The 1953 Annual Report of the Urban League of Portland, “8 years of interracial progress.” The report includes descriptions of the organization’s progress toward equal opportunity for black Oregonians.

A photograph of Allen Ervin Flowers and Louisa M. Flowers standing beside rose bushes in the garden at their farm near Mt. Scott in Southeast Portland. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph reads, "Mother and Dad Flowers on farm, north slope Mt. Scott."

A head and shoulders portrait of Allen Ervin Flowers. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph reads, "Father, Allen Ervin Flowers."

A photograph of Allen Ervin Flowers standing on a sidewalk in a residential neighborhood. He is holding the hand of a young child standing beside him who is identified as his grandson. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph reads, "E. A. [sic.] Flowers & grandson."

Unidentified members of the congregation standing in front of the east side of the Bethel AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church. The Bethel AME Church once stood on the corner of N. Larrabee Ave. and N. McMillen Street. It was torn down in the 1950s when the city built the Memorial Coliseum.

Photograph of two boxers in the ring during a bout at Multnomah Civic Stadium in Portland on September 6, 1935. The boxer at left is Barney Ross; the boxer at right is Baby Joe Gans (also known as Gerald Slaughter). Ross won the match by knockout. Image note: The name “Barney Ross” is written on the negative and is visible on the left side of the image.

Photograph of two boxers standing in the ring, facing one another, at Multnomah Civic Stadium in Portland on September 6, 1935. They are surrounded by a small group of unidentified men. The boxer at left is Barney Ross; the boxer at right is Baby Joe Gans (also known as Gerald Slaughter). Ross won the match with Gans by knockout. Image note: The name “Barney Ross” is written on the negative and is faintly visible on the left side of the image.

Men in the Chandler & Bessilien Club Cafe, on Flanders Avenue in Portland.

Members of the Vancouver Avenue Congregational Church attend a meeting of the Christian Interracial Club in 1962.

A group photograph of members of the Church Deacon Board at the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church in 1960.

An group photograph of unidentified children taken during the 1953 Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church Vacation Bible School.

A photograph of Ralph Flowers (center) and two unidentified employees standing in front of a sign for the City of Portland Municipal Garage.

A formal head and shoulders portrait of Clifford Allen Flowers wearing a suit.

A photograph of Ervin Flowers leading a horse down a path. Allen Flowers stands to the side. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph reads, "Ervin, Dad Flowers, and Maude."

A photograph of Ervin Flowers standing between two horses in front of a barn at the Flowers family farm near Mt. Scott in Southeast Portland. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph reads, "Ervin Flowers on Farm."

An unidentified female employee of a shipyard in Portland during WWII takes a lunch break. Women were recruited into wartime industry jobs when men were sent overseas. Portland’s shipyards attracted thousands of women and African American workers looking for skilled, high-wage jobs.

The Vancouver Avenue Baptist Church began as the First Baptist Church of Burton Homes, a federal wartime housing project managed by the Vancouver Housing Authority (Washington state). Most of the people in this 1945 photo of an early service were employees of the Kaiser Shipyards. The church moved to the Bagley Downs housing project later that year, then to Vanport City in 1946, and finally to the Albina neighborhood in Portland after Vanport was flooded in 1948. The current building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its significance to the history of civil rights in Oregon.

Ralph Flowers, Ruth Flowers, and an unidentified man stand in front of the Flowers Auto Repair garage. There is a black car parked in front of the open service door. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph reads, "2125 N. Vancouver Ave. Portland. Ralph & Ruth Flowers."

A photograph of the Flowers brothers with friends. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph identifies the people in the photographs from left to right as: Ervin Flowers. Elmer Flowers, Vassie Cash, Lee Hankins, and Ralph Flowers. Ervin Flowers and Ralph Flowers each hold a shotgun. A dog and a stuffed pheasant lay on the ground in front of the group.

A photograph of a group of people standing in front of a tent on the Flowers family farm in the Lents neighborhood of Southeast Portland. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph reads, "Allen Elmer [sic.] Flowers Farm on north slope of Mt. Scott. about 1895. Across from Lincoln Park Cemetery."

A photograph of the jitney bus operated by the Flowers family filled with passengers. Several people are seated in the bus and a small group stands in front of the bus. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph reads, "Flowers family jitney. Back row standing: Jan Minor, Almas Morrow, Lloyd Flowers. Seated far left of jitney, the Paynes. Woman standing in jitney, Mrs. Allen."

A photograph of seven people seated in or standing beside a horse-drawn wagon on the Flowers family farm near Mt. Scott in Southeast Portland. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph reads, "On the farm. Leaving for picnic on the Clackamas River. Flowers Farm, Lents."

A formal portrait of the Flowers family. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph reads, "1st row / Allen Ervin Flowers - Father / Louisa M. (Thacker) Flowers - Mother / Lloyd Flowers - Son / Ralph P. Flowers - Son / Elmer A. Flowers - Son / Ervin M. Flowers - Son."

Edward Freeman? and his children standing in front of Freeman's Second-Hand Store. Edward Freeman ran a second-hand store on Union Avenue (now NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd) near what is now Fremont Park. He and his wife Ida moved with their son Theodore from Colorado in about 1915. They had two daughters in Portland, Ida and Gertrude.

Portrait of George Singleton. Singleton was an early resident of Portland, who at one time lived on the northwest corner of Alder Street and Sixth Ave. He likely held many professions, as most early settlers did, but he is listed in the 1882 City Directory as a "hackman" (driver) for Acker and Leahy, a city stables on Washington (Burnside) and Stark.

A photograph of the house on the Flowers family farm. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph reads, "Flowers farm, Lents, 20 acres, built 1903."

Two men in the J. Hedspeth Restaurant, on Flanders Street in 1912. The restaurant was owned by English G. Hedspeth. Hedspeth began as a waiter at the Portland Hotel.

Members of the Katherine Gray Club pack canned food into a box during a meeting in 1956. Katherine Gray, along with Hattie Redmond, co-founded the Colored Women’s Equal Suffrage League and worked with Beatrice Cannady to protest the showing of “Birth of a Nation,” the racist 1915 film by D.W. Griffith. She was also the president of the Oregon Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, which created a club in her honor.