You can join Oregon Black Pioneers in person or online at many events throughout Oregon for Black History Month. This list will be updated, check back!
Feb. 1
Oregon’s Black History: 450 Years in 45 Minutes
Oregon City Library – In-person and online SIGN UP HERE
Wednesday, February 1, 2023 – 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Oregon’s Black History: 450 Years in 45 Minutes, a presentation by The Oregon Black Pioneers. Public historian, interpreter, and the Executive Director of Oregon Black Pioneers, Zachary Stocks, will be highlighting the key individuals and events that characterize Oregon’s unique and centuries-old Black history.
Feb. 1
Displacing Black Portland: A History of Housing Discrimination
Lake Oswego Library – In-person and online MORE INFO HERE
Wednesday, February 1, 2023 – 7:00pm to 8:30pm
In honor of Black History Month, please join us in the library (or watch the presentation live on our YouTube channel), for a presentation by Zachary Stocks from Oregon’s Black Pioneers, about the history of housing discrimination in Portland.
Feb. 9
Buffalo Soldiers: Fighting on Two Fronts – Free Screening
Willamette University – In-person READ MORE HERE
Thursday, February 9, 2023 – 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
In recognition of Black History Month, a one-hour documentary film, Buffalo Soldiers: Fighting on Two Fronts, directed by Dru Holley of Vancouver, Washington, will be shown at Willamette University in Ford Theatre. Holley will be at the event to answer questions after the presentation along with Zachary Stocks of the Oregon Black Pioneers. Thanks to support from Xfinity and the Salem Art Association, the screening is free and open to the public.
Feb. 22
A Peculiar Paradise – Book Talk
Forest Grove Library – Online MORE INFO HERE
Wednesday, February 22, 2023 – 6:30PM – 7:30PM
An online conversation with Elizabeth McLagan, author of A Peculiar Paradise: A History of Blacks in Oregon, 1788-1940, which remains one of the most comprehensive chronologies of Black life in Oregon more than forty years after its original publication in 1980. The book has been an invaluable resource for those seeking information on the legal and social barriers faced by people of African descent in Oregon. McLagan’s work reveals how, in spite of those barriers, Black individuals and families made Oregon their home, and helped create the state’s modern Black communities.
Feb. 25
Oregon’s Black History
Happy Valley Library – In Person READ MORE HERE
Saturday, February 25, 2023 – 2:00pm – 3:15pm
People of African descent have lived and worked in Oregon since before the founding of the earliest English-speaking settlements in the Americas. Despite this, the popular narrative of our state’s history excludes the experiences of African Americans before the mid 20th century. This erasure is the result of historic legal and social marginalization that contribute to the ignorance of Oregon’s Black heritage, as well as influence contemporary disparities in housing access, community investment, and policing. Zachary Stocks of Oregon Black Pioneers will attempt to correct the record by highlighting key individuals and events that characterize Oregon’s unique and centuries-old Black history.
Feb. 28
Fort George Benefit Night
Fort George Brewery + Public House, Astoria
Tuesday, February 28 – All day MENU HERE
Hungry in Astoria? Eat for OBP! Wrap up Black History Month with a great meal and some fine beer and 10% of the entire day’s dine-in and to-go sales will go to Oregon Black Pioneers!
Help preserve Oregon’s Black history by supporting OBP this Black History Month! Our goal is $100 a day for February, please consider making a donation today!