Racism in Oregon
The first was the Cockstock Affair, which is known to be the largest instance of potential violence against white settlers prior to the Whitman Incident in 1847.
White settlers who deemed themselves to be in charge of the territory tried to arrest Cockstock, but were met with a force of Natives much bigger than their own.
Eventually, the Affair was resolved, but it left a good amount of fear in the white settlers of the potential threat the Native population posed.
He claimed that it was to prevent slavery from entering Oregon, but he used the Cockstock Affair and the Saules-Pickett dispute as evidence to persuade fellow lawmakers to exclude Black people from settling at all, for fear that they would band together with the Natives against the white settlers.
[17] The motivations of these lawmakers were to remove people of color from their territory and in working towards that goal created laws that have had long lasting consequences.
"[18] Similar remarks were made about the Chinese residents in Baker City calling them "Celestials," "Mongolians," and "Yellow Horde.
[2] This distinction was later extended to prevent white people from marrying anyone who was one-fourth or more Chinese or Hawaiian, and a half or more Native American.
[12] In 1883, an attempt to remove the ban on black suffrage failed due in part to the clause being null and void by the Fifteenth Amendment's inclusion in the U.S. Constitution.
[12] This was during the Exclusion era lasting from 1882 to 1943 which left Chinese communities isolated and discriminated against in fields such as housing, jobs, commercial opportunities, education, medical and social services.
[12] In 1906, the legal case Taylor v. Cohn led to the Oregon Supreme Court sanctioning the right of white Americans to racially discriminate against Black people in theatres.
[25] In 1919, the Realty Board of Portland had approved a Code of Ethics forbidding realtors and bankers from selling or giving loans to minorities for properties located in white neighbourhoods.
Some African-Americans lost their jobs due to white soldiers returning, and black residents were told to leave by Earl Riley, the mayor of Portland, who said they weren't welcome.
These included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Urban League, the Office of Vocational Opportunity, and the Committee on Inter-Racial Principles and Practices.
[20] In 1981, amid national unrest relating to the Atlanta murders of 1979–1981, two Portland police officers placed dead opossums outside the Burger Barn, a Black-owned restaurant.
The two were later reinstated when an arbitrator deemed the firing excessive;[29] the FBI investigated the matter for six months, but ultimately declined to bring charges.
[31] The Portland Internal Investigations Auditing Committee (PIIAC) was formed by City Council over the opposition of Mayor Frank Ivancie, who was closely tied with the Police Bureau, in response to the incident, in 1982.
[32] In 1985, two Portland police officers who had been caught distributing T-shirts with the slogan "Don't Choke 'Em, Smoke 'Em" were reinstated by an arbitrator after having been fired.
[33] In the 1980s and 1990s, neo-Nazi skinheads protested in the streets and on November 13, 1988, Ethiopian student Mulugeta Seraw was killed by white supremacists.
[22] Ciaran Mulloy, a union organiser and anti-fascist, recalled how "There were multiple gangs, and 300 Nazis in a city of 300,000" further stating that "The anti-racist youth were intimidated and isolated.
[23] In 2011 an audit, designed to find if that Black and Latino renters were unfairly disadvantaged in regards to the housing market, found that in 64% of the 50 tests done, discrimination took place.
[34] On August 17, 2019, a rally was held by among others, members of the American Guard and The Daily Stormer who are white nationalists and neo-Nazis respectively according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
[20] Further damage to black-owned properties would take place via the construction of the Veterans Memorial Coliseum and Interstate 5 in 1960 and the local hospital expansion in 1972 which would clear out 300 homes and businesses.
Resistance took place in the form of a letter written by the Portland African American Leadership Forum protesting its installation.
[41] Gifford succeeded in doing so, recruiting over thousands of members, including politicians, such as Kaspar K. Kubli, a state legislator and speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives.
[42] By 1921, Klan membership was steadily increasing due to them capitalising on the racism against minorities (particularly Chinese and Japanese), anti-Catholicism, and social morality.
[20] Also that year almost two-thirds of black single mothers in Multnomah County with children under five lived in poverty which was higher than the average for the rest of nation, being over half.
[9] Governor Kate Brown in particular has passed juvenile justice reforms and has worked to reduce harsh prison sentences and reinvest in crime prevention and drug rehabilitation.
[48] In 2020, during the George Floyd protests she partook in community listening sessions with Black organizers on the matter of meaningful social change.
[26] In 2012, intending to make amends with those displaced by the expansion to Legacy Emanuel Hospital, several events have been held such as breakfasts and hearings dedicated to the previous residents.
[38] Some people, such as Lolenzo Poe, Portland Public Schools' chief equity and diversity officer criticised the actions by the hospital as ineffective.
