Oregon Historical Quarterly | Winter 2019 "White Supremacy

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 publication 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 collaborative 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. History, as revealed in this issue, demonstrates that White supremacy is subtle. It is historical, it is organic, and it is alive and well in the twenty-first century. In America, being White has long been the standard, the norm, the universal image and framework through which the nation’s institutions have been conceptualized. Conversely, those who are not White know and sense that the perspectives of Whites are the standard. In the same way, someone with a disability knows that the world is designed around people with a certain ability, or women know that our society offers greater opportunity for people who are labeled as male, or someone who is not heterosexual knows that hetero- sexuality is assumed. It is the same way with White skin and supremacy in America. With this in mind, the editors and staff of this special issue of OHQ ask you, as you partake of this scholarship on Oregon’s White supremacist history, to keep an open mind.

1. See Jim Ryan, “2 killed in stabbing on MAX train in Northeast Portland as man directs slurs at Muslim women, police say,” Oregonian, May 26, 2017, updated January 9, 2019, https://www. oregonlive.com/portland/2017/05/police_responding_to_ne_portla.html (accessed October 7, 2019); and Dick VanderHart, “Jeremy Christian Murder Trial Delayed, Despite Objections from Victims,” Willamette Week, May 3, 2019, https://www.opb.org/news/article/jeremy-christian- murder-trial-delayed-until-january-2020/ (accessed October 7, 2019).

Thompson, Note from the Editors 357 Expectation and Exclusion

An Introduction to Whiteness, White Supremacy, and Resistance in Oregon History

CARMEN P. THOMPSON

WHEN DR. DARRELL MILLNER AND I offered to be guest editors for this special issue of the Oregon Historical Quarterly (OHQ), we did so understanding the immense importance of its main focus, the history of White supremacy and resistance in Oregon. As an African American woman, I have wondered since childhood why society has subjected Black people to centuries of enslavement, Jim Crow racism, and other inhumane treatment and why the American social order ranks Whites highest and Blacks lowest. Those questions have driven my scholarly work, culminating in my book in progress, The Making of American Whiteness. I would like to welcome you to this special issue of OHQ by introducing you to the concept of Whiteness. Initially created by White people of privilege and advantage, Whiteness is an expectation (sometimes an unconscious expectation) that the government will maintain laws and policies generally benefiting White people.1 That system, which has been effectuated through all institutions that govern American society, is White supremacy — the hierarchical ordering of human beings based on phenotypic, or physical, attributes that we call “race.”2 But the ongoing, daily expectations of privilege are Whiteness. On a day-to-day level, the system of White supremacy repeatedly has provided advantages to White people, as demonstrated by the articles in this special issue. The system thereby encourages those of European ancestry to internalize their top-ranking — that is, to embody White supremacy — and that embodiment of expectation, conscious or otherwise, is Whiteness. The system of White supremacy is prone to shifts in expression and intensity with demographic, economic, social, and political change across time and space. Oregon, a state with one of the Whitest cities in America, offers the perfect history through which to examine the structures of White supremacy.3 The articles in this special issue provide examples of White supremacy and resistance in the state’s past, beginning a conversation

THIS 1901 SKETCH, originally published in Harper’s Weekly, depicts the first enslaved Africans arriving in Virginia in 1619. European establishment of North American colonies established a system of White supremacy and an ideology of “American Whiteness.” about a complex and often contradictory history. As a collection, this special issue also helps make visible Whiteness, which I believe is the most vexing problem in the United States of America. Scholars have explored the concept of Whiteness through the field of Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS), which is interdisciplinary and interracial at its core, is grounded in the disciplines of history and ethnic studies, and traverses a wide variety of traditional fields and subfields, from literature to landscape architecture.4 Since the later part of the twentieth century, students and faculty at college campuses around the world, as well as individuals, activists, and community groups interested in CWS, have used its methods to critique societies and systems of knowledge, investigating what it means and has meant to be White. Their work has explored, and critiqued, how and why some people came to adopt what W.E.B Dubois called “personal whiteness,” and it has exposed a racialized system that,

Thompson, Expectation and Exclusion 359 overall, has been detrimental to the masses — what James Baldwin called “the lie of whiteness.”5 My work argues that European establishment of early North American colonies — processes that included conquest, genocide, land theft, enslavement, and forced cultural change — created the ideology I identify as “American Whiteness.”6 American Whiteness inextricably links the enslavement of African people to the European colonization of Indigenous lands in North America. Whiteness originated outside North America, through European colonization efforts in West Africa during the fifteenth-century build-up to the transatlantic slave trade.7 At that time, there was no formal name for White supremacy, or even for race. Instead, European leaders defined their Whiteness by using oppositional terms.8 They employed heathen and uncivilized, when referring to Africans, as opposed to Christian and civilized, when referring to themselves.9 Thus, when European government leaders, church officials, and explorers expressed their reasoning for expansion to the Americas, they used terms such as planting, possessing, and subduing, all within the context of colonization and enslavement.10 These expressions, justifying Europeans’ expectation of rule over other people’s bodies and lands, can all be seen as early forms of Whiteness and, by extension, White supremacy. The international system of slavery fueled colonists’ understanding of their own Whiteness, in opposition to both African and Native peoples, long before leaders began referring to themselves as White. A 1612 exchange between Virginia officials, for example, expressed their worry about European settlers marrying Native women but did not employ the term White, instead referring to those women as “savages” and to the men as “Englishmen.”11 Similarly, the twenty-three West African people listed in Vir- ginia’s 1624 census had the word “Negro” before or after their names, while a list of sixteen European servants documented in the same census were recorded simply using their full names, without any racial designation.12 The American form of Whiteness is historical and organic, deriving from English settlers’ knowledge and interpretation of the principles of colonialism and expansionism (the bedrock and drivers of the international system of slavery), which they used to justify the original acts of colonization that made way for the United States of America.13 The longstanding ubiquity of Whiteness makes it difficult to recognize and articulate, especially for White people in America, who live in a society that has connected social, economic, and political benefits to being White. Aiding in that perception, however, is the vast and complex scholarship on race, racism, and Whiteness — to which this special issue contributes.

360 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 EDMUND MORGAN’S 1975 text American Slavery, American Freedom argued that Whiteness, and related racism, slowly began to rise during the mid to late seventeenth century, within the dichotomy between free and enslaved labor that itself grew from the rapidly increased European participation in the transatlantic slave trade. Historical theories on racism and Whiteness have generally reflected Morgan’s argument. Other historians have theorized that American racism originated outside North America. Historian George Fredrickson’s Racism: A Short History, for example, dates the emergence of Whiteness and racism to the Age of Enlightenment, when European nations (soon to be followed by the United States) madly scrambled for control of Africa and parts of Asia. Marxist scholars have understood Whiteness through the experiences of the White working class and its responses to labor exploitation in the British colonies. Theodore Allen’s 1975 Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: Invention of the White Race, for example, argued that the upper class of seventeenth-century Virginia deliberately constructed Whiteness to circumvent the uniting of poor Whites with free and enslaved Africans against ruling-class interests. Whiteness for Allen, then, was a social system designed to curb populism and placate the frustrations of property-less Whites by creating for them a class between propertied Whites and both free and enslaved Africans. By exploring American Whiteness only since European settlement in North America, I believe Allen misses that White- ness actually predates the British Empire and originated with fifteenth- century European colonization efforts in West Africa. Allen’s influence is seen in Alexander Saxton’s1990 Rise and Fall of the White Republic: Class Politics and Mass Culture in 19th Century America and in David Roediger’s 1991 The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class, which both place the rise of Whiteness within European class tensions and strivings in North America during the nineteenth century. Both of these texts fail to recognize that it was not the frustrations among lower- and working-class European men that drove White workers to accept Whiteness but, rather, the expectation of privilege and advantage. To be clear, during the nineteenth century, those workers’ frustrations were by products of the exploitation inherent in a then-centuries-old colonization system that enlisted desperate White males to be the poorly compensated shock-troops for European colonial projects.14 The expectation of advantage — that is, of the conferring of Whiteness and its attendant benefits, such as property ownership and political rights — was the reward for exploitation. It is in ignoring this standing quid pro quo that, I argue, Marxist analysis of Whiteness remains weak.

Thompson, Expectation and Exclusion 361 Scholars of the Black Radical Tradition have argued that racism predates European colonization of North America. This was the position Cedric Rob- inson took in his ground breaking 1983 book, Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, in which he argues that capitalism emerged from the already racist culture of Europe. Black Marxism, then, locates the international system of slavery, which had existed since the fifteenth century, as not only central to the capitalist development of Western civilizations but also as part and parcel of the labor exploitation strategies that went into the colonization of the Americas.15 For Robinson, “capitalist world systems” of oppression such as the transatlantic slave trade have had a profound effect in the making of the western world, particularly the United States, and by extension, in the making of racism and Whiteness.16 Recent theories on American racism have tended to focus on explaining race rather than Whiteness. Ibram X. Kendi does this in his 2016 book Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. He superbly explains the history of race in America since colonization but fails to explain White supremacy and to explicitly name Whiteness as central to American racist ideas. Similarly, Crystal Fleming argues in her 2018 book, How to be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Suprem- acy, and the Racial Divide, that White supremacy and Whiteness are new phenomena, thereby failing to acknowledge that White supremacist ideas were used to establish the colonies that became the United States and form the cornerstone to all conversations about American racism. In contrast, colonial Virginia scholar Ethan Schmidt, in his 2014 The Divided Dominion: Social Conflict and Indian Hatred in Early Virginia, argues that Whiteness embodied the settlement grammar of colonial churches and was embedded in the ideals of individual and collective freedoms and, later, notions of national sovereignty. Whiteness, I maintain, is neither a construction that explains the economic self-interest of differing classes of White people over non-Whites nor a North American phenomenon, but instead has its genesis in each European nation’s initial decision to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Just as Ameri- can Whiteness was born within a particular context, structures of White supremacy are prone to shifts in expression and intensity with demographic, economic, social, and political changes across time and space. White supremacy was systematized and expanded geographically in America and around the world — including in Oregon — in order to promote the maintenance of Whiteness, leading the way to centuries of enslavement, colonization, imperialism, globalization, wars, revolutions, and today’s racial inequalities and disparities. Its toll continues to be felt today. The articles in this special issue are dedicated to exploring the manifestation of this

362 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives

THIS 1934 SCULPTURE, titled “Covered Wagon,” is located just outside the Oregon State Capitol’s main entrance. Designed by Leo Friedlander, the sculpture depicts a pioneer family in front of a covered wagon and is inscribed with the following: “Valiant Men Have Thrust Our Frontier to the Setting Sun.” That “thrust” implies claims to Native land and is an exemplar of Whiteness, as shown in the articles of this special issue.

reality in Oregon. They address subjects from the early nineteenth to the late twentieth centuries, emphasizing connections to national and global trends and events as well as identifying aspects of White supremacy and resistance that are particular to Oregon.

THESE WORKS connect two core characteristics of Whiteness that are present in Oregon’s White supremacist history — expectation and exclusion. Expectation and exclusion are shown in these articles to be a mix of White racial sensibilities about the right to land, citizenship, and jobs and the government’s protection of White people’s claims on these important areas of life. Katrine Barber and Kenneth Coleman use the concept of settler colonialism to illustrate how Euro-American migrants to Oregon adapted and adopted expectation and exclusion in their sense of entitlement to Native lands and other natural resources. Expectation and exclusion were manifest in the decisions of some 400,000 White people to migrate along the Oregon

Thompson, Expectation and Exclusion 363 Trail to claim “free” land, made possible through White people’s expert manipulation of legislative apparatus to dispossess Indigenous peoples and to exclude free and enslaved Black people from Oregon Country. David Lewis and Thomas Connolly’s piece looks specifically at the violence inherent in settler colonialism, including the irony that the freedom of self-determination that White immigrants to the Oregon territory so desired was tied to the theft of the same freedoms from Native people. With their use of violence as an analytical framework for understanding Oregon Whiteness, Lewis and Connolly offer a cogent example of what Cheryl Harris calls the “entangled relationship between race and property.”17 Moreover, the framework of violence confirms what is exemplified in Barber’s and Coleman’s work — that there was both actualized and imagined White supremacy in settler colonialism and in the requisite justification for killing and removal of Native peoples from their sovereign lands. Together, all three of these works provide an excellent counter-narrative to the swashbuckling, pioneering caricature of the White settler while also demonstrating how a core characteristic of American Whiteness — the proprietary claim to other people’s land and resources — manifested itself as a White racial identity during the Euro-American settlement of the Oregon Country. There is clear consensus among the authors that state, local, and federal governments and their supporting institutions were knowing and willing co-conspirators in the proliferation of White supremacy in Oregon, as they were in the nation at large. This is shown in the explanations of settler colonialism and also in Philip Thoennes and Jack Landau’s analysis of an 1857 letter Chief Justice of the Oregon Territorial Supreme Court George H. Williams penned to the editors of the Oregon Statesman days before he was to participate as a delegate in the Constitutional debate over slavery that ultimately would shape Oregon statehood. Thoennes and Landau’s introduction, and the primary source itself, link an Oregon leader’s beliefs about White supremacy to that of a national leader, both articulating an impermeable distinction between Blacks and Whites in particular and among other racialized groups more generally. Yet, it would be a mistake to allow the slavery/anti-slavery rhetoric to distract our attention from a critical analysis of White supremacy in Oregon. As Jim Labbe explores in his article on abolitionists, the debate simply for or against slavery’s appropriateness for Oregon linked stances that were both mutually exclusive and interconnected to government legitimization of a “set of assumptions that accompan(ied) the status of being White.”18 As Williams’s letter demonstrates, being anti-slavery did not mean being pro-Black or having sympathy to the Black condition or Black people. The document illustrates the form and shape of Whiteness expressed through the racial hegemony

364 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 of Black enslavement and subjugation in Oregon and the nation, ideas that presage contemporary notions of White supremacy and White nationalism that are explored in Shane Burley and Alexander Ross’s essay. Burley and Ross locate the modernization of Whiteness in Oregon between the two world wars, when ideologies of White supremacy and anti-government rhetoric were formalized through the building of several small but influential political organizations, connected to Ku Klux Klan, militia, and paramilitary leaders, whose members spanned every strata of society, including police and government officials. The consequences of centuries of White supremacy that were and are so much a part of Oregon history and of the nation’s also are explored in Elden Rosenthal’s memoir of the civil trial of Tom Metzger, of the White Aryan Resistance, for instigating the 1988 murder of Mulugeta Seraw in Portland. For Rosenthal, acts of violence such as Seraw’s murder and the 2017 senseless murders on the Portland MAX (which in many ways became the catalyst for this special issue) represent “a continuum of violence” in Oregon that began during Euro-American settlement and has been refined at various flashpoints ever since. This collection shows the fault lines in the tenuous relationship between White citizens and government control. Johanna Ogden’s essay on the 1910 St. John’s riots, which were directed at Indian immigrant laborers, demonstrates those fault lines existed at places where White leaders advocated against vigilante violence and where the Indian laborers demanded first legal action in Oregon and, later, freedom from British colonizers in their homeland. Sandy Polishuk’s and John Linder’s essays show the fault lines also emerged where proprietary claims to union jobs met seismic shifts of social change, instigated by Black-led organizing. The social landscapes surrounding such fault lines provide remarkable spotlights onto Oregon Whiteness, which becomes visible through the backlash that is released when the region’s scales of justice seemed to portend hope for racial equality. Having observed White backlash at key moments of social change in American history — such as what occurred in the aftermath of the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Constitutional amendments that resulted in increased Black power and with the Civil Rights activism and legislation of the 1960s, which each gave rise to the formation of the Ku Klux Klan and the modern radical-right movement — the authors in this issue astutely use resistance as a second, sometimes ironic, framework. It can be seen in White people’s resistance to racial equality and in the ongoing resistance to White supremacy by people of color. Studying resistance helps tease out the entangled relationship between Oregon White peoples’ expectations of advantage and the government’s role in legitimating those expectations.19 Exemplary of resistance as an often-overlooked framework for revealing American

Thompson, Expectation and Exclusion 365 Whiteness are Polishuk’s and Linder’s articles on African Americans’ long and intense campaigns for admittance into Portland labor unions from the 1940s into the 1960s, Lewis and Connolly’s examples of Native people resisting the encroachment of White people on their lands, and Labbe’s exploration of Black abolitionism at the time of Oregon statehood. White supremacy continues to play an important role in the reproduction of racism. But the inequalities from racism can be combated with mutual cooperation, as in Labbe’s essay documenting White abolitionists in Oregon, Polishuk’s essay highlighting individual White people taking unpopular antiracist stances, and Odgen’s showing government officials who were moved to indict and prosecute (although not convict) White city leaders for their roles in the 1910 St. Johns Riot. Each article in this collection is introduced with a brief note by the guest editors, articulating how it sheds light on Oregon’s history of White supremacy. Between each article are examples of daily expressions of Whiteness that have helped sustain White supremacy. Readers may find echoes of that imagery and language in what they encounter today. It is our hope that this issue reflects a freshness of thought and spirit that will inspire all readers to find ways to end the adoption and proliferation of Whiteness and to bring the conversation of White supremacy out from under the sheets and robes and into the twenty-first century, using the study of Oregon’s racial history as the catalyst for change.

NOTES

1. As argued in my book in progress, The Verso, 1991); George Yancy, ed., What White Making of American Whiteness. Looks Like: African-American Philosophers 2. A. Smedley and Brian D. Smedley, Race on the Whiteness Question (Great Britain: in North America Origin and Evolution of a Routledge, 2004); and George Lipsitz, The Worldview, 4th ed. (Boulder, Col.: Westview Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How Press, 2011), 20. White People Profit from Identity Politics 3. Alana Semuels, “The Racist History of (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998). Portland, the Whitest City in American,” The 5. W.E.B. Du Bois, “The Soul of White Atlantic, July 22, 2016. Folks,” in Darkwater: Voices from within the 4. Tim Engles, ed., Towards a Bibliogra- Veil (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1920); James phy of Critical Whiteness Studies (Urbana: Baldwin, The Price of the Ticket: Collected University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Nonfiction, 1948–1985 (New York: St. Martin’s, 2006). Important books in field that shape my 1985). analysis of Whiteness are: David R. Roediger, 6. Carmen P. Thompson, “ ‘20. And Odd The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Mak- Negroes’: Virginia and the International System ing of the American Working Class (London: of Slavery, 1619–1660,” (Ph.D. diss., University of

366 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2012), 24. I coined Black: American Attitudes toward the Negro, the term “American Whiteness” to refer to this 1550–1812 (Chapel Hill: The University of development and to its connections to the North Carolina Press, 1968), chapter 2; Richard subsequent structures foundational to, in, and B. Moore, The Name “Negro:” Its Origin and of what would become the United States of Evil Use (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1992), America. See my book in progress, The Making 33–55; and Cyril Bibby, “The Power of Words,” of American Whiteness, for a full exploration of Unesco Courier 8:11 (April 1956). the origins of Whiteness. 13. Thompson, “ ‘20. And Odd Negroes’,” 7. 7. Thompson, “ ‘20. And Odd Negroes’,” 7. 14. On European laborers and colonization 8. Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark: projects in Africa and Virginia, see Samuel M. Whiteness and the Literary Imagination Bemiss, ed. The Three Charters of the Virginia (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992), Company of London, with Seven Related Docu- 9, 31–59. Morrison’s reading of Whiteness ments, 1606–1621 (Williamsburg, Va.: Virginia indicates that it became defined by its oppo- 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation, site, Blackness. My analysis of seventeenth- 1957), 72; David Birmingham, Trade and Con- century Virginia indicates that lower-class flict in Angola: The Mbundu and Their Neigh- Whites defined themselves in opposition to bours under the Influence of the Portuguese Blacks because of impermanence of their 1483–1790 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), (Whites’) bondage, and in doing so, sought to 25; and James Horn, A Land as God Made It: align themselves with elite Whites by using Jamestown and the Birth of America (New York: enslavement as a means to justify their higher Basic Books, 2005), 244–45. social position. 15. Robin Blackburn, The Making of New 9. Report on Angola drawn from the World Slavery: From the Baroque to the letters of Father Gouveia and Paula Dias Modern, 1492–1800 (New York: Verso, 1997). de Novais, BNL, FG, MS 8123, cited in Ruela 10-18, 33. I define the international system of Pombo, Angola Menina (Lisbon, 1944); and slavery as the technologies of oppression Gomes Eannes de Azurara, “Chronicle of the and enslavement used by Europeans in the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea,” (1453). transatlantic slave trade. Among them were The first English translation of this work was by six key elements that overlap in various ways Raymond Beazley and Edgar Prestage, printed with other systems of domination, such as for the Hakluyt Society in two volumes, the colonialism and imperialism. The six key ele- first in1896 . See also William Waller Hening, ments discussed in my dissertation as they ed. The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection relate to Virginia’s growth and development of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Ses- include: religious intolerance and persecution, sion of the Legislature in the Year 1619, II: 283 territorial expansion, colonial settlement, ar- (English translation at page 99). rogant imposition on colonial and Indigenous 10. Albert Bushnell Hart, ed. Era of Coloni- peoples, theological justification for enslave- zation, 1492–1689 (New York: The MacMillian ment, and racial exclusion. An aspect of this Company, 1908), 1586. analysis was informed by the work of Robin 11. Regarding the opposition language Blackburn. European leaders used to differentiate 16. Cedric J Robinson, Black Marxism: The themselves from Native peoples, see Cor- Making of the Black Radical Tradition (Chapel respondence taken from James City records, Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, V: 2589, folio 61. 1983; repr., 2000), 111–12. 12. Annie Lash Jester, ed., Adventures 17. Cheryl I. Harris, “Whiteness as Prop- of Purse and Person, 1607–1625 (Princeton: erty,” Harvard Law Review, 106:8 (June 1993): Princeton University Press, 1956), 22, 27, 29, 1714. 34, 46, 49, 62. For an examination of the sig- 18. Ibid., 1713. nificance of the wordNegro as a label of racial 19. As argued in my book in progress, The difference, see Winthrop D. Jordan, White over Making of American Whiteness.

Thompson, Expectation and Exclusion 367 White American Violence on Tribal Peoples on the Oregon Coast

OREGON VOICES

by David G. Lewis and Thomas J. Connolly

Traditional narratives of nineteenth-century western movement of White people across North America often present the West as an empty space waiting to be filled with an energetic, advancing vanguard of civilization. Arriving migrants were not filling an unoccupied demographic void; they were displacing and replacing complex, settled societies that had resided there for thousands of years. The newcomers self-defined their culture and institutions as superior to those practiced by the Indigenous populations, asserting that this presumed superiority granted them a supreme right to govern and control this now-contested space. The resident populations were unconvinced and vigorously opposed Whites’ claims to supremacy. Ultimately, the coercive power of violence was the decisive factor in the ascendency of Whites in the West.

DURING THE PAST five centuries, court upheld fundamental elements of Native peoples of the North American this doctrine in 1823.1 continent have lost nearly all of their Long before Europeans and Ameri- landholdings to peoples of European cans brought new laws and customs descent. The acts required for taking to what would become Oregon, Native those lands rested on the denial that peoples of the valley and coastal tribal people were humans, deserv- regions controlled access to their ing of human rights, and that violent natural resources on their lands through actions were wrong when perpetrated property rights and access rules. Spe- on “savage” Indians. The relevant cific families often owned assets such body of law, commonly referred to as as fishing sites or managed gathering the Doctrine of Discovery, is rooted in places, while hunting grounds might the Papal bull of 1493, which directed be shared with the broader community. “barbarous nations be overthrown and Such rules contributed to their effective- brought to the faith.” The U.S. Supreme ness as prolific traders who were savvy

IN 1851, Capt. William Tichenor claimed land in the territory of the Kwatami tunne, the Sixes River band of the Tututni peoples, which would become Port Orford, Oregon. On arrival, Tichenor and hired men mounted a cannon on a large shore rock, later named Battle Rock, that resulted in a standoff and many Native deaths. This 1856 sketch, published in Harper’s Weekly, depicts a scene from the battle.

about commerce. The Tualatin people ing witness to this violence is crucial to of the northern Willamette Valley (rela- understanding how those foundations tives of Santiam author David Lewis), of Oregon White supremacy looked and for example, traded with the Clackamas felt to Native people. Chinook for salmon at Willamette Falls, During the fur trade era, the Ore- but were not permitted to fish with dip gon Country was primarily under the nets. One guilty of trespass or theft from influence of the British Hudson’s Bay a neighbor might face fatal retribution.2 Company (HBC). The company’s large Settlers who began to arrive in the trapping parties effectively bypassed late 1830s and into the decades that engaging with their Native hosts, from followed routinely ignored tribal laws whose lands they harvested furs and and policies. Over time, fur traders, game “without permission or apology.”3 settlers, miners, entrepreneurs, and Trappers disregarded traditional owner- military agents engaged in repeated ship protocols and, when challenged, and often shocking acts of violence countered with a strategy of “massive against Native people. Those acts of retaliation” or “generalized vengeance physical injury, murder, and trauma pro- homicide.”4 The lesson that harming vide insight into how White supremacy HBC employees could mean the death was institutionalized in Oregon. Bear- of multiple innocents firmly established

Lewis and Connolly, White American Violence on Tribal Peoples on the Oregon Coast 369 subsequent relationships between Indi- relations” — was effectively the end of ans and Whites. From the Whites’ view, the Yaquina people as a nation.8 those relationships enforced economic In 1851, an American schooner and political superiority, but from the arrived at a remote natural coastal port Natives’ perspective, the relationships in the territory of the Kwatami tunne, the established an enduring mistrust. Sixes River band of the Tututni peoples, One example, analyzed by scholar which would come to be known as R. Scott Byram, illustrates this reality. Port Orford. American businessman In 1832, Alsea hunters killed two HBC Capt. William Tichenor had the goal of trappers who were in Alsea territory beginning a new American port town and trapping for furs without Alsea to service the gold fields of southern consent. The Chief Factor of the local Oregon, and he secured a donation HBC outpost at Fort Vancouver, John land claim in the Kwatami lands without McLoughlin, instructed his employee, having first discussed his desires with Michel Laframboise, to lead a retaliatory the Tribe. Such claims were technically expedition. Laframboise was to deliver illegal under U.S. land law, as the Tribes the threat that, if the Indians would not had neither negotiated treaties nor sold identify and kill the perpetrators, the their land to the United States.9 HBC “would come back and Kill every Tichenor had hired men from Port- one of the tribe that came in our way land and took on firearms at Astoria, and would not stop till we had killed and on arrival at his land claim, they every one of them.”5 The retaliatory mounted a ship’s cannon on top of a party attacked an innocent Yaquina large shore rock, called by the local village, and, according to a narrative Athapaskan speakers Ma-na-xe oe by Coquelle Thompson, “They shot and later renamed Battle Rock.10 They down man, woman, and child as they encountered stiff opposition from the ran naked from the houses. Not one Kwatami people who occupied the escaped. That is why only Yaqwina area, supplemented by a canoe arriv- [Yaquina] John and few others of the ing from the direction of Rogue River Yaquina people survived. [The fur trap- and bringing the number of Indians pers] killed many people in revenge for to “at least one hundred”.11 Tichenor’s two of a different tribe.”6 According to men responded to the Kwatami’s first HBC records, the party killed six Indians; attack with small arms fire and cannon an account of the incident reported shots, killing twelve or thirteen Natives by Corporal Royal Bensell, however, with the cannon’s first firing.12 Follow- claimed the “Sixes” (possibly Yaquina) ing the battle, “We counted seventeen “lost some 400 warriors.”7 Certainly, dead Indians,” according to an account both accounts exaggerate the real cir- by party leader J.M. Kirkpatrick, who cumstances to serve their own interests, later learned “from an Indian at the but as Byram emphasized, in the oral mouth of the Umpqua that there were history of the Yaquina, this incident — “in twenty killed and fifteen wounded.”13 initial, wide-scale breakdown of prin- After fourteen days of this standoff, ciples of justice regarding international Tichenor’s men escaped north.

