What percentage of the county you live in is Black? Why is that? In order to better understand why Southern Oregon is primarily white we must take a look at Oregon’s history of racism and the explicit exclusion of Black people.
(Please see below for links to understanding the racist history of Oregon.)
Klamath
0.74%
Jackson
0.72%
Josephine
0.50%
Douglas
0.42%
Curry
0.44%
Organizations and affinity spaces to uplift and connect Black bodied people
BASE (Black Alliance & Social Empowerment) is a volunteer nonprofit community organization that provides events, community information-sharing, connection, support, and resources that work towards the well-being and advancement of Black people living in Southern Oregon.
SOBLACC’s mission is to be a political home for Black people in Southern Oregon. By building an engaged and active base of Black people, we will co-create a Black political agenda for Southern Oregon, partner with aligned Black organizations across the state and nationally in support of the liberation of Black people. We also aim to build a political base in Southern Oregon that can ensure that elected officials and decision makers are advancing our agenda at all levels of government. Ultimately, SOBLACC will be a driver for regional change that centers Black people, Black power, and a Black politic.
Key Dates in the History of Oregon’s Black Exclusion Laws and Policies
All information comes from Dr. Darrel Millner’s essay entitled “Blacks in Oregon,” and Greg Nokes article “Black Exclusion Laws in Oregon,” both published on Oregon Encyclopedia. Information compiled and condensed by Kira Lesley, archivist at the Southern Oregon Historical Society.
1844–Oregon’s first Black Exclusion Law, the “Lash Law.” Provisional government of Oregon proclaims that any Black person attempting to settle in Oregon to receive 39 public lashes, every 6 months, until they leave Oregon territory.
The law was written with a 6 month grace period and was repealed before that period expired. There are no known accounts of anyone receiving lashes. However, the intent of the law– to exclude Black people from Oregon — would set the tone for future state and federal policies that discouraged Black settlement in Oregon
1849–Oregon Territorial government passes second Black Exclusion law.
1850–Federal government passes Donation Land Act of 1850. This act granted large land claims exclusively to white and mixed race people of Native and white heritage (the latter contingency allowed for the children of early settlers who had children with Native women to be eligible) and this act consolidated wealth and power in the hands of white settlers and ensured Oregon would be a racially stratified society.
1853-second Black Exclusion law repealed
1857–Dred Scott decision says slave owners have legal right to take enslaved people anywhere in the country. The decision calls into question Oregon’s laws on Black residency.
1857–Oregon adopts its constitution, which bans slavery but prohibits Black people from owning real estate, making contracts, using the legal system, or even being in the state.
1859-Oregon joins the union as a state, putting the state constitutional ban on Black people into effect. The law grandfathers in Black people who were in the state legally prior to 1857. Meaning, those who came during the periods of time when Black settlement was legal—(1) prior to 1844 (2) between the repeal of the 1844 law and the enactment of the 1849 law and (3) between the repeal of the second exclusion law in 1853 and the adoption of the Oregon constitution in 1857.
1862—Oregon bans interracial marriage and institutes a tax on Black, Chinese, Hawaiian, and mulatto residents.
1868—Oregon’s ban on Black people is rendered legally moot by the federal passage of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. constitution. Even after the passage of the 14th Amendment, Oregon maintained a reputation as unwelcoming, and even dangerous, for Black people.
1917—Oregon supreme court case Allen v. People’s Amusement Park legally sanctioned racial segregation in public places and services in Oregon. The law’s effects were felt chiefly in real estate, where redlining and race-based covenants resulted in Black residents being able to live in only a small area of towns. In Portland, this was in inner North and Northeast.
1926—Ban on Black people living in state officially repealed.
1940-1944—Black people from the South recruited to work in WWII shipyards. Black population in Oregon increases from 2,000 to 22,000.
1953—Anti-discrimination law passed that invalidated much of the 1917 case. Even after the legal repeal of racist laws, Black Oregonians continued to face discrimination and unequal treatment in issues of school funding, urban renewal projects, gentrification, and police violence. Oregon’s early Black Exclusion laws may have kept the Black population low as a state percentage, but Black since the time of white settlement,
Black people have been, and will continue to be, part of the Oregon story.
More Black History in Oregon
Essays:
“Blacks inOregon,” by Dr. Darrell Millner – The Oregon Encyclopedia
“Black Exclusion Laws in Oregon,” by Gregory Nokes – The Oregon Encyclopedia
“Strangely Absentfrom History: Carson vs. Smith, 1852–1857,” by Bob Zybach – Oregon State Bar Bulletin
Oregon Historical Quarterly Articles:
“We’ll All Start Even”: White Egalitarianism and the Oregon Donation Land Claim Act, by Kenneth R. Coleman (2019)
Oregon Voices: Oregon Democracy: Asahel Bush, Slavery, and the Statehood Debate by Barbara Mahoney (2009)
Slaves and Free Men: Blacks in the Oregon Country, 1840-1860, by Quintard Taylor (1982)
Unwelcome Settlers: Black and Mulatto Oregon Pioneers (parts 1 and 2), by K. Keith Richard (1982, 1983)
Oregon’s Civil War: The Troubled Legacy of Emancipation in the Pacific Northwest, by Stacey L. Smith (2014)
Constitutionalizing Racism: George H. Williams’s Appeal for a White Utopia, by Philip Thoennes and Jack Landau (2019)
Oregon Black Pioneers/Oregon Black Heritage Museum
Oregon State Archives – Black in Oregon exhibit
Online Exhibits:
Oregon State Archives – The “Negro Question” and Oregon Politics
Central City Concern Exhibit – Portland’s Golden West Hotel
Videos:
Oregon Experience – “Oregon Black Pioneers”, by Oregon Public Broadcasting
Oregon Encounters – “Black Pioneers”, by High Desert Museum
Other:
Oregon State University collection of Black Oregon history Wikipedia articles
Southern Oregon Equity Connect 