Verdell Rutherford

An active member of the Portland Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Ms. Rutherford served as the organization's secretary for twenty years. During the campaign in the late 1940s and early 1950s to pass the landmark Public Accommodations Act outlawing discrimination in public facilities, she produced thousands of flyers and leaflets on her mimeograph machine and mailed these to residents throughout the state. With her husband, Otto, she ran the local NAACP Federal Credit Union from their home in the 1950s and 1960s, acting as its secretary and treasurer. She wrote a newsletter for the credit union's members and printed the newsletters on a mimeograph machine, a hand-cranked machine that made one copy for each turn of the wheel. As a member of the Culture Club, an African American women's association, she helped to raise money for scholarships for local students. She attended the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and wrote a bulletin for members of the congregation. For several years, she was a board member of the Urban League.