370 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-120022 When Tichenor returned from San Francisco, he found his men gone and signs of a great battle. He again went south to San Francisco and returned on July 14 with some sixty-five men, who he employed to establish a firmly fortified beachhead and to claim Port Orford for his town. The men who escaped battle eventually reached settlements in the north, and on hearing their story, the command at Fort Vancouver sent a military detachment to punish the Tribes and to build a fort, Fort Orford, to ensure the safety of the Americans in the region. More deaths followed, including many due to punishments handed out DOROTHY LOPEZ WILLIAMS (TOLOWA) by the military detachment on stands on a hillside looking out over the Pacific neighboring Tribes. Tichenor, Ocean. Edward Curtis took this photograph in 1923. supported by the U.S. military, created the first southern coastal port on the Oregon coast, on River] country and slay the savages unceded Kwatami lands, on Septem- wherever they can be found.”15 The ber 14, 1851. It served as the center of Oregon City Oregon Spectator edi- colonization and Indian administration torialized on September 2, 1853, that: for the southern Oregon coast for many The Indians are revengeful, though they years thereafter.14 seem bent upon plunder more than the Editorials in regional newspapers shedding of blood; but the whites are debated the treatment of Native peo- highly exasperated, and are determined, ple, with some regularly calling for the they say, to exterminate the race. . . . extermination of the Tribes, who they A general disposition appears to referred to as if they were a scourge pervade the minds of the whites to kill all the Indians they come across. The on the region needing to be elimi- extinction of the entire race in that region nated. An editorial in the Salem-based is the most unanimous sentiment. Oregon Statesman, on July 8, 1851, for example, stated, “Permission has been These sentiments promoted the geno- asked, we learn, of the Governor [of cide of Native peoples. The rhetoric Oregon], to march into their [Rogue was reinforced by the depredations

Lewis and Connolly, White American Violence on Tribal Peoples on the Oregon Coast 371 laws and policies of California and Three men remained in the lodges Oregon, which allowed for the reim- and returned the fire with bows and arrows. Being unable to get a sight of bursement of expenses from such these Indians, they ordered two squaws, attacks, and by federal Indian Bureau pets in the family of Miller, to set fire to of Indian Affairs policy, which provided their lodges. Americans, but not Indians, reimburse- Two were consumed in the conflagra- ments for war losses.16 tion, and the third, while raising his head Beginning in the fall of 1853, entre- through the flame and smoke for breath, was shot dead.19 preneur Augustus F. Miller made money by building a port town at the Josiah Parrish, the Indian sub-Agent of mouth of the Chetco River to serve the Port Orford District, had reported southwest Oregon miners with a on the massacre to Palmer on July 20, store, hotel, and his own ferry service. 1854: He planned to establish that town in On my arrival at Chetco on the fifth of the midst of two Chetco villages at June last I was creditably informed that the estuary. At the Chetco River vil- the massacre of six Indians, three of which lage called Chit, the Tolowa-speaking men shot and three burned to death in Athapaskans were already offering their houses, and the burning of forty-two ferry services to American miners and Indian houses (which composed these villages), that one Augustus F. Miller was the travelers.17 Miller ordered the Chetco chief instigator in the bloody tragedy. . . . people to stop offering White people [Miller] sent to Crescent City and ferry rides across the river, but they did raised a party of desperate Indian kill- not comply — despite his numerous ers. . . . and then one morning about threats. In February 1854, Miller hired daylight when they were all quiet, asleep experienced Indian fighters from Cali- in their houses, they were attacked by this party, who shot three of their men fornia to destroy the two Native towns. killing, them dead on the spot, then set Early one morning, Miller’s mercenar- their houses on fire over their heads and ies fired into the plank houses, killing burned three of them alive, and wounded an estimated twenty-three natives.18 others.20 In May 1854, Joel Palmer, Superin- The surviving Chetco people escaped, tendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon, hiding in the Coast Range and on a traveled to southwestern Oregon, to river island to protect themselves from Crescent City, California, and then further attacks. Palmer sent a Native north to the Chetco River to investi- boy to persuade them to return to their gate the Chetco massacre, which he villages, and sent presents, but he had documented in his September 11, 1854, no success in getting them to return or report: speak with him.21 morning at daylight the party, consist- The legal system newly imposed ing of eight or nine men, well armed, on the region offered no justice in the attacked the village, and as the Indians came from their lodges they were shot face of this violence. Acting on Palmer’s dead by these monsters. The women orders, Parrish arrested Miller and had and children were permitted to escape. him placed “into the hands of the mili-

372 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 tary at Port Orford.” The Justice of the People were gathered for Needash, Peace, however, soon released Miller, after the fall harvest, at the center of the world at Yontocket. Indians from all over which led Parrish to conclude: “here gathered to celebrate creation and give allow me to express an opinion that thanks to the creator. On the third night Miller nor no other man can be con- of the ten night dance, whites came into victed of any crime against the Indians the village in the early morning hours. however murderous and criminal.”22 They torched the redwood plank houses, Palmer described the events: and as the Indians attempted to escape through the round holes in the houses, the Miller was subsequently arrested and militia killed them. This village existed as placed in the custody of the military at the largest native settlement consisting of Port Orford; but on his examination before over thirty houses. The whites would cut a justice of the peace was set at large on off the heads of the Indians and through the ground of justification and want of them into the fire. They lined their horses sufficient testimony to commit. on the slough and as the Indians sought The details of a similar occurrence at refuge, they were gunned down. . . . The Coquille have been laid before you in a center of the world, Yontocket, burned for copy of the report of Special Agent F.M. days and that’s how the place received Smith, of the circumstantial truthfulness the name “Burnt Ranch.” Roughly five of which I am fully satisfied. hundred Indians died in this massacre.25 These narratives will give you some idea of the state of affairs in the mining The Yontocket, or Burnt Ranch, mas- districts on this coast. Arrests are evi- sacre was just one in a series of such dently useless, as no act of a white man attacks that occurred nearly every year against an Indian, however atrocious, can along the northern California coast, be followed by a conviction.23 from 1853 into the 1860s. Thousands Palmer’s frustration reflected the overall of coastal Native people were killed lack of justice for Native peoples in the or removed to reservations, making Oregon court system. White people room for White settlers and freeing could commit crimes, murders, rapes, up the land for new American coastal and genocide on Native peoples and port settlements, such as Crescent would not be held accountable. Many City, Brookings, and Port Orford. The Native people, for decades afterward, pattern of first attacking and pacifying continued to hide in the coastal for- tribal villages, followed by forcing the ests to protect themselves from White removal of the survivors, was true to Americans.24 both the northern California and south- The attack on the two Chetko vil- ern Oregon coasts.26 lages followed another that had taken In 1857, Oregon Indian Superinten- place recently, just twenty-two miles dent James Nesmith ordered John F. to the south, on the Tolowa peoples of Miller, Indian Agent at the Grand Ronde the Smith River, in California. Tolowa Agency, to begin hiring Special Indian people, including “Pyuwa of Enchwo [a Agents, to hunt down encampments Tolowa village], who lived to be a very of Natives hiding in the Coast Range old man; one of very few adult male sur- to force their removal north to the res- vivors,” provided a first-person account: ervation.27 White settlers sent letters to

Lewis and Connolly, White American Violence on Tribal Peoples on the Oregon Coast 373 Indian agents, demanding the removal Following the incident, Major John B. of remaining coastal bands. One peti- Scott of Fort Umpqua reported: tion, sent to the Superintendent of the Indian men in the party — say 15 in Indian Affairs in Oregon City, was from number — tried several times to effect seventeen “residents at and near the an escape . . . and return to their old Mouth of Rogue River” who requested haunts; and he was convinced from the the removal of the Chetcos, declaring: report of some of the squaws, that at a certain place on the route, they would the route from this point to Crescent make another attempt; and that in con- City cannot be passed in safety in consequence, he so disposed of the men sequence of numbers of Indians being in his employ, that when the point was suffered to remain in the vicinity of reached, they fell upon these Indians, Whaleshead and Chetcoe. . . . killing fourteen of them, and wounding We do not come before you as sup- the two boys — one Indian man, a squaw plicants but demand as a right to ask you & some few children escaped.30 to adopt and execute such measures as will ensure peace and security to us for Through his continued service, the future and throw around us the shield Tichenor appears to never have been our Country Cheerfully guarantees to all held accountable for his actions. In fact, “American Citizens.”28 First Lt. George P. Ihrie, stationed at These “Citizens” saw themselves as the Fort Umpqua, wrote to James Nesmith, righteous occupants of the land, and praising Tichenor, on June 19, 1858. “It those who had occupied the land for affords me much gratification and plea- untold generations, and whose lands sure to bear testimony to the efficient were sanctified by the remains of count- and ceaseless and judicious efforts of less ancestors, as outlaws and threats Mr. Wm. Tichenor of Port Orford, O.T., in to the manifest destiny of “Americans.” securing and safely conducting to the The original project of removing Grand Round Reservation the families the Chetcos began in the fall of 1856 of several bands of Indians, the War- and was largely completed by June riors of which, two years ago, were in 1858. Between January 3 and Febru- open hostilities to the whites, and the ary 15, 1858, Lt. Lorenzo Lorain of Fort unpunished perpetrators of numerous Umpqua, Capt. William Tichenor, and murders and depredations.”31 By July a small detached command of men 26, 1858, Tichenor and his men were began to escort the remaining Chetcos back at work collecting Indians from north.29 They collected about 150 Indi- the south coast, this time Pistol River ans. Once past the Rogue River, all of Indians.32 the soldiers left the column, and with The intent in the removal of the fewer men to escort them, a number of coastal tribes was to make the Oregon Natives attempted escape. Acting on Territory a place for White Americans, a tip from some of the Native women, and that is the story of the settlement Tichenor laid a trap for the Native men of the Oregon Territory. Tribal rights, and ordered his men to shoot if they sovereignty, and previous occupation tried to escape again, which they did. by tribes and bands were simply not

374 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 National Archives and Records Administration

IN A SEPTEMBER 11, 1854, annual report, Joel Palmer, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Oregon, relayed details about a Chetco village massacre. The instigator, White entrepreneur Augustus F. Miller, was arrested but released soon after, leading Palmer to conclude: “Arrests are evidently useless, as no act of a white man against an Indian, however atrocious, can be followed by a conviction.”

considered relevant by opportunistic their recognition of the need for gov- settlers, gold miners, and business- ernment protection of Native people men. The deciding factor in determina- from White settlers. Writing to the tion of land tenure or the administration Commission of Indian Affairs in1857 , of justice was whether one was a White Nesmith pleaded: person — a true “American Citizen” — As the lands of the [Indians] are entirely or not. occupied by the whites, their means of Some representatives of the obtaining a living are greatly curtailed. United States were well aware of the The wants of those “untutored wards of the Government” should be supplied, dichotomy of rights in the territory. and their rights protected, unless the Correspondence of two of the Indian Government has determined that they Superintendents of Oregon, James W. should be doomed to extermination at Nesmith and Joel Palmer, documents the hands of the whites.33

Lewis and Connolly, White American Violence on Tribal Peoples on the Oregon Coast 375 In 1856, Palmer wrote the following which the majority society, even with to Governor of the Oregon Territory the perspective of time, conceived of George Law Curry: Indians as completely apart from the Oregon populace — apart, it seems, You are not ignorant of the feeling . . . which, in many districts looked to even from the human race. . . . Even the system of extermination as the only Frances Fuller Victor, one of the finest available policy to be pursued by the Gov- nineteenth-century western historians, ernment. . . . a history of the settlement writing in 1894, called October 9 ‘alto- and occupancy by whites, of Southern gether the bloodiest day the valley had Oregon and Northern California would be a history of wrong against the red man; ever seen’,” completely dismissing the and the cunning, the violation of faith, the far greater number of Indian people treachery and savage brutality said to be murdered the previous day.37 Such his- the characteristics of that people, have torical bias compounded the effects of been practiced towards them to a degree violence on tribal people. almost inconceivable, by the reckless por- Oregon’s Tribal peoples hold a sig- tion of whites who have cursed that land, with their presence the past six years.34 nificant amount of disaffection regarding their long-term mistreatment at the Nesmith and Palmer reflected the hands of the federal and state govern- higher ideals present in American pol- ments and by those Americans who icy, but the betrayals of good faith were took whatever they wanted and tried to relentless. Throughout western Ore- exterminate the Tribes. Tribal members, gon, White Americans established land historians, and others have worked to claims well before any land cessions document and share the long and com- were negotiated. Treaties negotiated plex histories of treaties, reservations, with Clatsop and northern Tillamook boarding schools, federal termination bands in 1851, and with coastal tribes in policy, and a variety of other methods 1855, were never ratified by Congress of attempting to erase, or assimilate, or honored by the U.S. government.35 Native people, and of the ways Native The violence brought to bear on people have survived and thrived, Indian peoples persisted in the written despite those efforts. During the 1970s word. The telling of events leading to and 1980s, Congress passed a series of the eruption of the Rogue River War acts that guaranteed significant rights serves as an example. In October 1855, to Native peoples. Laws such as the a band of “white settlers and miners American Indian Religious Freedom Act from Jacksonville” (self-described of 1978 (AIRFA) (42 U.S.C. § 1996), the “exterminators”) attacked a Takelma Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) encampment on Little Butte Creek near (Public Law 95–608, 92 Stat. 3069), and Table Rock, killing dozens (estimates Indian Education Act of 1972, (Public range from 28 to 106).36 This was a final Law No. 92-318, 86 Stat. 235) began to atrocity for many Indians, who retaliated secure rights for tribal peoples. Under with violence, killing 15 to 27 Whites the the U.S. national policy of self-deter- following day. As Charles Wilkinson mination (Indian Self-Determination writes: “It is unnerving the extent to and Education Assistance Act of 1975,

376 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Public Law 93-638), Tribes are now able the past century and a half remains to advocate for their rights and have largely untold. The recovery of that begun the process of recovering from history and the context of coloniza- over two-hundred years of colonization tion, of which White supremacy was a by the United States. large part, is important to the process The recovery is still young, and of recovery and healing efforts by an honest Oregon Native history of Native peoples.

NOTES

1. See Robert J. Miller, “The Doctrine Indigenous Justice,” Oregon Historical Quarterly, of Discovery, Manifest Destiny, and 109:3 (Fall 2008): 374. American Indians,” (2015) https://ssrn.com/ 5. John McLoughlin letter #248, May 15, abstract=2689279 (accessed October 31, 2019); 1832, letter to James Birnie, quoted in Byram, Robert. J. Miller “The Doctrine of Discovery in “Colonial Power and Indigenous Justice,” 372. American Indian Law,” Idaho Law Review 42 6. John Peabody Harrington Papers, John P. (2005): 1–96; and Lindsay Gordon Robertson, Harrington microfilms: Alaska/Northwest Coast, Conquest by Law: How the Discovery of America ed. Elaine Mills, National Anthropological Series, Dispossessed Indigenous Peoples of Their Lands Smithsonian Institution, reel 26, frames 95–99, (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press quoted in Byram, “Colonial Power and Indigenous 2005). Justice,” 363. 2. Henry Zenk, “Contributions to Tualatin 7. Bensell, All Quiet on the Yamhill: The Ethnography: Subsistence and Ethnobiology” Civil War in Oregon, ed. Gunther Barth (Eugene: (MA thesis, Portland State University, 1976), University of Oregon Books, 1959), 141, quoted in 49–50; Melville Jacobs, Kalapuya Texts (Seattle: Byram, “Colonial Power and Indigenous Justice,” University of Washington Press, 1945), 187–88. 366–67. Although this group of Chinook is referred 8. Byram, “Colonial Power and Indigenous to as “Willamette Falls Chinook” in the cited Justice,” 363, 373. passage of Zenk, they are referred to as 9. Orvil Dodge, ed., The Heroes of Battle Clackamas Chinook throughout the document Rock or The Miner’s Reward, a Short Story of and elsewhere in common usage. See Michael Thrilling Interest (January 1904), 1–2; Philip Silverstein, “Chinookans of the Lower Columbia,” Druker, “The Tolowa and Their Southwest in Northwest Coast: Handbook of North American Oregon Kin,” University of California Publications Indians Vol. 7, ed. Wayne Suttles (Washington, in American Archaeology and Ethnology 36 D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1990), 533–46. (1937): 221–300; Jay Miller and William R. 3. Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, Seaburg, “Athapaskans of Southwest Oregon,” in “A Siletz History: Part III, Fur Trade and Early Northwest Coast: Handabook of North American Exploration,” (2019), electronic document, http:// Indians, ed. Wayne Suttles (Washington, D.C.: www.ctsi.nsn.us/chinook-indian-tribe-siletz- Smithsonian Institution, 1990), 580–88; Elizabeth heritage/our-history/part-iii (accessed October Tichenor and William Tichenor, land patent issued 31, 2019). February 5, 1866, under authority of 1850 Oregon 4. Douglas Deur, “The Making of Seaside’s Donation Act, BLM General Land Office Records ‘Indian Place’: Contested and Enduring Native online, https://glorecords.blm.gov/details/ Spaces on the Nineteenth Century Oregon patent/default.aspx?accession=ORRAA%20 Coast, Oregon Historical Quarterly 117:4 (Winter %20040278&docClass=SER&sid=jzjva0hy.h1n 2016): 542; R. Scott Byram, Colonial Power and (accessed November 12, 2019). See, also in this

Lewis and Connolly, White American Violence on Tribal Peoples on the Oregon Coast 377 issue, Kenneth Coleman, “‘We’ll All Start Even”: Spectator (Oregon City) editorial that is itself White Egalitariansim and The Oregon Donation critical of unsuccessful miners who were Land Claim,” Oregon Historical Quarterly, “White fomenting war and extermination of the Tribes Supremacy & Resistance” 120:4 (Winter 2019): as a means of gaining pay for their time. It was 414–37. common for the newspapers of the time to 10. Orvil Dodge, ed., The Heroes of Battle criticize one another. Rock or The Miner’s Reward, 1–2. See also Bert 16. See federal records of Indian Webber and Margie Webber, Battle Rock: The Depredations claims in Records of the Oregon Hero’s Story: A True Account-Oregon Coast Superintendency, National Archives Records Indian Attack (Webb Research Group, 1992), 27; Administration [hereafter NARA], RG 75, M2; and A.G. Walling, History of Southern Oregon, Records of the Oregon Superintendency, Comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, NARA, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Curry and Coos Counties (Portland, Ore., Affairs, 1824–1880, RG75 M234. The records of 1884). This place-name spelling is transcribed depredations claims extend from 1856 into the from J.P. Harrington Papers, 1943, National 1870s with additional claims from descendants Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, happening into the twentieth century. There is no roll 26, frames 384–85; George Wasson, Jr., record that Tribes could make similar claims. For a Coquille descendant, referenced to J.P. Oregon volunteer militia war claims and federal Harrington the place Ma’-na’-xhay-Thet, which claims see Frances Fuller Victor, The Early Indian means, “ply canoe back and forth-rock,” when Wars of Oregon (Salem: F.C. Baker, State Printer, gathering mussels there. The word is probably 1894), 271–320. manaxe, and Harrington’s linguistic transcription 17. Joel Palmer, “Annual Report of the is probably má•ná•x.e θè• (David Lewis’s personal Superintendent for the Year Ending June 30th, communication with Patricia Whereat Phillips, 1854, No. 87, September 11, 1854, p. 257–59,” 2019). The Athapaskan tribal name is Ma-na-xe to Geo. W. Manypenny, Commissioner of Indian oe. The name Kwatami has also been written as Affairs, http://truwe.sohs.org/files/1854%20 Quatomah or Quah-to-mah. See also David G. superintendency.html (accessed November Lewis, “Ethnohistory of Battlerock: Preparation 1, 2019); Janice Marschner, Oregon 1859: A for the National Register Nomination,” Coquille Snapshot in Time, (Portland, Timber Press, 2013), Tribe in-house report, 2017. 105. Spelled linguistically, the village name is 11. Orvil Dodge, The Pioneer History of Coos “tcet.” See Philip Drucker, The Tolowa and their and Curry Counties, Or. (Salem: Capital Printing, Southwest Oregon Kin (Berkeley: University of 1898), 36. See J.P. Harrington Papers 1943, California Press, 1937), 269. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian 18. Palmer, “Annual Report of the Institution, Roll 26. Superintendent for the Year Ending June 30th, 12. Bert Webber and Margie Webber, Battle 1854,” 257–59. Rock, 27; A.G. Walling, History of Southern 19. Ibid. Oregon, Comprising Jackson, Josephine, 20. Josiah J. Parrish, “Report of the Chetco Douglas, Curry and Coos Counties (Portland, Umpqua,” to Joel Palmer, Port Orford, July Ore., 1884), 472. 20, 1854, http://truwe.sohs.org/files/1854%20 13. Emil R. Peterson and Alfred Powers, A superintendency.html (accessed November 1, Century of Coos and Curry (Portland: Binfords 2019). & Mort, 1952), 37; Walling, History of Southern 21. Palmer, “Annual Report of the Oregon, 472. Superintendent for the Year Ending June 30th, 14. Peterson and Powers, A Century of Coos 1854,” 258.” and Curry, 38–40; Walling, History of Southern 22. Parrish, “Report of the Chetco Umpqua.” Oregon, 473. According to Oregon’s Organic Acts, section 15. Oregon Statesman, editorial, July 700, if a person was of unsound mind, or unable 8, 1851. The editorial is critical of an Oregon to give testimony to the satisfaction of the

378 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 court, they could be discounted as a witness. J.B. Scott to Maj, W.W. Machall, June 17, 1858, Because most Indians in this period could not Records of the Oregon Superintendency, NARA, speak English, with few translators available, RG 75, M2, Roll 16. at individual judge’s discretion, the court could 30. Scott to Machall, June 17, 1858, NARA, discount the Native witnesses. Matthew P. Deady, RG 75, M2, Roll 16. The Organic and Other general laws of Oregon, 31. Ist Lt. George P. Ihrie to James together with the national Constitution and other Nesmith, June 19, 1858, Records of the Oregon public acts and statutes of the United States, Superintendency, NARA, RG 75, M2, Roll 16. 1845–1864 (Portland: H.L. Pittock, Oregon State 32. Major J.B. Scott to J.W. Nesmith, July 26, Printer, 1866), 324. 1858, Records of the Oregon Superintendency, 23. Palmer, “Annual Report of the NARA, RG 75, M2, Roll 16. Superintendent for the Year Ending June 30, 33. J.W. Nesmith, Salem, Oregon, to 1854.” Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, 24. Joel Palmer, Indian Agent Journal, D.C., September 1, 1857, page 10, Records of 1871–1872, unpublished, photocopy in the Grand the Oregon Superintendency, NARA, Letters Ronde Cultural Archives, Confederated Tribes of Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824– Grand Ronde, Grand Ronde, Oregon. 1880, RG75 M234, Roll 610. 25. Annette Louise Reed, “Neeyu Nn’ee 34. Joel Palmer to Gov. George L. Curry, min’ Nngheeyilh Naach’aaghitlhni: Lhla’t’i Deeni August 8, 1856, p. 4–5, Records of the Oregon Tr’vmdan’ Natlhsri: Rooted in the Land of Our Superintendency, NARA, Letters Received by Ancestors, We are Strong: a Tolowa History” the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–1880, RG 75, (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, M234, Roll 609. 1999), 59–61. Reed compiled this Native account 35. Gail Wells, “Treaties and of the violence from primary sources. See also Reservations,” The Oregon History Project, David Lewis, “The Most Persistent Attempt https://oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/ to Exterminate the Tribes, Beginning with the treaties-and-reservations-2/#.XcIy0NWIZhE Yontocket Massacre 1853,” https://wp.me/ (accessed 11/5/ 2019); David Lewis, “Coast p2ENjV-Z9 (accessed November 14, 2019). Indian Reservation,” The Oregon Encyclopedia, 26. Benjamin Madley, “Tolowa Indian https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/coast_ Genocide, 1851–1856” in New Directions in indian_reservation/#.XcYC4VVKiw4 (accessed Genocide Research, ed. Adam Jones (Routledge: November 8, 2019); Territorial Papers of the New York, 2012), 174–91; Annette Reed, “Neeyu United States: for the Territory of Oregon, 1848– Nn’ee Min’ Nngheeyilh Naach’aaghitlhni,” 59-61; 1859, NARA M1049, Reels 1–3, Oregon State Lewis, David G. “The Most Persistent Attempt to Library, Salem, Oregon. Exterminate the Tribes.” 36. Charles Wilkinson, The People are 27. James Nesmith to John F. Miller, August Dancing Again: The History of the Siletz Tribe of 3, 1857, Records of the Oregon Superintendency, Western Oregon (Seattle and London: University NARA, Letters Received by the Office of Indian of Washington Press, 2010), 119; Walling, History Affairs, 1824–1880, RG75 M2, Roll 6. of Southern Oregon, 243; Joel Palmer to Geo. 28. Petition from the Mouth of the Rogue W. Manypenny, October 19, 1855, Records of the River with seventeen names, January 29, 1857, Oregon Superintendency, NARA, RG 75, M2 Roll to A.B. Hedges, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 5, p. 355, contains details of attacks on Table Rock Records of the Oregon Superintendency, NARA, reservation with 106 native people killed. See also RG 75, M2, Roll 15. Emphasis in original. Jeff Lalande, “Council of Table Rock.”The Oregon 29. The removals from the southern Coast Encyclopedia, https://oregonencyclopedia.org/ began in the fall of 1856; by July 1858, Tichenor’s articles/council_of_table_rock/#.XbCoa2Z7lPY attention turned to the Pistol River Indians. (accessed October 23, 2019). Nathan Douthit, Uncertain Encounters, (Corvallis: 37. Wilkinson, The People are Dancing Oregon State University Press, 2002), 166; Maj. Again, 120.

Lewis and Connolly, White American Violence on Tribal Peoples on the Oregon Coast 379 W H 1924 I Southern Oregon Spokesman T ON MAY 24, 1924, the published this editorial titled “Let’s Keep Grants Pass A White Man’s Town.” In the opening paragraph, the writer E asserts that “Grants Pass has always been a white man’s town” and later goes on to rail against “encroachments” of non-White people, stating plainly, “NIGGER WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE.”

MACY & E R In this year, a White Grant’s Pass family attempted to employ three Black servants in R E P S U

I S S their household, as was the current fashion in the East and South. That employment

T T

E E

A A

T T

N N

I enraged the local White community and sparked this editorial. Harkening to the C C

H H E E W

W preferred racial policies of the pioneer generation, these Grants Pass residents opposed any Black presence for essentially the same reasons as the pioneers — the attempt to eliminate any Black competition for jobs and economic advancement. S While Black populations in larger cities such as Portland had grown by 1924, smaller U and more rural Oregon towns sought only homogenous, White populations. One P method to achieve that outcome was through the adoption of “sundown” policies, under which all Blacks were required to be out of town by the time the sun went R down. While such policies did not have the weight of “official laws,” those found in E violation could expect consequences ranging from harassment or brutality by the M police to assault by local, private citizens.

A Finally, the editorial makes clear that the ultimate resolution of this issue will be a C resort to violence if necessary — the underlying premise of all White supremacist Y policies.

Southern Oregon Spokesman, May 24, 1924.

381 “We were at our journey’s end”

Settler Sovereignty Formation in Oregon

KATRINE BARBER

For too long, Oregon history has been captive to the mid-nineteenth-century’s rambling wagon trains. Settler stories of motivations, hardships, and achievements, preserved in diaries, letters, and memoirs, are compelling and deserving of the attention lavished on them. But more is necessary. Oregon’s Euro-Americans were intimately tied to national and international events that saw the rise of White, European colonial expansion into the colored word. Alongside that expansion was the development of a framework of domination, justified by claims of superiority and destiny, that conflated the ability to control with the right to do so. Placing Oregon history in this larger geopolitical context allows a more coherent understanding of what made Oregon what it became, and what that history has to do with the Oregon of today.

WHEN TWENTY-SEVEN-YEAR-OLD Esther Bell Hanna caught sight of the Columbia River in early September 1852, she “almost felt that we were at our journey’s end.” “Little did I think in my school days as I traced out this river,” she wrote in her leather-bound journal, “that ever should I stand upon its shores or drink of its clear waters! But so it is! Here I am after months of toil and fatigue, permitted to see this noble and far-famed river!” In just a few weeks, Hanna would complete a six-month journey from her home state of Pennsylvania to Oregon City (“that long looked for place”). A mere hour before heading west, Bell (as she preferred to be called) married Joseph Anderson Hanna, a Presbyterian minister. After two weeks of steamboat travel (“How monotonous! The same dull routine day after day”), she and her husband organized a train of eighty people in twenty teams for the overland journey.1 Their traveling companions were like them — Scotch-Irish Presbyterians intent on establishing “a colony on the Pacific with a view of organizing churches, schools and seminaries of learning” in the new U.S. territory of Oregon.2 On arrival the couple took up a donation land claim

THE HANNAS paid a five-dollar toll to use the Barlow Cutoff to avoid the rapids of the mid Columbia River. Belle found great pleasure in the views of Mounts Hood, Adams, and St. Helens, wishing that she had the time to sketch them, and yet, “no pencil could do justice to them.” Despite the scenery, this leg of the journey was particularly difficult with narrow “dreadful” roads, steep terrain, and little feed for accompanying cattle. That route is depicted here in William Henry Jackson’s 1930 painting, The Barlow Cutoff.

a few miles south of present-day Corvallis and established one of several Presbyterian congregations in the area within a year. Joseph preached in communities throughout Oregon and Washington, while Bell competed in the Benton County Agricultural Society Fair and raised the two surviving of their four children. After Bell’s death in 1878, her daughter Harriet remembered her as “slight and dainty” but with a “will equalled [sic] that of a man.”3 When Bell Hanna documented the experience of seeing in real life a river she had once drawn as a schoolgirl, she looked out over a landscape that contained relationships both legible and illegible to her. Indigenous people — defined by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang as “those who have creation stories, not colonization stories” — gathering to barter food with the strangers, tule- covered longhouses, switchbacks of trails in the distant foothills, and dugout canoes on the river’s banks all visibly embodied what Sinixt scholar Laurie Arnold calls the Indigenous Columbia Plateau.4 But the kin relationships that connected individuals and their families to far-flung fishing or berrying loca-

Barber, “We were at our journey’s end” 383 tions, the Indigenous interventions that encouraged growth of roots and other foods, the protocols, ceremonies, and stories that guided human relationships with non-human kin, and the petroglyphs and pictographs that recounted the creation of the rivers and mountains all remained largely illegible to foreigners. The “place-based ethics . . . based on principles of reciprocity and mutual obligation” that political theorist Glen Coulthard (Yellowknives Dene First Nation) cites as the foundation of Indigenous resistance to colonization largely went unnoticed by settlers like the Hannas.5 And yet, the Hannas must have known they were entering — and overtaking — a homeland. The Hannas traveled among 60,000 overlanders headed for Oregon and California in the year 1852 alone.6 Between 1840 and 1860, more than 250,000 mostly White Americans migrated across the Oregon Trail to what is now the American West Coast.7 For decades, their stories — documented in diaries, letters home, and trail guides, and later recounted in novels, poetry, film, museum exhibits, and pioneer organizations — epitomized Oregon history and provided an optimistic and unifying national narrative that countered narratives of the Civil War’s bloody conflict of the same period. Individual pioneers might have been “slight and dainty,” but collectively, they were the building blocks of an indomitable national narrative that married “earth hunger” with a doctrine of land improvement that entitled American settlers to take the plow to Indigenous homelands and that justified the removal and massacre of Native people as necessary to territorial expansion.8

384 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 EZRA MEEKER crossed the Oregon Trail as a young man in 1852, a year before the Hannas. Meeker spent the last decades of his life retracing the Oregon Trail and promoting its commemoration. Backers such as Meeker ensured that the Oregon Trail and the families who crossed it were remembered in expositions, parades, books, re-enactments, and by historical societies and voluntary association. This map is an example of Meeker’s efforts, which he published in 1907 in The Ox Team or the Old Oregon Trail, 1852–1906.

