Verdell Rutherford; Oregon Civil Rights Leader

Verdell Rutherford, 88, a civil rights leader who fought to pass Oregon’s 1953 civil rights law. Rutherford was secretary of the Portland chapter of the NAACP from the late 1940s to 1962. Her husband, Otto Rutherford, was the chapter’s president for two terms in the 1950s. Verdell Rutherford used a hand-cranked mimeograph machine to copy thousands of letters to churches and organizations, asking for support for the civil rights measure. Together, the couple worked closely with a young Republican state senator, Mark Hatfield, to pass the law, which had failed in 17 previous legislative sessions. The statute outlawed discrimination in schools, hotels, restaurants and recreational facilities on the basis of race, religion or national origin. She married Otto Rutherford, who died last August, in 1936. On Tuesday in Portland.