About Us

oldest and strongest Civil Rights organization in the United States and the world.

The Vancouver Branch is a charter organization, one of the more than 1800 Branches which are required cooperatively with the National Office, the Regional Office, and the State Conference of Branches.

We are 57 years old. Our story is similar to that of many of our sister branches. Before World War II Vancouver's Black population stood at one. During the war many people found it necessary to leave their homes and in other areas of our country. Washington State became home for many of us. Vancouver became a City with many Blacks seeking upward mobility.

In 1945 not a single Black family resided in a Federal Public Housing Unit, a small percentage in individual demountables were housed in semi-segregated areas. In September of 1945 a special committee on housing for the Vancouver Civil Unity League, including officers of the NAACP met with the directors of the Vancouver Housing Authority regarding the partially segregated status of the Black tenants.

The discussion dealt with racial segregation, its actuality; its legality and its evils. Suggestions made at this meeting led to new housing policies which changed the pattern. Blacks were moved into permanent housing and demountables in every area of the community.

A post war census taken by the Vancouver Branch between April 15, 1946 and May 1, 1946 showed that 77% of Black family heads were unemployed despite the fact that 55% had some Union affiliation and the average male Black worker had 7.2 years of experience in some specific field of work. The NAACP Labor and Industry Committee, with the assistance of Noah Griffin, NAACP Regional Director and the Portland Urban League visited management and labor union leaders.

With the enactment of the Fair Employment Practices Commission in Washington and Oregon through the combined efforts of NAACP and other civic minded organizations and individuals, a greater number of jobs were opened to Black people. Many of us have jobs today because of the efforts put forth in their behalf.

Since its inception, the Branch has continued its efforts in education, employment and needs of the community. Wherever there is a need among our constituency we are there. This journey would not be complete unless we shared some of our dreams and goals. We here dreamed of a society free of the prejudices that most of us experienced during our childhood and adulthood; a world where the American dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness will be the accepted rather than exceptional.

Our goals are:

1. Elimination of racism wherever it exists.
2. A society where our children and grandchildren and any succeeding generation will be able to live their lives more abundantly.
3. To secure a free ballot for every qualified citizen
4. To seek justice in the courts
5. To secure equal job opportunities based upon merit.
6. To end mob violence and police brutality.

I am what I am because...They were what They were!!

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The Founding Mothers of
The Vancouver Branch NAACP
Earl W Ford, Branch President
April 2004

Bertha Baugh moved to Vancouver in 1945. She and her husband David, a native of Decatur, AL came to visit his two brothers who were working in the Portland shipyard. Mr. and Mrs. Baugh were married in 1943. She is a graduate of Alabama A&M, Huntsville, AL with a degree in Home Economics & Elementary Ed.

"I taught school in Athens, AL, 1st and 2nd grades and in several rural areas as a 5th and 6th grade school teacher." In fact her husband David came to Portland without her because she had to complete the school year. In Portland she taught first and second for 23 years, retiring in January 1979.

Mr. Baugh worked in Portland at the Multnomah athletic club for several years. He also worked at the Post Office in Vancouver briefly before landing a job in Camas with the Crown Zellerbach Paper mill. At Crown Zellerbach he worked in the lab doing schematic drawings, retiring 1980.

They joined the Branch in 1945 during its reorganization with Mark Smith as President. Mrs. Baugh served as Branch Secretary, Education Chair, several special committees, and as a Co-President in the 1970s for two years. She has served on the Executive Committee since joining in 1945.

Mr. Baugh was the second President of the Branch and served for over six years.

Clara Cain (died December 15, 2005, on her 92nd birthday) moved to Vancouver in July 1955 following the separation from husband whom she married in 1938. I came from Athens, Alabama to visit my sister Bertha and Husband David and stayed 7 years. She got a job in Portland and worked at a luggage shop for $1.25/hour for two to three years. She later went to Meier and Frank and worked in the beauty shop doing stock inventory.

But because she lived in Vancouver, she started to look for work near her home. She got a job at the VA hospital working with diets in 1960 or 1961. "I made salads, served meals, worked with people to develop diet plans. It was a good job and I did whatever I could to make things run right. I worked there until 1981 when I retired with 20 years of service."

"I Joined the NAACP a few years after I moved here." She did not hold any offices but worked on call list for years with Willa Mae. They would call members and let them know about meeting times and location. "I was not a leader, but I was always a helper. "Her most memorable NAACP events were trips to National Conventions. She went to every annual convention until my health would not allow me to travel. I believe my last convention was 1990 in Los Angeles. I heard Reverend Jessie Jackson speak I also heard Dick Gregory in Kansas City or Texas.

Val Joshua moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1943 with her husband Joseph. His parents and other family members were living and working in the Portland shipyards. Joseph worked as a dining car waiter with Union Pacific railroad for over 30 years. They were both graduates of Bishop College, Marshall TX. Mrs. Joshua graduated with a degree in English and Literature and Joseph had a degree in science. She earned a Masters Degree in Deaf Education from Lewis Clark. She taught school at the Washington School for the Deaf for 33 years.

A founding member of the Vancouver Branch, she served in various capacities and became branch president in 1970. She served for 29 years as branch president and was named President Emeritus in February 15, 2003. Mrs. Joshua says her life mission is Elimination of racism in all of its forms wherever it exists. Her most memorable achievement with the NAACP was the prevention of segregated public housing in Vancouver.

She and Joseph raised six children in Vancouver. Her daughter Jackie is Assistant Sheriff for Clark County, the highest ranking Black Women in Law Enforcement in Clark County.

Willie Mae Johnigan (Died December 29, 2006, she was over 90 years old) and her husband Perry came to Portland about 1943. They lived and were married in Belzonia, MS about three years before moving to the northwest. Her husband was a cement finisher and had joined the union in Belzonia under Roosevelt administration. He was one of the first Blacks to hold a union card. It cost him $50.15, which was a lot of money. "We came out here to get a better job and better pay in the Portland Shipyard. But, there were no jobs for cement finishers so he joined the painters union and was a lifetime member." They had one child, a daughter who lives in Vancouver.

"I worked in the shipyard as a scalar, scraping the tank hulls of big ships. They would lower a group of about twenty five women down into the bottom of the ships and we would work down there all day. I got my job near the end of the war. It did not last very long, before the company starting laying the women off so the jobs could go to the soldiers that were returning home. Then I did domestic works for the Sparks family for over twenty years."

Around 1943 or 44 they joined the NAACP. Mrs. Johnigan worked on the Entertainment committee for 17 years. Her committee organized dinners and parties as fundraisers and membership drives. Later she served on the phone committee with Clara Cain. Her most memorable times were planning Dinner Programs and listening to the speakers.

And a Founding Father too!

Joseph Harrison: Born 1919, in Jerusalem, AL, Joseph Harrison affectionately known to us as "Mr. Joe" went to Vocational School in Birmingham Al 1943-44. Upon graduation he had an opportunity to move to Mobile, Gulfport or New York and he choose to come to Portland because of the good jobs that were being offered by Kaiser in the shipyard of Oregon. Mr. Joe has held a number of jobs working in the Portland ship yard, in the timber industry as a logger and finally joining the Washington State Department of Transportation as a gardener 1952, retiring in 1982 after 29 years.