That national narrative was already taking form in congressional debates about American expansion and in the nation’s newspapers as Hanna moved West.9 It would become formalized in academic study just four decades after she arrived in the Willamette Valley. In 1893, historian Frederick Jackson Turner identified westward expansion and overland migration as the basis for an exceptional American history, arguing that from these experiences American national identity, forged in a folk democracy, emerged. Turner spoke before the ninth annual meeting of the American Historical Association, held in conjunc- tion with the Chicago World’s Fair on a July evening during an unusually dry summer.10 He began by reflecting on an 1890 bulletin of the Superintendent of the Census that declared for the first time that “there can hardly be said to be a frontier line.” This was alarming news, he told his audience, because “the existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development.”11 Turner’s paper, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” provided a compelling organizing narrative that placed Pacific Slope states such as Oregon, remote as it was from the centers of American financial and political power, at the center of American identity. But Oregon migration stories were not exceptional. Oregon was part of a transformational period of mass migration, nation building, worldwide economic boom and bust, and establishment of a color line that reshaped the nineteenth-century globe, the outcomes of which reverberate around the world

Barber, “We were at our journey’s end” 385 today.12 New Zealand historian James Belich couples “spasmodic but explosive [population] growth” in the American West with that of the “British West,” during an equally expansive period of multi-strand encroachment into what is now Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and multiple points in Africa.13 Between 1815 and 1924, approximately 19 million British and Irish, 5 million Germans, and 12 million Americans migrated to create new permanent settlements in such diverse and far-flung places as South Africa, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and the American West. They were joined by 50 million Chinese and 30 million East Indians, most of whom governments categorized as temporary laborers and denied rights to permanent settlement.14 “Exceptionalist American explanations of this truly massive growth,” Belich posits, “must founder on one fact: it was emulated in the British West at much the same time, at much the same rate, and in much the same way.” When placed in a global history of mass migration, resettlement, and patterns of settler colonialism, Oregon’s stories join millions of others during the nineteenth century’s “rise of the Anglo world.”15 While distinct sites of settler colonialism developed in particular ways, they shared common characteristics: settler land hunger, extinguishment of Indigenous land rights (and people through physical violence as well as cultures through assimilation), and importation of immigrant laborers who were excluded from citizenship rights and expelled during periods when their labor was not critical. The ongoing resistance to these structures by Indigenous people, by “temporary” laborers who made their homes permanently in settler societies, and by some settlers and their descendants has also been an ineradicable characteristic of settler colonialism. Geographers Anne Bonds and Joshua Inwoods link “White supremacy” to settler colonialism to call “attention to the brutality and dehumanization of racial exploitation and domination that emerges from settler colonial societies.”16 Many readers may be more familiar with the use of the term “White supremacy” to identify radical White nationalist fringe groups. Critical race theorists and other scholars use the term more expansively. In 1997, Frances Lee Ansley defined White supremacy as a political, economic, and cultural system in which whites overwhelmingly control power and material resources, conscious and unconscious ideas of white superiority and entitlement are widespread, and relations of white dominance and non-white subordination are daily reenacted across a broad array of institutions and social settings.17

In this usage, the term “White supremacy” does not denote individualized racist actions but rather identifies “the presumed superiority of White racial identities, however problematically defined, in support of the cultural, politi-

386 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 cal, and economic domination of non-White groups.”18 While the racist actions of individuals or small groups are important to monitor and have real implications, especially for people of color, they occur within systems that are biased toward Whites. Individual racist actions can be countered and halted even while the system of White supremacy remains in place. Indeed, White supremacy normalizes the primacy of Whiteness so that discriminatory actions can be difficult to identify. White supremacy operates beyond the bounds of settler colonial structures but, especially in the United States, also plays out within the context of territorial expansion and settler colonialism. “In addition to benefitting from dispossession,” anthropologist Patrick Wolfe explains, “white settlers also benefit from race, the two colonial privileges being fused and mutually compounding in social life.”19 The development of anti-Blackness in support of the enslavement of Africans and their descendants and the dispossession of Indigenous people from their lands characterize American race relations. Settler colonialism rationalized the strategies waged against Indigenous people: genocidal violence, removal, theft, and forced assimilation.20 White supremacy justified the enslavement of African people and buoyed “the afterlife of slavery”: mass incarceration, for example, as well as the denial of access to education, jobs, the vote, and the generational wealth that many White Americans have taken for granted.21 “American settlers,” according to sociologist Evelyn Glenn, “attached their identity to the land itself, to the mythologized common experience of settlement, and often to the shared goal of self-governance.”22 But not all people residing on American soil or even all Americans were welcomed into that common experience. In Oregon, measures sanctioned by federal and state administrations (wars, Black Exclusion Act, Alien Land Act, reservation policy, redlining) and unofficial (harassment and violence, sundown customs, predatory mortgages) disadvantaged Indigenous people, some American citizens, and some immigrants. Those same measures, as well as affirmative land policies such as donation land acts, created a “landscape of promise” for others.23 Race-inflected advantages and disadvantages have persisted through generations, leading Navajo/Warm Springs/Wasco/ Yakama poet Elizabeth Woody to describe Oregon as “an Eden where Eden was not needed” and writer Elizabeth McLagan to title her history of Oregon’s African Americans A Peculiar Paradise.24

SETTLER COLONIALISM AND WHITE SUPREMACY IN OREGON HISTORY

Peter Puget, Royal lieutenant assigned to the Vancouver Expedition (1791– 1795), described the people he met in the inlet that now carries his name as

Barber, “We were at our journey’s end” 387 “low and ill made, with broad faces and small eyes.”25 Foreshadowing the pseudo-science of craniometry, Puget identified their foreheads as “deformed or out of shape comparatively speaking with those of Europeans.”26 Phenotypi- cal descriptions such as Puget’s were commonplace and helped to build a corpus of “knowledge” about Native people. The published journals of Puget and his ilk widely circulated ideas about the differences between Europeans and Indians, instructing readers how to understand them. American and Euro- pean scientists used such “data” to craft stages of human development and used evolutionary concepts to describe hierarchical, global human variability. The Northwest’s Native people collected their own data on newcomers, and Indigenous leaders rejigged displays of authority and diplomatic protocols as they opened their extensive economic networks to foreigners.27 As American and European explorers charted the shorelines of the Pacific Northwest, they collected navigational information as well as information that would aid trade with the Indigenous people they encountered. Along the way, they married new observations with ideas about race and human difference that they brought with them. White supremacy developed concurrently with colonial empires in a “symbiotic relationship,” much as anti-Blackness accompanied the rise of African enslavement.28 By the dawn of the 1800s, sixteenth-century debates about human difference that hinged on alterable religious beliefs (“heathen” or “Christian”) hardened into “facts” of biological difference. The “data” collected through exploration and conquest during the Age of Enlightenment (1720–1820), with its emphasis on scientific observation, empiricism, clas- sification, and “universal laws of cultural development,” provided scientific integrity to constructions of racial superiority, inferiority, and White supremacy that were already in progress.29 Colonialists relied on those emergent theories, which emphasized biological differences and hierarchies, to justify genocide, land grabs, and the commodification of human beings. Sociologist Steve Garner argues that the “grammar and vocabulary” of racialized difference were “developed to their most definitive — and globalized — form in the European and North American colonial settings.”30 He describes racialization as a “colonial technology” com- parable to innovations in ship building and navigation technologies, the rise of literacy and print culture, and the invention of increasingly deadly weaponry.31 Voyageurs trekked to the region in search of resources, primarily furs, to trade elsewhere to benefit the companies that employed them and their nations of origin. In doing so, they founded the first non-Indigenous outposts in what would eventually become Oregon. The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), established by English Royal Charter, and American John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company brought classic exploitation colonialism

388 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 to the region. Because they were not intended as permanent settlements, fur trading posts remained relatively small; the HBC encouraged retiring employees to leave rather than settle the area.32 Fort employees remained few in number compared with Indigenous populations, who retained control over most of the region’s resources and — importantly — land. Moreover, employees relied on the cooperation of Indigenous people to extract resources. They married Native women to tap into local knowledge and labor and to create the kinship ties necessary in the Indigenous economy, contributed to creole languages and learned Native languages, and adopted Indigenous cultural customs.33 By the 1840s, such economic engagements based in cultural adaptation were overwhelmed in Oregon by land hunger and state building. If classic colonialism was resource-oriented and circular (colonists lived in the region temporarily to oversee the extraction of natural resources, ultimately returning to their countries of origin), settler colonialism was a one-way journey THIS 1857 illustration from Josiah Nott and George Giddon’s Types of Mankind features the pseudo- motivated by land acquisition science of race biology. Such studies provided a that required dispossession scientific gloss to racist hierarchies and promoted 34 and its justification. The 1843 White supremacy. This particular illustration charts how arrival of as many as 1,000 different “races” descend from types of animals and American settlers guided by are therefore different species.

Barber, “We were at our journey’s end” 389 Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives Gary Halvorson, Oregon State

THIS MURAL, painted by Barry Faulkner, appears behind the desk of the Speaker of the House at the Oregon State Capitol. It depicts the formation of the Oregon Provisional Government at Champoeg in 1843 and illustrates sociologist Evelyn Glenn’s contention that key to American settler identity was the “shared goal of self-governance.”

missionary Marcus Whitman from Fort Hall into Cayuse Territory signaled the advent of settler colonialism in Oregon Country. Other early watershed events include the Oregon Treaty of 1846, which ended the joint American-

390 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 British occupation of the Oregon Country and through which Britain abandoned its fur-trading operations and withdrew its land claims below the forty-ninth parallel, and the passage of the Oregon Donation Land Claim Act (DLCA) in 1850, the legal process for settler land acquisition in Oregon Territory.35 All marked the end of the fur trade period and the incoming rush of land-hungry Americans. Epidemics and violence shattered Indigenous communities and created a demographic revolution in the region. Exogenous diseases, such as measles, malaria, and small pox, had devastated Indigenous communities in Oregon beginning in the mid 1770s, causing great trauma and disrupting well-honed political and social systems. After particularly deadly epidemics in the early 1830s, little more than a decade before the first waves of American migration, tribes and bands, particularly those in western Oregon, had diminished capacity to resist the incursions of foreigners.36 “In some respects,” historian John Findlay argues, “disease paved the way for the arrival of settlers” who “seized upon the apparent depopulation of the native Northwest as an excuse or justification for their own occupation of the land.”37 Between 1840 and 1860, a smattering of farms and buildings in the Willamette Valley grew to platted communities in what Kenneth Coleman calls a “settler invasion.”38 Toward the end of his life, Peter Burnett, 1843 immigrant and signatory to Oregon’s first racial exclusion law in1844 , remembered that “We came . . . to take and settle the country exclusively for ourselves.” Indigenous people “saw annihilation before them,” as every succeeding fall they found the white population about doubled, and our settlements continually extending and rapidly encroaching more and more upon their pasture and camas grounds. They saw that we fenced in the best lands, excluding their horses from the grass, and our hogs ate up their camas.

Willamette Valley settlers “went anywhere we pleased, settled down without any treaty or consultation with the Indians, and occupied our claims without their consent and without compensation.”39 Settlers alienated Indigenous people from their lands through ordinary acts of fencing and plowing fields that historian Julius Wilm describes as “below the threshold of actual violence” as well as through disorganized terror and calculated war.40 Political scientist Glen Coulthard explains that, in whatever form it took, such violence threatened not only Indigenous populations and resources but also the very integrity of “an [Indigenous] ontological framework” of “interdependent relations covering the land and animals, past and future generations, as well as other people and communities.”41 Native people defended their worlds through resistance, accommodation, and avoidance. Settler-perpetrated rape, murder, and alienation of territory

Barber, “We were at our journey’s end” 391 OHS Museum, 570.1-.2

THIS SWORD AND SCABBARD, dating from 1861, belonged to Cyrus H. Walker of B Company, First Oregon Volunteer Infantry. State officials organized the First Oregon in 1864 to reinforce the 1861 cavalry regiment, who replaced regular army units that left the region to fight in the Civil War. Regular and volunteer units heavily patrolled and scouted areas along the Oregon Trail to protect newcomers who were migrating to the region.

instigated retaliatory violence, drawing forth the killing capabilities of volunteer militias and the authority of the U.S. military along the southern coast and the lava fields of the California-Oregon border, in the Wallowa Valley, and on the Columbia Plateau for three decades following the initial waves of White settlement, making entrenchment possible.42 Many overlanders came west hoping to secure land — financial independence for themselves and an inheritance for their children — and to avoid the racial and religious conflicts of the states, to make anew social and political communities that reflected but also improved on their old homes. As Lorenzo Veracini explains, unlike migrants who arrive to “a political order that is already constituted. . . . Settlers are founders of political orders and carry their sovereignty with them.”43 The settler political order is one based on dispossession and exclusion both. Joseph Hanna’s published call, recruiting members to a Presbyterian colony, claimed that “there was and perhaps will never be again so favorable an opportunity for the formation of a Christian community, possessing without admixture all the advantages that ever can be secured in this world of sin by a purely religious organization of homogenous elements.”44 “Homogenous elements” identified two needs: a company of overlanders whose values were alike (i.e., keeping the Sabbath on the overland journey) and the establishment of a community of settlers who were similar politically,

392 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 culturally, and religiously — this despite the community’s eventual establishment within the territory of the Mary’s River (Champinefu) Band of the Kalapuya Indians and their forced removal to the Grand Ronde Reservation. Hanna had felt a profound loneliness while traveling the Oregon Trail, where the going was often physically and mentally difficult. And yet, she did not dwell on whether she, her husband, and others in their company had the right to invade the others’ homelands. As the company pushed through Shoshone territory on the last day of July 1852, she “started on foot the sun burning hot in many places the sand was ankle deep, and almost scorch- ing, my feet were nearly blistered, I gave out once got into the carriage, and rested a little then got out and went on, Mr H walked and drove all afternoon.” Despite these difficulties, “I was not cast down or discouraged. I felt that the same kind hand that had brought us safely thus far would still go with us and protect us, so that I was calm and even cheerful amidst base trials, and discouragements.”45 Migrants such as the Hannas, and many historians who followed on their heels, cast their journeys as destiny, obscuring their reliance on vigilante and state-sanctioned violence and on globally circulated ideas of racial hierarchies as they moved into already occupied lands. OHS Research Library, cn 022570

MEMBERS OF THE HUDSON FAMILY, renowned basket makers, are pictured here in an undated photograph taken by Indian agent Andrew Kershaw. In 1856, the federal government removed thousands of Native people from their traditional lands and relocated them to the Siletz and Grand Ronde reservations. The Hudsons were likely part of that forced resettlement, and their descendants have continuously lived in Grand Ronde. Pictured from left to right are John Hudson, Mattie Hudson, Gertrude Hudson, Marie Hudson, Martha Sands, and Pearl Hudson.

Barber, “We were at our journey’s end” 393 THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN PIONEERS, THE PROMISE OF INDIGENOUS ERASURE

The Americanization of early Oregon reflects the patterns of settler colonialism systems worldwide: White settlement and racist policies that produced settler sovereignty. Historian Natalia Molina coined the term “racial scripts” to describe how racialized ideas and material outcomes generated by them develop and persist across time, place, and racialized groups.46 Critical to her work is the relational construction of racial identities. Scott Lauria Mor- gensen develops this idea by describing settlers and Native people as “co- constitutive,” meaning that settler identity formed in opposition to indigeneity while settlers reduced the diverse peoples of places such as Oregon into a single, racialized category of “Indian.”47 Put another way, if land ownership is reserved for White citizens, settlers must be “White,” and the impossibility of Native Americans (or free African Americans or members of other racial minority groups) settling Oregon’s Willamette Valley is self-evident. “Racial scripts” narrated White supremacy and laid the groundwork for establishment of the color line in Oregon: the legitimacy of White settlement, the impossibility of African American or other pioneers of color to the state, the promise of Indigenous erasure, and what Iyko Day calls the “settler colonial inhospitality” to non-White immigrants.48 These scripts hardened racial boundaries that had been in flux in the polyglot cultural environment of the fur trade. Their importance lies not just in how individual groups of people were racialized and faced discrimination but also in how, collectively, racial scripts created a system of White supremacy. On arrival, settlers used the procedures of folk democracy to institute a provisional government and craft terms for land claims (established at a generous 320 acres per claimant), which became the basis for the Oregon DLCA passed by Congress in 1850. Because settlers “used race, as opposed to national origin or religion . . . to determine which previous inhabitants would be included and which would be excluded,” former HBC employees could integrate into the emerging American society, despite many being Catholic and French Canadian, while most Indigenous people could not.49 Settlers restricted federal land claims to Whites and mixed raced people whose fathers were White, creating “an affirmative action plan for Anglo- American settlers.”50 They also passed legislation that excluded African Americans from the region. Approximately 3 million African Americans counted in the 1850 census were enslaved and therefore could not join in the migration west of their own accord.51 Exclusion laws, passed in 1844 and 1849 and included in Oregon’s 1857 constitution, were meant to ensure that free African Americans were equally restricted. Oregon’s exclusion acts were more threat than actuality, because Whites seldom used them

394 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 OHS Research Library, Mss 1227,b1, fa

IN THIS DRAFT of Section 31 of the Bill of Rights in the 1857 Oregon Constitution, framers outlined property rights of non-citizens. After some debate, delegates moved to modify “foreigners” with the word “White,” reassuring inhospitality to non-White immigrants. Oregon voters repealed this article in 1970.

to harass the African Americans who lived in the state. Through excluding African Americans from both state and federal land grants, however, White settlers declared African American pioneers an impossibility and reserved the state’s land and resources for themselves. Historian Darrell Millner powerfully states, “in subsequent generations, the profits, power, and political influence that flowed from near exclusive White landowner- ship were manifested in the construction of a racially stratified society in which a white ascendancy was assured and non-white marginalization was profound.”52 The Oregon DLCA secured private property rights for Oregon’s White settlers before the region’s Native people had ceded their lands. Congress ratified treaties negotiated with the people of the Columbia River Plateau three weeks after it declared Oregon the thirty-third state, a timeline based on what Roberta Conner (Cayuse, Umatilla, Nez Perce) calls “clouded title” for individual settlers and the nation both.53 It is a timeline that “reflected deeply embedded settler assumptions about settlement, namely that the land would ultimately be theirs . . . .the Oregon Donation Land Act sym- bolically and literally erased Native land-ownership and tenure.”54 Settlers placed stock in the process of assimilation, championed extermination and forced removal, or held out hope for the providential “vanishing” of Native people. All paths led to the same destination: their own resettlement of Indigenous lands.

Barber, “We were at our journey’s end” 395 University of Washington Libraries, L93-72.32 University of Washington

NEZ PERCE MEN AND WOMEN parade on horseback on July 4, 1902, in Spalding, Idaho. After the federal government removed most of the region’s Native people to reservations, Indian agents forbade large tribal gatherings, claiming they hindered assimilation and made monitoring enrollees difficult. Tribal people skirted prohibitions by gathering on sanctioned holidays such as Christmas and Independence Day, when agents were less likely to harass them.

Reservation policy was driven by a desire to claim Indigenous lands, but many who advocated for it also saw the system as potentially transformational for Indian people who, through the adoption of Christianity, agriculture, and education, could shed their indigeneity, eventually leave the reservation, and integrate into White society.55 That settlers imagined the promise of assimilation as a promise for Native people — the promise of civilization, citizenship rights, and property rights — lays bare the connection between that erasure and White supremacy. Treaty negotiations would not mark an appropriation of millions of acres of land but the beginning of improved lives — lives more like those of White people — for Indian people. But the promise was most importantly one for settlers themselves: the voluntary assimilation of Native people into American society could justify the legal- ized theft of Indigenous lands. As White Oregonians excluded African American laborers and restricted Native Americans’ access to the labor market by segregating them on reservations, they turned to immigrant labor, another central component of settler colonialism throughout the world. Temporary immigrant laborers were denied naturalization and citizenship rights and expelled during

396 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 periods when their labor was not critical. After rejecting the use of enslaved labor as well as the settlement of free African Americans, White Orego- nians turned to employing Chinese and Japanese laborers in the state’s forests and fields, canneries, and emerging cities. They “represented an alien labor force that mixed with Indigenous land to transform it into white property and capital.”56 Chinese arrived concurrently with White American settlers, but were excluded from the designations of “pioneer” or “settler” by custom and through legal measures, which denied them citizenship rights and subjected them to discriminatory laws that constricted their economic choices and limited their rights to property. White settlers crafted policies to ensure that Asian settlers would be classified as sojourners and temporary contract laborers. Asian immigrant laborers built the state’s infrastructure and contributed to its economy without even the minimal safeguards afforded to the period’s White, citizen laborers. During times of economic hardship and lacking the protections of American citizenship, they faced exclusion, expulsion, and other forms of direct and indirect violence. Chinese immigration to Oregon began by 1850 and peaked during the mid 1870s.57 Alarmed at the specter of possible mass migration of Chinese immigrants, during the 1857 Oregon constitutional convention, William Watkins submitted an amendment to the provision regarding African American exclusion to include Chinese. In the ensuing debate, delegates wondered if they should not be more expansive in excluding non-Whites from Oregon’s borders. In addition to Chinese immigrants, Hawaiians and even Indigenous people came under discussion for exclusion or removal.58 Frederick Waymire spoke in defense of Chinese immigrants because “they make good washers, good cooks, and good servants.”59 The delegates approved a constitution that permitted Chinese people being within the state but prohibited them from owning real estate. Over the next several decades, Americans in Oregon and elsewhere debated the role of Chinese immigrants, alternately demanding either their undervalued labor or their exclusion to protect White laborers. Dur- ing 1870 debates about modifying the 1790 Naturalization Law, lawmakers decided to continue to restrict naturalization to Whites, a precursor to anti-immigration legislation that specifically targeted Chinese immigrants. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, passed during a period of White terrorism directed at Chinese people across the West, heralded a racially restrictive American immigration policy for the next eighty years. When the number of Chinese immigrants already in the United States did not decrease but instead remained constant after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act,

Barber, “We were at our journey’s end” 397 politicians from western states returned to the drawing board in 1892 and passed the Geary Act. The new legislation required that Chinese laborers register with the federal government or face deportation or a year of hard labor. Oregon Sen. Binger Hermann supported the act that, according to historian Kelly Lytle Hernández, “resulted in the invention of immigration detention,” as immigrants awaited deportation. Hermann declared that “it is high time our gateways should be double locked and barred against the Mongolian.”60 Proving Natalia Molina’s point that “once attitudes, practices, customs, policies, and laws are directed at one group, they are more readily available and hence easily applied to other groups,” similar debates flared up later in regard to Japanese and Mexican immigration.61 Although voting rights for White males in the United States were largely uncoupled from property ownership by 1856, citizenship status, voting rights, and property rights tracked closely with one another for every other racial group even into the twentieth century (see table on following spread). In 1923, Oregon passed legislation that prohibited immigrants who could not become naturalized citizens from owning property, eliminating the possibility of Japanese or Chinese immigrants from owning land in the state.62 During this same period, state politicians lobbied the federal government to revise the Fourteenth Amendment to eliminate birthright citizenship.63 Not until 1952, under the McCarran-Walter Act, did the nation finally open paths to naturalized citizenship for immigrants designated as non-White. For African Americans, citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment, tools — restrictive covenants and racist banking practices to name two — would prevent them from developing the generational wealth through home ownership that, by the mid twentieth century, White Americans could aspire to and take for granted.64

UNSETTLING WHITE SUPREMACY AND SETTLER COLONIALISM IN OREGON

In her landmark 1987 book The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West, Patricia Nelson Limerick offers a corrective to Turner’s thesis, which ended the frontier period with the 1890 census and placed the experiences of settlers like the Hannas as central to westward expansion and the American experience. Limerick argued that the change in era from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries did not mark a distinct divide between “frontier” and “civilization” but that conquest was present through its legacies in the contemporary American West. The lens of settler colonialism revise her thesis further in at least one important way: to strike “legacies” as a concept lest it suggest that we are merely stuck with the

398 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 OHS Research Library, OrHi 50082, photo file no. 238-A

UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD maintenance workers, three of whom are Chinese, travel the tracks by hand car. Chinese immigrant laborers built and maintained Oregon’s infrastructure yet were targets of legal and extra-legal measures that limited their ability to become citizens or own property, culminating in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Geary Act in 1892.

residue of an earlier generation’s conquest.65 In Wolfe’s words, “invasion is a structure not an event.”66 Settler colonialism, with its “organizing grammar of race,” took on different forms of land hunger and displacement in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.67 For Oregon’s Native Americans, new forms included, but were not limited to, the mid-twentieth-century federal policy of termination, which severed the nation-to-nation relationship between the federal government and sixty-one of Oregon’s tribes and bands, more than in any other state.68 Termination acts liquidated tribal land wealth, proving that White settler desires for Indigenous lands did not end in the nineteenth century. This forced assimilation project — which stripped tribal nations of their federal status, their lands, and the educational, health, and other services promised in treaties — left destitution in its wake. A concurrent policy of voluntary relocation incentivized what we might now call “self-removal” by encouraging working-aged Indigenous men and women to leave their reservations and resettle in cities.69 In the same period, dam building on the Columbia River

Barber, “We were at our journey’s end” 399 CITIZENSHIP STATUS, VOTING RIGHTS, AND PROPERTY RIGHTS BY RACE AND GENDER

Citizenship Status Voting Rights Property Rights

Become U.S. citizens under provisions of Indian Yes, under the provisions of the Dawes General Indigenous After 1924 in theory. Oregon adopts Citizenship Act, 1924 (national) Allotment Act, 1887 (national) but as “trust” lands, Women literacy test in 1924. Can lose tribal status if married to non-tribal man. held at least initially by federal government.

Not under Oregon Donation Land Claim Act. Indigenous Become U.S. citizens under provisions of Indian After 1924 in theory. Oregon adopts Yes, under the provisions of the Dawes General Men Citizenship Act, 1924 (national) literacy test in 1924. Allotment Act, 1887 (national) but as “trust” lands, held at least initially by federal government

Yes for men, under Donation Land Claim Act, Often depended upon the ability of individuals to Often depended upon the ability if father is White and the mother is Indigenous. People of pass as White. In 1855 Oregon denied mixed-race of individuals to pass as White and Mixed race women often found that they were not Mixed Race men citizenship status. time of birth (see notes). able to defend their property rights in Oregon’s courts when they were widowed.

Not under Donation Land Act or the Oregon State African For men, under the provisions of constitution, whose restrictions were overturned Under the provisions of the 14th Amendment, which American the 15th Amendment, which Oregon by the 14th Amendment. However, restrictions Oregon ratified in 1866, rescinded in 1868 and Men and refused to ratify until 1959. After continued into the twentieth century with, for re-ratified in 1973. Women 1912 in Oregon, for women. example, redlining and racial restrictions in property titles.

Former Yes, but barriers abound and many lose their Yes, under the provisions of the Treaty of Mexican Yes, but barriers abound. landholdings dating back before the Mexican- Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848 (national). Nationals American War.

Oregon Constitution prohibits Chinese from owning “any real estate, mining claim, or working Although the Magnuson Act in 1943 opens Chinese No, for immigrants until after any mining claim therein.” Oregon legislature naturalization for some, most cannot be naturalized Men and 1952. Yes, for those born in U.S. or passes Alien Land Law in 1923, denying property until 1952. Children are citizens under the 14th Women naturalized after 1943. rights to immigrants who could not be naturalized. Amendment. American-born children could own land. State alien land acts in force until 1965.

Yes, until Oregon passage of Alien Land Law Japanese Cannot be naturalized until 1952. Children are No, for immigrants until after 1952. in 1923, denying immigrants who could not Men and citizens under the 14th Amendment. Yes, for those born in U.S. be naturalized property rights. American-born Women children could own land.

Yes. Fully enfranchised after 1856 Men Yes. White immigrants could naturalize under the (no property ownership obligation Categorized Yes. provisions of the 1790 Naturalization Act. although head taxes remained in as White some states).

Women Yes, under the provisions of the Oregon Donation Yes, but could lose citizenship status if married to a Categorized After 1912 in Oregon. Land Claim Act, which was revised in 1853 to give non-citizen. as White married women property rights.

THIS TABLE, compiled by the author, documents citizenship status, voting rights, and property rights for various groups of people during the twentieth century in Oregon. CITIZENSHIP STATUS, VOTING RIGHTS, AND PROPERTY RIGHTS BY RACE AND GENDER DATES OF SIGNIFICANCE

Citizenship Status Voting Rights Property Rights

Become U.S. citizens under provisions of Indian Yes, under the provisions of the Dawes General Indigenous After 1924 in theory. Oregon adopts 1790: Naturalization Act restricts citizenship to Citizenship Act, 1924 (national) Allotment Act, 1887 (national) but as “trust” lands, Women literacy test in 1924. “any alien, being a free white person.” Can lose tribal status if married to non-tribal man. held at least initially by federal government.

Not under Oregon Donation Land Claim Act. 1862: Oregon adopts law to prevent African Indigenous Become U.S. citizens under provisions of Indian After 1924 in theory. Oregon adopts Yes, under the provisions of the Dawes General Americans and Whites from lawfully marrying; Men Citizenship Act, 1924 (national) literacy test in 1924. Allotment Act, 1887 (national) but as “trust” lands, expanded in 1866 to include Chinese, held at least initially by federal government Hawaiians, and Native Americans. Repealed in Oregon in 1951, nationally, by Supreme Court Yes for men, under Donation Land Claim Act, ruling on Loving v. Virginia, in 1967. Often depended upon the ability of individuals to Often depended upon the ability if father is White and the mother is Indigenous. People of pass as White. In 1855 Oregon denied mixed-race of individuals to pass as White and Mixed race women often found that they were not Mixed Race men citizenship status. time of birth (see notes). able to defend their property rights in Oregon’s 1870: Congress opens naturalized citizenship courts when they were widowed. to people of African descent but continues to exclude Native Americans and Asian immigrants Not under Donation Land Act or the Oregon State from citizenship through naturalization. African For men, under the provisions of constitution, whose restrictions were overturned Under the provisions of the 14th Amendment, which American the 15th Amendment, which Oregon by the 14th Amendment. However, restrictions Oregon ratified in 1866, rescinded in 1868 and Men and refused to ratify until 1959. After continued into the twentieth century with, for re-ratified in 1973. 1882: U.S. Congress passes Chinese Exclusion Women 1912 in Oregon, for women. example, redlining and racial restrictions in Act. Repealed in 1943. property titles.

Former Yes, but barriers abound and many lose their Yes, under the provisions of the Treaty of 1898: Filipinos became U.S. nationals under the Mexican Yes, but barriers abound. landholdings dating back before the Mexican- Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848 (national). Treaty of Paris following the Spanish-American Nationals American War. War, and therefore not subject to exclusion.

Oregon Constitution prohibits Chinese from owning “any real estate, mining claim, or working Although the Magnuson Act in 1943 opens 1917: Asiatic Barred Zone Act bans immigration Chinese No, for immigrants until after any mining claim therein.” Oregon legislature naturalization for some, most cannot be naturalized from numerous nations, including most Asian Men and 1952. Yes, for those born in U.S. or passes Alien Land Law in 1923, denying property until 1952. Children are citizens under the 14th nations (not Japan), and India. Women naturalized after 1943. rights to immigrants who could not be naturalized. Amendment. American-born children could own land. State alien land acts in force until 1965. 1922: The Cable Act terminated citizenship for American women who married foreigners Yes, until Oregon passage of Alien Land Law ineligible for citizenship or lived outside Japanese Cannot be naturalized until 1952. Children are No, for immigrants until after 1952. in 1923, denying immigrants who could not of the United States for two years. Prior to Men and citizens under the 14th Amendment. Yes, for those born in U.S. be naturalized property rights. American-born this time, American women could lose their Women children could own land. citizenship status if they married non-naturalized immigrants. Overturned in 1931. Yes. Fully enfranchised after 1856 Men Yes. White immigrants could naturalize under the (no property ownership obligation Categorized Yes. 1924: Immigration Act of 1924 bans immigration provisions of the 1790 Naturalization Act. although head taxes remained in as White by people ineligible for citizenship. some states).

