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African Americans in Oregon

February 15, 2024

African Americans in Oregon or Black Oregonians are residents of the state of Oregon who are of African American ancestry. In 2017, there were an estimated 91,000 African Americans in Oregon.[1]

African Americans in Oregon
The family of America Waldo Bogle, one of the first African Americans to settle in Oregon.
Total population
137,000 including partially Black people (3.2% of Oregon's population); 81,000 alone (1.9%)
Regions with significant populations
North and Northeast Portland • Gresham
Languages
English
Religion
Christianity
Related ethnic groups
African Americans

History edit

 
Politicians from Portland meet with the Ku Klux Klan.

Blacks likely began arriving in Oregon in the 1500s as free and enslaved passengers of English and Spanish ships.[2] The first confirmed presence of a person of African descent in Oregon is Marcus Lopius, a crew member from Cabo Verde aboard the American ship Lady Washington that reached Oregon in 1788. An enslaved man known as York came to Oregon in 1803 as part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Other early Black explorers came overland to Oregon as free trappers or as laborers for John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company and the British Hudson Bay Company.[3]

Both enslaved and free Black people settled in Oregon in the 1840s and 50s. Although slavery had been outlawed in Oregon since the 1843 Organic Laws of Oregon, at least 40 enslaved Black people were brought to the Oregon Country. Some remained enslaved for years after their arrival.[4]

In 1844, George Washington Bush traveled west on the Oregon Trail. After hearing about Oregon's exclusion law he decided not to settle in the Oregon Territory, and settled in what would become Washington Territory instead.

African-Americans, like Blacks in other states, were historically discriminated against, but much more strongly contrasted to the rest of the US. When Oregon became a state in 1859, it was the only US state restricting people of certain ethnic backgrounds from owning land.

According to Perseverance, “By 1860, African Americans were present in fourteen of the nineteen Oregon counties.”[5]

The Oregon black exclusion laws were attempts to prevent black people from settling within the borders of the settlement and eventual U.S. state of Oregon. The first such law took effect in 1844, when the Provisional Government of Oregon voted to exclude black settlers from Oregon's borders. The law authorized a punishment for any black settler remaining in the territory to be whipped with "not less than twenty nor more than thirty-nine stripes" for every six months they remained.[6] Additional laws aimed at African Americans entering Oregon were ratified in 1849 and 1857. The last of these laws was repealed in 1926. The laws, born of anti-slavery and anti-black beliefs, were often justified as a reaction to fears of black people instigating Native American uprisings.[7] The restrictions and laws prohibiting people of African descent from residing in the state caused socio economic issues that still exist today.[8]

In the early 20th century, the African American population became heavily represented in the timber industry, transforming it into one of Oregon's most diverse trades.[9][10]

Vanport, Portland edit

The establishment of Vanport coincided with an unprecedented influx of African-Americans into Oregon, attracted to work in newly federally-desegregated wartime defence industries. Due to exclusionary racial laws, the state had a population of fewer than 1,800 Black people in 1940; by 1946 more than 15,000 lived in the Portland area, mostly in Vanport and other segregated housing districts.[11] One prewar observer, Portland Urban League secretary Edwin C. Berry, described Portland as a " 'northern' city with a 'southern' exposure", arguing that the city shared with southern cities "traditions, attitudes, and things interracial in character." Berry argued that prior to the war the city exhibited remarkably unprogressive racial attitudes.[12]

The hastily constructed wartime development's social and cultural mores had little in common with Portland as a whole. Vanport's immigrants imported their particular brands of racism from throughout the country. White migrants from the South were the most vocal in opposing the degree of integration that HAP dictated for schools, buses and work sites. The Authority was largely unsympathetic to these complaints and at no time was de jure segregation imposed on any of Vanport's facilities. When police were called because Black men were dancing with white women at a local event, only the white women were detained and warned that their conduct might lead to a race riot.[13]

HAP never had any explicit policy advocating segregation; nonetheless, for various reasons de facto segregation was the norm. Whites complained when placed near "Black" areas, and segregation of Vanport by neighborhood might as well have been enforced legally.[14] Only in 1944 were complaints raised about the segregation situation in the city. Reacting to the criticism—and pressure from Eleanor Roosevelt—by April 1944, HAP began placing incoming Blacks into the "white" areas of the settlement. However, word quickly spread and 63 white residents quickly signed a petition demanding a reversal of the policy. Entire buildings were free in the "Black" areas of town, they argued, and after opponents of the integration plan appeared at a HAP meeting the authority decided to resume its previous policies.[15]

