PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – Portland’s historic NAACP chapter gathered community leaders and advocates from across the region on Saturday for its annual Freedom Fund Dinner at the Portland Convention Center.

The local NAACP president James Posey said the goal for Saturday was to inspire the hundreds in attendance to advocate for communities of color in Portland. People who have historically been pushed out, he said.

“Things are rough,” Posey said. “I’m going to be real honest with you, things are rough.”

Posey said the organization acts as a buffer between communities of color and systemic oppression, and said issues that impact the city of Portland hit the Black community especially hard.

“People who have always been on the bottom who are less in a position to defend themselves, they’re preyed upon,” Posey said. “When things get rough, people used to say, ‘when white America gets a cold, Black America gets pneumonia.’”

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Posey said that while Portland’s Black community is vibrant and brings culture to the Rose City, many are feeling undervalued and underrepresented.

“We’re a resilient people,” Posey said. “We have to be in order to survive in a typically hostile environment. Portland has been a hostile environment.”

Portland had racial exclusion laws in its constitution until 1926, and today, not even 6% of the city’s population is Black.

“Lowest in every category, high incarceration rates, the fitness and achievement gap, that’s something I like to harp on because we should never have a gap in kids going to school in terms of their achievement. That’s prominent in this town.” Posey said.

The dinner gathers community leaders and organizers from across the country to advocate for change.

Tennessee State Representative Justin J. Pearson traveled from Memphis, where last April, he was one of two Black representatives expelled from the state’s legislature for, he says, speaking against gun violence.

“People who have been oppressed and marginalized for a very long time need to have their voices heard, in government and in other facets of the community here,” Pearson said. “We know we need to have people in institutions that focus on justice, focus on equality in all aspects of our lives. The NAACP in Portland does that exceptionally well and I’m grateful to be here and be a part of it.”

Pearson, along with Posey, is working to help the NAACP mobilize Portland voters ahead of both national and local elections less than 40 days away.

Posey said he looks to his 3-year-old grandson for inspiration.

“You want them to live in a community that shows love, we’re all living in a positive vein. When African Americans are hurting, our whole community is hurting,” Posey said. “We have to fight for the future.”

According to Posey, Portland’s NAACP branch is completely volunteer-driven. To learn more, follow this link.

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