1952: McCarran-Walter Act repeals remnants of Women Yes, under the provisions of the Oregon Donation Yes, but could lose citizenship status if married to a previous naturalization acts so that immigrants Categorized After 1912 in Oregon. Land Claim Act, which was revised in 1853 to give non-citizen. declared non-White could become naturalized as White married women property rights. citizens. inundated Indigenous fishing areas and village sites that had been in use for tens of thousands of years, leading to decades of struggle to maintain treaty-protected fishing rights.70 Moreover, economic and environmental policies chipped away at Indigenous autonomy by depleting the state’s traditional Indigenous food sources and opening resources to commercial harvests. All of these alienated Indigenous people from their lands every bit as much as nineteenth-century policies. Portland’s African American community significantly expanded as war industries attracted workers to the area from across the country during the mid twentieth century. By 1945, the African American population in the city had increased by 1,000 percent to 23,000 people.71 But local elites, such as Portland Mayor Earl Riley and members of the Portland Board of Real- tors, were intent that the growth be temporary. After the war they moved to dismantle wartime housing and limited the ability of African American newcomers to find suitable housing elsewhere. Despite the efforts of organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Urban League, Portland’s postwar Black population dropped to 11,000 people by 1957.72 Twentieth-century forms of exclusion and displacement included the disaster of the Vanport flood in 1948 (at least partially human-made) as well as urban renewal projects that made way for construction of the Interstate freeway, development of the Memorial Coli- seum, and an expansion of Legacy Emanuel Hospital that was significantly reduced after the displacement of a neighborhood. African Americans and other marginalized racial groups continued to face restrictions to property acquisition through racial covenants, banking’s exclusionary lending practices, and terrorism directed at them by their White neighbors. Linkages like this led Millner to claim that “issues of race and the status and circumstances of black life in Oregon are central to understanding the history of the state, and perhaps its future as well.”73 Gentrification in North and Northeast Portland during the twenty-first century has led to “market-rate” multi-unit developments that have increased the value of surrounding existing homes, leading to renters and middle- and low-income homeowners being “priced out” of their own neighborhoods.74 These trends affect all Portlanders but none more so than the city’s African Americans, who earn the city’s lowest median income and are most likely to be renters (only 30 percent were homeowners in 2016).75 In 2015, the number of African Americans in the city who lacked any housing jumped by 48 percent, and while they made up only 7 percent of the city’s population, they comprised 25 percent of its homeless population.76 Just as in the period after World War II, those who can relocate are doing so. Between 2012 and 2014,

402 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 OHS Research Library, bb005803 the city of Portland annually lost approximately 800 African American residents who left for other states.77 In contrast, other fast-growing, similarly sized cities saw an annual net increase of African American residents during this same period.78 Historic deed restrictions, racist lending practices, and gentrification affect African Ameri- can communities nationwide, but because of the state’s remarkable history of exclusion, Portland has come to stand for the long reach of discriminatory housing practices.79 That more African Americans select to leave Portland than to move to the city reflects a long history of White supremacy in the state. AN AFRICAN AMERICAN MAN, a pensioner of less than And yet ongoing resis- $2,000 a year, stands on his porch in Albina with the freeway tance to White supremacy in the background. Well before the gentrification of the is also an ineradicable twenty-first century, Portland’s Black property owners faced characteristic of settler displacement from public and private developments such colonialism. That racial as the Memorial Coliseum, the Legacy Emanuel Hospital boundaries were and are expansion, and other urban renewal projects. messy and contested in Oregon points to the importance of resilience and resistance and suggests possibilities for change. Examples abound, and some appear in the chart at the end of this article. Two discussed below demonstrate the necessary unwinding of White settler conventions regarding the impossibility of African American pioneers and the erasure of the state’s Indigenous people.

Barber, “We were at our journey’s end” 403 Salem’s 1927 promotional material celebrated the Oregon’s capitol city as “the most All-American city in the United States. No foreign element, no Mexicans, 30 negroes, and there hasn’t been an Indian living in the city for 35 years.” Salem, therefore, seems an unlikely headquarters for one of the state’s premier African American heritage organizations, Oregon Black Pio- neers (OBP).80 OBP is no stranger to heading off stereotypes with evidence- based historical counter-narrative: its very name flouts the idea that African Americans were not some of the state’s earliest settlers. In addition to its exhibits and public presentations, a 2011 book, Perseverance: A History of African Americans in Oregon’s Marion and Polk Counties, repopulates the nineteenth century Willamette Valley with biographies of individuals — enslaved and free — who resided there, including Ed, of whom little information survives. Ed was a thirty-five-year-old enslaved man from Missouri when he arrived in Oregon in 1853, the year after the Hannas.81 African Americans who struggled for generations to gain a foothold of private property as a form of security and potential wealth were “ambigu- ous settlers,” according to Zainab Amadahy and Bonita Lawrence. They have “been involved in some form of settlement process” in their pursuit of western land but were also marginal to the national project of expansion and often excluded from settlement’s ambitions.82 This leads to a contradiction in which “Black struggles for freedom have required (and continue to require) ongoing colonization of Indigenous land,” which “normalizes relations of colonialism,” while simultaneously upending who embodies the “settler” or “pioneer.”83 As people of African descent claimed the lands of Native people, they highlighted this contradiction of “stolen people on stolen land.”84 Just a few miles from where the Hannas took up a land claim, planners on the Grand Ronde Reservation have re-inscribed indigeneity into the landscape by designating street names in Chinuk Wawa and English. Ethnic Studies scholar Natchee Blu Barnd, who has examined the use of signage to create Native spaces, writes “in Grand Ronde, names that might elsewhere be seen as obscure or neutral stand within this geography as empowered and potentially empowering assertions of Native presence, tribal sovereignty, and cultural resilience.”85 The 1954 Western Oregon Indian Termination Act terminated the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Reservation, whose members fought for twenty-nine years to regain federal status under the 1983 Grand Ronde Resto- ration Act.86 Historical studies celebrate the hard-won reversals of termination policy by tribal activists with titles such as Standing Tall and The People Are Dancing Again.87 Today, the nearly 11,000-acre reservation boasts a health clinic, a government complex, elder housing, a language immersion program for its youngest members, and a museum with a state-of-the-art and culturally sensitive collections management program. Spirit Mountain Casino (est. 1995)

404 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Andie Petkus Photography

IN 2018, the Oregon Historical Society hosted “Racing to Change, Oregon’s Civil Rights Years,” an exhibit curated by Oregon Black Pioneers (OBP). The exhibit examined the repression and violence African Americans experienced that led to the Civil Rights Movement. A view of the exhibit is shown here.

and the Spirit Mountain Lodge (est. 1998) are the largest employers in Polk County.88 Through strategies such as Indigenous place-names, tribal nations can signal what Barnd calls “Indigenous continuations.” Historian Susan Wade calls this kind of work “unmapping American Empire.”89 The framework of settler colonialism illuminates the connections between the resettlement of what is now the state of Oregon and the practices of exclusion and displacement that are predicated on White supremacy. It allows us to see the relational structures of racial differences between, among, and across groups, and how they shift over time. It also highlights the difference between civil rights — inclusion into a citizenry with all the rights and responsibilities that that entails — and decolonization, which rests on no less than the full restoration of lands to Indigenous people. To grapple with the foundations, legacies, and persistent characteristics of settler colonialism and its twin — White supremacy — is to grapple with the inequities that shape Oregon’s history, present, and future in ways both symbolic and material.

Barber, “We were at our journey’s end” 405 SETTLER COLONIALISM IN OREGON HISTORY AND RESISTANCE TO IT

Characteristics Oregon Resistance Examples In Oregon of Settler Colonialism to Settler Colonialism

Plateau Indian War, Modoc War, and other battles Oregon Donation Land Claim Act of resistance waged to Land-hungry settlers came to established a system of racialized maintain Indigenous stay permanently. exclusion. land holdings. Other strategies of confrontation, accommodation, and evasion.

Settlement required the Removals of Indians in the Persistence of Indigenous “elimination” or erasure of nineteenth century and the nationhood among federally Indigenous people through implementation of termination recognized and non- displacement, genocide and policy in the twentieth century. recognized tribes alike. disease, and assimilation.

Incorporation into a centralized The development of birth and Reinscribing Indigenous place government that tracks death certificates, replacing names, marrying and divorcing property and people. Indigenous naming practices. without state sanction.

Depression-era murals at the Rapper Amine’s “There Are capitol building, stereotypes Black People in Portland” Settlers and their children of Chinese workers and Native billboards, Walidah Imarisha’s obscured/erased the violent people in Pendleton Round-Up’s “Why Aren’t There More Black history of settlement. Happy Canyon Indian Pageant People in Oregon” lecture and Wild West Show, uncritical series, a special issue of the celebrations of pioneer history. OHQ on White supremacy.

Non-Native business that use Settlers repurposed local Indigenous words or place names Indigenous histories to without permission, use of Native Indigenously produced place- create new mythologies that tribal names for street signs in name atlases. naturalized their presence. places where Indigenous people are absent.

Restoration efforts among Oregon Donation Land Act, terminated tribes and Racial identities emerge from Dawes Allotment Act, Termination bands and the struggles for the desire for Indigenous lands policy, forced labor of Native recognition among Indigenous and the need to distinguish American children through people not federally unfree from free labor. boarding school “outing” recognized, Indian Child programs. Welfare Act, tribal purchases of private and public lands.

Indigenous resistance to “elimination” in all its forms is an essential part of settler colonization. Resistance includes salmon and lamprey eel harvests, the persistence of ceremonial practices, and the tribal museums that tells the histories of the tribes and bands as indelibly Oregon history.

406 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 SETTLER COLONIAL STATES around the world share characteristics, which are listed in the table to the left, along with specific examples of such characteristics from what is now the state of Oregon. One common characteristic is ongoing resistance to settler colonialism by Indigenous people, non-White groups, and settler descendants through a variety of measures as indicated in the third column. Characteristics of settler colonialism are summarized from Evelyn Nakano Glenn’s “Settler Colonialism as Structure: A Framework for Comparative Studies of U.S. Race and Gender Construction,” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity (2015).

NOTES

1. Hanna Journal, with introduction and U.S. Empire and the Transformation of an Indig- notes by David Duniway, 12 June 1985, pages enous World, 1792–1859 (Chapel Hill: University 1-54, Willamette Heritage Center, Salem, Or- of North Carolina, 2010), 206. In “History of Land egon, . https://www.willametteheritage.org/ Taking,” The Great Land Rush and the Making honeymoon-by-carriage-1852-journal-of-esther- of the Modern World, 1650–1900, John Weaver bell-mcmillan-hanna/; https://www.willamette- identifies the “doctrine of improvement” as a set heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ of powerful ideas that the justified dispossession Hanna-Journal-030217.pdf [hereafter Hanna of Indigenous people around the globe. John Journal] (accessed October 21, 2019). Weaver, The Great Land Rush and the Making of 2. Joseph Hanna, Presbyterian of the West, the Modern World, 1650–1900 (Montreal: McGill- June 3, 1852 issue, p. 146, quoted in Hanna Queen’s University Press, 2003). Journal, 4. See also, Clifford M. Drury, “Some As- 9. For a study of congressional debates pects of Presbyterian History in Oregon,” Oregon over federal land policy and territorial expansion, Historical Quarterly 55:2 (June 1954): 145–59. see Julius Wilm, Settlers as Conquerors: Free 3. Harriet Hovenden’s “sketch” of her mother Land Policy in Antebellum America (Stuttgart, sent to Dr. Robert M. Gatke, December 31, 1935, Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden 2018). quoted in Hanna Journal, page 3. 10. For conference description, see Miriam 4. Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, “Decolo- Hauss, “An Etching for the AHA,” Perspectives on nization Is Not a Metaphor,” Decolonization: History, September 2004, https://www.historians. Indigeneity, Education & Society 1:1 (2012): 6. org/publications-and-directories/perspectives- Laurie Arnold, personal communication with the on-history/september-2004/an-etching-for-the- author, April 28, 2018. aha (accessed November 6, 2019). For weather, 5. Glen Coulthard, “Place Against Empire: see Henry J. Cox and John H. Armington, The Understanding Indigenous Anti-Colonialism,” Weather and Climate of Chicago (Chicago: Uni- Affinities: A Journal of Radical Theory, Culture, versity of Chicago Press, 1914), 195. and Action, 4:2 (Fall 2010): 81. 11. Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Signifi- 6. John D. Unruh, Jr., The Plains Across: The cance of the Frontier in American History,” in The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi Frontier in American History (New York: Henry West, 1840–60 (Urbana: University of Illinois Holt and Co., 1920), 1. Press, 1993), 120. 12. See, for example, James Belich, Replen- 7. Ibid. ishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the 8. George Roberts, the administrator of the Rise of the Anglo-World, 1783–1939 (Oxford: Hudson’s Bay Company’s Puget Sound Agricul- Oxford University Press, 2009); Marjory Harper tural Association, regarded the conflicts between and Stephen Constantine, Migration and Empire American settlers and the Pacific region’s Native (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010); Walter people as rooted in “earth hunger.” Quoted in Hixson, American Settler Colonialism: A History Gray Whaley, Oregon and the Collapse of Illahee: (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013); Evelyn Na-

Barber, “We were at our journey’s end” 407 kano Glenn, “Settler Colonialism as Structure: A Robbins, Landscapes of Conflict: The Oregon Framework for Comparative Studies of U.S. Race Story, 1940–2000 (Seattle: University of Wash- and Gender Construction,” Sociology of Race and ington Press, 2004). Ethnicity, 1:1 (2015): 52–72; Andrea Smith, “Indi- 24. Elizabeth Woody, Recalling Celilo,” in geneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy,” Salmon Nation: People and Fish at the Edge Global Dialogue, 12:2 (Summer/Autumn 2010). (Portland, Oregon: Ecotrust, 1999), 14; Elizabeth 13. Belich, Replenishing the Earth, 82–84. McLagan, A Peculiar Paradise: A History of 14. Ibid., 126. Chinese and Indian migration Blacks in Oregon, 1778–1940 (Portland, Oregon: numbers are for the years between 1846 and Georgian Press, 1980). 1940. 25. Anderson, Bern, “The Vancouver Expe- 15. Ibid., 83. dition: Peter Puget’s Journal of the Exploration 16. Anne Bonds and Joshua Inwood, Beyond of Puget Sound, May 7–June 11, 1792,” Pacific White Privilege: Geographies of White Suprema- Northwest Quarterly 30:2 (April 1939), 183. cy and Settler Colonialism,” Progress in Human 26. Ibid. Geography, 40:6 (2016): 716. 27. Joshua Reid, The Sea Is My Country: The 17. Frances Lee Ansley, “Stirring the Maritime World of the Makahs (New Haven: Yale Ashes: Race, Class and the Future of Civil University Press, 2015). Rights Scholarship,” Cornell Law Review 74:6 28. Jane Samson, Race and Empire, (New (September 1989): 1024, n129 York: Routledge Press), 5. See also, Ibram X. 18. Bonds and Inwood, “Beyond White Privi- Kendi, Stamped From the Beginning: The Defini- lege,” 719–20. tive History of Racist Ideas in America (New York: 19. Patrick Wolfe, “Recuperating Binarism: A Bold Type Books, 2016). Heretical Introduction,” Settler Colonialism Stud- 29. James P. Ronda, “’A Knowledge of Dis- ies, 3:3 (2013), 264. For more on the debate about tant Parts’: The Shaping of the Lewis and Clark how White supremacy and anti-Blackness oper- Expedition,” Montana: The Magazine of Western ate in settler colonial states, see Iyko Day, “Being History, 41:4 (Autumn 1991), 9. or Nothingness: Indigeneity, Antiblackness, and 30. Steve Garner, Racisms: An Introduction, Settler Colonial Critique,” Critical Ethnic Studies, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage (2017), 12. 1:2 (Fall 2015): 102–121 and Justin Leroy, “Black 31. Ibid. History in Occupied Territory: On the Entangle- 32. Melinda Jetté’s history of the Willamette ments of Slavery and Settler Colonialism,” Theory Valley’s French Prairie illustrates the difficulties and Event Vol. 19:4 (2016). of implementing this policy. Melinda Marie Jetté, 20. Patrick Wolfe calls such strategies part At the Hearth of the Crossed Races: A French- of the “logic of elimination,” “Settler Colonialism Indian Community in Nineteenth Century Oregon, and the Elimination of the Native,” Journal of 1812–1859 (Corvallis: Oregon State University Genocide Research 8:4 (December 2006): 387. Press, 2015). 21. Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother: A 33. Classic studies on accommodation in the Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (New fur trade include Sylvia Van Kirk, Many Tender York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007), 6. The Ties: Women in Fur Trade Society, 1670–1870 full quote reads: ”This is the afterlife of slavery— (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1983) skewed life chances, limited access to health and and Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, education, premature death, incarceration, and Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Re- impoverishment.” gion, 1650–1815 (New York: Cambridge University 22. Glenn, “Settler Colonialism as Struc- Press, 1991). Melinda Marie Jetté, At the Hearth ture,” 60. of the Crossed Races: A French-Indian Commu- 23. The first of William Robbins’s excellent nity in Nineteenth Century Oregon, 1812–1859 two-volume history of Oregon is titled Land- (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2015) scapes of Promise, which inspires my use of provides a study of intermarriages in the fur trade the term here. William Robbins, Landscapes of in Oregon. Promise: The Oregon Story, 1800–1940 (Seattle: 34. Although it has precedents in the 1920s University of Washington Press, 1999). See also, and 30s, Lorenzo Veracini traces the develop-

408 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 ment of “settler colonialism” as an analytical lence and the Making of American Innocence framework to the recovery of “the historical expe- (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2014), rience of indigenous peoples” — “dispossession Donald Cutler, “Hang Them All”: George Wright and violence” and “indigenous agency, resilience and the Plateau Indian War (Norman: University and success in resisting settler domination” — by of Oklahoma Press, 2016), Elliot West, The Last historians, anthropologists, and Indigenous stud- Indian War: The Nez Perce Story (Oxford: Ox- ies scholars after World War II and especially ford University Press, 2090), and Gray Whaley, during the broad civil rights era and the rise of Oregon and the Collapse of Illahee: U.S. Empire social history. Lorenzo Veracini, “’Settler Colonial- and the Transformation of an Indigenous World, ism’: Career of a Concept,” Journal of Imperial 1792–1859 (Chapel Hill: University of North and Commonwealth History, 41:2 (March 2013): Carolina, 2010). 313–33. Lorenzo Veracini, “Telling the End of 43. Lorenzo Veracini, Settler Colonialism: A the Settler Colonial Story,” in Studies in Settler Theoretical Overview (London: Palgrave Macmil- Colonialism: Politics, Identity and Culture, edited lan, 2010), 3. by Fiona Bateman and Lionel Pilkington (London: 44. Hard to figure out the citation. Perhaps an Plagrave MacMillian, 2011), 204–218. article by Hanna published September 18, 1851, 35. See also, in this issue, Kenneth Cole- quoted in Hanna Journal, p. 3. man, “ ‘We’ll All Start Even’: White Egalitarianism 45. Ibid., 32. and The Oregon Donation Land Claim,” Oregon 46. Natalia Molina, How Race Is Made Historical Quarterly 120:4 (Winter 2019): 414–437. in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the 36. Robert Boyd, The Coming of the Spirit Historical Power of Racial Scripts (Berkeley: of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases University of California Press, 2014). and Population Decline among Northwest Coast 47. Scott Lauria Morgensen, “Theorizing Indians, 1774–1874 (Seattle: University of Wash- Gender, Sexuality and Settler Colonialism: An ington Press, 1999). Introduction,” Settler Colonial Studies, 2:2 (2012): 37. John Findlay, History of Washington State 2–22. For more information about how Native and the Pacific Northwest, “Lesson Seven: The people in Oregon conceived of their own identi- Changing World of Pacific Northwest Indians,” ties, see Gray Whaley, Oregon and the Collapse Classroom Materials, History of Washington State of Illahee: U.S. Empire and the Transformation of and the Pacific Northwest, Center for the Study of an Indigenous World, 1792–1859 (Chapel Hill: the Pacific Northwest, University of Washington, University of North Carolina, 2010). https://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/ 48. Iyko Day, Alien Capital: Asian Racializa- cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Pacif- tion and the Logic of Setter Colonial Capitalism ic%20Northwest%20History/Lessons/Lesson%20 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2016), 176. 7/7.html (accessed June 1, 2019). 49. Coleman, Dangerous Subjects, 7. 38. Kenneth Coleman, Dangerous Subjects: 50. Jetté, At the Hearth of the Crossed James D. Saules and the Rise of Black Exclusion Races, 196, 211; Coleman, Dangerous Subjects, in Oregon (Corvallis: Oregon State University 143. In recognition of the mixed families of the Press, 2017). Coleman titled his third chapter fur trade, the provisional government made al- “The Settler Invasion.” lowances to vote, serve in office, and make land 39. Peter Burnett, “Recollections and Opin- claims for men whose fathers were White. Those ions of an Old Pioneer, Chapter III,” Quarterly of allowances lasted for just a few years. Under the Oregon Historical Society 5:1 (March 1904): Oregon Territorial law, mixed race men lost voting 97. rights and could not become citizens. 40. Wilm, Settlers as Conquerors, 218. 51. Darrell Millner makes this point in “Blacks 41. Coulthard, “Place Against Empire,” 79, 82. in Oregon,” The Oregon Encyclopedia, https:// 42. There is a sizeable literature on conflicts oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/blacks_in_or- between Indian people in Oregon and volunteer egon/#.XF0mUhlKgnU (accessed June 1, 2019). militia and the U.S. military in the United States. 52. Ibid. Some important titles include, Boyd Cothran, 53. The U.S. Senate ratified the Umatilla Remembering the Modoc War: Redemptive Vio- Treaty on March 8, 1859. Cliff Trafzer, “Native

Barber, “We were at our journey’s end” 409 American Treaties, Northeastern Oregon,” The 61. Molina, How Race Is Made in America, 7. Oregon Encyclopedia, https://oregonency- 62. Asian immigrants took advantage of clopedia.org/articles/native_american_trea- loopholes in the law by putting property in the ties_eastern_oregon/#.XbspCkVKjaY (accessed names of their American-born children or collabo- 31 October 2019); Roberta “Bobbie” Conner in rating with Whites who would hold title for them. discussion, Oregon Trail Interpretive Project 63. For a discussion of efforts in Oregon and Advisory Committee meeting, 1 February 2019, California to modify the 14th amendment as a way Hood River, Oregon. to deny the children of Asian immigrants citizen- 54. Katrine Barber, In Defense of Wyam: ship, see Cherstin M. Lyon, Prisons and Patriots: Native-White Alliances & the Struggle for Celilo Japanese American Wartime Citizenship, Civil Village (Seattle: University of Washington Press, Disobedience, and Historical Memory (Temple 2018), 33. University Press, 2011). 55. See, for example, Francis Paul Prucha, 64. Richard Rothstein estimates that nation- American Indian Policy in Crisis: Christian Re- ally African American families hold less than 10 formers and the Indian, 1865–1900 (Norman: percent of household wealth (defined as “assets University of Oklahoma Press, 1976); and Fred- minus liabilities”) as their White counterparts. erick Hoxie, A Final Promise: The Campaign to He writes, “not all of this enormous difference Assimilate the Indians, 1880–1920 (Lincoln: Uni- is attributable to the government’s racial hous- versity of Nebraska Press, 2001). White women’s ing policy, but a good portion of it certainly is.” voluntary groups especially saw assimilation as Rothstein, The Color Of Law: A Forgotten History a corrective to other forms of violence. See Jane of How Our Government Segregated America Simonsen, Making Home Work: Domesticity and (New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, Native American Assimilation in the American 2017), 184–85. West, 1860–1919 (Chapel Hill: University of North 65. Patricia Limerick addresses what she Carolina Press, 2006); and Valerie Sherer Mathes, sees as the challenges of “settler colonialism” as ed., The Women’s National Indian Association, A a historical framework in “Comments on Settler History (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Colonialism and the American West,” Journal of Press, 2015). the West 56:4 (Fall 2017): 90–96. 56. Day, Alien Capital, 31. 66. Patrick Wolfe, “Settler Colonialism and 57. William G. Loy, Stuart Allan, Aileen the Elimination of the Native,” Journal of Geno- R. Buckley, and James E. Meacham, Atlas of cide Research 8:4 ( December 2006): 388. Oregon, Second Edition, (Eugene: University of 67. Ibid, 387. Oregon Press, 2001), 42. 68. Roberta Ulrich, American Indian Nations 58. David Alan Johnson, Founding the From Termination to Restoration, 1953–2006 Far West, California, Oregon, and Nevada, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013). 1840–1890 (Berkeley: University of California 69. Donald Fixico, Termination and Reloca- Press, 1992), 180-1. tion: Federal Indian Policy, 1945–1960 (Albu- 59. Charles Henry Carey, The Oregon Con- querque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986) stitution and Proceedings and Debates of the 70. For more on this see Katrine Barber, Constitutional Convention of 1857 (Salem, Ore.: Death of Celilo Falls (Seattle: University of Wash- Salem Printing Department, 1926), 362, quoted ington Press, 2005), Andrew H. Fisher, Shadow in “Pervasive Issues of Race,” in “Crafting the Or- Tribe: The Making of Columbia River Indian egon Constitution: Framework for a New State,” Identity (Seattle: University of Washington Press, on the Oregon Secretary of State website, https:// 2010), and Roberta Ulrich, Empty Nets: Indians, sos.oregon.gov/archives/exhibits/constitution/ Dams, and the Columbia River (Corvallis: Oregon Pages/during-race.aspx (accessed June 1, 2019). State University Press, 1999). In “Native American 60. Kelly Lytle Hernández, City of Inmates: Environmental Justice as Decolonization,” Julia Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Cag- Miller Cantzler and Megan Huynh argue that post ing in Los Angeles, 1771–1965 (Chapel Hill: Uni- World War II treaty fishing rights struggles must versity of North Carolina Press, 2017), 64 and 70. be understood within the context of resistance to

410 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 systems of colonization. Julia Miller and Megan the Whitest City in America,” July 22, 2016, The Huynh, “Native American Justice as Decoloniza- Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/business/ tion,” American Behavioral Scientist 60:2 (2016): archive/2016/07/racist-history-portland/492035/ 203–23. (accessed November 6, 2019). 71. See Rudy Pearson, “ ‘A Menace to the 80. Oregon Northwest Black Pioneers, Neighborhood’: Housing and African Americans Perseverance: A History of African Americans in Portland, 1941–1945,” Oregon Historical Quar- in Oregon’s Marion and Polk Counties (Salem, terly 102:2 (Summer 2001): 158-179. Oregon: Self-published, 2011), 134. 72. City Club of Portland, “The Negro in 81. Ibid, 38–9. Portland: A Progress Report 1945–1957,” paper 82. Zainab Amadhy and Bonita Lawrence, 179 (1957), 355, http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/ “Indigenous Peoples and Black People in oscdl_cityclub/179 (accessed November 6, 2019); Canada: Settlers or Allies?,” in Breaching the Karen Gibson, “Bleeding Albina: A History of Colonial Contract: Anti-Colonialism in the US and Community Disinvestment, 1940–2000,” Trans- Canada, ed. Arlo Kempf (Berlin: Springer Science forming Anthropology, 15:1 (April 2007): 3–25. + Business Media, 2009), 107, 121. 73. Darrell Millner makes this point in “Blacks 83. Ibid, 120. in Oregon,” The Oregon Encyclopedia, https:// 84. Ibid, 125. oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/blacks_in_or- 85. Natchee Blu Barnd, Native Space: Geo- egon/#.XF0mUhlKgnU (accessed November graphic Strategies to Unsettle Settler Colonialism 6, 2019). (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2017), 74. Cornelius Swart titled his 2017 documen- 24. Barnd also examines the use of Indigenous tary film that traces the effects of gentrification on names on street signs as a way to create “white Portland’s African American community in North space” and notes that the practice gained popu- and Northeast Portland “Priced Out.” larity after WWII in communities that tend to be 75. Portland Housing Bureau, State of Hous- suburban and overwhelmingly White. ing in Portland, 2018, https://www.portlandore- 86. David Gene Lewis, “Termination of the gon.gov/phb/article/707182, p. 13, 14 (accessed Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Com- November 6, 2019). munity of Oregon: Politics, Community, Identity,” 76. Abigail Savitch-Lew, “Gentrification Spot- Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oregon, 2006. light: How Portland is Pushing Out Its Black Resi- 87. Kristine Olson, Standing Tall: The Lifeway dents,” Colorlines, April 18, 2016, https://www. of Kathryn Jones Harrison (Portland, Oregon: colorlines.com/articles/gentrification-spotlight- 2005); Charles Wilkinson, The People Are Danc- how-portland-pushing-out-its-black-residents ing Again (Seattle: University of Washington (accessed November 6. 2019). Press, 2010). See also, David R.M. Beck, Seeking 77. Jason R. Jurjevich, Greg Schrock and Recognition: The Termination and Restoration of Jihye Kang. “Destination Portland: Post-Great the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians, Recession Migration Trends in the Rose City Re- 1855–1984 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska gion” America on the Move 1 (2017), http://works. Press, 2009) bepress.com/jurjevich/60/ (accessed November 88. The Confederated Tribes of the Grand 6, 2019), 3. Ronde, “Termination and Restoration,” “Elemen- 78. Ibid. tary Chinuk Language Program,” and “Tribal 79. Many recent publications link the state’s Museum and Cultural Center,” https://www.gran- anti-Black history to gentrification, including Sav- dronde.org/culture/termination-and-restoration/ itch-Lew, “Gentrification Spotlight”; Wayne Hare, (accessed February 7, 2019). “Portland’s Gentrification Has Its Roots in Racism,” 89. Barnd, Native Spaces, 1; Susan Wade, May 28, 2018, High Country News, https://www. “J. William Trygg, The Wisconsin Land Survey, hcn.org/issues/50.9/race-racism-portlands- and the Indian Claims Commission,” conference racist-history-of-housing-discrimination-and- paper delivered at the Western History Associa- gentrification (accessed November 6, 2019); and tion annual meeting, St. Paul, Minnesota, October Alana Semuels, “The Racist History of Portland, 21, 2016.