The unprecedented level of integration and lack of any major racial incidents or severe tensions did not mean there were no problems. Black/white tensions were still a part of Vanport life as well as a problem in relating to Portland. A 1943–44 study published in the American Sociological Review indicates that the top five complaints from Vanport residents included "negroes and whites in same neighborhood", "negroes and whites in same school", and "discrimination against Vanport people by Portlanders".[16]

Although some of Portland's Black people lived in 53 of the city's 60 census tracts before the war, about half were concentrated in two tracts east of the Willamette River and north of the east–west centerline of the city.[17] After the war, much of Portland's Black community remained centered in northeastern parts of the city.[18]

Northeast Portland edit

Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, Black residents who were former Vanport residents and shipyard/industrial workers settled in the Northeast Portland area. Much of Portland's Black community, which is 6% of Portland's population, is concentrated within the northeast Portland area; Alberta Arts District and King are both rife in African American populations. Zip codes in North and Northeast Portland are mainly at least 15 to 20% Black.

Today, Portland is 5.9% Black, and 7.8% including partially Black people.[19]

African immigrants edit

There are some Nigerian, Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Somali immigrants in Oregon, primarily in Portland. A killing of an Ethiopian man in the 1980s by white supremacists garnered attention towards the issue of racism towards BLack and African Americans in Portland.

Notable African-American Oregonians edit

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Blacks in Oregon". The Oregon Encyclopedia. from the original on 2014-08-20. Retrieved 2021-12-30.
  2. ^ Darby, Melissa C. (2019). Thunder go north : the hunt for Sir Francis Drake's fair and good bay. Salt Lake City. pp. 51–54, 61–69. ISBN 978-1-60781-726-0. OCLC 1089270180.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ Ronda, James P. (April 1992). "Astoria and Empire". The American Historical Review: 97. doi:10.1086/ahr/97.2.623-a. ISSN 1937-5239.
  4. ^ Nokes, R. Gregory (2014-10-06). "Slaves List". Nokes Books. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  5. ^ Perseverance : a history of African Americans in Oregon's Marion and Polk Counties. Oregon Northwest Black Pioneers. Salem, Or.: Oregon Northwest Black Pioneers. 2011. ISBN 978-1-4507-4878-0. OCLC 747038125.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. ^ Brown, J. Henry (1892). Brown's Political History of Oregon: Provisional Government. Portland: Wiley B. Allen. LCCN rc01000356. OCLC 422191413. Pages 132–135.
  7. ^ Taylor, Quintard (1982). "Slaves and Free Men: Blacks in the Oregon Country, 1840–1860". Oregon Historical Quarterly. 83: 153–169.
  8. ^ . National Geographic. 2021-03-08. Archived from the original on 2021-03-08. Retrieved 2021-12-30.
  9. ^ "Discover Oregon's Diverse Timber History". Travel Oregon. 2021-01-28. Retrieved 2021-12-30.
  10. ^ "The Faces of Black Oregon". Travel Oregon. 2018-03-02. Retrieved 2021-12-30.
  11. ^ Maben 1987, p. 86.
  12. ^ Berry, Edwin C. (November 1945). "Profiles: Portland". Journal of Educational Sociology. American Sociological Association. 19 (3): 158–165. doi:10.2307/2263420. JSTOR 2263420.
  13. ^ Maben 1987, p. 93.
  14. ^ Maben 1987, p. 91.
  15. ^ Maben 1987, p. 94.
  16. ^ Kilbourn, Charlotte & Lantis, Margaret (February 1946). . American Sociological Review. 11 (1): 57–66. doi:10.2307/2085277. JSTOR 2085277. Archived from the original (reprinted by Center for Columbia River History) on June 24, 2016.
  17. ^ Maben 1987, p. 92.
  18. ^ Stroud, Ellen (1999). "Troubled Waters in Ecotopia: Environmental Racism in Portland, Oregon" (PDF). Radical History Review. New York, N.Y.: MARHO. 1999 (74): 65–95. doi:10.1215/01636545-1999-74-65. ISSN 0163-6545. Retrieved June 24, 2014.
  19. ^ "DP05ACS DEMOGRAPHIC AND HOUSING ESTIMATES".

Works cited edit

Further reading edit

  • Pioneers, Oregon Black; Moreland, Kimberly Stowers (2013). African Americans of Portland. ISBN 9780738596198.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to African Americans in Oregon.

