New Acquisition: NAACP Portland Branch records

An exciting new acquisition was recently received in Special Collections and University Archives. This addition to the NAACP Portland Branch Records, measuring twenty linear feet of material, expands on the current collection and will enrich the core collection in both depth and scope. Included in the collection are correspondence, memoranda, reports, meeting agenda and minutes, legal documents, and photographs. These materials will support research on the NAACP itself as well as African American history and culture in Portland and Oregon.

Founded on February 12, 1909 by W.E.B. Du Bois and others, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) works to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination. Portland’s N.A.A.C.P. branch #1120 was originally founded in 1914 with Dr. J.N. Merriman as its first president and Beatrice Morrow Cannady, editor of African American newspaper The Advocate, as its first secretary. The organization successfully fought to repeal Oregon’s exclusion laws, which were abolished in 1926 and 1927; established African Americans in unions; and opposed civic housing policies that excluded African Americans. The Portland NAACP Branch is the oldest continuously chartered branch west of the Mississippi. Its mission is to ensure the political, education, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and discrimination.

-Linda Long, Curator of Manuscripts