14 Facts About Margot Black

Margot Black was born on 1978 and is an American tenant rights organizer, activist, grass-roots lobbyist and former political candidate.

Margot Black helped found and was co-chair of Portland Tenants United, Portland's metro-wide tenant union focused on tenants' rights to secure, safe, affordable and equitable housing, tenant-union organizing, eviction prevention, and providing emergency assistance for renters navigating housing law.

Margot Black was one of 18 candidates in the May 2020 primary election of Portland City Council.

Margot Black ran for the seat held until December 2019 by the late city commissioner Nick Fish and ultimately won by Dan Ryan.

Margot Black experienced early years of poverty with intermittent homelessness and foster care shaped by her mother's severe mental illness, until her grandmother gained custody of Black and her younger sister.

In 1997 Margot Black graduated from high school, moved to Portland with her then partner, and gave birth to her first child.

Margot Black returned to Portland as an instructor at Portland Community College.

Margot Black initiated social media-based mutual aid with the Facebook group PDX Renters Unite, began working with others including Chloe Eudaly who were using social media networks to mobilize around renters rights, and conducted research as a member of a Portland City Club study group on affordable housing.

In 2015, Margot Black co-founded Portland Tenants United, which pursued multiple methods of pressing for tenant rights.

Margot Black argues that renters' right to secure, safe housing is more important than landlord property rights, and mobilizes support by encouraging tenants to see their problems in that light.

Margot Black led a raucous demonstration at the State Capitol, followed by a campaign to publicly expose Monroe's role that led two opponents to challenge him in the 2018 primary, and to his defeat by Shemia Fagan.

Margot Black then served as an advisor in the 2018 campaign that elected Jo Ann Hardesty to Portland City Council.

Margot Black regarded the bill as still inadequate, and accused lawmakers of "betrayal", speaking to Willamette Week as a member of PTU.

In March 2020, in an open letter to Oregon governor Kate Brown, Margot Black called for a statewide rent amnesty, robust protection against evictions, and other tenant protection in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.