The history of racism in Oregon began before the territory even became a U.S. state. The topic of race was heavily discussed during the convention where the Oregon Constitution was written in 1857. In 1859, Oregon became the only state to enter the Union with a black exclusion law, although there were many other states that had tried before, especially in the Midwest. The Willamette Valley was notorious for hosting white supremacist hate groups. Discrimination and segregation were common occurrences against people of Indigenous, African, Mexican, Hawaiian, and Asian descent. The California Gold Rush was known to be one of the first industrialized instances of slavery in the West and introduced many visiting miners from Oregon to its broad acceptance and support. Many returning miners and resettling Southern miners brought the pro-slavery movement from the Gold Rush back to Oregon, especially in the lower Southwest quarter of the territory.
History
First arrival of black people: 1788 The first known person of African descent to arrive in Oregon was a sailor named Markus Lopeus. Lopeus arrived in 1788 alongside merchant sea captain Robert Gray. Lopeus later died in an altercation with the local Native Americans. In the following years, black fur trappers and explorers settled in Oregon.
York, an enslaved man, was the only African American on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which reached Oregon in 1805.
Anti-Black Exclusion Laws and Chinese immigration 1844–1859 There are two incidents that led up to the creation of the first Black Exclusion Law of 1844 in Oregon Territory. 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. The Cockstock Affair started because James Saules (a black settler) reported that a Native known as Cockstock had stolen his newly purchased horse. 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. The second incident is referred to as the Saules-Pickett Dispute. Once again, James Saules (who had been in Oregon since 1841) was involved. Pickett accused Saules of assault and said in court during the trial that Saules threatened to incite the Natives against him. Other witnesses claimed they had also been threatened by Saules and his Native friends. No evidence to these claims was given, but Saules was tried and convicted.
Peter Burnett saw these incidents as his opportunity to present a new bill to the provisional government of the territory. 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. In June 1844, Oregon enacted an exclusion law banning black people from living in Oregon. The punishment for violating the law was to be 39 lashes every six months until the occupant left, but this punishment was deemed too harsh and was replaced with forced labor in December 1844. Also in 1844, the provisional government prohibited slavery. Another discriminatory law was enacted in 1849, which barred Black people who were not already in the area from entering or residing in the Oregon territory. In 1851, a black businessman named Jacob Vanderpool was arrested and expelled from Oregon due to violating the laws regarding black residency.
In 1855, mixed race men were forbidden from becoming citizens. In 1857, despite slavery being illegal, a bill was proposed intending to protect slave property. It was not passed as it was seen as granting special rights to slave owners. That same year a new law was introduced which barred black people from holding property in the state. In 1850, the first Chinese immigrants would arrive and further immigration would take place over the coming decades.
In 1859, Oregon became the only state to enter the Union with a black exclusion law; it introduced a new law the same year prohibiting Black people from owning property and making contracts. The exclusion laws would remain in effect until 1926. In 2001, Measure 14 was introduced which was meant to eliminate racist language, such as "free Negroes and mulattoes," from the constitution. While the constitution itself would not be completely altered, the language would be changed. The measure was voted down in 2002, but later passed.
Ultimately, the Oregon Territorial government and the writers of the Oregon Constitution used the excuse of preventing slavery from entering Oregon to hide their true ambitions. They were not abolitionists, but white supremacists They wanted to create a white utopia. 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.
Anti-Chinese exclusion laws, expulsions, massacres: 1862–1920s
An article in the Daily Oregonian decried the Chinese population as a racial menace who were polluting some of the city's "best streets." Similar remarks were made about the Chinese residents in Baker City calling them "Celestials," "Mongolians," and "Yellow Horde." In 1862, all people of Black, Chinese, Hawaiian, and Mulatto descent were taxed $5 ($128 in 2020 dollars). Failure to pay this tax would result in the state being able to force them into jobs maintaining state designed roads for 50 cents a day ($12 in 2020 dollars). Interracial marriage between black and white people was outlawed the same year, with the law specifically stating that white people could not marry anyone one-fourth black or more. 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.
In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed, granting citizenship to black people. Oregon originally ratified the Fourteenth Amendment on September 19, 1866, but rescinded that ratification on October 16, 1868. That Amendment was only re-ratified on April 25, 1973. In 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited denying the right to vote to racial minorities and former slaves, gained widespread ratification, with Oregon being one of eight states to reject it (in addition to New York's rescission of ratification). That same year, the federal law superseded a clause in the Oregon State Constitution banning black suffrage. It would not be until 1959 that Oregon would ratify the Fifteenth Amendment.
From 1870 to 1885, anti-Chinese sentiment began to rise amongst Oregon citizens, with labor and political leaders advocating for both the expulsion of Chinese residents and the exclusion of future Chinese from Oregon. In May 1873, the Portland city council passed a resolution encouraging contractors to not hire Chinese workers out of fear of losing future contracts (due to Chinese workers of time typically working for low wages and then sending the funds to their families). This resolution was ultimately refused. In August of that same year, a fire, allegedly instigated by white "incendiaries" hoping to displace the Chinese population, broke out at a Chinese laundry. In 1880, most Chinese men resided near Second and Oak Streets, which was so segregated that no other ethnicity beside Chinese lived there.
Sometime during the mid-1880s, Portland's Chinatown saw two of its buildings burn down and Chinese woodcutter camps were raided by eighty masked men. Rallies in support of the anti-Chinese club also took shape. 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. Further attempts to remove the clause were made in 1895, 1916, and 1927 with the clause finally being removed in 1927.
In 1885, racial tensions were further exacerbated as about 500 Chinese residents were excluded from Tacoma, Washington, and sent to Portland. On February 22, 1886, a vote was held on the removal of the Chinese residents. Later that day, a Chinese camp at Guild's Lake was attacked by Local workers in East Portland who also drove out between 100 and 200 Chinese workers. Despite the state constitution banning Chinese people from mining, some still worked as miners and the next year a massacre was caused by a group of white men resulting in the deaths of 34 Chinese miners.
By 1890, 1,000 black people lived in Oregon, with that number doubling by 1920. In 1893, the white citizens of La Grande burned down the city's Chinatown. This displaced the residents of that area, and most left Oregon. Some, however, remained and attempt to resist the mob, but were ultimately forced to leave as well. That same year, Baker City Mayor Charles Palmer called for the Baker City Chinatown to be overhauled to "sanitary and moral conditions." Palmer viewed the Chinese as "a class ... that a community cannot afford to harbor or tolerate." Around this time, "sundown towns" started to appear.
From 1900 to 1940, the Oregon Chinese population began to diminish due to laws such as the Page Act of 1875 and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. From 1940 to 1970, however, the number of Chinese people living in Oregon would increase. 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.
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. In 1918, Black soldiers from California saw a sign that read "We employ white help and cater to white trade only." Angered, the men proceeded to destroy the sign. A similar occurrence happened in 1943. In the early 20th century, Black railroad workers coming to Portland faced extreme segregation. 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. That same year, a law making public discrimination illegal was proposed. The law would be passed in 1953. African Americans who did move to Portland in the early 20th century, mostly railroad workers, faced extreme segregation.
In the 1920s, racially restrictive housing covenants came into prominence. These covenants allowed communities to be created that excluded certain ethnic and religious groups. These covenants came after widespread housing discrimination of past decades. These covenants were made unenforceable by the federal Civil Rights Act of 1968.
WWII and onwards: 1944–present