Oregon’s Relationship with Racist Violence.
Racism entwined in Oregon’s history
Portland Tribune, July 4, 2020
[Portland Mayor George L.] Baker was far from the only politician to cultivate ties with the Oregon Ku Klux Klan, which claimed to have 35,000 members statewide at its peak. One year after Baker's photoshoot, in 1922, klansman Walter Pierce was elected Oregon governor.
[F]acts about Oregon's series of Black exclusion laws are less likely to be presented in educational settings. The laws, first passed in 1844 by the state's provisional government, declared whipping as a form of punishment for Black settlers.
Oregon’s founders sought a ‘white utopia,’ a stain of racism that lives on even as state celebrates its progressivism
The authors of Oregon’s constitution declared that no black people could reside in the state or hold real estate. They relied on precedent for this decree. The territorial legislature had passed a black-exclusion law in 1844—dictating regular public lashings until lawbreakers left the territory—and followed it up with another such law five years later.
The racist history of Portland, the whitest city in America
For black residents, the only choice, if they wanted to stay in Portland, was a neighborhood called Albina that had emerged as a popular place to live for the black porters who worked in nearby Union Station. It was the only place black people were allowed to buy homes, after, 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 neighborhoods.
Looking back in order to move forward
portlandoregon.gov, May 16, 2010
A timeline of Oregon and U.S. racial, immigration, and education history
Washington County jail deputy attacks drunk man posing for booking photo, video shows
[Washington County’s] district attorney’s office reopened the case last week, after [Deputy Rian] Alden was placed on leave when someone sent the sheriff’s office a screenshot of an email he allegedly sent in 2003. The email made several racist comments about people from several races and ethnic groups, and contained several slurs against Latino people.