Barber, “We were at our journey’s end” 411 1902–1914

TWO NEWSPAPER CLIPS from the early twentieth century demonstrate how White supremacy — the belief in a superior, White race — was perpetuated through forced assimilation of Indigenous communities. The 1902 editorial below describes Native people as “peculiar, distinct, separate semi-barbarous people” who could only be saved by being “obsorbed [sic] by the nation.” The 1914 image and rhyme on the right reinforce those beliefs, describing how F “Little Red,” only became American when he was forced to give up his “Injun” name. O By the turn of the twentieth century, White people firmly controlled social, political, economic, R educational, and cultural levers of Oregon life. Native populations had been removed to C reservations, yet their culture survived. Many “progressive” Whites set out to do with education what had not been done with guns and plows — to transform and absorb Indigenous people, E whether they wanted to or not, into the “superior” White culture and erase their “inferior” D languages, practices, and traditions.

While practitioners of White supremacy believed it possible to make an Indian into an American, but as the editorial describes, they still did not believe such a transformation was

MACY & possible for Blacks. E R R E P S U

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I Chieftan Wallow M I L A T I O N Cottage Grove Leader , July 1, 1914, p. 4

413 “We’ll All Start Even”

White Egalitarianism and the Oregon Donation Land Claim Act

KENNETH R. COLEMAN

In Oregon, as in other parts of the world, theories of White superiority did not guarantee that Whites would reign at the top of a racially satisfied world order. That objective could only be achieved when those theories were married to a machinery of implementation. In America during the nineteenth century, the key to that eventuality was a social-political system that tied economic and political power to land ownership. Both the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 and the 1857 Oregon Constitution provision barring Blacks from owning real estate guaranteed that Whites would enjoy a government-granted advantage over non-Whites in the pursuit of wealth, power, and privilege in the pioneer generation and each generation that followed.

IN 1843, many of the Anglo-American farm families who immigrated to the Oregon Country were animated by hopes of generous federal land grants. During the 1830s, federal legislators had begun proposing bills that donated homesteads to (presumably armed) settlers as an inducement to transform and protect the western frontier for the United States.1 In Oregon, which was not a part of the United States at the time, colonists claimed large tracts of land without official surveys and relied on a newly created provisional government to legitimize those claims. When Oregon became an organized U.S. territory in 1848, Oregon politicians successfully lobbied the federal government to pass the 1850 Donation Land Claim Act (DLCA), the most generous land distribution bill in U.S. history, legally confirming the settlers’ original claims and granting future settlers an unprecedented 320 acres for White males or “half-breed” Indian males and 640 acres for married couples. Such local and national legislation would have a major impact on economic development in Oregon and influence future national land-distribution legislation.

THIS MURAL, located in the northwest corner of the Oregon State Capitol rotunda, depicts John McLoughlin (center) of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) welcoming Presbyterian missionaries Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding to Fort Vancouver in 1836. Early Oregon land bills were partly intended to reduce the HBC’s influence in the region.

Racist structures became ingrained in the resettlement of Oregon, culminating in the U.S. Congress’s passing of the DCLA.2 Oregon’s settler colonists repeatedly invoked a Jacksonian vision of egalitarianism rooted in White supremacy to justify their actions, including entering a region where Euro-Americans were the minority and — without U.S. sanction — creating a government that reserved citizenship for White males.3 They used that government not only to validate and protect their own land claims, but also to ban the immigration of anyone of African ancestry. The DLCA was the only federal land-distribution act in U.S. history that specifically limited land grants by race, essentially creating an affirmative action program for White people.4 Perhaps most decisively, the issuance of free land resulted in a massive economic head start for White cultivators and initiated a long-standing pattern in which access to real estate became an instrument of White supremacy and social control. This result would have immeasurable consequences for social inequality in Oregon, as emerging markets in privatized land were major engines of economic prosperity in the nineteenth-century United States and beyond. The lobbying efforts of Oregon’s early political leaders were so successful that Congress allowed the region’s Anglo-American settlers to seize Indigenous homelands without Tribes’ having ceded their lands through treaties with the federal government — a violation of U.S. law. The 1787 Northwest Ordinance was an expansionist document that provided a plan for incorporating the Old Northwest into the United States, but it stipulated that

Coleman, “We’ll All Start at Even” 415 the “utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians. Their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent.”5 The U.S Constitution recognized Indian tribes as the legal equivalent of sovereign nations with whom negotiations could occur only on a federal level, a concept affirmed in the 1848 Act to Establish the Territorial Government of Oregon.6 By the early 1840s, the federal government had established a three-step process to extinguish “Indian title.” The U.S. Senate would first appoint a treaty commission to negotiate with individual tribes. Once Con- gress had ratified those negotiated treaties, a formal survey would measure and transform land into delineated boxes on a map.7 Those boxes would form a public domain that the federal government could sell or donate. Oregon’s early Anglo-American settlers and their political representatives, however, successfully pressured Congress to flip this formula on its head, disregarding tribal rights to lands now occupied by squatters.8 Moreover, the DCLA, an exclusionary document steeped in White supremacy, treated Oregon’s Indigenous inhabitants as an undifferentiated race or ethnic group rather than as members of distinct, sovereign communities. White supremacy is the racist notion that people of European ancestry are biologically superior to people of non-European ancestry and therefore are entitled to rule over those non-Europeans. It is based on the concept of race, which holds that nature separated human beings into supposedly legible groupings. Race is an ideology, which Barbara J. Fields defines as “the descriptive vocabulary of day-to-day existence, through which people make rough sense of the social reality that they live and create from day to day.”9 Race has no basis in biology. It is a social formation that arose from specific historical circumstances. In the American colonies, White supremacy served to legitimate the existence of an economic system — chattel slavery — that con- tradicted the emerging enlightenment ideologies of natural rights and liberty, including the insistence that all men were created equal. In 1894, historian Lyon Gardiner Tyler attributed colonial America’s “democratic spirit” to the fact that “negro slavery made race, and not class, the distinction in social life.”10 Racism also justified the removal of Indigenous communities and the seizure of their land. Race, like any ideology, requires reinforcement and reproduction through daily rituals. By the Age of Jackson, the repetition of rituals of dominance and submission associated with slavery and Indian removal made the connection between skin color and caste assume the appearance of objective truth for many Americans, resulting in Whites’ commonplace perceptions that those of African ancestry were servile by nature and that Indigenous communities were unworthy to occupy their own lands.11 Racism was a major factor in how the Oregon Country initially came to be considered part of the United States.12 Prior to the Oregon Treaty of 1846, in

416 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 which Great Britain ceded claim to its Pacific Northwest possessions below the forty-ninth parallel, the United States and Great Britain coexisted in an awkward state of joint occupation. In 1792, both nations claimed sovereignty over Oregon according to the Doc- trine of Discovery, a legal formation OHS Research Library, OrHi 96907 in which European nations — and later the United States — claimed possession of Indigenous land based on the dubious notion of “discovery.” American Robert Gray and British George Vancouver had each claimed discovery of the Columbia River region in 1792, when they arrived at the mouth of the river on separate sailing expeditions.13 The absurdity of both claims is illustrated by the fact that the lower Columbia region was one of the most densely populated places in North America at the time.14 Colonizers often made a distinction, however, between occupied Indian land (such as village sites) and unoccupied land.15 Such “unoccupied” land often included MISSOURI SENATOR Lewis F. Linn championed a series of bills in Congress that offered free essential horticultural, hunting, and Oregon land to lure potential settlers. Linn’s 1843 gathering grounds. This erasure bill provided inspiration for the first major wagon enabled squatters — settlers occu- train migration of that same year. pying lands without legal title — to envision themselves as the rightful owners of land already held and used in common, privatizing that land before it was officially part of the U.S. public domain. For the participants of the first major Oregon Trail migration of 1843, no proposed legislation was more influential than the series of bills that Missouri Democratic Senator Lewis F. Linn promoted from 1837 until his death in 1843. Linn, along with fellow Missouri Democratic Senator Thomas Hart Benton, was the most prominent Oregon booster in Congress.16 By 1839, Linn called for granting an unprecedented 640 acres of free land to each White male over the age of eighteen who made the arduous overland trek to Oregon.17 When members of Congress balked at the mammoth size of the grants, Linn justified them as rewards for those emigrants willing to risk the costly trip to Oregon. After years of congressional indifference to Linn’s bills, his final

Coleman, “We’ll All Start at Even” 417 Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Louisiana: European Explorations and the Louisiana Purchase.

BETWEEN 1805 AND 1806, over thirty members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled into the Columbia River basin. In journal entries and maps, drawn primarily by Capt. William Clark, Expedition members documented the geography of the area as well as interactions with Indigenous people. This detail of an 1814 map, reproduced from Clark’s 1804–1806 sketches, illustrates the region’s typography as well as Native Tribes and populations, indicated by the number of “souls.” According to this detail area alone, tens of thousands Indigenous people lived in the region at the time of the Expedition.

iteration narrowly passed the Senate in February 1843, only to be defeated in the House. Several lawmakers cited fears that the bill would jeopardize relations with Great Britain by violating the joint occupation agreement in the Anglo-American Convention of 1818.18 Linn’s failed bills had specific White supremacist implications, most of which were later reproduced in the DLCA. First, Linn limited claimants to White males. He argued for those proposed claimants in an 1843 speech, in which he cited the common nineteenth-century pseudo-scientific notion that

418 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 descendants of the Anglo-Saxon tribes of Europe were racially predisposed to spread democracy and freedom: “They but obeyed the instinct of our peculiar race — that invincible longing for liberty and space which impels those of Anglo-Saxon descent.”19 Like the DLCA, the earlier bills contained no provisions for extinguishing Indian title to Oregon lands prior to Anglo- American resettlement and included only the federal appointment of Indian agents to “superintend the interests of the United States.” Linn’s bills also called for military installations presumably to protect settlers from the region’s independent Indigenous communities.20 Linn argued that Oregon’s Natives acted in league with the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), the British joint-stock company that had been a de facto governing body in the region since 1821.21 The 1839 version of the bill openly called for the raising of a settler infantry “for the purpose of overawing and keeping in check various Indian tribes, or any foreign forces, who may be in said Territory.”22 In the spring of 1843, as the House dithered on Linn’s bill, hundreds of overland emigrants assembled in Independence, Missouri, to attempt the two-thousand-mile journey to the Oregon Country. The wagon train comprised predominately Anglo-Protestant farm families from the Old Northwest and the Border States.23 Although word soon reached Independence that Linn’s efforts had failed, most decided to risk the trip anyway. One such emigrant was the initial leader of the 1843 wagon train, Missourian Peter H. Burnett. Burnett believed the bill would ultimately pass and estimated that his extended family would net 1,600 acres of free land.24 Another prominent emigrant, Jesse Applegate, advised his brother to beat the rush: “If you are going to Orregon [sic] by all means go this spring for if Linn’s Bill pass next year every man and every man’s neighbors and friends will move in that direction.”25 In the spring of 1843, as the overlanders traveled west, a relatively small group of male residents of Oregon — comprising mostly American colonists, Methodist missionaries and laymen, and a handful of retired French-Canadian fur industry workers — scrambled to create an American-style government in anticipation of the population increase.26 On July 5, the provisional government adopted its Organic Laws, based on laws of Iowa Territory, as Linn recommended, and preserving most of the contours of Linn’s 1843 bill, including 640-acre land grants to settlers. The centerpiece of the Organic Laws was the land law, designed to create a system to record and protect land claims without official surveys. Instead, claimants were merely asked to “designate the extent of his claim by natural boundaries, or by marks at the corners and upon the lines of said claim.”27 In 1845, the provisional government established a land office that had no capacity to formally survey land.28 As John Suval has argued, the provisional government essentially operated as a claim club, a private-order association of squatters estab-

Coleman, “We’ll All Start at Even” 419 lished as a means to seize land and then pressure the federal government to honor those claims.29 According to Ilia Murtazashvili, “claim clubs, rather than spontaneously arising norms or an all-powerful state, were the most important initial source of private property institutions as individuals fanned out across the nation’s vast lands during the nineteenth century.”30 The framers of the provisional government and its later members drew strict racial boundaries to create and preserve a White, male social order. They limited suffrage to every free, male descendent of a White man. This feature granted citizenship to the sons of Euro-American fur industry workers who had married Indigenous women, but it also disenfranchised the majority of people residing in Oregon at the time. In 1844, the provisional government’s legislative committee passed a law declaring that “when any free negro or mulatto shall have come to Oregon, he or she . . . shall remove from and leave the country.”31 Those Black women or men who refused to leave within the allotted period would be subject to flogging. Burnett, who wrote the law, framed it as an act to prevent slavery. This was an obvious misnomer, however, because the provisional government had already banned slavery from Oregon in 1843. There was nothing particularly unique about Oregon’s Black exclusion law. Similar laws restricting free Black people from residing in states, territories, or localities could be found in virtually every region of the United States, including most of the places from which many overlanders emigrated.32 Even the call for flogging, which some contemporary Oregon residents found distasteful, had historical precedent.33 At least one organizing company of the Oregon Trail migration banned Black and “Mulatto” emigrants from traveling with them.34 Oregon’s anti-Black law was unusual, however, considering that very few Black people lived in the region and there was little sign of imminent Black immigration. Burnett conflated race with class when he argued that banning Black immigration would preserve agrarian egalitarianism in Oregon: “The object is to keep clear of this most troublesome class of population. . . . we wish to avoid most of these great evils that have so much afflicted the United States and other countries.”35 Applegate offered a more succinct explanation for the law: “Many of those people hated slavery, but a much larger number of them hated free negroes worse even than slaves.”36 Many settlers likely were also familiar with the practice of slaveholders’ freeing their slaves on entering a territory where slavery was illegal, only to continue working those people under euphemistic forms of servitude such as indenture or apprenticeship.37 During the mid nineteenth century, Black exclusion and anti-slavery were often complementary. The redistribution of public land (almost always taken from sovereign Indian groups by the federal government) to cultivators had become one of the cornerstones of the anti-slavery, free labor ideology (the notion that the free labor of farmers, entrepreneurs, and artisans was economi-

420 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 cally and philosophically preferable to slave labor).38 Politically, the majority of Oregon settlers were anti-slavery supporters of the Democratic Party — they embraced White egalitarianism and were opposed to a hierarchical social order ruled by political, economic, or intellectual elites.39 They looked to Oregon as a place where cultivators could escape rising class distinctions. Thurston wrote of Oregon: “Aristocracy finds

there a poor dwelling-place, and a OHS Research Library, Org. Lot 500, box 1, folder ba000159 republican equality is the presiding genius of the land.” They opposed the extension of slavery beyond the South on self-interested economic, rather than moral, grounds — settlers did not want to compete with land- owners who utilized enslaved labor. Robert Wilson Morrison, who arrived in Oregon with the 1844 migration, invoked the antislavery, free labor ideology when he declared, “I’m going to Oregon, where there’ll be no slaves, and we’ll all start even.”40 Northern advocates of the “free labor” ideology were often White supremacists who believed the presence of any Black people — enslaved or free — would introduce a servile underclass, undercutting White PETER H. BURNETT emigrated from Missouri laborers. to Oregon in 1843 and served in Oregon’s Oregon politicians knew the provisional government. In 1844, he authored racially inscribed claim club they had Oregon’s first Black exclusion law. created would fail if it did not enter into a formal relationship with the U.S. government. The first step occurred on June 15, 1846, when the United States signed the Oregon Treaty with Great Britain and took full possession of the region south of the forty-ninth parallel. Although the provisional government continued to operate, Oregon was now an unorganized territory with no legal protection of land claims. In the fall of 1847, provisional governor George Aber- nethy sent his government’s supreme judge, J. Quinn Thornton, to Washington, D.C., to urge Congress to recognize Oregon land titles as compensation for settlers’ sacrifice in claiming Oregon for the United States.41 Thornton’s petition failed to make an impression in the nation’s capital, where lawmakers were distracted by the Mexican-American War and by fierce debates over the

Coleman, “We’ll All Start at Even” 421 Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives Gary Halvorson, Oregon State

“THE GREAT WAGON TRAIN MIGRATION” MURAL is located in the northeast corner of the Orgegon State Capitol rotunda. It depicts overland settlers arriving at The Dalles in 1843.

extension of slavery to the western territories. On August 14, 1848, Oregon finally became an organized U.S. territory, consisting of the future states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho as well the sections of Montana and Wyoming west of the Rocky Mountains. But to the chagrin of Oregon political leaders, Congress dissolved the provisional government without confirming the legality of settlers’ claims. The territorial act reproduced the provisional government’s limitation of citizenship to adult White males, but it also required the federal government to enter into treaties with local Tribes before settlers could claim any Indian land.42 The territorial act also allowed Oregon voters to send one non-voting delegate to represent them in Congress. The man they chose, Democrat Samuel R. Thurston, did more than anyone to bend federal policy to favor Anglo-Amer- icans at the expense of non-White residents — then or in the future.43 Oregon’s Anglo-American settlers, whom the territorial act now deemed squatters, had more ambitious plans for Thurston — they hoped he would secure legal backing for their land claims. Thurston’s project was informed by his own White supremacist views. Like most Oregonians, Thurston’s anti-slavery stance was consistent with anti-Black Jacksonian egalitarianism: “I am ashamed that there is one man in Oregon who would if he could curse Oregon by the introduction of a servile race whose presence would at once blast the very heart of our prosperity — free white labor.”44 Thurston fervently endorsed the 1849 Black exclusion law passed by Oregon’s territorial legislature, framing it as a “question of life and death to us in Oregon.”45 He also assured his constituents that he would convince Congress to extinguish Indian title to Oregon lands and entirely remove Indigenous communities from the region: “we shall get rid of

422 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 the Indians in the course of next summer . . . settlement will be thrown open to the immigrant, and thus the first and prerequisite step will have been taken preparatory to the final disposition of the soil.”46 In late 1849, Thurston made the long journey to Washington, D.C., to fulfill his promises. Before he could secure settlers’ property rights, Thurston first needed to convince Congress to extinguish Indian title to all Oregon lands west of the Cascades and to remove any Indigenous communities residing therein. In 1849, the territorial legislature had sent a memorial to Congress pleading for Indian removal on both racial and humanitarian grounds: “The moral and civil interests of the white race, equally with the claims of humanity, require the removal of [Indians] to some place where . . . their condition may be improved.”47 Thurston’s main obstacle was the 1848 Act to Establish the Territorial Government of Oregon itself, which stated “that nothing in this act contained shall be construed to impair the rights of person or property now pertaining to the Indians in said Territory, so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished by treaty between the United States and such Indi- ans.” In January 1850, Thurston convinced lawmakers to introduce his bill to extinguish Indian titles in Oregon and establish federal Indian agents and agencies.48 On June 5, 1850, President Zachary Taylor signed Thurston’s “Indian bill” into law, enabling the nomination of Oregon’s first superintendent of Indian Affairs, Anson Dart.49 Dart was charged with negotiating with Indigenous groups to void their claims to their lands. Settlers now could lay claims without any Oregon Tribes actually having ceded their land through a negotiated settlement. This abandonment of federal policy would have dire consequences for the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest. The value of tribal lands expropriated by settlers can never be adequately assessed.50 Both the U.S. Constitution and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 — on which both the 1843 Organic Laws and the 1848 Oregon territorial act were based — established tribal sovereignty as U.S. law. In practice, Thurston’s land bill turned that formation on its head. Settlers received massive grants of land held by legally recognized sovereign nations — a clear violation of federal law. Even if settlers had wanted to purchase land from local Indigenous individuals, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Johnson v. M’Intosh (1823), had banned such practices.51 Thurston’s land bill ignored legal precedent by completely dismissing any concept of tribal sovereignty. Its only mention of the word Indians is in reference to the legality of “half-breed” Indians’ claiming land.52 While promoting his Indian bill, Thurston put the finishing touches on his crowning achievement — the DLCA. Referred to the House’s Public Land committee on April 22, 1850, Thurston’s bill was familiar to anyone acquainted with the land law of Oregon’s provisional government.53 The bill called for a

Coleman, “We’ll All Start at Even” 423 320-acre land grant to each White male or “American half-breed” who had resided in the territory prior to December 1, 1850, and for an additional 320- acre grant to spouses. The inclusion of Indigenous men with White fathers likely reflects the political influence of Euro-American settlers — former fur traders and trappers — who had married Indigenous women in Oregon. Such men, many of whom had helped create the provisional government, did not want their heirs denied land claims.54 White males who arrived in the territory after 1850 but before December 1, 1853 (later extended by amendment to 1855), could claim 160 acres; if they had wives, they would receive an additional 160 acres. To discourage land speculators, the bill required claimants to cultivate the land for a minimum of four years before the land office would confirm their claims. The bill also required the appointment of a surveyor general and Oregon’s first official land survey.55 Thurston’s wife Elizabeth later hailed the DLCA as an advance in gender relations: “This surely was a woman’s Rights Bill.”56 Her assessment was based on the grants to claimants’ wives, although individual or single women were exempt. An 1853 amendment to the law honored the claims of widows whose husbands had died during or after the arduous journey to Oregon.57 Richard H. Chused, a legal scholar, has argued that the DLCA, as federal legislation, is unusual in this regard; he contends this feature was due, in part, to “the perceived need to attract women to a distant territory.”58 Chused, however, failed to recognize the racial implications of this feature. There was no shortage of women in Oregon relative to anywhere else in the West — but there was a perceived shortage of White women. And because only women married to White men (or Native men with White fathers) could qualify, the DLCA would encourage the ethnic homogenization of the region and further marginalize non-White women. The increasing number of White women in Oregon also allowed promoters of racial exclusion to exploit fears that non- Whites in the region posed a sexual threat to the wives and daughters of Anglo-American settlers.59 Thurston’s bill did present a loophole in which non-White wives of White husbands could theoretically possess their own land in the event of their husband’s deaths, and in the 1854 case Vandolf v. Otis, the territorial Supreme Court recognized an Indigenous woman’s property rights due to her marriage to a White man.60 On May 28, 1850, members of Congress began debating the DLCA. Almost immediately, the topic of race arose. Thurston insisted that he inserted the exclusionary aspects of the bill to prevent HBC employees, whom he insisted were aligned with British interests, to claim land. Thurston claimed he would support giving land to any White foreign cultivator, “provided he likes our Government well enough to become a citizen.” But he objected to the racial implication of any amendment that would strip away racial and citizenship

424 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Royal BC Museum, Item I-67874 requirements: “It would give land to every servant of the Hudson’s Bay Company, including some hundreds of Canakers, or Sandwich Islanders, who are a race of men as black as your negroes of the South, and a race, too, that we do not desire to settle in Oregon.”61 Thurston was referring to the Pacific Islanders who had lived and worked around Fort Vancouver since the 1820s.62 By likening Pacific Islanders to Black people based on skin tone, Thurston revealed typical nineteenth- century racialism in which super- ficial phenotypic attributes were supposed to carry deep significance. Thurston claimed he did not necessarily have Black WILLIAM KAULEHELEHE, pictured with his wife Mary people in mind, because the ter- Kaai, was among the many Hawaiians employed by the ritory had already banned Black HBC at Fort Vancouver. Kaulehelehe was recruited in immigration in 1849. He added, 1845 to minister to Kanaka (Pacific Islander) laborers. “I am obedient to the wish of my constituents, and hence am opposed to donations to negroes of any grade.”63 Thurston, perhaps sensing that prejudice alone would not convince legislators to exclude non-White land claimants, raised the stakes by exploiting fears of race mixing. He insisted that “the Canakers and negroes, if allowed to come there, will commingle with our Indians, a mixed race will ensue, and the result will be wars and bloodshed in Oregon.”64 Thurston echoed the language of the 1849 territorial Black exclusion law: “Whereas situated as the people of Oregon are, in the midst of an Indian population, it would be highly dangerous to allow free negroes and mulattoes to reside in the Territory, or to intermix with the Indians, instilling into their minds feelings of hostility against the white race.”65 While local Natives did not need Black people to inform them that the growing presence of Anglo-American settlers was problematic, the recent Second Seminole War may have inspired such sentiments. That costly war, in which Seminole fighters joined forces with runaway slaves and their mixed-race descendants (sometimes known

Coleman, “We’ll All Start at Even” 425 as Black Seminoles) to resist forced removal by the U.S. Army, lasted over six years.66 In 1849, Oregon residents were also still reeling from the 1847 Whitman Incident and ensuing Cayuse War, although neither involved Black people.67 The only recorded incident of Black-Native collaboration in Oregon involved James D. Saules, a Black mariner who allegedly incited a group of Clackamas men to assault a White settler.68 Thurston failed to convince at least two Whig congressmen, New York’s William A. Sackett and Ohio’s Joshua R. Giddings. During House debates, Sackett decried any legislation that “discriminates in regard to color” and told Thurston that Oregon’s territorial statutes should have no bearing on a national land distribution bill.69 Sackett countered the prevailing notion that skin color equated with citizenship, strongly implying that he considered non- White Americans as “a portion of the citizens of this country.”70 Giddings had similar reservations over Thurston’s bill, arguing that the federal government owed Black Americans redress because it “brought them by violence and wrong from their native country.”71 He then castigated Thurston for crafting a bill that would grant free land to native-born White members of Tammany Hall–affiliated street gangs “while Frederick Douglas [sic], a man of high moral worth, of great intellectual power, of unrivalled eloquence . . . is to be excluded, rudely driven from that region.”72 Ohio Democrat David K. Cartter rose to Thurston’s defense, theorizing that southern slave-owners would see Oregon as a safety valve to unload “their worthless, worn out, and decrepit slaves.”73 Cartter then employed the familiar tactic of connecting democracy with Anglo-Saxon heritage: “If this continent is destined to be the home of free democracy and the legitimate inheritance of the Anglo- Saxon blood — the only relief is obtained, by a total separation of domicile between the two races.”74 Thurston ultimately carried the day. The House held two separate votes regarding the question of who would qualify for land grants, voting 69 to 51 to insert the word “white” into the bill and 77 to 38 to insert the words “American half-breeds included.”75 The DLCA eventually passed both the House and Senate with minor adjustments, and President Millard Fillmore signed the bill on September 27, 1850. Despite the reluctance of some southern lawmakers to encourage the growth of a free territory and other lawmakers’ questions about why Congress should single out Oregon for special treatment, Thur- ston and the Oregon political interests he represented ultimately received everything they wanted. Congress confirmed their generous claims without a formal survey and established racial exclusion in Oregon as federal law.76 The bill’s success was probably due to the fact that Whigs and Democrats had accepted that granting public lands to settlers was a popular issue with voters of both parties.77 This notion, however, grew much more controversial with the

426 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 OHS Research Library, Mss 1501, box 1, land tax folder

THIS TAX RECEIPT, issued to James Richter Pool(e) for his Yamhill County land claim, is dated October 9, 1850. According to the Donation Land Claim Act, single men who arrived in Oregon prior to December 1, 1850, could claim as many as 320 acres.

introduction of the Compromise of 1850 and with the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, the latter of which ignited a sectional controversy over the extension of slavery to the West and put a temporary pause on Manifest Destiny. The DLCA influenced later land-distribution legislation, most notably the 1862 Homestead Act. Like the Homestead Act, the DLCA stipulated that the federal government would make land grants directly to settlers, rather than through the territorial government. To prevent speculation, the Homestead Act, like the DLCA, required that settlers take an oath to live on and cultivate the land and, then, prove to two witnesses that they had met requirements for residency and cultivation.78 Notably, however, the Homestead Act promised settlers only 160 acres (320 for married couples) and dispensed with any racial requirements, although some lawmakers had tried to add racial exclusion to earlier iterations of the bill.79 Unlike the DCLA, the act also enabled single or widowed women to apply for homesteads. The Homestead Act excluded non-citizens, which included non-White immigrants and most Indigenous peoples.80 This stipulation would have also prevented Black Americans from claiming land, as the 1857 Dred Scott decision declared them non-citizens. In 1862, however, Attorney General Edward Bates partially overturned the Dred Scott decision by declaring free Blacks as citizens. At the end of the Civil War, the vast majority of Black Americans lived in the South, and few had the means or inclination to claim western homesteads.81 Instead, freed people in the South pushed for the redistribution of land confiscated from slaveholders to formerly enslaved people. Despite some

Coleman, “We’ll All Start at Even” 427 early successes, southern planters retained enough influence in the federal government to crush that land-reform movement.82 The DLCA had a profound impact on Oregon demographics and economic development. Anglo-American settlers and a handful of Natives with White fathers received 7,317 land certificates, privatizing over 2.5 million acres of Oregon land. An 1854 amendment extended the act to the newly created Washington Territory, where settlers claimed an additional 300,000 acres.83 When the bill expired in 1855, Oregon’s total recorded population had mushroomed from 13,000 to 52,000.84 Yet, the bill stunted economic growth in Oregon, as the issuance of enormous land grants led to a diffused and isolated agrarian population with little access to larger markets. The act also discouraged urban migrants from relocating to Oregon, since the DLCA excluded towns and cities from its coverage.85 In an autobiographical novel, Abigail Scott Duniway — whose family immigrated to Oregon in 1852 — had a character lament this effect: “If Uncle Sam had given us no more than 160[ acres], we would all be better off in five years in the way of schools, society, and improvement.”86 In addition, historians Paul Bourke and Donald DeBats argue that the DLCA exacerbated economic inequality in Oregon, since earlier settlers could not only claim the most productive farm land, but they were also entitled to grants twice the size of later claimants.87 Thurston’s proposed policy to remove the Indigenous tribes of western Oregon to the area east of the Cascades mountain range — an obvious example of ethnic cleansing — was not initiated until 1851, when the Willa- mette Valley Treaty Commissioners drafted a total of six treaties with bands of the Molala and Kalapuya. To the consternation of Congress, the negotiators failed to convince any Tribes to leave their homelands. Later that same year, Anson Dart, the newly appointed Oregon Superintendent of Indian Affairs, negotiated thirteen additional treaties with western Oregon Tribes, who agreed to cede over six million acres but again resisted removal to eastern Oregon.88 The Senate refused to ratify any of the nineteen treaties, most likely because the Tribes would remain in western Oregon on reservations that sometimes overlapped with preexisting donation land claims.89 By the time news reached Oregon that the Senate had failed to ratify the treaties, many tribal members were already in the process of being forced off their lands by ongoing settler encroachment on village locations, hunting and gathering grounds, horticultural sites, and fisheries.90 In 1853, Congress authorized the creation of Washington Territory from northern Oregon (including modern-day Idaho and parts of western Montana) and, amid increasing violence as settlers and miners trespassed on tribal lands, appointed Washington Governor Isaac Stevens and Joel Palmer, Dart’s successor as Oregon Superintendent of Indian Affairs, to negotiate treaties

