Pacific Northwest Resources

Church of the People, Records, 1934-1956. Seattle. Founded by Fred W. Shorter, this holding in UW Special Collections contains correspondence, newsletters, clippings and other records, including information about the Seattle NAACP and demographic information about African Americans in Seattle and the State of Washington.

Black United Fund of Oregon
http://www.bufor.org/about.htm
A philanthropic and community development organization, BUFO is committed to social and cultural empowerment of low income groups. It was founded in 1983.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Papers, pt. 1. Western regional office, 1962-1965.
Located in San Francisco, the Western regional CORE office coordinated the activities of chapters up and down the West Coast (totaling about 40 local offices in the US and 2 in Canada). Although the California chapters are best represented here, the printed guide lists materials from Oregon chapters and specific files on integration in Seattle. On microfilm.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Eugene/Springfield Branch
http://www.efn.org/~naacp
Ethnically diverse, this branch is the largest NAACP chapter in Oregon.

Negro Citizens and Taxpayers League (Portland)

The Papers of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
One of the largest archival holdings in the UW Libraries collections, this commercially microfilmed collection provides an intimate view of the inner workings of the NAACP itself and a comprehensive perspective of the role the organization played across the nation for most of the 20th century. Beginning in 1909, the NAACP grew to become a major player in the national battle for civil rights. Many files relate to activities in Washington State, Oregon and Idaho, and include newspaper clippings, statistics and other material, as well as documents relating to the NAACP itself. This collection is one of the few archives that has been fully cataloged and is searchable down to the item level through online library catalogs. It is still growing, currently exceeding 1,700 reels of microfilm, containing thousands of individual documents.
Online description at http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/2upa/Aaas/PapersNAACP.asp

Seattle Urban League Records, 1936-1981. This archival collection includes correspondence, minutes, financial records, case files, etc. Other primary source materials relating to the Seattle Urban League include:
Annual Report of the Seattle Urban League, 1947-1955; 1957-1964; 1968-1971/72; 1984/85;
Forward (1952-1957), the magazine of the Seattle Urban League;
Seattle Urban League News (1960-1972; Feb.1975)

United Construction Workers Association
See <A HREf="papers.html">Personal Papers, Tyree Scott Papers</A>
Urban League of Portland. Much information published by the League is held at the University of Oregon, going back at least to 1945.

Urban League of Portland
The League was especially active in the 1940's through the 1970's, reviving again in the 1990's. It has published a number of reports and serials:
Annual Report, 1945-1949, 1954, 1958
Interracial Progress, 1952-1957
[miscellaneous publications, 1961]
[newsletters and other misc. materials, 1945-1958]
On the Road to Equality: The Urban League of Portland; a Fifty Year Perspective, 1945-1995, by Darrell Millner for the Urban League, 1995.
Urban League View, 1991-1998[?].

Victoria Black People's Society. Blacks in British Columbia: a Catalogue of Information and Sources of Information Pertaining to Blacks in British Columbia. Victoria, BC: The Society, 1978.

National Resources

Black Women in America; an Historical Encyclopedia. New York: Carlson Publishing, Inc., 1993. 2 vol.

Organizing Black America; an Encyclopedia of African American Associations. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 2001.
While lacking a geographic index per se, this reference source can be used to identify organizations in particular cities. Use the general index, pp. 728-768, and look up known organizations; subheadings under large organizations break down by location, i.e.:
Young Women's Christian Association
in Seattle
Also, some entries occur under the name of the city. The entry entitled
"Seattle: Civic, Literary and Mutual Aid Associations" is actually a brief essay on specific organizations.

Notable Black American Women, ed. Jessie Carney Smith. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1992. 2 vol.