Oregon Historical Quarterly Winter 2019 SPECIAL ISSUE White Supremacy & Resistance in this issue Violence on Tribal Peoples of the Oregon Coast; Settler Sovereignty Formation in Oregon; White Egalitarianism and the Oregon Donation Land Claim Act; George Williams’s Anti-Slavery Letter; Abolitionists in Oregon; Labor and White Right; Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards; Struggle to Admit African Americans into ILWU, Local 8; Nativism to White Power; The Murder of Mulugeta Seraw THIS PROGRAM, from the St. Rose Church Men’s Club’s ninth annual minstrel show, is an example of how OHS Research Library, Coll. 835 Library, OHS Research racism and White supremacy can take many forms that are accepted in mainstream society. As detailed in the program, participants dressed in blackface and performed skits for audiences in Portland, Oregon. Programs in the OHS Research Library collection indicate the church performed minstrel shows from the 1940s until at least 1950. During that time, the church moved the show from a single performance at Grant High School to two performances at Civic Auditorium. ON THE COVER: On May 26, 2017, White supremacist Jeremy Christian verbally attacked two young women, one wearing a hijab, on a light-rail train in Portland, Oregon. Three men intervened, and Christian killed Ricky Best and Taliesin Namkai-Meche, while severely injuring Micah Fletcher. In the days following the attack, a powerful, tangible response from the community developed at the Hollywood MAX station — a memorial to the victims that included chalk messages, photographs, candles, and flowers. Jackie Labrecque, then a reporter for KATU News, took this photograph at dawn after someone wrote, in pink chalk, Taliesin Namkai-Meche’s final words: “Please tell everyone on this train I love them.” The memorial, a response to tragedy, also provided hope through a resounding denouncement of hate. Photograph courtesy of Jackie Labrecque. THE JOURNAL OF RECORD FOR OREGON HISTORY OHS Executive Director Winter 2019, Volume 120, Number 4 Kerry Tymchuk © 2019 Oregon Historical Society All rights reserved Editorial Staff This is a reprint of the Winter 2019 issue and includes minor Eliza E. Canty-Jones, Editor changes to correct for errors. Erin E. Brasell, Editorial, Design, and Production Manager Helen Ryan, Rose Tucker Fellow The Oregon Historical Quarterly (ISSN 0030-4727) is published Katrine Barber, Book Review Editor quarterly — Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter — by the Oregon Historical Society, 1200 S.W. Park Avenue, Portland, OR, 97205- OHQ Volunteers and Interns 2483. Nothing in the Quarterly may be reprinted in whole or Eve Ashkar in part without written permission from the publisher. Articles Abby Dawson appearing in this journal are abstracted and indexed in Historical Marvin Dawson Abstracts and America: History and Life. Darren Layne SUBMISSIONS: The editor welcomes submission of Mary Oberst articles and documents dealing with the history and culture of Jennifer Strayer the Pacific Northwest, particularly the state of Oregon. Please write OHQ or visit the Web site at Editorial Advisory Board www.ohs.org to receive authors’ guidelines with a description of Peter Boag, Washington State University submission requirements and the types of articles accepted for Christine Curran, Deputy, State Historic Preservation Office the journal. Jennifer Karson Engum, Confederated Tribes Direct all submissions, books for review, and inquiries to Editor, of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Oregon Historical Quarterly, 1200 S.W. Park Avenue, Portland, OR Robert Kentta, Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians 97205-2483, or e-mail [email protected]. Laura Ferguson, High Desert Museum MEMBERSHIP: Basic individual membership in the Oregon Natalia Fernández, Oregon State University Historical Society is $60, which includes a subscription to OHQ. Angie Morrill, Klamath Tribes and Portland Public Schools A separate subscription to OHQ is $44 per year; the institutional Title VI Indian Education rate is $68; institutional electronic subscriptions are available via Chelsea Rose, Southern Oregon University Laboratory JSTOR. Teachers and seniors (60 and older) receive a 10 percent of Anthropology discount. Questions regarding membership or subscription Sara Siestreem, Hanis Coos should be directed to Membership Office, Oregon Historical Carmen Thompson, Portland Community College and Society, 1200 S.W. Park Avenue, Portland, OR 97205-2483; Portland State University (503) 222-1741. OHS Board Members BACK ISSUES: Single copies of OHQ are available. For more See page 610 information, write [email protected] or call (503) 306-5230. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Oregon Historical Quarterly, Membership Office, Oregon Historical Society, 1200 S.W. Park Avenue, Portland, OR 97205. Periodicals postage paid at Portland, Oregon, and additional mailing offices. COVER IMAGE: See back cover. www.ohs.org The Journal of Record for Oregon History Oregon Historical Quarterly WHITE SUPREMACY & RESISTANCE guest editors Darrell Millner and Carmen P. Thompson dedicated to Ricky Best, Micah Fletcher, and Taliesin Namkai-Meche * This pdf edition of the Winter 2019 issue of the Oregon Historical Quarterly was created for Willamette University’s Fall 2020 “Reckoning with Oregon’s History: A Discussion Series.” The Oregon Historical Society holds the copyright to this issue, and it should not be distributed for other uses without permission. Winter 2019 Volume 120, Number 4 photo credit: OHS Research Library, Mss 1231 CONTENTS 356 Note from the Editors by Carmen P. Thompson 358 Expectation and Exclusion An Introduction to Whiteness, White Supremacy, and Resistance in Oregon by Carmen P. Thompson OREGON VOICES 368 White American Violence on Tribal Peoples of the Oregon Coast by David G. Lewis and Thomas J. Connolly ARTICLES 382 “We were at our journey’s end” Settler Sovereignty Formation in Oregon by Katrine Barber 414 “We’ll All Start Even” White Egalitarianism and the Oregon Donation Land Claim Act by Kenneth R. Coleman 440 The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders Oregon Abolitionists and their Followers by Jim M. Labbe PRIMARY DOCUMENT 468 Constitutionalizing Racism George H. Williams’s Appeal for a White Utopia by Philip Thoennes and Jack Landau ARTICLES 488 White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City by Johanna Ogden 518 Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards Racial Discrimination in Kaiser’s Portland Shipyards, 1940–1945 by John Linder OREGON VOICES 546 “They can’t come in through the front door because you guys won’t let them” An Oral History of the Struggle to Admit African Americans into ILWU Local 8 by Sandy Polishuk RESEARCH FILES 564 From Nativism to White Power Mid-Twentieth-Century White Supremacist Movements in Oregon by Shane Burley and Alexander Reid Ross OREGON VOICES 588 White Supremacy and Hatred in the Streets of Portland The Murder of Mulugeta Seraw by Elden Rosenthal 606 Epilogue by Eliza E. Canty-Jones Project Background and Timeline, 607 OHS Directors and Honorary Council, 610 Contributors, 612 Volume contents, 614 Volume index, 616 Note from the Editors by Carmen P. Thompson THE PRIMARY GOAL of this issue is to help readers understand White supremacy — what it means, what it has meant, and how it has presented itself in Oregon history. White supremacy is not just the Klu Klux Klan don- ning robes or burning crosses, but it can be. It is not just an individual act of racial discrimination, although it can be that, too. White supremacy is a collective set of codes, spoken and unspoken, explicit and implied, that society enforces through its institutions, governments, and legal structures in order to keep those deemed as White on top and every other racial group below them — with specific emphasis, in the United States, on keeping Black people at the bottom. White supremacy is a system by which American society was initially, and continues to be, organized. Social organizing systems are impercep- tible. They make a certain way of doing things seem fundamental, thereby normalizing that practice. Historical methodologies that trace change, con- tinuities, turning points, and flash points are important tools that historians use to make sense of historical phenomena that otherwise are difficult to articulate. The authors of the articles and essays in this special issue make use of these methods to understand Oregon’s history of White supremacy, its manifestation in everyday life, and the ways people have resisted it. This historical investigation was prompted by current events. On May 26, 2017, a White man verbally attacked two young women, one wearing a hijab, on the light-rail system in Portland, Oregon. Three men intervened, and the attacker killed Ricky Best and Taliesin Namkai-Meche, while severely injuring Micah Fletcher.1 Shortly thereafter, the Oregon Historical Quarterly’s (OHQ) Editorial Advisory Board gathered for its semiannual meeting, where board member Dr. Carmen Thompson suggested that, as a scholarly publi- cation housed in the state’s historical society, OHQ could offer a complex, contextualized investigation of the history of White supremacy in our state. All agreed that the effort would be worthwhile. The ensuing work engaged dozens of scholars and community leaders and resulted from collabora- tive decision-making among the journal’s editorial staff and guest editors, Thompson and Dr. Darrell Millner. Over a dozen authors drew on lifetimes 356 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 © 2019 Oregon Historical Society of scholarship and spent over a year writing, revising, and responding to editorial suggestions, fact-checking questions, and layout drafts. This special issue is not neutral on the subject of White supremacy. It does not put blame onto readers who are labeled as “White,” but it is meant as a call to self-reflection. Millner, in one of our editorial meetings, put it best when he said: “We are not responsible for the past, but we are responsible for our relationship to the past.” We challenge all readers to look both inward and outward at the legacies and vestiges of what racial labeling has meant, and continues to mean, for people who are not White and for those who are.