February 15, 2024
african, americans, oregon, this, article, lead, section, short, adequately, summarize, points, please, consider, expanding, lead, provide, accessible, overview, important, aspects, article, july, 2022, black, oregonians, residents, state, oregon, african, ame. This article s lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article July 2022 African Americans in Oregon or Black Oregonians are residents of the state of Oregon who are of African American ancestry In 2017 there were an estimated 91 000 African Americans in Oregon 1 African Americans in OregonThe family of America Waldo Bogle one of the first African Americans to settle in Oregon Total population137 000 including partially Black people 3 2 of Oregon s population 81 000 alone 1 9 Regions with significant populationsNorth and Northeast Portland GreshamLanguagesEnglishReligionChristianityRelated ethnic groupsAfrican Americans Contents 1 History 2 Vanport Portland 3 Northeast Portland 4 African immigrants 5 Notable African American Oregonians 6 See also 7 References 7 1 Works cited 8 Further readingHistory edit nbsp Politicians from Portland meet with the Ku Klux Klan Blacks likely began arriving in Oregon in the 1500s as free and enslaved passengers of English and Spanish ships 2 The first confirmed presence of a person of African descent in Oregon is Marcus Lopius a crew member from Cabo Verde aboard the American ship Lady Washington that reached Oregon in 1788 An enslaved man known as York came to Oregon in 1803 as part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Other early Black explorers came overland to Oregon as free trappers or as laborers for John Jacob Astor s Pacific Fur Company and the British Hudson Bay Company 3 Both enslaved and free Black people settled in Oregon in the 1840s and 50s Although slavery had been outlawed in Oregon since the 1843 Organic Laws of Oregon at least 40 enslaved Black people were brought to the Oregon Country Some remained enslaved for years after their arrival 4 In 1844 George Washington Bush traveled west on the Oregon Trail After hearing about Oregon s exclusion law he decided not to settle in the Oregon Territory and settled in what would become Washington Territory instead African Americans like Blacks in other states were historically discriminated against but much more strongly contrasted to the rest of the US When Oregon became a state in 1859 it was the only US state restricting people of certain ethnic backgrounds from owning land According to Perseverance By 1860 African Americans were present in fourteen of the nineteen Oregon counties 5 The Oregon black exclusion laws were attempts to prevent black people from settling within the borders of the settlement and eventual U S state of Oregon The first such law took effect in 1844 when the Provisional Government of Oregon voted to exclude black settlers from Oregon s borders The law authorized a punishment for any black settler remaining in the territory to be whipped with not less than twenty nor more than thirty nine stripes for every six months they remained 6 Additional laws aimed at African Americans entering Oregon were ratified in 1849 and 1857 The last of these laws was repealed in 1926 The laws born of anti slavery and anti black beliefs were often justified as a reaction to fears of black people instigating Native American uprisings 7 The restrictions and laws prohibiting people of African descent from residing in the state caused socio economic issues that still exist today 8 In the early 20th century the African American population became heavily represented in the timber industry transforming it into one of Oregon s most diverse trades 9 10 Vanport Portland editThe establishment of Vanport coincided with an unprecedented influx of African Americans into Oregon attracted to work in newly federally desegregated wartime defence industries Due to exclusionary racial laws the state had a population of fewer than 1 800 Black people in 1940 by 1946 more than 15 000 lived in the Portland area mostly in Vanport and other segregated housing districts 11 One prewar observer Portland Urban League secretary Edwin C Berry described Portland as a northern city with a southern exposure arguing that the city shared with southern cities traditions attitudes and things interracial in character Berry argued that prior to the war the city exhibited remarkably unprogressive racial attitudes 12 The hastily constructed wartime development s social and cultural mores had little in common with Portland as a whole Vanport s immigrants imported their particular brands of racism from throughout the country White migrants from the South were the most vocal in opposing the degree of integration that HAP dictated for schools buses and work sites The Authority was largely unsympathetic to these complaints and at no time was de jure segregation imposed on any of Vanport s facilities When police were called because Black men were dancing with white women at a local event only the white women were detained and warned that their conduct might lead to a race riot 13 HAP never had any explicit policy advocating segregation nonetheless for various reasons de facto segregation was the norm Whites complained when placed near Black areas and segregation of Vanport by neighborhood might as well have been enforced legally 14 Only in 1944 were complaints raised about the segregation situation