428 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 with the Indigenous communities living within Washington and Oregon.91 By 1859, the Senate had ratified most of the treaties Stevens and Palmer had drafted (both combined and individually) with Tribes in Washington and southern, western, and eastern Oregon.92 Historian Francis Paul Prucha has described much of this process as more imposition than negotiation, noting “there was little indication [in the treaties] that two sovereign equals were negotiating.”93 In exchange for ceding the vast majority of their ancestral lands to the federal government acting as proxy for White settlers, Pacific Northwest Tribes were promised military protection, hunting and fishing rights, annuity payments, and agricultural and industrial education.94 There is evidence that the effects of the DLCA may have rendered racial exclusion laws superfluous in the minds of many Oregon politicians. In 1854, a clerical error resulted in the accidental repeal of the 1849 Black exclusion law. The legislature rushed to pass a replacement, with one house member invoking a Jacksonian interpretation of the Declaration of Independence as “a declaration of the equality of free citizenship for white men.” Yet, surprisingly, the legislature resoundingly voted down replacement bills in 1855 and 1856. One reason lawmakers cited was that Black exclusion was unnecessary because most Black migrants, without the lure of free land, would prefer the urban attractions of bustling California over agrarian, isolated Oregon.95 Oregon Democratic politician Delazon Smith, himself an outspoken racist, voted against the 1855 Black exclusion bill on these grounds. Other lawmakers argued that the Black exclusion bill would discourage commercial opportunities in an overwhelmingly agrarian territory, because it required captains of ships entering Oregon to post $500 bonds for each Black mariner on board.96 Despite their efforts and flowery rhetoric, Oregon politicians and lawmakers did not create an agricultural paradise devoid of class distinctions. This project, if ever seriously considered, was probably dead on arrival when early settlers claimed the most marketable land in the region. The land grants they secured from the federal government, furthermore, were easily privatized, commodified, or stripped of marketable resources and abandoned. By 1900, most claims had been sold or mortgaged rather than bequeathed to descendants.97 With the forced removal of Indigenous communities in western and southern Oregon, the federal government made additional land available to settlers. Like elsewhere in the United States, however, many would-be yeomen instead became tenants or wage laborers on commercial farms. By using real estate as a tool of racial exclusion, Oregon’s early political leaders initiated a pattern that continued well into the twentieth century. The 1859 Oregon State Constitution, in addition to confirming White male suffrage and reintroducing Black exclusion, banned Black and Chinese people from owning real estate. In 1868, Oregon’s state legislature rescinded its initial

Coleman, “We’ll All Start at Even” 429 Library of Congress, Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 1784–1894, U.S. Serial Set 4015

THIS MAP, published in the second volume of the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1896–1897, documents Native land within present-day Oregon boundaries that was ceded to the U.S. government between 1853 and 1865. The numbered areas on the map correspond to a “Schedule of Indian Land Cessations” with information on the land location, treaties, and statutes associated with the land taking, and information on the Tribes who occupied the land. NATIVE LAND CEDED, YEAR 312: Rogue River Indians (extends into California), 1853 313: Umpqua (Cow Creek Band), 1853 344: Umpqua and Calapooia, 1854 343: Chasta, Sco-ton, Grave Creek, 1854 352: Calapooia and Confederated Bands of Willamette Valley, 1855 366 & 441: Nez Perce, 1855, 1863 (reservation 442 in Idaho) 362: Walla-walla, Cayuse, and Umatilla, 1855 369: Confederated Tribes of Middle Oregon, 1855 397: Coast Tribes of Oregon, 1855 (treaties never ratified but land ceded) 401: Molalla, 1855 444: Shoshoni (Western bands), 1863 462: Klamath and Modok, Yahooskin band of Snake Indians, 1864 474: Snake (Woll-pah-pe), 1865 479: Coast Tribes of Oregon, 1865 (originally set aside as reservation)

RESERVATION LAND, YEAR

363: Walla-walla, Cayuse, Umatilla, 1855 370: Confederated Tribes of Middle Oregon, 1855 407: Confederated Bands of Willamette Valley 463: Klamath and Modok, Yahooskin band of Snake Indians, 1864 578, 579, 479: Coast Tribes of Oregon, 1855 ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which established birthright citizenship and equal protection under the law regardless of race, and refused to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment, which established universal male suffrage.98 Even as the successful passage of these amendments superseded the most blatantly exclusionary legislation, banks and real estate companies later engaged in redlining, creating real estate covenants that segregated non-White homebuyers and renters to the least desirable neighborhoods.99 Such tactics have widened the racial wealth gap in Oregon, as segregation has meant disinvestment, ill-funded schools, and a lack of remunerative employment. Victims of such policies include Oregon’s Indigenous population, who were increasingly urbanized as a result of the 1954 Western Oregon Termination Act and the Indian Relocation Act of 1956. Recent efforts to invest in historically neglected Portland neighborhoods have favored profit-minded private interests over the communities themselves, resulting in gentrification while doing little to combat segregation. Any serious attempt to challenge White supremacy in Oregon must engage with the economic legacy of institutionalized racism limiting access to real estate and, as such, wealth and social power.

NOTES

1. See the work of Paul Frymer for a dis- Jacksonian America, 1815–1846 (Oxford Uni- cussion on this change in land policy 1830s, versity Press, 1991), 127, 308–12, 386–87; Daniel Building an American Empire: The Era of Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Territorial and Political Expansion (Princeton, Transformation of America, 1815–1848 (New NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017), 133–40. York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 330, 510, 2. For more background on the Donation 524; Michael Paul Rogin, Fathers & Children: Land Claim Act, see James M. Bergquist, “The Andrew Jackson and the Subjugation of the Oregon Donation Act and the National Land American Indian (Transaction Publishers, 1991), Policy,” Oregon Historical Quarterly 58:1 (March 165–69, and J.M. Opal, Avenging the People: 1957): 17–35; John Suval, “‘The Nomadic Race to Andrew Jackson, the Rule of Law, and the Which I Belong’: Squatter Democracy and the American Nation, (New York: Oxford University Claiming of Oregon,” Oregon Historical Quar- Press, 2017), 207–208. terly 118:3 (Fall 2017): 306–37; and Richard H. 4. I borrowed this idea from Ira Katznelson, Chused, “The Oregon Donation Act of 1850 and although he used it to discuss the uneven dis- Nineteenth Century Federal Married Women’s tribution of benefits during the New Deal and Property Law,” Law and History Review 2:1 post–World War II period. Ira Katznelson, When (Spring 1984): 44–78. Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold His- 3. On Jackson and Jacksonian Demo- tory of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century crats’ attitudes regarding Indian removal, America (W. W. Norton & Company, 2005), x–xv. settler colonialism, and White supremacy, see 5. Oregon Territory Commissioner to Col- Charles Grier Sellers, The Market Revolution: lect the Laws and Archives of Oregon and La

432 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Fayette Grover, The Oregon Archives: Including 2010); David R. Roediger, How Race Survived the Journals, Governors’ Messages and Public US History: From Settlement and Slavery to the Papers of Oregon, from the Earliest Attempt on Obama Phenomenon (London: Verso, 2008). the Part of the People to Form a Government, 12. Prior to the Oregon Treaty of 1846, the Down To, and Inclusive of the Session of the Oregon Country, or what the Hudson’s Bay Territorial Legislature Held in the Year 1849, Company (HBC) referred to as the Columbia Collected and Published Pursuant to an Act of District, comprised part of the future Canadian the Legislative Assembly, Passed Jan. 26, 1853 province of British Columbia, the entire states (Salem: Asahel Bush, public printer, 1853), 29. of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and parts 6. Robert J. Miller, Native America, Discov- of Montana and Wyoming. ered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis 13. Carlos Arnaldo Schwantes, The Pacific & Clark, and Manifest Destiny (Westport, Conn.: Northwest: An Interpretive History (Lincoln: Praeger, 2006), 158. University of Nebraska Press, 1996), 45–46. 7. Gray H. Whaley, Oregon and the Col- On the Doctrine of Discovery in the context lapse of Illahee: U.S. Empire and the Trans- of the conquest of Oregon, see Miller, Native formation of an Indigenous World, 1792–1859 America. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 14. Historians William L. Lang and Carl 2010), 182–83. Abbott claim that the population living along 8. Historian John Suval has used the term the Columbia estuary at the time of the Lewis “squatter” to describe settlers without legal title and Clark Expedition (1804–1806) — from the to claimed land. Suval, “‘The Nomadic Race to Columbia Gorge to the Pacific — was one of the Which I Belong’,” 307. most densely populated regions in Indigenous 9. Barbara Jeanne Fields, “Slavery, Race North America. According to estimates from and Ideology in the United States of America,” the 1805–1806 journals of Meriwether Lewis New Left Review 181:1 (May/June 1990): 110. and William Clark, the Chinookan population 10. Lyon G. Tyler, “Virginians Voting in the of the Lower Columbia region alone was as Colonial Period,” William and Mary Quarterly high as 17,840. Robert T. Boyd and Yvonne P. 6:1 (1897): 7–8. Hajda, “Seasonal Population Movement along 11. My contention that race is an ideology- the Lower Columbia River: The Social and -with specific historical roots--for purpose Ecological Context,” American Ethnologist 14:2 of social control is informed by the work of (May 1987): 309–26. Barbara J. Fields and Theodore W. Allen. For 15. M. Susan Van Laere, Fine Words & a discussion of race as a social formation, see Promises: A History of Indian Policy and Its the work of Michael Omi and Howard Winant. Impact on the Coast Reservation Tribes of Nell Irvin Painter and David Roediger are both Oregon in the Last Half of the Nineteenth interested in historicizing Whiteness, although Century (Philomath, Ore.: Serendip Historical Fields has accused Roediger and other propo- Research, 2010), 12–13. nents of Whiteness studies of treating White- 16. Both Linn and Benton wanted to estab- ness as an ahistorical concept. Karen E. Fields lish a settlement in the Pacific Northwest as a and Barbara Jeanne Fields, Racecraft: The Soul base for trade with East Asia and the potential of Inequality in American Life (London: Verso, terminus of a transcontinental railroad. Michael 2012); Theodore W. Allen, The Invention of the B. Husband, “Senator Lewis F. Linn and the White Race (London: Verso, 1994); Theodore Oregon Question,” Missouri Historical Review W. Allen, The Invention of the White Race, 66:1 (1971): 6; Henry Nash Smith, Virgin Land: Volume 2: The Origin of Racial Oppression in The American West as Symbol and Myth, 12th Anglo-America, 2nd ed. (London: Verso, 2012); Printing, 2nd ed. (1950; reissued, Cambridge: Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial For- Harvard University Press, 1970), 31–32. mation in the United States: From the 1960s to 17. “The Congressional Globe, 26th Cong., the 1990s 2nd ed. (New York: Psychology Press, 1st Session,” December 18, 1839, 60. 1994); Nell Irvin Painter, The History of White 18. Husband, “Senator Lewis F. Linn and People (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, the Oregon Question,” 13–14, 16.

Coleman, “We’ll All Start at Even” 433 19. For a discussion of how racist folk servation and Authentic Information (Portland: beliefs received scientific backing in the Harris & Holman, 1870), 357, 359. nineteenth century, see the work of Reginald 28. Historian Gray H. Whaley points out Horsman. Lewis Fields Linn, Speech of Mr. that settlers used indigenous markers (villages Linn, of Missouri, in Reply to Mr. McDuffie, on and resource sites) to mark their unsurveyed the Oregon Bill: Delivered in the Senate of the claim and exhibited a disregard for any notion United States, January 26, 1843. (Washington, of “Indian Country.” Gray H. Whaley, Oregon D.C., 1843), 8; Reginald Horsman, Race and and the Collapse of Illahee: U.S. Empire and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American the Transformation of an Indigenous World, Racial Anglo-Saxonism (Cambridge: Harvard 1792–1859 (University of North Carolina Press, University Press, 1981). 2010), 161–62. 20. Linn, Speech of Mr. Linn, of Missouri, in 29. Suval, “The Nomadic Race to Which Reply to Mr. McDuffie, on the Oregon Bill, 15. I Belong,” 319. 21. In [the] Senate of the United States, 30. Ilia Murtazashvili, The Political Econ- June 6, 1838, Submitted and Ordered to Be omy of the American Frontier (Cambridge: Printed, Mr. Linn Submitted the Following Re- Cambridge University Press, 2013), 2. port: (To Accompany Senate Bill No. 206); the 31. Burnett, Recollections and Opinions of Select Committee, to Which Was Referred a Bill an Old Pioneer, 213–14. to Authorize the President of the United States 32. See the work of Eugene H. Berwanger to Occupy the Oregon Territory, Submit to the for an extended discussion of how the antislav- Consideration of the Senate the Following Re- ery ideology and Black exclusion often merged port (Washington, D.C.: Blair & Rives, 1838), 10. in the Old Northwest. Eugene H. Berwanger, 22. “Congressional Globe, 26th Congress, The Frontier against Slavery: Western Anti- 1st Session,” December 18, 1839, 60. Linn later Negro Prejudice and the Slavery Extension expressed similar reasons for supporting the Controversy (Urbana: University of Illinois 1842 Armed Occupation Act in Florida, which Press, 2002), 30–59. granted settlers 160 acres land in exchange 33. As part of an 1788 law, Massachusetts for acting as paramilitary force to subdue the forbade any “African or Negroe [sic], other Seminole Indians. Michael Paul Rogin, Fathers than a subject of the Emperor of Morocco, or a and Children: Andrew Jackson and the Sub- citizen of some one of the United States” from jugation of the American Indian (New York: remaining in the commonwealth for more than Routledge, 2017), 129. two months. If the accused refused to leave the 23. Quintard Taylor, “Slaves and Free Men: commonwealth, “he or she shall be whipped Blacks in the Oregon Country, 1840–1860,” not exceeding ten stripes, and ordered to Oregon Historical Quarterly 83:2 (Summer depart out of this Commonwealth within ten 1982): 153–54. days.” Acts and Laws of the Commonwealth of 24. Peter H. Burnett, Recollections and Massachusetts (Massachusetts: Wright & Potter Opinions of an Old Pioneer (New York: D. Printing Company, 1893), 626. Appleton and Co., 1880), 97. 34. Iowa Journal of History and Politics, 25. Maude Applegate Rucker, The Oregon “Emigration from Iowa to Oregon in 1843,” Trail and Some of Its Blazers (New York: W. Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society 15:4 Neale, 1930), 226. (December 1914): 292. 26. Historian Robert J. Loewenberg esti- 35. Elizabeth McLagan and Oregon Black mated that fewer than 100 men were involved History Project, A Peculiar Paradise: A History in the formation of Oregon’s provisional of Blacks in Oregon, 1778–1940 (Portland: The government. Robert J. Loewenberg, “Creat- Georgian Press Company, 1980), 29. John ing a Provisional Government in Oregon: A Minto, who traveled with Burnett to Oregon, Revision,” Pacific Northwest Quarterly 68:1 later insisted that Burnett’s law was to prevent (January 1977): 15. fugitive slaves from seeking refuge in a free 27. William Henry Gray, A History of territory. Minto invoked racial stereotypes about Oregon, 1792–1849: Drawn from Personal Ob- the sexual rapaciousness of enslaved Black

434 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 men to explain this position: “Burnett in his would convince Congress to void McLoughlin’s law…represented the just fears of girlhood and claim. Dorothy Nafus Morrison, Outpost: John womanhood of slaves fleeing for life and lib- McLoughlin & the Far Northwest (Portland: erty.” John Minto, “Antecedents of the Oregon Oregon Historical Society Press, 1999), 455–58. Pioneers and the Light These Throw on Their 44. James R. Perry, Richard H. Chused, Motives,” Quarterly of the Oregon Historical and Mary DeLano, eds., “The Spousal Letters Society 5:1 (March 1904): 45. of Samuel R. Thurston, Oregon’s First Territo- 36. McLagan and Project, A Peculiar rial Delegate to Congress: 1849–1851,” Oregon Paradise, 29. Historical Quarterly 96:1 (Spring 1995): 49. 37. Taylor, “Slaves and Free Men,” 166–67; 45. Samuel R. Thurston, “Letter of the Dele- Stacey L. Smith, “Remaking Slavery in a Free gate from Oregon to the Members of the House State: Masters and Slaves in Gold Rush Cali- of Representative in Behalf of his Constituents, fornia,” Pacific Historical Review 80:1 (February Touching the Oregon Land Bill, First Session, 1, 2011): 53, 63. . 31st Congress,” Thurston family papers, MSS 38. See the work of Eric Foner for a discus- 379, box 1, folder 11, Oregon Historical Society sion of how the free labor ideology informed Research Library, Portland, Oregon [hereafter the Free Soil Party and later the Republican OHS Research Library]. Party. Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free 46. Samuel Thurston, “Geographical Statis- Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party tics: Oregon, Its Climate, Soil, Productions, etc.,” Before the Civil War (Oxford: Oxford University Stryker’s American Register and Magazine, Press, 1995). July 1850, 220. 39. Democrats dominated most elected 47. “Memorial of the Legislature of Oregon, offices in antebellum Oregon. In 1857, Oregon Praying for the Extinguishment of the Indian voters resoundingly rejected legalizing slav- Title and the Removal of Indians from Certain ery in the state constitution. Historian David Portions of the Territory,” July 10, 1849, 2, Ameri- A. Johnson cites Oregonians “idiosyncratic” can Indian and Alaskan Native Documents in support of Jacksonian agrarianism. For a the Congressional Serial Set: 1817-1899. discussion of Jacksonian anti-slavery politics, 48. As a territorial delegate, Samuel R. see the work of Jonathan H. Earle. David Alan Thurston was forbidden from presenting bills Johnson, Founding the Far West: California, directly to Congress himself. Samuel R. Thur- Oregon, and Nevada, 1840–1890 (Berkeley: ston and George H. Himes, Diary of Samuel University of California Press, 1992), 8–9; Royal Thurston, Quarterly of the Oregon His- Jonathan Halperin Earle, Jacksonian Antislav- torical Society 15:3 (September 1914): 172, 175. ery and the Politics of Free Soil, 1824–1854 49. “Journal of the House of Representa- (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina tive of the United States, Volume 45,” June 10, Press, 2004). 1850, 993. 40. Oregon Pioneer Association, Transac- 50. For a discussion of the impact of the tions of the Twenty-Second Annual Reunion of DCLA on treaty negotiations, see Van Laere, the Oregon Pioneer Association (Portland: Geo. Fine Words & Promises, 27–35. See also Whal- H. Himes and Company, 1894), 55. ey, Oregon and the Collapse of Illahee, 182–84. 41. Suval, “‘The Nomadic Race to Which I 51. Miller, Native America, 51–53. Belong’,” 322–23. 52. “The Donation Land Claim Act (1850),” 42. “Statutes at Large, 30th Congress, 1st https://pages.uoregon.edu/mjdennis/courses/ Session, Chapter 177,” August 14, 1848, 323. hst469_donation.htm (accessed April 20, 2019). 43. Provisional Governor Abernethy, who 53. Chused, “The Oregon Donation Act had feuded with former HBC Chief Factor of 1850,” 61. John McLoughlin over competing claims to 54. In his biography of Peter H. Burnett, a an island near Oregon City, handpicked the member of the provisional government’s leg- young lawyer as a candidate to represent islative committee, R. Gregory Nokes suggests American property interests. In exchange for that Burnett may have had some influence on his endorsement, Abernethy hoped Thurston granting land to men with White fathers and

Coleman, “We’ll All Start at Even” 435 indigenous mothers. R. Gregory Nokes, The in the Pacific Northwest,1787 –1898 (Honolulu: Troubled Life of Peter Burnett: Oregon Pioneer University of Hawaii Press, 2006). and First Governor of California (Corvallis: Or- 63.“The Congressional Globe, 31st Cong., egon State University Press, 2018), 64. 1st Session,” May 28, 1850, 1079.. 55. “S. 202, Bills and Resolutions, Senate, 64. Ibid. 31st Congress, 1st Congress, 1st Session,” April 65. Statutes of a General Nature Passed 18, 1850, 202–10. by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of 56. Suval, “‘The Nomadic Race to Which Oregon: At the Second Session, Begun and I Belong’,” 327. Held at Oregon City, December 2, 1850, 181. 57. Bergquist, “The Oregon Donation Act 66. George Klos, “Blacks and the Seminole and the National Land Policy,” 31. Removal Debate, 1821–1835,” Florida Historical 58. Richard H. Chused, “The Oregon Quarterly 68:1 (July 1989): 55–78; John Missall Donation Act of 1850 and Nineteenth Century and Mary Lou Missall, The Seminole Wars: Federal Married Women’s Property Law,” Law America’s Longest Indian Conflict(Gainesville: and History Review 2:1 (Spring 1984): 45. University Press of Florida, 2004). 59. Historian Margaret D. Jacobs has 67. A least one contemporary account of written about the crucial role of White women the Whitman Incident blamed a “half-breed” in settler colonial projects: “Further, through former Hudson Bay Company employee their bodies White women would literally named Joe Lewis for inciting the attack. In reproduce the settler population necessary a 1915 newspaper column, historian and to establishing dominance over the invaded journalist Fred Lockley presented the testi- territory.” In her work on the settler coloniza- mony of massacre survivor, Elizabeth Sager tion of British Columbia, historian Adele Perry Helm. In the piece, Helm referred to Lewis described a settler colony as “a reproduc- as a “Catholic halfbreed negro and Indian tive regime dependent on the presence of who incited the massacre.” Other sources, settler women who literally reproduce the however, refer to Lewis as Métis or of partial colony. Immigration must therefore provide Delaware Native ancestry. Fred Lockley, more than non-Aboriginal bodies. Ideally, it “The Oregon Country, In Early Days,” Oregon must provide the right kind of bodies, those Daily Journal, March 17, 1915, p. 6; Cameron suited to building a white settler colony.” Addis, “The Whitman Massacre: Religion and Margaret D. Jacobs, White Mother to a Dark Manifest Destiny on the Columbia Plateau, Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and 1809–1858,” Journal of the Early Republic the Removal of Indigenous Children in the 25:2 (Summer 2005): 243; Julie Roy Jeffrey, American West and Australia, 1880–1940 Converting the West: A Biography of Narcissa (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011), Whitman (Norman and London: University of 129; Adele Perry, “Hardy Backwoodsmen, Oklahoma Press, 1991). Wholesome Women, and Steady Families: 68. Kenneth R. Coleman, Dangerous Sub- Immigration and the Construction of a jects: James D. Saules and the Rise of Black White Society in Colonial British Columbia, Exclusion in Oregon, (Corvallis: Oregon State 1849–1871,” Histoire Sociale/Social History, University Press, 2017), 140. 33:66 (November 2000): 345. 69. “The Congressional Globe, 31st Cong., 60. Melinda Marie Jetté, At the Hearth of 1st Session,” 1080. the Crossed Races: A French-Indian Commu- 70. Ibid., for quote. William Sackett also nity in Nineteenth-Century Oregon, 1812–1859 seemed to counter the established U.S. Natu- (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, ralization Law of 1802, which restricted citizen- 2015), 199. ship to “free white” males. 61. “The Congressional Globe, 31st Cong., 71. Ibid, 1090. 1st Session,” May 28, 1850, 1079. 72. Ibid. 62. Jean Barman and Bruce McIntyre Wat- 73. Ibid, 1092. son, Leaving Paradise: Indigenous Hawaiians 74. Ibid, 1092–93.

436 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 75. The term “American half breed” was 89. Van Laere, Fine Words & Promises, 32. understood to refer to men with White fathers 90. Jetté, At the Hearth of the Crossed and Indigenous mothers. Ibid., 1093. Races, 195–96; Whaley, Oregon and the 76. The final version of the act limited Collapse of Illahee, 184–85; Miller, Native homesteads to those who arrived by 1853 America, 158.. rather than 1855, but this alteration had little 91. These included treaties with the Rogue impact on pre-1850 Oregon settlers. This was River Indians, the Cow Creek band of Umpquas, later extended to 1855 in an amendment. the Molola, and various Kalapuyan bands. Van 77. See the work of John Suval for a Laere, Fine Words & Promises, 166–67. discussion of how Whig opinion evolved 92. See the work of M. Susan Van Laere on the subject of free lands to cultivators. for a discussion of the disastrous impact of Suval, “‘The Nomadic Race to Which I Be- unratified treaties on the tribes of the southern long’,” 310–11. and coastal Oregon. Van Laere, Fine Words & 78. Bergquist, “The Oregon Donation Act Promises. and the National Land Policy,” 28–29. 93. Prucha, American Indian Treaties, 249. 79. The absence of racial qualifications for 94. Ibid. the 1862 Homestead Act is probably due to the 95. Berwanger, The Frontier Against influence of Radical Republican lawmakers like Slavery, 83–84. Galusha Grow and Edward Wade. Foner, Free 96. Ibid., 84–85. Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 288, 296. 97. According to T.W. Davenport, who 80. The United States did not grant citi- investigated the fate of Marion County DLCA zenship to indigenous people until the 1924 claims in 1903, 66 percent of claims had Indian Citizenship Act. The 1790 Naturalization fallen out of possession, while another 15 Act restricted citizenship to “any alien, being a percent were mortgaged. T.W. Davenport, free white person” who had lived in the United “An Object Lesson in Paternalism,” Quarterly States for over two years. of the Oregon Historical Society 4:1 (March 81. James P. McClure et al., “Circumvent- 1903): 50–51. ing the Dred Scott Decision: Edward Bates, 98. David Peterson del Mar, “14th Amend- Salmon P. Chase, and the Citizenship of African ment,” The Oregon Encyclopedia, https:// Americans,” Civil War History 43, no. 4 (1997): oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/14th_amend- 279–309, https://doi.org/10.1353/cwh.1997.0067. ment/ (accessed September 24, 2019). 82. See Eric Foner, Reconstruction: Amer- 99. The Fourteenth Amendment to the ica’s Unfinished Revolution,1863 –1877 (New Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution granted York: Harper Collins, 2011). birthright citizenship and equal protection 83. Bergquist, “The Oregon Donation Act under the law; the Fifteenth Amendment and the National Land Policy,” 30. granted voting rights to adult males of 84. Paul Bourke and Donald A. DeBats, any “race, color, or previous condition of Washington County: Politics and Community in servitude.” See also special section “Public Antebellum America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins History Roundtable,” Oregon Historical Quar- University Press, 1998), 65. terly 119:3 (Fall 2018): 354–99, including: Car- 85. Ibid., 78, 89. men P. Thompson, “Housing Segregation and 86. Abigail J. Duniway, Captain Gray’s Resistance: An Introduction”; Greta Smith, “ Company, Or, Crossing the Plains and Living ‘Congenial Neighbors’: Restrictive Covenants in Oregon. (S.J. McCormick, 1859), 173. and Residential Segregation in Portland, 87. Bourke and De Bats, Washington Oregon”; Melissa Cornelius Lang, “ ‘A place County, 81. under the sun’: African American Resistance 88. Francis Paul Prucha, American Indian to Housing Exclusion”; and Leanne Serbulo, Treaties: The History of a Political Anomaly “Small steps on the Long Journey to Equality: (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, A Timeline of Post-Legislation Civil Rights 1997), 246–47. Struggles in Portland.”

Coleman, “We’ll All Start at Even” 437

R E S T R I C T E 1949 D THIS MARKETING LETTER from the Lake Oswego Development Company invites a potential buyer to view a tract of land in Lake Oswego, a suburb of Portland, Oregon. Advertising the district as “The Way to Live,” the company also assures that “the MACY & E R R E property is definitely restricted to the white race,” requiring an in-person meeting to P S U

S S

T accept the offer — presumably to ensure only Whites purchased property.

E E

A A

T T

N N I I

C C

H H E E W

W As demonstrated in this letter, suburban development following World War II was part of a trend to keep races separated and to reinforce a White-controlled racial L hierarchy born out of Jim Crow laws of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. That separation has been a key to the creation and continuation of White A supremacy through land ownership. N In its ability to affect the destiny and daily lives of non-White targets, White supremacy D can be seemingly invincible. But because it is founded on false, irrational, illogical, and unsupportable assumptions, it is also vulnerable, weak, and ultimately indefensible O when exposed to the light of truth, rationality, and honest, close examination. The most effective antidote to ignorance and fear is cross-racial, personal, interactive W knowledge of the unfamiliar. N E R S H I P OHS Research Library, OrHi 89809

439 The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders

Oregon Abolitionists and their Followers

JIM M. LABBE

The issue of slavery in the United States is more complicated than traditional narratives of the “good guys” who opposed slavery and “bad guys” who practiced it. Racial policies enacted during the mid nineteenth century reveal that most Oregonians were both anti-slavery and anti-Black — most, but not all. In Oregon, a minority of Whites opposed slavery on moral, religious, and ethical grounds and fought for its abolition. Even within abolitionist groups, some still could find no room for notions of actual equality between the races, but some could. Some were also willing to make great personal sacrifices and face harsh reprisals for their beliefs. These stories must be also told before a true rendering of the slavery controversy in Oregon and the nation can be revealed.

