Portland State Magazine Fall 2019

19 CHARLOTTE Rutherford, a former civil rights attorney with the NAACP Legal and Educa- tional Fund who donated a vast collection of her mother’s black memorabilia to the PSU Library, earned her certificate in the program in 1976. She says she took classes from the program—and continues to support it—through her desire to learn “about our history as black people both in Oregon and in the history of the U.S.” “The public school system then and probably now does little to teach race history and the true story of how black people (and other people of color) have contributed to and been treated in this country,” she says. “I always knew there had to be more information than I had been given in school but I had no idea so much information had been suppressed.” INITIALLY, PSU's program focused on the African American experience, based on what was happening around the country at the time. The few years before its founding saw marches on Wash- ington, D.C., and in the American South, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the assas- sinations of both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., the founding of the Black Panthers in 1966, numerous race-fueled riots in American cities, and the emer- gence of the Black Power movement. The program also had the mission of providing assistance and support to Portland’s black community. “At that time the majority of Port- land's black residents resided in an area known as Albina,” recalls Phil McLaurin, the first director of what was then called the Black Studies Center. “Black Studies offered courses to Albina-area residents at a PSU-funded facility known as Albina Presence, and was actively involved in all issues impacting the community residents.” The program survived its rocky start, and stabilized over time, although Millner says it was almost always struggling for money. PSU created a Black Studies mi- nor in the 1980s, which opened the way for more enrollment. It created a major in the 2000s. Its mission broadened to include cours- es on the black experience in Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. It added travel opportunities, and in December 2019 it will offer study in Cuba. There are plans to develop a study trip to New York City—probably the most diverse black population in the United States. The curriculum is multidisciplinary, covering history, sociology, cultural anthropology, literature, film and other fields. Although many believe that only black students take courses in Black Studies, Jackson says it’s really for everybody. In fact, she says, most of the students in Black Studies courses are white. “This is a degree that really helps students prepare for working with people in diverse communities, and not just the black com- munity,” she says. “It’s about learning to deal with differences and becoming culturally aware.” Rutherford says her interest in issues of race has been lifelong and started with her parents, who were active in the Civil Rights Move- ment. Black Studies at Portland State filled in the information gaps left by the meager offerings of her public school education. She says it propelled her into a degree that led to her career as a civil rights investigator and then attorney. “Portland State filled a personal role for me. I just needed more information about my people—a fuller history of this country.”  Darrell Millner gives a lecture during a Black Studies class in the 1970s.