Interfaith
Black Clergy Breakfast Remarks
June 13, 2025
Good morning, everyone.
It is wonderful to be back at this breakfast. Thank you to the Coalition of African and African American Pastors and Imams and to the Bridge-Pamoja community for bringing us together – and for your steadfast leadership and your unwavering faith in the promise of a better and more just Oregon.
This breakfast, rooted in faith and fellowship, represents a community of leaders reimagining what health, wholeness, and justice can look like when it begins with, and is led by, the people most impacted by inequities. Our greatest chance at healing will come through communities that know what it is to survive, to persist, and to rise.
Oregon, and our country, cannot heal and truly prosper without ensuring Black Americans have affordable housing, safe neighborhoods, good schools, dignified employment, culturally specific health care, and a criminal justice system rooted in accountability and fairness.
Let me share briefly with you how we’re acting on two of these goals.
First, on housing and homelessness: We know that Black Oregonians experience disproportionate rates of housing instability. My administration has partnered with culturally specific and culturally responsive organizations for the state's major housing programs - from building new affordable housing and supporting home ownership opportunities, to providing shelter, rehousing, and prevention services.
On education: I believe every child can learn and deserves a path to future success. That’s why we’ve increased investments in early literacy and summer learning programs. I’m focused on holding school districts accountable and making sure they deliver for our students. And we have more to do, like making sure the legislature doesn’t underfund the Black Student Success Plan this session.
You know the work isn’t easy. But the path toward equity is not paved in silence or comfort. It is paved in partnership and in truth-telling.
I’m committed to a government that listens to Black leaders, not just when the cameras are rolling, but when the decisions are being made. That’s why my administration is making an intentional effort to meet regularly with faith leaders, community organizers, and youth who are shaping a stronger Oregon from the ground up.
Faith’s most important companion is action. You’ve been showing up and doing the work in community – feeding the hungry, sheltering the unhoused, guiding the young, and holding power to account.
I’m committed to doing the work alongside you.
In closing, I ask for your continued partnership and your prayers – and your continued accountability. Hold me to the promises I make. Because our shared future depends on it.
Together, we can build an Oregon where health is a birthright, not a battle. Where justice is not an aspiration, but an expectation. And where every Black child and young person knows they are safe, seen, and supported.
Thank you, may God bless you, and may we go forward in faith and action together.