Avel Gordly, the first Black woman elected to the Oregon State Senate and a former professor at Portland State University, passed away on February 16. She was 79 years old.
A native of Portland, Oregon, Gordly graduated from Portland State University in 1974 with a degree in administration of justice, making her the first person in her family to graduate from college. She went on to work as a women’s work-release counselor for the Oregon Corrections Division and later as a parole and probation officer. Throughout the next several years, Gordly held leadership roles with various activist and public service organizations, including the Black United Front, the Urban League of Portland, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Portlanders Organized for Southern African Freedom.
In 1991, Gordly was selected to fill a vacancy in the Oregon House of Representatives and was later reelected. In 1996, she became the first Black woman to be elected to the Oregon State Senate. During her 12 years in the Senate, she focused on initiatives relating to criminal justice, mental health, and cultural competency in education. Gordly was instrumental in establishing Juneteenth as an official Oregon holiday, raising the state’s minimum wage, and removing racially discriminatory language from the Oregon Constitution.
In 2006, Gordly began teaching as an associate professor of Black studies at her alma mater. As a faculty member, she created opportunities for undergraduate students to serve as legislative interns. In 2008, she helped establish Portland State’s Avel Gordly Center for Healing, which provides culturally specific mental health care services. Gordly also donated a collection of her papers documenting her political career and public life to the university’s Library Special Collections.
After retiring, Gordly published her memoir, Remembering the Power of Words: The Life of an Oregon Legislator, Activist, and Community Leader (Oregon State University Press, 2011). In 2017, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Portland State.
Gordly’s legacy also lives on through the Avel Louise Gordly Scholarship Fund for Oregon Black Women, which supports African American women high school graduates as they pursue higher education at an Oregon-based institution or at a historically Black college or university.