The Vancouver African American History Project, 2000-2001
Students Discovering History

The students in the Vancouver African American History Project spent the first part of the project doing assigned background reading, attending workshops and listening to speakers, and visiting archives. In the second part of the project, they returned to the archives to research their particular topics, and conducted oral history interviews with community members. Below are the assigned readings and workshop topics and presenters. For more information, please contact Andrea Reidell, Project Director.

The students read selections from the following sources:

Kesselman, Amy. Fleeting Opportunities: Women Shipyard Workers in Portland and Vancouver During World War II and Reconversion Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990.

McLagan, Elizabeth. A Peculiar Paradise: a History of Blacks in Oregon, 1788-1940. Portland: The Georgian Press, 1980.

Maben, Manly. Vanport. Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1987.

Taylor, Quintard. In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528-1990. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1998.

Taylor, Quintard. The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle's Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.

Workshop Topics and Presenters
Conducting Historical Research - presented by Dr. William Lang, History Department, Portland State University and the Center for Columbia River History and Dr. Laurie Mercier, History Department, Washington State University Vancouver and the Center for Columbia River History

The History of African Americans in the West - presented by Dr. Darrell Millner, Black Studies Department, Portland State University

Conducting Oral Histories - presented by Dr. Katrine Barber, History Department, Portland State University and the Center for Columbia River History and Donna Sinclair, the Center for Columbia River History

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Black History in Vancouver During and After World War II - presented by Val Joshua, Clark County NAACP and Project Advisory Board Member

Combining History and Performance - presented by Heidi Sandburg, student, Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, and participant in the 1998-99 History as Art CCRH/VSAA pilot program.

Vanport Project - presented by Dolly England, student, Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, and Project Advisory Board Member

The Vancouver National Historic Reserve and African American History - presented by Lois Mack, Education Director for the Vancouver National Historic Reserve Trust

The students and project coordinators also visited the Clark County Historical Museum, where Curator Pat Jollata presented an overview of African American history in Vancouver as represented in the museum's collection, and the Southwest Washington Regional Archives, where Regional Archivists Wayne Lawson and Lanny Weaver presented an overview of their collection. The students and coordinators did additional research at the Oregon Historical Society, Multnomah County Library, Portland State University Library, Vancouver Community Library and the Vancouver National Historic Reserve Trust archives.

Oral histories were conducted with Fanny Chatman, Florine Dufresne, Jean Griffin, Val Joshua, and Williard Nettles, Jr.