COLUMN: Black History Month in Salem and beyond

Black History Month was originally established by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. This association was established on Sept. 9, 1915, by Carter G. Woodson. 

Woodson was born in 1875 to parents who were former slaves. As a young boy he worked in the coal mines in West Virginia to help support his family. He was not able to enter high school until he was 20, but earned his diploma in less than two years and went on to earn a degree in literature from Berea College in Kentucky, then a Master’s degree from University of Chicago.

He became the second black man to earn a Ph.D. in History from Harvard University, graduating in 1912. He joined the faculty of Howard University and soon became the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. 

Unfortunately, Woodson was barred from attending American Historical Association conferences despite being a dues paying member, so he founded his association.

Woodson became an author, focusing on documenting Black history and wrote many books, include: “A Century of Negro Migration” (1918), “The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861” (1919) and “The Negro in our History” (1922).  

In 1926, Woodson launched Negro History Week in the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In 1975, President Gerald Ford issued a “Message on the Observance of Black History Week,” urging all Americans to recognize the important contribution made to our nation’s life and culture by Black citizens. Then in 1976, the ASALH expanded their commemoration from a weeklong celebration to a monthlong one. 

Subsequent presidents issued the same messages every year until 1986, when Congress passed Public Law 99-244 which designated February 1986 as “National Black History Month.” The law further directed the president to issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe February as Black History month with the appropriate ceremonies and activities.  

In February 1996, the Senate passed Senate Resolution 229 commemorating Black History Month and the contributions of Black American U.S. senators.

The ASALH establishes a theme for Black History Month every year. This year’s theme is African Americans and Labor. 

A National Register nomination about Black historic resources in Oregon provides a history of Black Oregonians, including Black Oregon pioneers. 

Rachel Belden was one of the first Black pioneers to live in Oregon and the first known Black woman to do so. In the mid 19th century in Oregon, her experience provides a prime example of the contradictions, injustices, indignities, and possibilities for economic success for Black Oregonians. 

Born into slavery in Tennessee in 1829, Rachel Belden became the property of Daniel Delaney, Sr. in 1842. Prior to his migration west, Delaney sold his plantation in Tennessee and his enslaved people there. He enslaved Belden to care for his ailing wife, Elizabeth. 

The Delaneys established a home and farm in the Willamette Valley in 1845 south of Salem. Known as the Delaney-Edwards House, it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. While living there, Belden continued to take care of the ailing Mrs. Delaney, while also running the household and tending the garden. 

Belden lived in this arrangement despite the passage of the 1843 Organic Law, which prohibited slaves in Oregon. However, the law was rarely enforced (with only one Black Oregonian ever being forcibly removed), so there was no effect on the Delaneys or Rachel Belden upon their arrival in the state, nor during the 23 years she was enslaved to the Delaneys in Oregon. 

After Elizabeth died, Belden was freed from the Delaney household, and in 1863 she married Nathan Brooks. In 1865, Daniel Delaney Sr. was shot and killed. In 1866, Belden brought a civil suit in Salem for compensation from the deceased Daniel Delaney Sr.’s estate. She sought $10,333.30 for payment for the services she and her son Noah were forced to provide the Delaney family for the 27 years and ten months she was enslaved to the family. 

She won the suit but was only awarded $1,000. The presiding judge deemed the housing and feeding of Belden and her child as nearly sufficient compensation for their labor. 

In 1874, after Rachel’s husband Nathan died, she owned and managed their 144 acre homestead on the west side of the Willamette River. Belden died in 1910, and is buried in City View Cemetery next to her son Noah.

If you want to learn, more the Philomath City Council will be hosting Zachary Stocks of the  Oregon Black Pioneers who will be giving a presentation about Black Women of the Willamette Valley on Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 6 p.m. To learn more please visit their website at oregonblackpioneers.org. To learn more about Black History Month and to visit online exhibits like the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Searchable Museum, visit blackhistorymonth.gov.

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