Q — Have any notable people lived in Montavilla?
A — Yes. One truly admirable example is the eminent physician and civil rights champion Dr. DeNorval Unthank (1899-1977).
Dr. Unthank lived in Portland from 1930 until his death in 1977. For a short time, in the early 1930s, he and his family made Montavilla their home.
Dr. Unthank was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the son of a railroad and hotel cook and the grandson of North Carolina enslaved people. When his mother died in 1909, he was sent to live with his uncle, Dr. Thomas Unthank (1867-1932), a prominent doctor and civil rights advocate in Kansas City, Missouri. DeNorval would follow in his uncle’s footsteps. He chose a career in medicine and graduated from his uncle’s alma mater, the Howard University School of Medicine. He then set up his own practice in Kansas City in 1927. And in Portland, DeNorval Unthank would also be a major civil rights champion.
Sometime in 1929, the young and newly married Dr. Unthank learned that Portland’s Black community was losing its only physician, Dr. James A. Merriman (1870-1946), who was relocating to Phoenix. So, Dr. Unthank decided to move his practice, his nurse wife, Thelma Shipman (1906-1959), and his two-month-old son, DeNorval Unthank Jr., to Portland. He arrived alone the first week of January 1930, and The Advocate, Portland’s African American weekly newspaper, gave Dr. Unthank a page-one welcome.
Before he decided to relocate, Dr. Unthank wanted to know if he would be welcome in Portland. To find out, he wrote to the Portland Chamber of Commerce and was assured he and his family would be welcome.
While Portland’s Black community was grateful for Dr. Unthank’s presence, the doctor soon found that renting office space was another matter. At first, this seemed assured. Dentist Elbert L. Booker agreed to share offices with him in the Panama Building downtown. Dr. Booker had been a tenant there since 1928. But in 1927, as a Black man seeking office space, it took months to find a landlord willing to rent to him. He was turned down 15 times. Unthank and Booker announced the opening of their shared offices in the February 1, 1930 edition of The Advocate. However, when Panama Building tenants protested, Dr. Unthank had to move out, although Dr. Booker was allowed to return to his previous office suite in the Panama Building. Dr. Unthank moved to the nearby Commonwealth Building, then had to move again twice before settling in the downtown Arata Building in 1931.
Because of the Depression, at first, Dr. Unthank had few patients, and many of these, he later said, were loggers, who were among the few with paying jobs. Income may have been lean, but that did not slow down Dr. Unthank. Within weeks of stepping foot on Portland soil, he spoke on health topics at the Bethel A. M. E. and the Mount Olivet Baptist churches. Dr. Unthank was committed not just to helping people with ailments, he wanted everyone to be healthier. Besides giving speeches, he began publishing a column in The Advocate called “Keeping Fit” in March 1931. In 1932, he organized a Health Week event.
Besides his medical practice and health advocacy, he was soon involved in civil rights efforts. He was elected to the local NAACP chapter board of directors in December 1930, then vice president in November 1931, and finally president in 1940. In 1931, he helped to prevent yet another Portland screening of the racist movie “Birth of the Nation.”
Just after arriving in Portland, the Unthank family lodged with Urskin S. Reed, a railroad mail clerk and NAACP member. By June 1930, the Unthanks had moved to Montavilla.
Although Montavilla was a mostly White community, there had been a small Black population there since at least 1900. The Unthank home had been owned by a Black couple, Prestin and Laura Claybourne, since at least 1920. There were several Black couples in the immediate neighborhood as well as the majority-Black Shiloh Baptist Church just a block away. Many Portland neighborhoods east of the Willamette had similar communities with just a few Black residents in contrast to the denser population of Albina, as shown in the 1936 map below.
The Unthanks did not stay long in their first Montavilla home. In the spring of 1931, they bought a house in Westmoreland. Although this was an all-White neighborhood, their realtor assured them they would be welcome. Instead of a welcome, however, the neighborhood presented the Unthanks with a petition asking them to leave. The Unthanks refused. And when they arrived at their new home, all the windows were broken.
The local press covered the Unthank-Westmoreland story blow-by-blow.
The Advocate expressed outrage:
The Oregon Journal was baffled:
Things calmed down for a while in Westmoreland until another window-stoning occurred at the end of June. The Unthanks thought the Jones couple next door was responsible, and a shouting match ensued between the two couples. Mrs. Jones accused Mrs. Unthank of threatening to shoot her. The issue ended up in court on July 17. Mrs. Unthank was acquitted.
But enough of Westmoreland was enough. By August 1931, the Unthanks were living with friends, and Mrs. Unthank left for an extended visit with relatives in the Midwest.
By August 1932, the Unthanks were back in Montavilla and living in a house just across the street from their previous residence. They lived there until at least September 1933. By March 1934, they lived in a rental house on Division Street.
In the 1930s, Dr. Unthank’s practice continued to grow. He was so busy, reported The Northwest Enterprise of December 9, 1938, that he wouldn’t even stop for a sprained ankle. Still, he was blocked from practicing at local hospitals and joining medical societies for many years. He was finally admitted to the Emanuel Hospital staff in 1955 and joined its board of directors in 1971.
Despite his busy practice, he still had time for charitable and civic work. In 1940, he opened a day nursery and health clinic for the children of Black workers in collaboration with the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Portland. From 1970-1976, he was the medical consultant to Oregon’s workmen’s compensation board, commuting daily to Salem even though he had retired from practice.
In the 1940s, Dr. Unthank was a major civil rights advocate, drawing attention to racial discrimination in jobs and housing. As head of the Emergency Advisory Council, he advocated for equal opportunities for wartime employees. As the first Black member of Portland’s City Club in 1943, he drew attention to Portland’s discriminatory practices. He co-founded the Portland Urban League, a civil rights and social services organization, in 1945. In 1953, Unthank played a substantial role in the passage of Oregon’s Civil Rights Bill, overturning the Oregon law banning interracial marriages.
The Oregonian of July 16, 2018, quoted Dr. Unthank’s personal philosophy: “I have always felt in my life that a person should set his own goals and then head toward them. You may have some bad experiences along the way, but if you’re determined you can make it.”
Some of Dr. Unthank Awards 1945-1975
- 1945 Progressive Democratic Club’s First Citizen award
- 1958 Doctor of the Year, Oregon Medical Society
- 1962 Citizen of the Year, Portland chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews
- 1969 dedication of Unthank Park
- 1971 University of Oregon distinguished citizen award; Metropolitan Human Relations Commissions plaque
- 1973 B’nai B’rith (Portland Chapter) Brotherhood Award
- 1975 Concordia College Citizenship Award
The extraordinary life of Dr. DeNorval Unthank deserves a book-length biography. But alas, this does not yet exist.
Title image: Dr. DeNorval Unthank, 1950. Courtesy OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Oregon State University. “Portrait of DeNorval Unthank” Oregon Digital
This is part of Montavilla History Questions Answered, a series of history related articles. If you have questions about Montavilla’s past that you’d like answered, local historian Patricia Sanders will investigate your question. Please email your questions to history@montavilla.net and we may feature it alongside Patricia Sanders’ research in a future post on this page.
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