ON THE MORNING of June 27, 1855, the first political anti-slavery gathering in the Oregon Territory, the Oregon Free Soil Convention, commenced in Albany with over forty men and an unknown number of women and children present. The convention’s resolutions, unanimously adopted, struck a distinctly moral tone, denouncing all Congressional legislation since the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act as “unjust and anti-republican, oppressive and cruel” and railing against “aggressions of the slave power” that “by some artful ruse” might precipitate slavery upon Oregon and “any territory on the Pacific coast.” In declaring that “the question of slavery . . . can never be compromised or settled but by the overthrow of an institution so utterly opposed to every principle of political as well as of all moral and religious right,” the Oregon Free Soil Convention went further than the national Free Soil Party, established in 1848, in its rejection of slavery. The delegates planned to enlist everyone with the moral courage to favor the anti-slavery cause, to meet again in October to craft a platform, and to share the convention proceedings with territorial newspapers. They concluded with one

ON MAY 26, 1855, organizers of the Oregon Free Soil Convention placed a call for “Friends of Freedom” in the Oregon Argus newspaper. The June 27, 1855, meeting was the first political anti- slavery gathering in the Oregon Territory. The Free Soil Movement sought to appeal to a broad anti- slavery constituency, but the convention’s moralistic resolutions condemning slavery’s proponents as “oppressive and cruel,” advocating the complete “overthrow” of slavery, and championing universal “human liberty” are indicative of the abolitionist sentiments of some of its organizers.

final resolve: “That the ladies who have favored us with their presence, be requested to receive the thanks of this meeting for the manifestation they have thus made in favor of HUMAN LIBERTY.”1 The emergence and growth of the American abolitionist movement between 1830 and the Civil War closely paralleled the overland migration to Oregon. Most historians of the antebellum period agree that after 1830, abolitionists demanded an immediate and complete end to slavery (“immediatism”), asserted opposition in moral terms, and believed that racial prejudice lay at the root of America’s social ills.2 Abolitionists consistently sought to advance African Americans’ “inalienable rights” as citizens of the United States as part of what historian Manisha Sinha describes as a broader “principled battle against racially restrictive notions of democracy.” The distinction between abolitionism and broader anti-slavery politics became muddled as more abolitionists entered politics and anti-slavery arguments emphasized the general threat of slavery to American freedom and the republic. But as Sinha notes, for abolitionists, the movement always remained firstly “the slave’s cause.”3 In Oregon, White supremacy dominated anti-slavery politics, with many opponents of slavery accepting or even advocating for its continuance or expan-

Labbe, The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders 441 sion elsewhere, as long as Oregon was preserved for the White race.4 Other anti-slavery men in Oregon, like many Northerners, came to morally condemn slavery and support its nationwide demise but either could not fathom or remained ambivalent about the prospect of a multi-racial democracy in the United States.5 Still, others may have considered it a political liability to the anti-slavery cause. 6Abolitionists and their ideas about greater racial equality, however, were never entirely missing from anti-slavery politics, even in Oregon, whose historians have almost entirely overlooked them or only mentioned them in passing. Oregon’s Democratic politicians, however, put considerable effort into assailing the abolitionists in their midst during the1850 s.7 Asahel Bush, editor of the Oregon Statesman and leader of the powerful “Salem Clique” of prominent Democratic partisans, responded to the Free Soil Convention in his characteristic invective style. “A collection of old grannies held an abolition meeting in Albany,” he reported, declaring that these “nigger struck dames” had the audacity to expect the Statesman “to publish their stale fanaticism” and to ask “us to fill our columns with a batch of Fred Douglasisms, which the sensible men who do patronize and sustain the paper don’t wish to see.” He dismissed the participants’ naive moralism and added his frequent warning that “if anything could make the people of Oregon desire slavery, it would be the agitation of the subject by such fanatics as these.”8 A week later, in a column entitled “Abolition- ism,” another powerful Democratic partisan and seasoned anti-abolitionist, Delazon Smith, piled on with similarly gendered and racist defamations and a dismissal of the convention participants.9 Although small in number, the Free Soil Convention attendees had clearly struck a nerve. In the political debates leading up to statehood, Democratic partisans and editors across the territory branded their political opponents as “abolitionists” or “black republicans” for their alleged “nigger-worshipping” and support for “negro equality.” Democrats applied these labels indiscriminately both to discredit and divide their opponents and to avoid conflict over slavery within their own party. Consequently, few individuals they targeted fit the label of “abolitionist” as historians have come to understand it.10 As the Civil War approached, most Oregon politicians came to deride real abolitionists as fanatics because it was politically expedient and because abolitionists advocated some degree of civil, political, or even social equality for African Americans — sentiments that directly challenged White supremacy.11 Slandering abolitionists and their support for greater racial equality became a popular tactic for uniting constituencies around the question of slavery. Bush, who quietly disfavored slavery in Oregon but rightly feared it would divide his party, labeled his opponents the “Negro equality movement,” leading most of them to disavow abolitionism and base their opposition to slavery on its sup-

442 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 posed degradation of White labor. Hence, in March 1857, editor W.L. Adams of the Oregon Argus newspaper denounced Democrats as “black democracy . . . founded on ‘niggerism’,” and declared that “the Republicans are in favor of preserving new Territories sacred to free labor, out of love for the teeming millions of poor white laborers.” The Republican Party was therefore “the only white man’s party there is.”12 George Williams’s notorious “Free State Letter” (published in full elsewhere in this issue) rep-

resents the culmination and distillation OHS Research Library, photo file no. 979, OrHi 086130 of “white man’s” anti-slavery in Oregon. Williams amplified anti-Black prejudice, dismissed abolitionists as fanatics, and fortified assumptions about the purity of the White race and its exclusive claims to the region. Such sentiments prevailed in 1857, when a large majority of White male voters adopted a state constitution that rejected slavery, excluded free Blacks, and denied suffrage and other civil rights to all but White males.13 But beyond the rhetoric of the most visible and powerful elites and the vast majority of White male voters who gave their consent can be found genuine abolitionists who resisted Oregon’s White supremacist founding. White and DELAZON SMITH, a leading Democratic Black, male and female, the overlooked partisan and published anti-abolitionist, stories of Oregon abolitionists elucidate was among those who dismissed and an important part of our past, revealing denigrated the 1855 Free Soil Convention how White supremacy functions to sup- participants and indiscriminately accused press or marginalize dissent and the cir- them of “abolitionism,” a charge that was not cumstances that foster resistance. They entirely inaccurate. Smith played a key role in establishing viva voce voting in the Oregon include the remarkable story of Black Territory in 1854, with the purpose of exposing abolitionists Abner H. and Sydna E.R.D. and controlling dissent in the electorate. Francis, who directly collaborated with prominent Eastern abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, opposed racist schemes to resettle free Blacks in Africa, and championed Black civil rights in New Jersey and New York — all before moving to Portland in 1851 and operating a successful businesses until the early 1860s. Their lives and activism — spanning the East and West coasts of the United States as well as Canada — have yet to receive a full historical account but highlight the uniquely repressive political

Labbe, The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders 443 environment in Oregon as well as a rare moment of interracial opposition to Black exclusion.14 In Oregon’s White abolitionists, the focus of this essay, we see a similar pattern of interracial experience and collaboration. They were individuals who had directly witnessed slavery or its effects and assisted in the struggle for Black freedom and equality before coming west. Even in far off Oregon, the abolitionist movement emerged from interracial experiences and relationships driven by the struggle of Black people.15 Bush and Smith accurately branded some of the Free Soil Convention participants as abolitionists — moralistic advocates and agents of the immediate emancipation and racial equality. Among them were two young farmers, both recent arrivals from southeast Indiana and related by marriage: Henry Hamilton Hicklin and William Taylor Baxter.16

HENRY H. HICKLIN was born in San Jacinto, Jennings County, Indiana, in 1825. He arrived in Oregon with his extended family in 1851, after his father John L. Hicklin and his uncle James Hicklin had made an 1849 reconnais- sance trip. In most ways, the Hicklins typified the White, non-slaveholding farmers who settled Oregon in droves. They made the overland trip in a group of families, including the Baxters, Denneys, and Stotts, linked by marriage and from the same neighborhood of southeast Indiana. They all benefited from the 1850 Oregon Donation Land Claim Act, through which the federal government gifted White males (or sons of White males) and their spouses to up to 640 acres of Native peoples’ lands.17 They filed claims and signed the required affidavits to secure farms clustered along Fanno Creek and the Lower Tualatin River in Washington County. This is the land of the Tualatin band of Kalapuya, who persisted despite encroaching settlers and devastating European diseases. The Tualatin Band of Kalapuya ceded their lands in the Tualatin Valley to the U.S. Government and agreed to their relocation to a reservation as part of the Willamette Val- ley Treaty, ratified by Congress in March1855 .18 Today, the Kalapuya people exercise their sovereign rights as members of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. The Hicklins and their kinsmen, in settling on lands taken from Native people and denied to African Americans and other non-Whites, exercised the privilege of being White men within American settler-colonial society. Nevertheless, their religious background and life experiences led them to oppose key aspects of the prevailing White supremacy. The Hicklin, Denney, Baxter, and Stott families were among the early Euro-American settlers of Jennings and Jefferson counties of southeast Indiana, located just north of the Ohio River and the border of the Upper South.19 This region became what historian Mark Furnish describes as an “anti-slavery environ, a place where antislavery sentiment and racial tolerance were significant enough that abolitionists Black and White had the

444 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Jennings County Library Jennings County Library

DR. JOHN L. HICKLIN AND HIS SPOUSE, MARTHA THORN HICKLIN, emigrated to Washington County, Oregon, from Jennings County, Indiana, between 1849 and 1851 with their two sons and five daughters. They were part of a larger group of interrelated families — all evangelical abolitionists — involved in a local abolitionist society and church whose members actively assisted fugitive slaves, resisted Indiana’s discriminatory Black laws, and participated in the abolitionist-led Liberty Party. In Oregon, John and his eldest son Henry H. Hicklin organized their family and neighbors in opposition to the Oregon State Constitution, slavery, and Black exclusion during the 1857 constitutional referendum.

requisite social space to engage in activities that directly attacked slavery and racial discrimination.” Most of these families had forefathers who served in the American Revolutionary War and had migrated from the Upper South to escape slavery. Almost all anti-formalist evangelicals, Baptists or Meth- odists, they tended to believe, as Furnish notes, “that human actions not words, deeds not intentions, were the substance of both religion and life.”20 The families became key leaders among the region’s White Christian abolitionists. As they would along Fanno Creek a generation later, the Hicklins and Stotts clustered their farms near the confluence of Big and Little Graham creeks, just east of San Jacinto and only sixteen miles north of the Kentucky border, at what became known as the “Hicklin Settlement.” It is difficult to know exactly when, but probably at least by the early 1840s, the Hicklins, Baxters, Stotts, Denneys, and other White Christian abolitionists began collaborating

Labbe, The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders 445 directly with the free Black community in Madison, Indiana, just to the south to assist fugitive slaves escaping northward. The Hicklin Settlement became a “stop” on the so-called Underground Railroad (UGRR), the loose network of trusted relationships that assisted fugitives fleeing slavery. The Baxters operated another station to the southeast in Jefferson County, Indiana.21 The risks of such “practical abolitionism,” especially for Black people, meant that such interracial collaboration emerged only after repeated contact fostered trusted relationships and reputations.22 The free Black communities in Jeffer- son County were likely instrumental Courtesy of Ed Kirkpatrick in catalyzing and sustaining UGRR operations after their arrival in significant numbers after 1830. By 1845, the network was firmly established. The Hicklins, the Baxters, and their neighbors almost certainly collaborated with leading Black abolitionists and UGRR operators living in Madison, including William Anderson, Elijah Anderson, and George DeBaptiste.23 Relation- ships with such men probably helped Henry’s uncle, Rev. Thomas Hicklin, develop the reputation for thwarting WILLIAM TAYLOR BAXTER, pictured here in slave hunters and securing safe pas- an undated photograph, and his brother-in-law, sage of every fugitive slave in his quar- Henry H. Hicklin, were among the few known ter.24 During their early years and young abolitionists who attended the Oregon Free Soil Convention in 1855, shortly after emigrating from adulthood, Henry H. Hicklin, William T. Indiana. Baxter’s family was active in southeast Baxter, and their siblings would have Indiana’s interracial underground railroad in the had multiple opportunities to interact 1840s. His father, James Baxter, was a co-founder with Whites and Blacks actively assist- of the biracial Eleutherian College in 1848. ing fugitive slaves’ flight to freedom. Henry’s youngest uncle, Lewis Hicklin, was a Methodist circuit rider who traveled across Indiana, preaching abolitionism and organizing anti- slavery societies. Lewis attended the American Anti-Slavery Society annual conference in 1840. The Philanthropist, an Ohio abolitionist newspaper, reported John L. Lewis, and Thomas Hicklin’s participation in the organization of the Indiana State Anti-Slavery Society in 1838, which Thomas attended later that year.25 In 1839 Lewis and Thomas Hicklin helped found the Neil’s Creek

446 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Anti-Slavery Society (NCASS) in a schoolhouse just nine miles southwest of San Jacinto.26 The NCASS recorded its proceedings over seven years (1839–1845) in a minute book that documents the values and sensibility of White abolitionist communities in the region. It also recounts numerous occasions of the Hicklins’ chairing meetings, lecturing, leading prayers, or serving as appointed liaisons to other anti-slavery societies.27 The NCASS constitution began by declaring that its purpose “shall be the entire abolition of Slavery in the United States.” While acknowledging the U.S. Constitution did not prohibit slavery, the society aimed “to convince all our fellow-citizens by arguments addressed to their understanding and consciences, that slave-holding is a heinous sin in the sight of God, and that the duty, safety and best interests of all concerned requires its immediate abandonment without expatriation.” This was immediate emancipation by means of moral suasion, which had emerged as the primary tactic of the second wave of abolitionism during the late 1820s. Prompted by a surge in slave revolts and the organization of more cohesive and outspoken communities of Northern free Blacks, immediatist abolitionism coalesced amidst the religious revivals of the Second Great Awakening. Christian abolitionists awoke to slavery as the nation’s mortal sin and racial prejudice its primary social ill. Moral suasion relied on preaching, petitions, mass mail- ings, or direct personal appeals to bring about slavery’s immediate end.28 The NCASS minutes also include scattered mentions of anti-abolitionist mobs, censure of anti-slavery petitions or the abolitionist press, fugitive slave legislation, and Indiana’s Black laws restricting the freedom and education of African Americans.29 Such challenges and defeats eventually prompted the NCASS to become more active in politics, endeavoring “in a Constitutional way, to influence Congress to put end to the domestic slave trade, to abolish slavery in all those portions of our common country which come under its control,” and to work against slavery’s “entire subversion of all human rights” and for “the Declaration of Independence of our beloved country.”30 The NCASS’s minutes recorded their resolutions for “the cause of universal liberty” and racial equality. The NCASS declared its legislative agenda of enacting laws to “protect equally the rights of all classes of our citizens irrespective of color so that our Liberties may be firmly established in the Constitution and the laws of the land.”31 The NCASS also expressed its intent to combat prejudice and improve the social wellbeing of Blacks through several resolutions supporting “their intellectual, moral and religious improvement, and by removing public prejudice.” Jefferson and Jennings county abolitionists would eventually operationalize this goal with the 1848 founding of the Eleutherian College under the leadership of Rev. Thomas Craven. William T. Baxter’s father, James Baxter, was

Labbe, The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders 447 among the White abolitionist co-founders. The college defied Indiana Black exclusion laws and prevailing racial prejudices by teaching both White and Black students. Eleutherian College became one of the few experiments in biracial coeducation prior to the Civil War.32 In 1844, as the abolitionist-led Liberty Party mobilized its second presi- dential campaign, NCASS threw its support behind the party, including the candidacy of James Hicklin, Henry’s eldest uncle, who ran unsuccessfully for the Indiana General Assembly.33 His candidacy raised the ire of neighbors less sympathetic or hostile to abolitionism. In January 1845, the Graham Baptist Church expelled James Hicklin “for aiding to convey slaves from their Masters.” At least ten other Hicklins and Stotts, including Henry, his unnamed sisters (likely Susan and Margaret), mother Martha, and father John L., immediately left the church.34 Between 1847 and 1850, much of this same group joined other local abolitionists in the Neil’s Creek Antislavery Baptist Church (NCABC), which had formed in 1845 after the NCASS disbanded.35 The NCABC carried forward the NCASS egalitarian principles and led directly to the formation of Eleutherian College.36

THE INTERRACIAL UGRR, the NCASS, the Liberty Party, the NCABC, and Eleutherian College were antecedent influences on the brothers who participated in the 1855 Oregon Free Soil Party Convention. Like his father and uncles, Henry Hicklin became active in local civil service, mobilized his kinsmen and neighbors in local elections, and represented abolitionists in the early organization of the Oregon Republican Party. Along Fanno Creek and the Lower Tualatin River, the abolitionist families joined those of Wilson M. Tigard of Arkansas, Augustus Fanno of Maine, and the McKays and Tuckers, two intermarried families also from southeast Indiana. The new neighbors became political associates and leaders of a distinct voting bloc who resisted partisan conformity, the White supremacist Constitution, slavery, and the exclusion of free Blacks from the newly forming state of Oregon.37 Their political resistance is recorded in poll books associated with the viva voce voting system established by the Democratic-controlled Territorial Legislature in 1854, largely under the leadership of Delazon Smith. Used in many states during the nineteenth century, viva voce voting required voters to cast their ballot vocally in public. In Oregon, precinct clerks recorded in poll books individuals’ names and votes. Controversial from the start, viva voce applied community and partisan pressure to voters by exposing their loyalties and allowing party leaders to potentially withhold patronage if voters waivered from party dictates. In the mid 1850s, the primary challenge to the Oregon Democratic Party’s increasingly fragile political monopoly initially came from the secretive, nativist Know-Nothing or American Party. The American Party

448 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 grew to national stature by capitalizing on anxieties associated with the mid- century increase in European immigration. With the support of W.L. Adams, Oregon Argus newspaper editor, the party became particularly strong in Oregon. For Democrats, viva voce helped expose its sympathizers. Bush called the passage of the 1854 viva voce voting bill a “Know-Nothing Antidote.”38 But in a political community of White males acculturated to White supremacy and manifest destiny, viva voce voting during the 1857 constitutional referendum served to enforce not only partisan but also racial loyalties. The surviving viva voce poll books reveal individual voting behavior as well as distinct voting blocs. In their detailed 1995 political history of Wash- ington County, historians Paul Bourke and Donald DeBats use the poll books to document the strength and persistence of the county’s Know-Nothing/ American Party that became a dominant Tigard Public Library constituency of the Republican Party by 1859. But their analysis also revealed the distinct abolitionist faction that opposed both the xenophobic American Party and the pro-slavery Democrats. In the June 1855 general election, not long after the Free Soil Convention, a group of Hicklins, Stotts, and Denneys, joined by Tigard, boycotted the Democratic and American party candidates for state offices and voted only for the less-partisan local offices. In the1856 election, roughly the same individuals again defied the two major parties, this time by running as a group of independent candidates for territorial and local offices.39 The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision stoked northern fears of “national slavery” and brought new urgency to the cause for Oregon statehood and to the organization of a viable anti-slavery party. Abolitionists were par- WILSON M. TIGARD, from Arkansas (and ticularly outraged over the denial of Black namesake for Tigard, Oregon), Augustus Fanno from Maine, and several abolitionist rights in the United States.40 In October farming families from southeast Indiana 1856, Henry H. Hicklin, William T. Baxter, formed a distinct voting bloc in Washington and Thomas H. Denney joined several County that opposed the Democratic and of their Fanno Creek neighbors in orga- Know-Nothing Parties before backing the nizing the Washington County Repbulic early Republican Party.

Labbe, The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders 449 Poll Books for Elections, Oregon State Archives, Salem, Oregon for Elections, Oregon State Books Poll

THIS DETAIL of the Butte Precinct poll book from the 1857 constitutional referendum depicts votes cast by abolitionists and their followers in Washington County, Oregon. The state’s viva voce voting system required local precinct clerks to record the name and votes of all eligible voters (White males) in poll books after each voter publicly stated his votes before a local precinct judge on election day.

Party; Henry Hicklin served as secretary.41 Hicklin and Thomas S. Kendall, also an Oregon Free Soil Convention participant, were among a few abolitionists who participated in organizing the Oregon Territory Republican Party at a February 1857 gathering in Albany.42 Kendall grew up in Xenia, Ohio, a center of Black and White religious abolitionism. His family had emigrated from the upper South as part of a group of anti-slavery “Seceders,” an independent sect of Scottish Presbyterianism known for actively excluding slaveholders from their congregations and denouncing racial discrimination.43 In the summer of

450 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 1840, five years before coming to Oregon, Kendall volunteered to deliver his church’s abolitionist message to congregations in South Carolina, where he eventually faced a violent anti-abolitionist mob and narrowly escaped with his life.44 Hicklin and Kendall both served on the platform drafting committee of the Free State Republican Convention, which delivered language that championed “the principles of the Declaration of Independence” and condemned slavery as “evil in its effects and consequences.”45 Beginning in 1854, the electorate repeatedly rejected proposals for a constitutional convention, but in June 1857, roughly 82 percent voted in support. The Hicklins and many of their neighbors voted in opposition of the convention.46 The following August, the Democrat-dominated convention delivered an infamously White supremacist proposal to voters in November Poll Books for Elections, Oregon State Archives, Salem, Oregon

THE BUTTE PRECINCT POLL BOOK from the November 1857 constitutional referendum documents the total votes on the proposed constitution and separate provisions related to slavery and allowing “free negroes” to settle in Oregon. Signatures of abolitionists John L. Hicklin and his son Henry H. Hicklin appear on the document. John served as a judge, and Henry was a precinct clerk.

Labbe, The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders 451 1857. The proposed constitution explicitly granted rights and privileges to Whites, denied suffrage to any “Negro, Chinaman, or Mulatto,” denied Chinese people property rights, and included separate component referendums on slavery and excluding “free negros.” The latter component, when accepted by voters, denied Blacks not residing in the state at the time the right to settle in Oregon, to access the courts, to make contracts, and to hold property.47 The document, which drew heavily from the Indiana Constitution, gave the Washington County abolitionists every reason to openly resist. The values that informed the men’s dissenting votes stemmed from their direct contact with the institution of slavery and with the struggle of free Blacks and fugitive slaves, in which some had directly participated. James M. Stott wrote a letter to the abolitionist National Era newspaper in Washington, D.C., explaining the struggle in Oregon: “I find many good Anti-Slavery men who fear we will be beaten; but I do not think there is much danger. If we should, there is enough real grit here to give them trouble; and we will keep them hot, cost what it may.” On Election Day, November 9, 1857, Henry served as clerk and his father John L. as judge in the Butte Precinct; they recorded fourteen votes (30 percent cast) opposing the constitution and slavery and supporting “Free negros.” These voters included the Hicklins, Denneys, Tuckers, and McKays as well as Fanno, Tigard, and several others. Count- ing their neighbors in adjacent Beaver Dam and Cedar Creek precincts, these voters cast 16 percent of the votes in the county’s three eastern-most precincts. The other available poll books for Washington County indicate that the potential “abolitionist vote” — no on the Constitution, no on slavery, and no on exclusion of free Blacks — constituted roughly 13 percent of votes cast countywide.48 The thirteen remaining, available poll books from all or portions of Clatsop, Columbia, Washington, Wasco, and Polk counties record the individual votes of 5.5 percent of the estimated 10,523 statewide electorate in November 1857. While not a random statewide sample, the poll books record these voters’ specific sequence of votes that, in aggregate, reveal broad voting blocs including evidence of potential abolitionist voters beyond Washington County.49 We know that the actual statewide abolitionist vote was less than the 10.2 percent suggested by the summary of available poll books shown in the table on the previous page. First, a disproportional number of these poll book votes (62 percent) are from Washington, Clatsop, and Columbia counties, which tended to vote against the constitution and against the exclusion of free Blacks at higher rates than did voters statewide. More voters in these three counties opposed the constitution (47.5 percent) and slavery (84.2 percent) and supported free Blacks (18.6 percent) than voters statewide (73.6 percent, 30.4 percent, and 10.3 percent, respectively). More

452 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 1857 OREGON CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM SUMMARY OF VOTING BLOCS FROM AVAILABLE PRECINCT POLL BOOKS

TOTAL percent vote from available precinct poll books PERCENT POLL OF TOTAL BOOK VOTING BLOC POLL VOTES Washington Clatsop Columbia Polk Wasco BOOK (581 County County County County County VOTES VOTES) (194 votes) (72 votes) (96 votes) (73 Votes) (144 votes)

Potential “Abolitionist” No on constitution 59 10.2% 12.9% 13.7% 19.8% 0.0% 3.4% No on slavery Yes on “Free Negros”

Anti-slavery Anti-Black No on slavery 384 66.1% 76.3% 58.9% 67.7% 65.8% 55.2% Yes on constitution No on “Free Negroes”

Pro-slavery 132 22.7% 10.8% 23.3% 11.5% 34.2% 40.0% Yes on slavery

Abstained 6 1.0% 0.0% 4.1% 1.0% 0.0% 1.4% on Slavery Question

THIS TABLE, compiled by the author from poll books for elections, which are held at the Oregon State Archives and Oregon Historical Society, summarizes voting blocs from available precincts. Those precincts include: Butte, Beaver Dam, Cedar Creek, Dairy Creek, and South Tualatin in Washington County; Astoria (partial) and Clatsop in Clatsop County; Union, Rainier, Oak Point, and Scappose in Columbia County; Douglas in Polk County; and Wasco County's only county wide precinct, which included all portions of the Territory east of the Cascades. Sources available in note 49.

importantly, we cannot assume that all those who cast the potential “abolitionist vote” shared the sentiments of abolitionists. Certainly, many did not. Washington County Constitutional Convention delegate Levi Andersen, for example, was a former Know-Nothing who became a Republican and voted with his abolitionist neighbors, but he likely would have recoiled at

Labbe, The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders 453 being identified as one.50 Baptist merchant Josiah Failing arrived from New York with his family in 1851 and briefly served as Portland mayor in1853 and 1854. He also cast the abolitionist vote but, according to a biographer, was not “an abolitionist in the sense of laying violent hands upon an institution, recognized by the Constitution of the United States.”51 Many anti-Democrats opposed the proposed constitution due to Oregon’s small population, concerns over taxation, or the Democrats’ domination of the convention. Some voted for “Free Negros” in alignment with Northern “free labor” ideology and commercial interests in maintaining the labor supply for marine trade and urban development, especially in Portland and on the lower Columbia River.52 Most anti-slavery voters were indifferent or even averse to the moral arguments about the plight of Blacks, enslaved or free. Oregonian editor Thomas Dryer spoke for many of these voters when he announced, “While we oppose slavery, we deny being an abolitionist in the modern sense. We claim to be a ‘free white man over the age of 21 years,’ and therefore entitled by the constitution of our country, to all the rights and privileges of freemen.”53 Nevertheless, first-hand observers alluded to a separate and distinct abolitionist vote within the electorate. In recounting the dominant Know-Nothing and Whig factions of the nascent Republican Party, Timothy W. Davenport specifically recalled that there were also “many members of the Freesoil, abolition and temperance parties, who could not be rallied under any declaration in opposition to their principles, but might vote in opposition to the Democracy.”54 Even as Bush rhetorically applied the “abolitionist” label to most of his anti- Democrat opponents, he observed that the moralistic anti-slavery voters whom he associated with the “negro-monomaniacs” amounted to no more than 500 voters in Oregon.55 Using available poll books to conservatively estimate the potential abolitionist vote against the constitution, slavery, and Black exclusion suggests that Bush’s approximation may have been close to the mark.56 At the national level, the Oregon Constitution remained controversial among abolitionists, even after voters proposed to enter the Union as a free state. As historian Eric Foner notes, debate over the Oregon Constitution was the only point before the Civil War when the rights of free Blacks became “the subject of prolonged discussion in Congress.” The abolitionist wing of the Republican Party explicitly rejected Oregon statehood because of the constitution’s severe racism. Senator Henry Wilson (MA) called it “unconstitutional, inhumane, and unchristian.” Representative Nehemiah Abbot (ME) declared: “You may have to go back to the earliest monuments of the human race . . . you may search the journals of barbarians and pirates . . . and you will find nothing that is more infamous and inhuman than the Negro section of the Oregon Constitution.”57 Evidence indicates that the Washington

454 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 OHS Research Library, neg. no.003255 County abolitionists were not the only Oregonians who agreed. County precinct abstracts reveal the geographic variability obscured by aggregate statewide election returns. Combined with additional information, they point to pockets of abolitionist resistance. The Sandy precinct, encom- passing much of east Multnomah County, for example, was one of several outlier precincts in the 1857 referendum. That precinct’s thirty-four voters registered strong opposition to the constitution (44.8 percent) and slavery (94.1 percent), and unusually high support for “Free Negros” (32.4 percent), at least in comparison to statewide returns (30.4 percent, 73.6 percent, and 10.3 percent, respectively). The Sandy precinct was the home of Henry TIMOTHY W. DAVENPORT came from Hicklin’s cousin Felix G. Hicklin, James a family of abolitionists active in the Ohio M. Stott (Felix’s father-in-law), and their underground railroad. He became active in wives, Sarah J. Stott Hicklin and Elizabeth antislavery politics in Oregon after settling Denney Stott. At least until 1858, Samuel near Silverton in 1852. Near the end of his R. Baxter (the brother of William T. Baxter) life, in 1908, he wrote two lengthy essays also lived and owned land in the precinct. for the Oregon Historical Society Quarterly 58 All these individuals and their families on antislavery efforts in the 1850s and had the same connection to abolitionist specifically recollected that “the colored brother had few defenders” in the fight. agitation in southeast Indiana’s Jennings and Jefferson counties before coming west with their Washington County relatives.59 Across the state, there were almost two-dozen other outlier precincts where the votes against the constitution, against slavery, and in favor of free Blacks were higher than the statewide returns. One of the more extreme outliers was in notoriously pro-slavery southern Oregon. The seventeen voters in Jackson County’s “Mansinita” precinct, near modern-day Central Point, voted 85 percent against the constitution, 100 percent against slavery, and 40 percent against Black exclusion. Such outlier precincts tended to be smaller, suggesting the strong influence of a few individuals. Bourke and DeBats examined whether multiple social and cultural factors (such as occupation, wealth, age, marital status, religion, and region of origin) could explain voting behavior and party affiliation in Washington County during the late 1850s and

Labbe, The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders 455 found that those factors explained little. Instead, spatially related “neighborhood contagion effects” associated with proximal family connections and local personal relationships best explained individual and group behavior. While abolitionist voters and their followers were always in the minority, the power of the local, community-based politics that the Democrats tried to strengthen through policies such as viva voce voting could cut both ways. Abolitionists likely leveraged relationships, reputations, and private peer pressure in opposing slavery and Oregon’s “infamous and inhumane” constitution.60 But abolitionists such as John Beeson (1803–1889) mostly stood alone in their particularly iconoclastic challenge to Oregon’s White supremacy. He, his wife Anna Welborn Beeson, and their son Welborn settled near Talent, Oregon, in the outlier Eden precinct in 1853. Originally from Lincolnshire, England, and arriving in New York in 1830, Beeson was radicalized in the abolitionist cause in La Salle, Illinois, where he moved in 1834. He participated in the UGRR and the Liberty Party before moving to southern Oregon. In 1855, he ran unsuccessfully for the Territorial Legislature as a Republican opposing slavery and supporting the rights of both Blacks and Native people. Beeson had defended the Takelma, Shasta, and other Athabaskan-speaking people in the Rogue Valley who faced attempted genocide during the Rogue River Indian War (1855-1856). Exposing White atrocities and injustices quickly isolated Beeson from even sympathetic neighbors. Ostracism and physical threats forced him to leave his family behind and flee the state in1856 . Beeson returned to New York City, where he continued speaking and writing about the dispossession of Native people by Whites. His 1857 treatise, A Plea for the Indians, with Facts and Features from the Late War in Oregon, was published and widely read, especially in abolitionist circles, and it boosted his national reputation as a humanitarian defender of Native peoples.61 The available precinct poll books point directly to other individuals who were either abolitionists or sympathetic to the cause. Here, we find possible evidence of women influencing the votes of their husbands and brothers. In small Rainer precinct located in Columbia County, for example, James C. Gilbreath from Arkansas cast the potential abolitionist vote, but his younger brother John E. Gilbreath did not. Many things could explain this difference, but James’s 1849 marriage to Sarah Ann Tigard, Wilson M. Tigard’s younger sister, before coming west from Arkansas may have influenced his vote. In Washington County’s Beaver Dam (Beaverton) precinct, George Cooke also cast the abolitionist vote, alongside Thomas H. Denney, Thomas Tucker, and several others. Born in New York in 1829, Cooke was the third son of English immigrants Horatio and Anna Cooke who moved their family to Chicago in 1839. Cooke arrived in Oregon and settled in eastern Washington County in 1852, about the same time as his abolitionist neighbors. His older sister was

