[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 3793]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   CELBRATING OREGON'S BLACK HISTORY

  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, each Congress I rise to honor February as 
Black History Month. Each February since 1926, our Nation has 
recognized the contributions of Black Americans to the history of our 
Nation.
  This is no accident; February is a significant month in Black 
American history. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass, President Abraham 
Lincoln, and scholar and civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois were born in 
the month of February. The 15th amendment to the Constitution was 
ratified 136 years ago this month, preventing race discrimination in 
the right to vote. The National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People was founded in February in New York City. And on 
February 25, 1870, this body welcomed its first Black Senator, Hiram R. 
Revels of Mississippi.
  In this important month I want to celebrate some of the contributions 
made by Black Americans in my home State of Oregon. Since Marcus Lopez, 
who sailed with Captain Robert Gray in 1788, became the first person of 
African descent known to set foot in Oregon, a great many Black 
Americans have helped shape the history of my State. Throughout this 
month, I will come to the floor to highlight some of their stories.
  Reverend Jesse James ``J.J.'' Clow was a beloved minister and a 
prominent figure in the struggle for civil rights in Portland, OR. In 
1936, Reverend Clow began a service of ministry at Portland's Mount 
Olivet Baptist Church. Mount Olivet was the first African-American 
baptist church in the State of Oregon and during the 1940s and 1950s 
was also the largest Black church in the State. It was from this 
vantage point that Clow lived and preached a social gospel that 
contributed to the civil rights battles of Portland's WWII challenges 
and continued through the turbulent 60s.
  Clow was born in Hufsmith, TX, 1 of 15 children. Clow finished high 
school at Tuskegee Institute and received his B.A. from Virginia Union 
University. His first pulpit was in Virginia, a second in Georgia, 
before arriving in Portland. His experiences growing up in the South 
helped prepare him for a lifetime of activism for justice and civil 
rights.
  During the World War II years, Clow served as president of the local 
chapter of the NAACP. He was also deeply involved in the establishment 
of a Portland office of the Urban League. Along with these national 
organizations, Clow and other Portland area Black leaders worked 
tirelessly to improve housing and employment opportunities for African 
Americans. These efforts were largely responsible for ridding the city 
of many traditional economic and social segregation policies, including 
Oregon's first civil rights ordinance in 1953.
  Upon his retirement from Mount Olivet in 1963, Reverend Clow spoke 
warmly of the progress he had witnessed during his lifetime. He 
continued to believe that Christianity must be interpreted in terms of 
how men behave towards one another and not just to comfort them. Until 
his death, Clow encouraged the community of Portland to more fully 
embrace democratic ideals in its social, political, and economic 
sectors.
  Reverend Clow is only one example of the Black men and women who 
changed the course of history in Oregon and in the United States. 
During the remainder of Black History Month, I will return to the floor 
to celebrate more Oregonians like Rev. J.J. Clow, whose contributions, 
while great, have not yet received the attention they deserve.

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