Honoring Avel Gordly, First Black Oregon Senator

Chris Woods

The Advocate

Avel Gordly, 1947–2026 

Avel Louise Gordly, born Feb. 13, 1947, was an activist, organizer and politician in Oregon, and the first Black woman elected to the Oregon State Senate. She served from 1997 to 2009. 

She grew up on Williams Street in the predominantly African American neighborhood of Northeast Portland and later became one of only 20 Black students at Girls Polytechnic High School (later Washington-Monroe High School). The school tried to steer Black students toward vocational education, but Gordly insisted on taking academic and business courses. She credited her involvement with the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church community with shaping her values of leadership, service and public responsibility. 

On Sept. 22, 1963, she participated in a march responding to the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which further sparked her interest in social justice and politics. After graduating high school, Gordly worked for the telephone company for five years before enrolling at Portland State University to study administration of justice. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1974. After graduation, she worked for the Oregon Department of Corrections as a counselor in a women’s work-release program and as the state’s first female parole officer. 

Beginning with a trip to Nigeria, Gordly traveled to 17 African countries throughout her life for charitable work and Black Studies. She recalled how impactful it was to see all jobs filled by Black people. “The pilots were Black, the stewardesses, they were Black,” she remembered. “We were going through customs and everybody was Black. That was huge.” 

Gordly was appointed to the Oregon House of Representatives in 1991, representing North and Northeast Portland, and went on to win three more terms. She was elected to the State Senate in 1996. Originally a Democrat, she changed her affiliation to Independent in 2006. 

As a lawmaker, Gordly focused on social justice, civil rights, education reform and mental health reform. She sponsored the resolution that established Juneteenth observance in Oregon. She also petitioned to remove racially discriminatory language from the Oregon Constitution, increase the minimum wage based on the Consumer Price Index, and allow high school students to take college classes. 

In 2001, she co-wrote Remembering the Power of Words with historian Patricia A. Schechter. She was active in many public service and activist groups, including the Black United Front, the Urban League of Portland, the American Friends Service Committee and Portlanders Organized for Southern African Freedom. In 2008, the Avel Gordly Center for Healing opened at Oregon Health & Science University to provide mental health and psychiatric services to people with limited access. 

Gordly began teaching in Portland State University’s Black Studies Department in 2006 while still serving in the Senate. After leaving the Legislature, she became an associate professor at PSU. In 2017, she was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters. 

In honor of her legacy, Schechter and Carmen Thompson established the Avel Louise Gordly Scholarship for Oregon Black Women, supporting Black female graduates of Oregon high schools attending an Oregon institution or a historically Black college or university. 

Gordly died in Portland on Feb. 16, 2026, at age 79. She is survived by her son, Tyrone “Ty” Wayne Waters, a Navy veteran and mental health advocate. Her memoir, Remembering the Power of Words: The Life of an Oregon Legislator, Activist, and Community Leader, was co-written with Schechter.