The Persistence of Black Women at the Williams Avenue YWCA

Despite the Portland YWCA Board's lack of direction in determining what "interracial" work really meant, Black women persisted in the long struggle to end racism and discrimination by bringing unity among races. According to the city of Portland publication, "A History of Portland's African American Community," as early as 1906, Blacks voted and served as jurors, and Black and white children shared school classrooms together. They also sat side by side with whites in restaurants and theaters. ¹ As World War I brought demographic and industrial change, Jim Crow segregation took root in the city. The process of institutionalized discrimination became a reality for Portland's Black community. Blacks found themselves "shut out by the unions, who refused to admit the black worker to membership." ² Due to these conditions in Portland, on 13 November 1918, Mrs. C.A. Jenkins wrote a letter to the national YWCA in New York requesting instructions on how to organize a YWCA.

Within two years, a branch of the Portland YWCA was established in a portable structure on the comer of North Williams and Tillamook Streets. The Williams Avenue YWCA, managed by Black women, was much needed during this time to build up the Black community socially, spiritually, and emotionally by focusing on the needs of Black women in Portland. Five years later, on 13 June 1926, a new building on the same site opened, which was funded primarily by a gift of 12,000 dollars from Mrs. E. S. Collins, a white member on the board and chairman of the Committee of Color. According to the Portland Observer, a local Black-owned newspaper, the Williams YWCA offered discussions and celebrations on subjects of race relations.

The Black population of Portland remained small in the pre-war period: 1,931 people made up the recorded total in the 1940 census. ³ As is most other U.S. cities at the time, there was an unspoken rule in Portland that Blacks stay in their place and jobs were unavailable for them in industry or retail. During this time, the objective of the Black women of the Williams Avenue YWCA was to "develop race pride to the extent that a minority group will have confidence in itself and knowledge and appreciation according to its accomplishments. It was also a part of our policy to not have inter-racial meetings, but to include all racial groups as far as possible with a common interest." ⁴

Because of the labor shortages during World War II, over one million Blacks migrated out of the South. This population movement brought about a drastic change in Portland. Portland's Black population increased tenfold, from approximately 2,000 to 20,000 people. ⁵ In a city with "an almost Southern attitude toward Negroes," the settlement of Black workers in Portland did not go smoothly. ⁶ The war period saw a proliferation of "White Trade Only" signs, and housing was segregated. Unions barred Blacks, so, in November 1942, Black men and women workers formed the Shipyard Negro Organization for Victory to combat discrimination. ⁷

Black women found that their new, hard-working jobs in industry were not only segregated but that they were also the most dangerous and grueling ones that a factory had to offer. In airplane assembly plants, Black women stood in stifling "dope rooms" filled with the nauseating fumes of glue, while white women sat on stools in the well-ventilated sewing rooms. ⁸ In the shipyards, they also performed the dirtiest and most menial jobs. The stress of wartime made the existence of the Williams Avenue YWCA an important institution for Black women, enabling them to give social and spiritual support to themselves and their community.

Yet this work took a different direction during the war. The Williams Avenue YWCA Committee of Management was approached to rent their building to the United Service Organization (USO) for a...