, preparing presentations, publishing findings, and developing exhibits.

Since 2004, the Oregon Northwest Black Pioneers has continued its research and created presentations, displays, and exhibits on Oregon black history for an array of secondary schools, colleges, civic clubs, and historical societies. Examples include age-appropriate presentations at several elementary schools in the Salem-Keizer School District, an exhibit at West Salem High School, and lectures at the college level at Chemeketa Community College and Linfield College. In addition, we have given Oregon black history presentations at several local Rotary Clubs, including one in Oregon City. As a result of such outreach, local historical societies have requested speakers, and we have provided presentations both locally and as far away as Yamhill County. Just this week we were contacted with such a request by the Washington County Historical Society. This high level of interest on the part of important historical groups attests to the credibility of the work the organization is doing and Oregon historians’ desire to add this long-overlooked history of the state to their knowledge base.

A highlight of our work with one such group (the Friends of the Pioneer Cemetery) led to our discovery that there are more than forty black pioneers buried at the Pioneer Cemetery in Salem (both in marked and unmarked graves). In 2007, the Oregon Northwest Black Pioneers presented the City of Salem with a stone marker for the cemetery to honor the memory of those pioneers. This gift to the city was accepted by Mayor Janet Taylor at a well-attended ceremony that kicked off an exhibit called “Salem’s Black Voices,” which told the stories of many of those pioneers.

For the last few years, the organization has partnered with the Salem Multicultural Institute in its Lecture/Presentation Series to present annual exhibits and lectures during National Black History Month at the Reed Opera House in Salem. In addition, it has presented exhibits at a variety of venues, including an educational booth at the World Beat Festival in Salem each year and exhibits at the Heritage Museum in Independence, the Salem Public Library, and the Sheep and Shawl Day at Mission Mill Museum.

The organization continues to hold annual fundraising events highlighting various aspects of black history and culture. These have included performances of notable works such as a one-woman presentation by award-winning author Velma Maia Thomas, who wrote No Man Can Hinder Me, and theatrical performances based on the book Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats. These fundraisers, taking place at the Historic Elsinore Theater and Willamette University, have been very well received by the community. They have enabled the organization to fund over $25,000 in college scholarships for graduating high school seniors of African-American heritage and have contributed to the organization’s ongoing expenses.

This year the Oregon Northwest Black Pioneers has adopted a two-year strategic plan to guide its near-term priorities, and it is working to complete a business plan that will assure its sustainability over time. We are proud that we are able to continue the work of researching, documenting, and presenting this “lost history,” and we look forward to being able to publish our first book of Oregon black history with a focus on Marion and Polk County. As our founders envisioned, we plan to move forward from there, expanding our work to include all Oregon counties and bringing attention and honor to all of Oregon’s black pioneers.  Sign up to receive email updates