February recognizes Black History Month. If you’re looking for things to do or history to learn, we encourage you to support your local communities.

Events

Both Travel Portland and OregonLive have set up lists of Black History Month events around Portland. These include the PDX Jazz Festival, Trail Blazers Celebration of Black History, and the NW Black Comedy Festival. Read more at Travel Portland and OregonLive.

Art & Exhibits

Join the Portland Art Museum to view “APEX: Sharita Towne & A Black Art Ecology of Portland” or “Color Line: Black Excellence on the World Stage”.

History and Resources

The Faces of Black Oregon
“The moral of the story about being Black in Oregon is one of resiliency, of determination and of continuously salvaging hope by mixing sweet triumphs with bitter truths.” Re-visit this article from 2018 that documented a history of the black community in Oregon from The Oregonian writer, S. Renee Mitchell.

Oregon Historical Society: Racing to Change
The Historical Society’s online exhibit allows interested parties to explore the history of Racing to Change through a multitude of images, video, and news articles that supplement the exhibit. The exhibit itself allows the user to navigate around the floor, and see what it looked like when it was first set up in 2018.

Oregon Historical Society: Black Athletes
The following exhibits Black Athletes Disrupting White Supremacy in Oregon was first featured in 2014 by UO and OSU. The downloadable PDF is an educational snapshot that’s teacher and family friendly.