Despite existing for 160 years, Juneteenth is relatively new to Portland.
In fact, this year marks the 80th anniversary of Juneteenth being celebrated here in the city. That’s because, until 1945, many Black Oregon residents did not celebrate or acknowledge Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, Jubilee, or Juneteenth—the memorialization of June 19, 1865, the day when enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached Texas after the end of the American Civil War. What’s more, Juneteenth might not have become nearly as integral to Portland’s Black community were it not for a shipyard worker named Clara Peoples.
Peoples emigrated from Muskogee, Okla., to Vanport, Ore., in 1945 to work at the Kaiser shipyards. Upon settling into her new working community, she was surprised to learn that Juneteenth was neither known nor celebrated among Black Northwest residents. She swiftly introduced the holiday to her co-workers. Peoples not only initiated Portland’s first Juneteenth celebrations, she also helped establish the city’s annual Juneteenth celebration in 1972. She later worked alongside Oregon’s first Black state senator, Avel Gordly, successfully advocating to observe Juneteenth as a statewide holiday in 2001…