Marie B. Smith

Born in Texas, Marie B. Smith grew up in Washington and moved to Portland with her husband in 1917. Marie began her work with the YWCA soon after her arrival in Portland; she was the first African-American woman on the Board of Directors of the Y and she was a member of the management committee for the Williams Avenue YWCA, which opened in 1921 to serve Black women who were not particularly welcomed at the downtown YWCA building. She founded a group of Black and white women to integrate Portland restaurants. Known as the Intercultural Club, they would go in pairs, one black and one white to restaurants that refused services to Black people and demanded to be served. She also worked to end segregation in housing in Portland. In 1945 she became President of the Oregon Association for Colored Women's clubs and in 1949 became the first female president of the Portland branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.