Black History Month

BLACK HISTORY MONTH -- (Senate - February 15, 2007)

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DENORVAL UNTHANK

Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, each Congress I rise to honor February as Black History Month. Each February since 1926, our Nation has recognized the contributions of Black Americans to the history of our Nation.

This is no accident; February is a significant month in Black American history. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass, President Abraham Lincoln, and scholar and civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois were born in the month of February. The 15th amendment to the Constitution was ratified 136 years ago this month, preventing race discrimination in the right to vote. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in February in New York City. And on February 25, 1870, this body welcomed its first Black Senator, Hiram R. Revels of Mississippi.

In this important month I want to celebrate some of the contributions made by Black Americans in my home State of Oregon. Since Marcus Lopez, who sailed with Captain Robert Gray in 1788, became the first person of African descent known to set foot in Oregon, a great many Black Americans have helped shape the history of my State. This is the second time this month I have come to the floor to highlight some of their stories.

Dr. DeNorval Unthank arrived in the Portland, OR, after completing medical school at Howard University in Washington, DC. Dr. Unthank was recruited to Portland in 1929 because the city needed a Black doctor. He was quickly tested as his White neighbors greeted his first attempt to move into a previously all White residential area with broken windows, threatening phone calls, and general harassment. Dr. Unthank had to move his family four times before finding a peaceful place to settle down.

Throughout the 1930s, Dr. Unthank was Portland's only Black medical practitioner. He was a dedicated doctor and a friend to any minority group in the city. Black families could not receive treatment in hospitals at that time and house calls were necessary. Dr. Unthank made himself available day and night and served African Americans, Asians, as well as many Whites.

Dr. Unthank was politically active and was outspoken in his support of civil rights and equal opportunity. In 1940, Dr. Unthank was elected head of the Advisory Council, an organization that hoped to pressure local leaders into providing equal access to economic opportunities related to WWII jobs. The Council documented incidents of discrimination in the workplace around Portland.

During and after World War II, Dr. Unthank worked tirelessly to build his medical practice and promote civil rights. He became the first Black member of Portland's City Club in 1943. He encouraged the club to publish a significant 1945 study called ``The Negro in Portland,' which opened the eyes of many citizens to ongoing discriminatory practices. Dr. Unthank also served as president of the local chapter of the NAACP and was a cofounder of the Portland Urban League. He played a strong role in the passing of Oregon's 1953 civil rights bill, which among many issues, overturned a law banning interracial marriages in the State.

In 1958, the Oregon Medical Society named him Doctor of the Year. In recognition of his service to civil rights, grateful citizens pressed the city to dedicate DeNorval Unthank Park in North Portland in his honor in 1969. Dr. Unthank once said, ``A Negro may have a few more doors closed to him and he may find them a little harder to open, but he can open them. He must keep trying.'

Dr. Unthank is only one example of the Black men and women who changed the course of history in Oregon and in the United States. During the remainder of Black History Month, I will return to the floor to celebrate more Oregonians like Dr. DeNorval Unthank, whose contributions, while great, have not yet received the attention they deserve.

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