Black History Bus Tour to explore North Coast
Aug. 22—The Oregon Black Pioneers' Black History Bus Tour will explore the North Coast in September, stopping at sites of African American historical significance.
The tour, which will leave from the Charles Jordan Community Center in Portland on the morning of Sept. 18 and return that evening, winds from Portland to Seaside and includes a series of guest speakers and films on African American history in Oregon.
Zachary Stocks, the executive director of the Oregon Black Pioneers and an education technician at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, said he is proud the tour will resume for the first time in six years. New staffing, increased fundraising and partnerships allowed the organization to bring back the popular program.
The tour includes learning about Moses Williams, an ordnance sergeant and Medal of Honor recipient at Fort Stevens, as well as York, the only Black member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, at Fort Clatsop and jazz clubs in Seaside.
"I'm happy that we can create opportunities for people to come together and celebrate our diverse heritage and to do it in a way that also highlights the great history and attractions of the North Oregon Coast," Stocks said.
His familiarity with the North Coast made it easier for him to identify stops for the tour.
"This is sort of like my backyard," Stocks said. "You know, I always enjoy the opportunity to do programming through Oregon Black Pioneers close to home, so that I can celebrate a lot of the great stories of the place that I live."
The tour will visit the North Coast for the first time because of a grant Oregon Black Pioneers received from the Oregon Coast Visitors Association.
Arica Sears, the deputy director of the visitors association, said in a statement that part of the mission is to broaden visitors' understanding of the coast and make their stays more meaningful.
"We were delighted by the opportunity to partner with Oregon Black Pioneers so that we may amplify their work sharing often-underrepresented Black history by way of a tour itinerary that will be enduringly valuable to future visitors and locals alike," she said.
Stocks said Oregon Black Pioneers tries to emphasize that Black history is everywhere in Oregon, not just in Portland. The tour allows the nonprofit to share the stories of the African American experience at the sites where they happened.
"So the ability to bring people out of the Portland metro and into those places that maybe they've never been before or probably have never been to while looking for Black history before is really core to our mission," he said.
