Beatrice Morrow Cannady (1889-1974) was a trailblazing civil rights activist, journalist, newspaper editor, and attorney in early 20th century Oregon.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today’s Local Legend was a trailblazing civil rights activist, journalist, newspaper editor, and attorney in early 20th century Oregon. After moving to Portland as a young adult, she spent decades working to defend, advocate for, and empower the Black community in her adopted city and state. Let’s talk about Beatrice Morrow Cannady.
Beatrice Morrow was born in 1889 in Littig, Texas. Not much is known about her family or early life, but the little we do know suggests that she was a very bright and ambitious child.
Beatrice went to school near Austin, and then attended Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. She graduated in 1908 and subsequently spent a short time working as a teacher in Oklahoma and Louisiana. She soon left her fledgling teaching career behind after gaining admission to the prestigious University of Chicago to study music.
In 1912, Beatrice moved once again, this time to Portland, Oregon, in order to marry and live with Edward Cannady, a civil rights activist, newspaper editor, and hotel worker.
Soon after her marriage, Beatrice began working at the weekly newspaper her husband co-founded and edited. The Advocate was the largest African American newspaper in the state of Oregon, with a circulation of about 3,000. Beatrice was clearly a vital addition to the paper. She held nearly every job, including: associate editor, business manager, linotype editor, op-ed writer, and journalist. She continued her work at The Advocate for 24 years, eventually taking over as owner and editor in 1930.
Working for the paper made Beatrice a central figure in Portland’s small but vibrant Black community. It also made her especially aware of the racism and discrimination her community faced on a regular basis. For Beatrice, this awareness became a catalyst for activism. In 1914, she helped found the Portland chapter of the NAACP.
The next year, Beatrice emerged as the Black community’s most powerful voice in organized protests against the highly racist film “The Birth Of A Nation.” This very popular film indulged in the most egregious racist tropes, and played a major role in glorifying and galvanizing the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan. The film was so pervasive, that Beatrice and other community leaders would continue their campaign to limit showings of the incendiary film for 15 years.
Beatrice expanded her activism and advocacy into as many realms of persuasion as she could. She used her position at the Advocate to write scathing columns about the racism and discrimination Black people faced in Oregon. Her focus was on the everyday discrimination experienced in theaters, restaurants, hotels, housing and places of employment across the state. She also kept Black readers closely informed of local Ku Klux Klan activity.
At the same time, Beatrice started giving lectures, writing articles, and even going on the radio to promote and discuss her own vision of racial harmony and equality. To this end, she hosted regular interracial tea parties in her Portland home, often with over 200 guests, to try and bring different parts of the larger community together.
Beatrice believed that it was vital to popularize African American history and culture, particularly as written by Black historians and authors. She spoke to its importance for the enrichment of the Black community and for the realization of her vision of racial equity and understanding.
Beatrice built a collection of over 300 volumes of African American history and literature, and a complete catalogue of publications from civil rights organizations. She made her collection available to the Portland community. It was so popular that Beatrice eventually turned her living room into a lending library and reading room.
In order to expand her activism even further, Beatrice decided that she needed to fully understand law. In 1922, she became the first Black woman attorney practicing in Oregon. She graduated from Portland's Northwestern School of Law.
Beatrice used her new status to lobby for the passage of basic Civil Rights legislation in Oregon. Unfortunately, she was unsuccessful. She then began advocating for the repeal of a provision in the 1857 Oregon Constitution that forbid Black people, people of mixed race, and people of Chinese heritage from voting in the state. This time, Beatrice was successful. In 1926, Oregon voters agreed to repeal the provision. 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.
Over the years, Beatrice’s activism extended beyond issues of race relations. She was a member of the Oregon Prison Association and an advocate for prison reform, she was an advocate for orphans in Armenia and Syria as a member of Oregon’s Near East Relief Organization, and took part in anti-war and anti-militarism activism as a member of the Oregon Committee on the Case and Cure of War. In 1927, Beatrice was chosen to represent Oregon at the Pan African Congress in New York City. Five years later, she became the first African American to run for elected office in Oregon. She lost in the primary for an Oregon House seat, though she received more votes than expected.
In 1938, Beatrice moved to Los Angeles and out of the public eye. She lived there until her death on August 19, 1974.
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Talk to you tomorrow!