History - Oregon: Racism in Oregon
Intro
Did you know that Black people were once prohibited from living in Oregon? Or that one of the states with highest percentage of KKK members was Oregon? And it wasn't even that long ago! Read about Oregon's racist past and what it means for our present and future.
Early History
- Inside Oregon's "White Utopia"
In 1859, the Union granted Oregon statehood, even though Oregon officially didn’t welcome everyone in the Union into its borders. Indeed, the state’s constitution explicitly forbade black people from living, working or owning property in Oregon, making it the only state in the Union to explicitly deny entry on the grounds of race. - A racist history shows why Oregon is still so white
Oregon began as a whites-only state, through a series of Black exclusionary laws that were designed to discourage Black Americans from living here in the first place. - Digital copies of the Oregon Constitution
Digital scans of the original constitution at the founding of the state. - Oregon Black Pioneers
An archive and narrative project documenting the lives of early Black Oregon residents who made the effort to live in this state despite its racists beginnings. - When Portland banned blacks: Oregon’s shameful history as an ‘all-white’ state
The law allowed slave holders to keep their slaves for a maximum of three years. After the grace period, all black people — those considered freed or enslaved — were required to leave Oregon Country. Black women were given three years to get out; black men were required to leave in two. - Video from OPB: Oregon's Black Pioneers
“Oregon’s Black Pioneers” examines the earliest African-Americans who lived and worked in the region during the mid-1800s. They came as sailors, gold miners, farmers and slaves. Their numbers were small, by some estimates just 60 Black residents in 1850, but they managed to create communities, and in some cases, take on racist laws — and win.
Vanport
- How Oregon’s Second Largest City Vanished in a DayA 1948 flood washed away the WWII housing project Vanport—but its history still informs Portland’s diversity
Anti-Asian Racism
- Becoming AsianA personal essay from a Japanese-American Oregonian
Redlining and Racism in Portland
- History of Racist Planning in Portland
This website is from the City of Portland examining its own policies and efforts to suppress and oppress the Black community - Black and Blue: Police-Community Relations in Portland's Albina District, 1964–1985As in many cities across America, the relationship between African Americans in Portland, Oregon, and the city police force was fraught with tension through the late twentieth century. Scholars Leanne Serbulo and Karen Gibson argue that Portland's African Americans, who collectively made up less than ten percent of Portland residents and were redlined into neighborhoods including the Albina district, experienced police as figures of colonial oppression.
- https://www.ohs.org/oregon-historical-quarterly/upload/Serbulo_Post-Legislation-Civil-Rights-Timeline_Fall-2018_OHQ-119_spread.pdfLinks to PDF. Civil Rights legislation depends on robust implementation and enforcement. Without outside pressure, local governments did not aggressively pursue a dismantling of discriminatory policies.
Imarisha Walidah
Books at PCC
The Portland Black Panthers by ISBN: 9780295995168Publication Date: 2016-01-01
Enduring Legacy of Portland's Black Panthers by ISBN: 9781648411816Publication Date: 2022-11-01
- Arresting power : resisting police violence in Portland, OregonDocuments the history of conflict between the Portland police and community members throughout the past fifty years.
Perseverance: a history of African Americans in Oregon's Marion and Polk Counties by ISBN: 9781450748780Publication Date: 2011-01-01
A Peculiar Paradise by ISBN: 9780870712210Publication Date: 2022-11-03
- An illustrated timeline of oregon's black history: 1788-2012.Our center is proud to share with our community an illustrated timeline of Oregon's Black History from 1788 to 2012. Our students and volunteers made selections of historical events that gave shape to the black experience in Oregon. These events contextualize our experiences and continue to have powerful implications into the present of all Oregonians.
The Invisible Empire in the West by ISBN: 9780252018329Publication Date: 1992-02-01
A Force for Change: Beatrice Morrow Cannady & the struggle for civil rights in Oregon, 1912-1936 by ISBN: 9780870715808Publication Date: 2010-04-01
This work by PCC Library is licensed by Portland Community College under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.- Last Updated: Mar 26, 2025 4:52 PM
- URL: https://guides.pcc.edu/history-oregon
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Subjects: History