Hello Oregon Democrats, members of the Black Caucus, and our wider caucus community!

It is an honor to once again connect with you as the Democratic Party of Oregon Black Caucus leadership. Further, it is with great joy that we offer this outreach as our caucus, party, and state proudly welcome the Centennial Celebration of Black History Month. Knowingly or otherwise, each of us stands upon a collective legacy of Black resilience, brilliance, resistance, and leadership. Black History Month accordingly provides us not only with the opportunity to reflect upon and celebrate this tradition, but also reorient and recommit ourselves to its urgent relevance in our current moment. Below you will find additional information on the work our caucus has carried forward over the past year; details for an upcoming in-person community gathering and celebration that we are hosting on Saturday, February 7, in Portland; and our vision and commitment to you throughout this February and the 2026 election cycle.

Last year, our caucus marked the beginning of Black History Month while welcoming a new chair into leadership. In that introductory message, we offered an analysis of impending inter-community hardship and looming political persecution by the current administration—the scope of which has proven even more severe than anticipated. While we are proud of the necessary work undertaken since—through programming, a caucus election, expanding leadership capacity, and the long-overdue filling of key roles—the events and circumstances of 2025 and early 2026 obligate us to do more.

In this regard, as we enter February and the 2026 election cycle, our caucus is committing itself to a range of community-based and elections-oriented initiatives designed to serve Black Oregonians as elected officials, candidates (whether filed or aspiring), and frontline members of our statewide community. These efforts will include a formal candidate endorsement process (with details forthcoming), canvassing and community outreach, programs that support and inform Black candidates, and initiatives that not only align us with existing infrastructure but also advance the incremental work of transforming our caucus into a modernized political conduit for Black Oregonians. While each initiative carries its own timelines, nuances, and intentionality, our leadership team is more hopeful than ever about the realizability of these aims.

It is on this point—and on the promise of Hope—that our caucus leadership team would like to conclude this opening message for Black History Month 2026. Relatively speaking, it was not long ago that our state and nation witnessed a defining political moment that reshaped Gen Z and earlier generations’ conception of American possibility with the election of America’s first Black president. While this moment still holds a defining place in the hearts and minds of many who witnessed it in real time, we must also acknowledge that 18 years have passed since 2008. Indeed, there is now an entire generation of newly eligible voters who have neither witnessed nor can recall an America untouched by MAGA’s influence. Taken together, this reality—alongside the course of politics during and since the Obama administration—has eroded many people’s confidence in, or felt access to, the Hope that once defined a nation’s politics. 

In conversation with people young and old—whether long engaged politically or newly so—a recurring uncertainty about the value and impact of Hope is clear. We often hear frustrations that efforts centered on Hope, dignity, and the joy they entail are stagnating—that they serve no purpose beyond pacifying and distracting people from that which actually prevents immediate and ongoing harm.

While the perspectives, experiences, and disappointment born of unrealized rhetoric that inspire such cynicism are real and valid, to anyone struggling to believe again, please know this: you have a home, a community, and a place to rediscover the possibility of change in our caucus.

Black history, like social and political progress, is not just something we remember and then expect to unfold on its own. Our history is something we live, protect, and must radically aspire to every day, particularly in moments of uncertainty or disenchantment. The African American experience is one of reimagining a world so boldly that its present limitations can no longer constrain or disguise the future ahead, should we be brave enough to choose it each day. From generations who fought to be seen and heard to today’s leaders shaping our future, our story is one of collective strength and unfinished work. While we will never hold all the answers, our caucus calls you into the work of designing tomorrow long before it arrives.

Information and a flyer for our first event—and your first opportunity to join us in this effort—are attached below. In the meantime, we wish everyone a powerful beginning to Black History Month 2026, as we celebrate our past, uplift our present, and recommit ourselves to an active Hope—one that builds a future rooted in dignity, equity, and opportunity for Black communities across Oregon.

February 7th, 2026 - Black History Month Community Gathering (RSVP)

Y.O.U.TH Portland - 16126 SE Stark Street, Portland, OR 97223

Doors open at 10:30; Event 11-1 PM

Miles Pendleton

Chair, DPO Black Caucus

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