in the city Reacting to the criticism and pressure from Eleanor Roosevelt by April 1944 HAP began placing incoming Blacks into the white areas of the settlement However word quickly spread and 63 white residents quickly signed a petition demanding a reversal of the policy Entire buildings were free in the Black areas of town they argued and after opponents of the integration plan appeared at a HAP meeting the authority decided to resume its previous policies 15 The unprecedented level of integration and lack of any major racial incidents or severe tensions did not mean there were no problems Black white tensions were still a part of Vanport life as well as a problem in relating to Portland A 1943 44 study published in the American Sociological Review indicates that the top five complaints from Vanport residents included negroes and whites in same neighborhood negroes and whites in same school and discrimination against Vanport people by Portlanders 16 Although some of Portland s Black people lived in 53 of the city s 60 census tracts before the war about half were concentrated in two tracts east of the Willamette River and north of the east west centerline of the city 17 After the war much of Portland s Black community remained centered in northeastern parts of the city 18 Northeast Portland editStarting in the 1950s and 1960s Black residents who were former Vanport residents and shipyard industrial workers settled in the Northeast Portland area Much of Portland s Black community which is 6 of Portland s population is concentrated within the northeast Portland area Alberta Arts District and King are both rife in African American populations Zip codes in North and Northeast Portland are mainly at least 15 to 20 Black Today Portland is 5 9 Black and 7 8 including partially Black people 19 African immigrants editThere are some Nigerian Ethiopian Eritrean and Somali immigrants in Oregon primarily in Portland A killing of an Ethiopian man in the 1980s by white supremacists garnered attention towards the issue of racism towards BLack and African Americans in Portland Notable African American Oregonians editTanya Barfield playwright Dick Bogle first Black television reporter in the Pacific Northwest Beatrice Morrow Cannady civil rights activist and co founder of the Portland branch of the NAACP Brandon Gonzales boxer of both Black and Mexican descent A C Green professional basketball player Charles Jordan first Black city commissioner for Portland Gladys McCoy politician Harriet Redmond suffragette McCants Stewart first African American lawyer in Oregon Amine RapperSee also edit nbsp Oregon portalList of African American newspapers in Oregon Native American peoples of Oregon Racism in Oregon Oregon black exclusion lawsReferences edit Blacks in Oregon The Oregon Encyclopedia Archived from the original on 2014 08 20 Retrieved 2021 12 30 Darby Melissa C 2019 Thunder go north the hunt for Sir Francis Drake s fair and good bay Salt Lake City pp 51 54 61 69 ISBN 978 1 60781 726 0 OCLC 1089270180 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Ronda James P April 1992 Astoria and Empire The American Historical Review 97 doi 10 1086 ahr 97 2 623 a ISSN 1937 5239 Nokes R Gregory 2014 10 06 Slaves List Nokes Books Retrieved 2021 04 13 Perseverance a history of African Americans in Oregon s Marion and Polk Counties Oregon Northwest Black Pioneers Salem Or Oregon Northwest Black Pioneers 2011 ISBN 978 1 4507 4878 0 OCLC 747038125 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint others link Brown J Henry 1892 Brown s Political History of Oregon Provisional Government Portland Wiley B Allen LCCN rc01000356 OCLC 422191413 Pages 132 135 Taylor Quintard 1982 Slaves and Free Men Blacks in the Oregon Country 1840 1860 Oregon Historical Quarterly 83 153 169 Oregon once legally banned Black people Has the state reconciled its racist past National Geographic 2021 03 08 Archived from the original on 2021 03 08 Retrieved 2021 12 30 Discover Oregon s Diverse Timber History Travel Oregon 2021 01 28 Retrieved 2021 12 30 The Faces of Black Oregon Travel Oregon 2018 03 02 Retrieved 2021 12 30 Maben 1987 p 86 Berry Edwin C November 1945 Profiles Portland Journal of Educational Sociology American Sociological Association 19 3 158 165 doi 10 2307 2263420 JSTOR 2263420 Maben 1987 p 93 Maben 1987 p 91 Maben 1987 p 94 Kilbourn Charlotte amp Lantis Margaret February 1946 Elements of Tenant Instability in a War Housing Project American Sociological Review 11 1 57 66 doi 10 2307 2085277 JSTOR 2085277 Archived from the original reprinted by Center for Columbia River History on June 24 2016 Maben 1987 p 92 Stroud Ellen 1999 Troubled Waters in Ecotopia Environmental Racism in Portland Oregon PDF Radical History Review New York N Y MARHO 1999 74 65 95 doi 10 1215 01636545 1999 74 65 ISSN 0163 6545 Retrieved June 24 2014 DP05ACS DEMOGRAPHIC AND HOUSING ESTIMATES Works cited edit Maben Manly 1987 Vanport Portland Oregon Historical Society Press ISBN 0 87595 118 X Further reading editPioneers Oregon Black Moreland Kimberly Stowers 2013 African Americans of Portland ISBN 9780738596198 nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to African Americans in Oregon Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title African Americans in Oregon amp oldid 1191660991 History, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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