PSU Magazine Fall 2000

minorities, and also like the national YWCA it did so through segregated clubs. The Portland organization sponsored clubs for native-born whites, African Americans, and Chinese and Japanese women. Segregation of services was the norm throughout the YWCA until 1946, when the national lead– ership passed an "interracial charter" encouraging the end of segregated pro– gramming and organization across the country. S tudent researchers found that Portland women in the 1940s were committed to the cause of eliminating racism, but the sentiment of the country often worked 14 PSU MAGAZINE FALL 2000 against them. The Williams Avenue Branch of the YWCA opened in 1926 to serve a predominantly African American community in northeast Portland. However, that facility was turned over to the United Service Organization (USO) for use by African American soldiers from 1942 to 1947. When the branch reopened after World War 11, its membership mix had to be interracial, as required by the national YWCA's new charter. PSU students discovered that a trust had been breached between the YWCA leadership and the African American community because of the loss of this facil– ity. It took decades before African American membership in the Portland YWCA returned to its pre-war numbers. AP ANE~E ~ooo For The Yaleda Club for Japanese women spon– sors a food booth at the YWCJ(s 1954 fair. Also during the war, the Portland YWCA included 100 Japanese-American women among its membership. A fearful U.S. gov– ernment sent Japanese-Americans to internment camps for the duration of the war. The YWCA made a mild protest for its members, but otherwise "supported" those interned at a nearby detention center and later at Camp Minodoka in Hunt, Idaho. "When powerful forces in the dominant society refused to recognize that Japanese– Americans were Americans, the YWCA remained supportive, but silent," wrote a student in her capstone paper. In later years the YWCA of Portland started programs that became national