"Beatrice Morrow Cannady"

Was the most noted civil rights in early twentieth century Oregon.Using her position,as editor of the Advocate,Oregon's largest,and at times, the only,African American newspaper,Beatrice launched numerous efforts to defend the civil rights of the approximately 2,500 African Americans in the state (in 1930) and to challenge racial discrimination and in its varied forms.She was born in Litting,Texas.She reportedly graduated from Wiley College in Marshall Texas,in 1908,worked briefly as a teacher in Oklahoma,and then enrolled in the University of Chicago,where she studied music.In 1912,she left the city for Portland,Oregon,to marry Edward Daniel Cannady,the founder and editor of the advocate.Upon their marriage,Beatrice became assistant editor of the newspaper,beginning an affliation that would continue for the twenty-four years;Beatrice would become the editor and owner of the Advocate in 1930 after her divorce from Edward.In 1922,at the age of thirty-three,Beatrice became the first African American woman to graduate from Northwestern College of Law in Portland.She was one of only two women in a class of twenty-two.Two years after joining the Advocate, Beatrice became a founding member of the Portland NAACP.She quickly emerged as its most powerful voice when she directed the local protest against the controversial anti-black film, The Birth of a Nation.She and other community leaders carried on a fifteen-year campaigned to limit the showing of the film.In 1928,NAACP Executive Secretary James Weldon Johnson invited her to address the association's convention in Los Angeles.In her speech, which followed the keynote by W.E.B.DuBois,she said,"It is the duty of the Negro woman to see that in the home there are histories of her race written by Negro historians...The Negro mother has it within her power to invest less in overstuffed furniture...and more in books and music by and about the Negro race that our youth may grow with a pride of race which can never be had any other way."
Through the pages of the Advocate Beatrice confronted the racial discrimination routinely practiced by restaurants,hotels,and movie theaters,in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.She successfully challenged the exclusion of African American children from public schools in Longview,Washington,and Vernonia,Oregon,and kept her readers informed of Ku Klux Klan activity throughout the state.Beatrice also assumed the role of unofficial ambassador of racial goodwill,writing articles,giving lectures,and using the new medium of radio to promote African American history and racial equality.Maintaining a collection of over three hundred volumes on African American history and literature as well as a complete file of reading civil rights organization publications such as the NAACP'S Crisis magazine,Beatrice transformed her living room into a reading library about African Americans.In 1929,her efforts were recognized nationally when she was nominated for the Harmon Award in Race Relations,given by the Harmon Foundation in New York City.Her activism extended far beyond U.S.race relations issues.She served as a member of the Oregon Prison Association and Near East Relief Organization and used her affliation with the Oregeon Committee on the cause and cure of War to warn Oregonians about the dangers of war and militarism.She also joined the Pan African Congress and in 1927 represented Oregon at its national convention in New York City.In 1932,Beatrice ran unsuccessfully of state representative from District 5,
Multnomah County.Six years later she left Oregon-and public life-when she moved to Los Angeles.