PORTLAND, Ore. — Many women played a pivotal role during the women’s suffrage movement of the early 1900s. But Harriet “Hattie” Redmond played an especially important role when it came to voting rights and Black civil rights in Oregon.
Redmond was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1862. Her family moved to Hood River before eventually settling in Portland in 1880.
Redmond’s parents were always on a quest for freedom and full citizenship, which laid the foundation for Redmond’s civic activism.
As a Black woman in a state that had codified Black exclusion laws in its constitution, Redmond felt it was important to fight for voting rights. So, she started to get involved in the community.
Redmond held suffrage meetings and educational lectures at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church that once stood at the corner of Northwest Broadway and Everett. During the campaign for suffrage in Oregon in 1912, she was president of the Colored Women’s Equal Suffrage Association.
The campaign was successful in Oregon, with the women’s suffrage vote landing a victory on November 5, 1912. In April of 1913, Redmond received her first voter registration card.
The 19th Amendment was later passed in 1920, granting women the right to vote nationwide.
Throughout her life, Redmond worked as a hairdresser and a department store duster. In 1910, she became a janitor in Oregon’s U.S. District Court and held the role for 29 years.
She passed away at the age of 90 in 1952 from bronchial pneumonia. Her contributions were largely unknown until 2012 during the centennial celebration of Oregon women’s suffrage.
Historians discovered details of her life and uncovered her grave marker at Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery that was buried years after her death.
In recent years, Oregon State University renamed the Benton Annex Building to the Hattie Redmond Women and Gender Center.
In Portland, the Hattie Redmond Apartments opened in 2023 on North Interstate Avenue in the Kenton neighborhood. It’s a long-term housing complex for people with disabilities who are experiencing homelessness.