Ванкуверская организация NAACP продолжает борьбу за справедливое жилье спустя десятилетия после расчистки военных кварталов

Early members of the Vancouver NAACP chapter gather in 1945. At lower left is Mark A. Smith, a World War II veteran who served as an enlisted radarman with the 99th Pursuit Squadron of the Tuskegee Airmen. Next to him is Perry Johnigen. Seated behind them are Ozella McKinney, Bertha Baugh, Thelma Campbell and Henrie Lee Smith. (Contributed by the Clark County Historical Museum) For many, escaping the racism of the South did not mean escaping discrimination. “Racism just looked a little different. … It was a new incarnation of what they were experiencing in their home states,” historian Melissa Williams said during a May 2025 presentation in Vancouver. In 1945, residents of the housing projects helped establish Vancouver’s NAACP branch, with Mark Smith, a Kaiser Shipyards worker, as its first president. The new chapter challenged the removal of wartime housing, where a lot of Black workers had made communities, according to Washington’s Racial Restrictive Covenants Project. Members appealed to local officials and the public through letters to The Columbian and other local newspapers. Smith eventually was appointed as an adviser to the Vancouver Housing Authority, giving the NAACP a direct voice in housing decisions. “The best way to rid ourselves of our individual prejudices is through personal contact with other people,” Smith said in a July 1953 Columbian article. “Integrated community living will and always has destroyed prejudices.” Families scattered After wartime housing was dismantled, many Black families were forced to leave Vancouver. Those who stayed deliberately spread throughout the city, partly out of concern that a “visible” Black community could become a target for discrimination, Williams said. However, the population still built lasting communities through churches, schools, NAACP Vancouver and other local organizations. These communities helped lay the groundwork for later fair-housing efforts, including initiatives to address discrimination through Vancouver’s Human Relations Commission and passage of the city’s landmark fair-housing law in 1968. According to the Clark County Historical Museum, NAACP members continued to push for integration of public housing, equal access to neighborhoods and affordable housing, and an overall end to discrimination in housing. NAACP of Vancouver still identifies housing as a central civil-rights issue, Vice President Sha’Launda Page said. She chairs the housing committee, which works to address barriers to safe and affordable housing, monitor local housing conditions, advocate for equitable policies, and combat discrimination in rental housing and housing assistance, according to the organization’s website. “It’s a painful legacy, but it’s a beautiful legacy. We don’t have to erase one to have the other. It’s entwined,” Williams said. This story was made possible by Community Funded Journalism, a project from The Columbian and the Local Media Foundation. Top donors include the Ed and Dollie Lynch Fund, Patricia, David and Jacob Nierenberg, Connie and Lee Kearney, Steve and Jan Oliva, The Cowlitz Tribal Foundation and the Mason E. Nolan Charitable Fund. The Columbian controls all content. For more information, visit columbian.com/cfj. Become a subscriber and get unlimited access to every story, plus our ePaper and app for seamless reading anywhere. Stay informed, support local journalism, and stay connected to your community.