456 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Mary Anna Cooke Thompson, an abolitionist, leading woman suffragist, and Oregon’s first female physician. Thompson did not come to Oregon until just after the Civil War, but beginning in the 1840s while the entire family was still in Illinois, she became active in efforts to aid fugitive slaves and combat racial prejudice, and according to a biographer,

“prominent abolitionists were honored guests Calumet, in her Illinois home.”62

The degree to which historians have come 1860 to understand women’s instrumental role in the abolitionist movement make these relationships all the more significant. Black and White women — including leaders such as Phillis Wheatley, the Grimke sisters, Sojourner Truth, and Maria Weston Chapman — were not only among the leading minds of abolitionism but were also its most energetic and numerous agitators and petitioners.63 We see only the contours of such influence in antebellum Ore- gon. Apart from their participation in the 1846 founding of the NCABC in Jennings County, we have no evidence of abolitionist agitation, overt or covert, on the part of the four Hicklin sisters (Susan, Margaret, Lucy, and Martha A.), RADICAL ABOLITIONIST John Beeson their mother Martha Thorn Hicklin, or their two engaged in abolitionist activities in La Salle County, Illinois, until he immigrated aunts and cousins who settled in Clackamas to Jackson County, Oregon, in 1853. There, and Multnomah counties.64 Nevertheless, at Beeson earned the enmity of local Whites least some of them may have been among the for his opposition to the Rogue River War, unnamed women honored at the 1855 Oregon which forced him to leave his family and Free Soil Convention for their devotion to return to the East. Before departing in 1856, “Human Liberty.” Beeson ran unsuccessfully for Territorial Some of the most active abolitionists did Legislature as a Republican, advocating not remain in Oregon. As national events for the justice of Native and Black people. hurled the country toward war over slavery, Henry Hicklin decided his energies were best spent elsewhere. Sometime in 1859 he returned to Indiana. The 1860 Census listed him living back in Jefferson County, in the household of Rev. Thomas Craven, the leading founder of Eleutherian College.65 Like many abolitionists, Henry lost faith in the peaceful extinction of slavery in the United States. On September 16, 1861, in Lewisville, Indiana, he mustered into the Union Army’s 36th Regiment of the Indiana Infantry. Having given up a relatively secure and comfortable life as an Oregon farmer, he went to fight in some of the bloodiest

Labbe, The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders 457 battles of the Civil War. These included the 1863 Battle of Chickamauga that resulted in some 34,000 casualties and where Henry himself was captured. He was later exchanged, survived the war, and returned to Indiana.66 In 1868 he secured a land claim in Greenwood County, Kansas, under the Homestead Act’s special provisions for Union soldiers. There he married, eventually had two sons, and remained active in local politics and civil service until he died suddenly in 1873 at age forty-seven. There is no evidence Henry Hamilton Hicklin ever returned to Oregon.67 The political marginalization of abolitionists during Oregon’s founding partially explains their loss to historical memory. So does the fact that there were simply so few. Timothy W. Davenport also had abolitionist roots and engaged in the early organization of Oregon’s Republican Party. In recounting disputes over slavery and Black exclusion in Oregon some forty-five years after, he observed that, “even among those actively engaged in extending the free-state cause, the inalienable rights of the negro were seldom mentioned. The colored brother had few defenders.”68 We know far more about those who tried to establish and secure Oregon for Whites in the ante-

OHS Research Library, Org. Lot 500, b4, 606-1 Org. Lot Library, OHS Research bellum period than we do about those few who resisted. For that reason, their stories have special significance. Understanding the experiences of these marginal voices can help answer persistent historical questions regarding the social profile of nineteenth-century abolitionists and their followers, especially those in the American West.69 Their sto- REV. THOMAS SIMPSON KENDALL came from a family of “Seceders,” a radical sect of ries illustrate the primary impulse behind Scottish Presbyterians known for opposing nineteenth-century abolitionism and the slavery and racial discrimination during circumstances that engender solidarity the antebellum period. In 1840, in South and dissent in the face of systems of Carolina, an anti-abolitionist mob assaulted oppression. Oregon’s abolitionist history him, and he barely escaped alive. After supports an experiential interpretation of relocating to Oregon during the late 1840s, abolitionism: that the growth and spread he became active in antislavery politics and of the movement is best explained not was among the few abolitionists involved in the 1855 Free Soil Convention and early as an impulse of capitalist reformers organization of the Oregon Republican Party. or socially anxious religious zealots

458 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Oregon Health & Science University Archives but simply as a human response to the horrors of chattel slavery and the severe racism of nineteenth-century America. As historian James Huston observes, the nineteenth century abolitionist movement emerged from the first generation of Northerners who did not grow up in a slave society but who nevertheless experienced slavery or its effects, directly or indirectly, in or near the South, and from the struggle of free Blacks and fugitive slaves to gain and expand their freedom in the North. Hence, the experiential interpretation inexorably recognizes Black people and their actions as essential drivers of abolitionism.70 We see this in the stories of Ore- gon abolitionists and their followers explored here. Slavery and the struggle MARY ANNA COOKE THOMPSON, of Black people were not abstractions abolitionist, woman suffragist, and Oregon’s for the Hicklins, the Baxters, and their first female physician, did not arrive in Oregon neighbors and kin, or for individuals until after the Civil War. Poll books, however, such as Thomas S. Kendall, John Bee- indicate that her younger brother, George son, and Mary Anna Cooke Thompson. Cooke, joined his abolitionist neighbors in They had all witnessed the peculiar Washington County’s Beaver Dam precinct institution or its effects firsthand, and in opposing the Constitution, slavery, and Black exclusion during the 1857 constitutional many had developed direct personal referendum. relationships with African Americans, both fugitive and free. These relationships and experiences, combined with their culturally and religiously inherited sense of justice, helped stir these men and women into action. Among the intended legacies of Oregon’s White supremacist founding — of the public policies’ attempting to exclude Black people and to annihilate, dispossess, and marginalize Native peoples and other people of color — is the segregation of people by racial identity. This segregation has helped sustain the persistent escapist myth that Oregon and the Pacific Northwest was and could remain aloof from the nation’s history of slavery and racism. It has severed or limited the interracial relationships and experiences so important to mounting and sustaining resistance. In the process, it has also disconnected Oregonians from people in their history who did not just

Labbe, The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders 459 pontificate but took direct action to resist White supremacy. Oregonians of every generation have faced consequential choices about racial exclusion or inclusion within their social and political milieu. Hence, better understanding these voices of dissent in Oregon’s past can enlighten and inspire the related choices and actions we face today.

NOTES

1. Oregon Argus, July 5, 1855, p. 1; Weekly Antislavery,” American Political Thought 4:3 Oregonian, July 7, 1855, p. 2; A Free Soil Con- (Summer 2015), 439–54; David Brion Davis, vention in Olympia the year before was actually “Review: Antislavery or Abolition?” Reviews in the first antislavery party gathering in the Pacific American History 1:1 (March 1973), 95–99; Laura Northwest, Olympia Pioneer and Democrat, Au- L. Mitchell, “‘Matters of Justice between Man and gust 26, 1854; Free Soil Party Platform of 1848, Man” Northern Divines, the Bible, and the Fugitive Buffalo, New York, August 9–10, 1848, https:// Slave Act of 1850,” in Religion and the Antebel- www.americanfreesoilparty.org/free-soil-plat- lum Debate over Slavery, John R. McKivigan and form-1848 (accessed November 1, 2019). The Mitchell Snay, eds, (Athens: University of Georgia resolutions of Oregon Free Soil Party were likely Press, 1998) 134–39. influenced by the 1854Appeal of the Indepen- 6. Eric Foner, Free Soil Free Labor, and Free dent Democrats in Congress to the People of the Men, 262–64; T.W. Davenport, “Slavery Question United States co-authored by leading political in Oregon Part I,” Oregon Historical Quarterly abolitionists and infused with their reasoning and 9:3 (September 1908): 236–37; T.W. Davenport, rhetoric; See Manisha Sinha, The Slaves Cause: “Slavery Question in Oregon Part II,” Oregon A History of Abolition (New Haven & London: Historical Quarterly 9:4 (December 1908): 372. Yale University Press, 2016), 478–90, 495–96; 7. Historian James Stewart makes this point Eric Foner, Free Soil Free Labor, and Free Men: more generally about anti-slavery politics in the The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the United States in James Brewer Stewart, Holy Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press 1970 Warriors: Abolitionism and American Slavery & 1995), 73–133; H.S. Robinson “Starkweather (New York: Hill and Wang, 1976), 107. For the Saga — Chapter One,” H.S. Robinson Papers, one historical account of a religious abolitionist Mss 924 [hereafter H.S. Robinson Papers], box in Oregon who resisted slavery and White rac- 2, February 7, 1952, Oregon Historical Society ism in the 1850s and 1860s, see Egbert S. Oliver, Research Library, Portland, Oregon [hereafter “Obed Dickinson and the ‘Negro Question’ in OHS Research Library]. Salem’, Oregon Historical Quarterly, 92:1 (Spring 2. James L. Huston, “The Experiential Basis 1991): 4–40. of the Northern Antislavery Impulse,” Journal of 8. Oregon Statesman, July 14, 1855. Gen- Southern History, 56:4 (1990): 614 dered and racist attacks on abolitionists were 3. Sinha, The Slave’s Cause, 1–5, 379, common in the mid nineteenth century, see Sinha, 421–60, 500–85; Huston, “The Experiential The Slaves Cause, 278. Basis,” 614. 9. “Abolitionism,” Oregon Statesman, July 4. Eugene H. Berwanger, The Frontier 21, 1855, Biographical Note, Delazon Smith Against Slavery: Western Anti-Negro Prejudice Family Papers, Archives West Website, http:// and the Slavery Extension Controversy (Urbana: archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/ University of Illinois Press, 1967), 78–96. xv62250/pdf (accessed November 1, 2019). 5. Manisha Sinha “Did He Die an Aboli- 10. Weekly Oregon Statesman, September 9, tionist? The Evolution of Abraham Lincoln’s 1856, p. 2; April 29, 1856, p. 2; March 16, 1858, p.

460 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 2; June 15, 1858, p 2; May 25, 1859, p. 2; March 1, 16. Weekly Oregonian, July 7, 1855; Genea- 1859, p. 2; David Alan Johnson, Founding of the logical Material in Oregon Donation Land Claims Far West: California, Oregon and Nevada 1840- Volume I & II, Centennial Issue, Abstracted from 1890 (Berkeley: University of California Press, Applications, Genealogical Forum of Portland, 1992), 64; Robert Johannsen, Frontier Politics 1957 & 1959; William Taylor Baxter married the and The Sectional Conflict: The Pacific Northwest Hicklins’ younger sister, Margaret Hicklin, in April on the Eve of the Civil War (Seattle: University 1853, Early Oregonian Database, https://sos. of Washington Press, 1955), 45–46, 203–204; oregon.gov/archives/Pages/db-early-oregonians. Barbara Mahoney, “Oregon Democracy: Asahel aspx (accessed November 29, 2019). Bush, Slavery, and the Statehood Debate,” Or- 17. On the DLCA, see also in this issue, egon Historical Quarterly 110:2 (Summer 2009): Kenneth Coleman, “‘We’ll All Start Even’: White 202–227. Even Bush eventually faced suspicions Egalitarianism and The Oregon Donation Land of “abolitionism” from pro-slavery Democratic Claim,” Oregon Historical Quarterly, 120:4 (Winter partisan Matthew Deady. 2019): 414–37. 11. In this essay I consider “White suprem- 18. Paul Bourke and Donald DeBats, Washing- acy” to be a racial doctrine that assumes the ton County: Politics and Community in Antebellum superiority of a distinct “White race” and posits America, (Baltimore and London: John Hopkins that people of the White race should rule over University Press, 1995), 42–43; Ronald Spores, other races or justifiably exploit the labor or land “Too Small a Place: The Removal of the Willamette of non-Whites. I use the term “Black exclusion” Valley Indians, 1850–1856,” American Indian in the context of nineteenth-century Oregon Quarterly 17:2 (Spring 1993): 176, 181; Melinda to mean the outlawing of Blacks from settling Jetté, “Kalapuya Treaty of 1855,” Oregon Ency- and the excluding of them from equal civil and clopedia, https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/ political rights. kalapuya_treaty (accessed November 17, 2019). 12. Oregon Argus, March 14, 1857; Oregon 19. William Hicklin and his wife Margaret Statesman, March 31, 1857; Johnson, Founding Thorn migrated from Kentucky to Jennings Coun- of the Far West, 64; Mahoney, “Oregon Democ- ty by 1819, http://www.ingenweb.org/injennings/ racy: Asahel Bush, Slavery, and the Statehood pages/histories/memofbigger.html (accessed No- Debate,” 213; Berwanger, The Frontier Against vember 17, 2019); “Old Pioneer Gone,” Hillsboro Slavery, 78–96. Independent, October 26, 1876, p. 3; Harvey K. 13. George H. Williams, “Free-State Letter,” Hines, An Illustrated History of the State of Or- Oregon Historical Quarterly 9:3 (September egon (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1893), 1908): 254–73; Johannsen, Frontier Politics and 1027–28; Pasha Palombi Smith, Hicklins Vol. 1 & 2 The Sectional Conflict, 46,77–78, 203–204. (Mabton, Wash.: D&P Enterprises, 1987), 728–30; 14. Marta Cieslak, “Abner Hunt Francis Early Oregonian Database, https://sos.oregon. (1812?–1872)” Black Past, January 28, 2007, gov/archives/Pages/db-early-oregonians.aspx https://www.blackpast.org/african-american- (accessed November 17, 2019). On the Baxters history/francis-abner-hunt-1872 (accessed No- and Denneys, see 1820 U.S. Census, Jefferson vember 29, 2019); Pacific Appeal, July 4, 1863; C. County, Indiana, and 1820 U.S. Census, Jennings Peter Ripley, ed., The Black Abolitionist Papers County, Indiana. On the Stotts, see Charles Henry (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, Carey, History of Oregon Vol. 3 (Chicago: Pioneer 1991), 102–107; Keith, “Unwelcome Settlers: Black Publishing Co., 1922), 183. and Mulatto Oregon Pioneers,” 39–40; Taylor 20. Furnish, A Rosetta Stone on Slavery’s “Slaves and Freemen: Blacks in the Oregon Doorstep, x, 160, 347; Smith, Hicklins Vol. 1 & 2, Country, 1840–1860,” 164–170; Taylor, In Search 728–59; email correspondence with historian of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the Mark Furnish and Sheila Kell, genealogist and lo- American West, 1528–1990, 82–83, 103. cal historian at Jennings County Library, Indiana, 15. The driving force of black people, en- November 26, 2019. slaved and free, in the interracial abolitionist 21. Furnish, A Rosetta Stone on Slavery’s movement is a central theme in Manisha Sinha’s Doorstep, 292–327; Jefferson County Historical recent history of abolitionism, The Slave’s Cause, Society, African Americans in and around Jef- 1–3, 299–338, 381–460. ferson County, Madison, Indiana, undated

Labbe, The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders 461 reprint of early twentieth century publication, p. duty and privilege to advocate the cause of the 1–40; “F.M. Merrell description of Underground oppressed,” it is not clear if any of the attendees Railroad in Indiana,” January 1896, in Wilbur H. were Black. Minute Book of the Neil’s Creek Anti- Siebert Underground Railroad Collection, Ohio Slavery Society, 1839–1845, transcribed from the History Connection [hereafter Siebert Under- original document at the Indiana State Library, ground Railroad Collection], https://ohiomemory. (Reproduced by the History Center, Jefferson org/digital/collection/siebert/id/11102 (accessed County Historical Society, Madison, Ind., n.d.) November 29, 2019); “F.M. Merrell referral letter 27. Minute Book of the Neil’s Creek Anti- to Wilbur H. Siebert,” January 30, 1896, Siebert Slavery Society, January 5, 1839, January 26, Underground Railroad Collection; John H. Tib- 1839, June 15, 1839, November 28, 1840, Sep- bets, Reminiscences of Slavery Times, (typed tember 15, 1841, February 26, 1842, February 25, manuscript, Historic Eleutherian College, Inc., 1843, August 31, 1844, February 22, 1845. 2008), original manuscript dated 1888, Theodore 28. Minute Book of the Neil’s Creek Anti- L. Steele Papers, M0263, box 2, folder 2, Indiana Slavery Society, January 5, 1839, January 26, Historical Society, Indianapolis, Indiana, https:// 1839, January 4, 1840; Stewart, Holy Warriors: www.fordwebtech.com/tibbets-history/JohnTib- Abolitionism and American Slavery, 33–96; betsLetter.php (accessed November 29, 2019). Sinha, The Slaves Cause, 160–227. 22. James Oliver Horton, Free People of 29. Minute Book of the Neil’s Creek Anti- Color: Inside the African American Community, Slavery Society, January 26, 1839, January 4, (Washington, D.C., and London: Smithsonian 1840, February 1841, February 1840, September Institute Press, 1993), 64–67. 15, 1841. Thomas Hicklin faced an anti-abolitionist 23. Furnish, A Rosetta Stone on Slavery’s mob when publicly lecturing on emancipation Doorstep, 11, 297–300, 325–27, 232, 354; Jeffer- in Lancaster Township, Jefferson County, in Au- son County Historical Society, African Americans gust 1841. Furnish, A Rosetta Stone on Slavery’s in and around Jefferson County, 4–14, 22–23; Doorstep, 320–21. Levi Coffin,Reminiscences of Levi Coffin: The 30. Minute Book of the Neil’s Creek Anti- Reputed President of the Underground Railroad Slavery Society, January 5, 1839, and January (Cincinnati, Ohio: Western Tract Society, 1876; 26, 1839. reprint, New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1968), 31. Minute Book of the Neil’s Creek Anti- 181–83, 227–28. See also William C. Thompson, Slavery Society, June 15, 1839, February undated, Eleutherian Institute biographical sketch, June 1840, and September 15, 1841. The list of founding 1923, in Siebert Underground Railroad Collection. NCASS members included both men and women 24. African Americans in and around Jef- but subsequent minutes only list the men. ferson County, 7, 23. On different occasions both 32. Minute Book of the Neil’s Creek Anti- George DeBaptiste and Thomas Hicklin faced Slavery Society, January 5, 1839; Furnish, A charges of violating Indiana Black Laws before Rosetta Stone on Slavery’s Doorstep, 2–4, the Indiana Supreme Court were defended by the 352–408; William C. Thompson, “Eleutherian same attorney, Stephen C. Stevens; Furnish, A Ro- Institute: A Sketch of a Unique Step in the Edu- setta Stone on Slavery’s Doorstep, 229–232 n90. cational History of Indiana,” Indiana Magazine 25. A Tour Through Indiana in 1840, The Di- of History, 19:2 (June 1923), 109–131; Madison ary of John Parson of Petersburg, Virginia, Kate Courier, (Madison, Ind.) May 8, 1900, 2. Milner Rabb ed., (New York: Robert M. McBride 33. Minute Book of the Neil’s Creek Anti- & Co., 1920), 13, 40–41, 284; The Philanthropist, Slavery Society, May 25, 1845; 1816–1851 Indiana August 11, 1838, p. 3, September 3, 1838, p. 2, Election Returns, compiled by Dorothy Riker and September 25, 1838,p. 2–3, November 12, 1839, Gayle Thornbrough (Indianapolis: Indiana Histori- p. 2, April 14, 1840, p. 2; The Liberator, May 29, cal Bureau, Indiana Historical Collections Vol. XL, 1840, p. 1. 1960), 282. James Hicklin received just 3 percent 26. Furnish, A Rosetta Stone on Slavery’s of the 1,377 votes cast. Doorstep, 310–311. While the NACSS had unani- 34. Minutes of the Graham Baptist Church, mously resolved “to lay aside all sectarian and January 1845, received by email on February other prejudices and gladly receive as members, 6, 2019, from Sheila Kell genealogy and local whatever their creed or color, who esteem it a history librarian at the Jennings County Library,

462 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Indiana, and transcribed from microfilm of the Acculturation of the Immigrant,” Journal of Pres- original in the holdings of the Jennings County byterian History 46:3 (September 1968): 157–74; Public Library (microfilmed in 1976 by the Indiana Furnish, A Rosetta Stone on Slavery’s Doorstep, State Library). 36–37, 206, n50. 35. African Americans in and around Jef- 44. The Philanthropist, November 4, 1840; ferson County, 21–22; The Hicklin’s religious “Letter from the Rev. Thomas Kendall addressed separatism typified that of radical Christian to the Editor of the Religious Monitor,” Religious abolitionists or “come-outers” in the 1840s and Monitor and Evangelical Repository, Vol. XVII, 1850s who broke from their Baptists, Method- 257–60; “Minutes of the Synod,” Religious ist, and Presbyterian churches over slavery, Monitor and Evangelical Repository, June 1840, especially as all three denominations fractured 29–32; “Article X — Persecution for Righteous- along sectional lines. John R. McKivigan, “The ness’ Sake,” October 1840, 233–35. Antislavery ‘Comeouter’ Sects: A Neglected 45. Weekly Oregonian, February 21, 1857; Dimension of the Abolitionist Movement,” Civil Abolitionists in the 1840s and 1850s frequently War History 26:2 (June 1980): 142–60; Sinha, The invoked the Declaration of Independence to Slaves Cause, 256. intentionally and tacitly support racial equality 36. Furnish, A Rosetta Stone on Slavery’s while imparting patriotic allegiance, Sinha, The Doorstep, 354–55. Slaves Cause: A History of Abolition, 68, 156, 212, 37. Like the others, Tigard and Fanno had 215, 233, 296–97, 404, 409, 447, 583; Stewart, spent time in the south and witnessed Southern Holy Warriors, 32. slave society first hand. Fanno married the Den- 46. Johannsen, Frontier Politics and The ney brothers’ sister, Rebecca Jane Denney. H.S. Sectional Conflict, 30–33; Poll Books for Elec- Robinson, “Augustus Fanno” and “Starkweather tions, Washington County, Butte, Beaver Dam, Saga” H.S. Robinson Papers, OHS Research South Tualatin, and Cedar Creek Precincts, June Library; Charles Henry Carey, History of Oregon, 1857, Oregon State Archives, Salem Oregon. Vol. 3 (Chicago: The Pioneer Historical Publishing 47. Charles H. Carey, ed., The Oregon Co., 1922), 183–84; Bourke and DeBats Washing- Constitution and Proceedings and Debates of ton County, 164–165, 286–87. the Constitutional Convention of 1857 (Salem: 38. Bourke and DeBats Washington County, State Printing Department, 1926), 404–406, 427, 159–165, 177–178, 286–287. 429–30; Nokes, Breaking Chains, 121–39; Amy 39. Bourke and DeBats, Washington County, E. Platt, with Laura Cray, “’Out of Order’ Pasting 286–87; Poll Books for Elections, Washington Together the Slavery Debate in the Oregon County for Butte and Beaver Dam, June 1855 and Constitution,” Oregon Historical Quarterly 120:1 June 1856 elections, Oregon State Archives, Sa- (Spring 2019): 74–93. lem, Oregon. Contrary to the account by Bourke 48. National Era, October 22, 1857, p. 3; and DeBats, no votes by Baxter or Fanno were Poll Books for Elections, Washington County recorded in Butte poll books for this election, Butte, Beaver Dam, South Tualatin, Cedar Creek, but Wilson Tigard joined the boycott of major Dairy Creek Precincts, November 1857, Oregon candidates. State Archives, Salem Oregon; Bourke and 40. Woodward, “The Rise and Early History DeBats Washington County, 164–65, 268–73, of Political Parties in Oregon Part VI,” Oregon and 284–86; Early Oregonian Database, acces- Historical Quarterly 12:2 (June 1911): 136–46, sible on the Oregon Secretary of State website: 160–63; Davenport, “Slavery Question in Oregon https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/Pages/db-early- Part I,” 226–30, 241; Berwanger, The Frontier oregonians.aspx (accessed November 29, 2019); Against Slavery, 85–87; Sinha, The Slaves Carey, History of Oregon Vol. 3, 570. By 1857, Cause, 570–71. the Stotts and Baxters had moved to or likely 41. Weekly Oregonian, November 29, 1856, voted in other precincts for which poll books p. 2. are unavailable. 42. Weekly Oregonian, February 21, 1857, 49. Poll Books for Elections, Washington, p. 2. Columbia, Clatsop, and Wasco Counties, No- 43. William L. Fisk, “The Associate Reformed vember 1857, Oregon State Archives, Salem Church in the Old Northwest: A Chapter in the Oregon; Douglas Precinct, Polk County Poll

Labbe, The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders 463 Book 1857, Oregon Politics Collection, Mss 55. “Slavery in Territories,” Oregon States- 1513, box 12/16, OHS Research Library. The total man, March 31, 1857, p. 2, cited in Mahoney, number of statewide voters (10,523) was de- “Oregon Democracy”, 213–16. rived from votes tabulated in the available poll 56. The available poll books indicate that 10.2 books, precinct abstracts, and county abstracts percent of voters cast the “potential abolitionist correcting for errors in reporting precinct votes vote,” against the Constitution, against slavery, in Linn, Yamhill, and Wasco Counties. This total and for “Free Negros.” Applying this percentage includes a conservative estimate of abstentions directly to the 10,523 voters statewide, gives by summing the highest vote totals of the three 1,073 potential abolitionist votes. However voters referendum components (Constitution, Slavery, only cast 1,081 votes statewide for “Free Negros” “Free Negros) at the most local, disaggregated and the available poll books also indicate that level possible. This also allowed the calculation only about 60 percent of voters who supported of an abstention rates for the three component “Free Negros” also voted against slavery and the votes. The highest rate of abstention by far Constitution, in part because some pro-slavery was for the vote on “Free Negros.” Roughly 8 voters also supported “Free Negros.” If we apply percent of statewide voters abstained on the this latter percentage, 60 percent, directly to total “Free Negro” vote. This abstention rate ranged who voted for “Free Negros” statewide (1,081), from 1.5 percent in Curry County to 13 percent we get an estimated 649 voters statewide (6.1 in Multnomah County. percent) who cast the potential abolitionist vote. 50. Bourke and DeBats, Washington County, What percentage of this number were Bush’s 219; Poll Books for Elections, Washington, County, “negro-monomaniacs,” genuine abolitionists or November 1857, Oregon State Archives, Salem their followers is difficult to say Oregon. 57. Quoted from Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, 51. Failing, whose “political views were a Free Men, 288–90. matter first of reason and then of faith,” appar- 58. Election Returns 1844–1859, Oregon ently opposed the Constitution due to the small State Archives, Salem, Oregon; U.S. Census 1860, size of Oregon’s population, Joseph Gaston, Sandy Precinct, Multnomah County, Oregon, 96- Portland, Oregon, Its History and Builders, Vol. 2, 97. “F.G. Hicklin,” “James M. Stott,” and “Samuel (Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911), 55–57; R. Baxter,” in Portrait and Biographical Record of Failing also signed an 1851 petition advocating Portland and Vicinity, Oregon (Chicago: Chapman the repeal of the Territorial Black exclusion law Publishing Co., 1903), 649–50, 676–77 when it threatened the removal of Black mer- 59. H.S. Robinson, “Starkweather Saga, chant and abolitionist Abner H. Francis and his Chapter Nine” H.S. Robinson Papers, OHS Re- brother. Provisional and Territorial Governments search Library; Carey, History of Oregon Vol. 3, Papers, 1841–1859, Microfilm File 621, OHS Re- 183–84; Furnish, A Rosetta Stone on Slavery’s search Library. Doorstep, 243–339. 52. Coleman, Dangerous Subjects, 155–56; 60. County Precinct Abstracts, November Berwanger, The Frontier Against Slavery, 89–90. 1857 Election, Oregon State Archives, Salem, 53. Johnson, Founding of the Far West, 64, Oregon; Bourke and DeBats, Washington County, 404, note 83, citing Oregonian June 27, 1857. 177–78, 211–95; Davenport, “Slavery Question in 54. Davenport, “Slavery Question in Oregon Oregon Part I,” 251–52. Part I,” 219; Davenport, “Slavery Question in Or- 61. John Beeson, The Plea for the Indian, with egon Part II,” 316. Davenport also notes that in Facts and Features from the Late War in Oregon, Rogue Valley “all but the radicals” defended free (New York: John Beeson, 1859), 83; Jan Wright, Blacks although none of them were up to the task Oregon Outcast: Jonhn Beeson’s Struggle for of publicly awakening “men to the generous sym- Justice for the Indians, 1853–1889, (Copyright Jan pathies of equal fraternity.” This may have been a Wright, 2018) 47–69; Nathan Douthit, Uncertain reference to John Beeson’s impolitic espousal of Encounters: Indians and Whites at Peace and Black and Native American rights during his 1855 War in Southern Oregon, 1820s–1860s (Corvallis, candidacy for the Territorial Legislature. Oregon State University Press, 2002), 110, 130; U.

464 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 J. Hoffman,History of La Salle County Illinoise, 66. Furlough Papers of Henry Hicklin, (Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1906), 174. Military Collection, 1838–2010, OHS Research 62. Poll Books for Elections, November Library, Mss 1514, Series C, Folder 3/31; George 1857, Oregon State Archives, Salem Oregon; Hazzard, Hazzard’s History of Henry County, “Mary Anna Thompson, MD” in Joseph Gaston, 1822–1906, (New Castle, Ind.: George Hazzard Portland, Oregon, Its History and Builders, Vol. author and publisher, 1906), 328; William Grose, 2 (Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911), The Story of the Marches, Battles and Incidents 734–37; “Mr. and Mrs. Horatio Cooke” in Trans- of the 36th Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry actions of the Twenty-Second Annual Reunion (New Castle, Ind.: The Courier Company Press, of the Oregon Pioneer Association for 1894 1891) 21, 179–89; “The State Sabbath School Con- (Portland, Ore.: George H. Himes and Company, vention – Second Day,” Evansville Daily Journal 1895), 63–66; H.K. Hines, An Illustrated History (Evansville, Indiana), Saturday, June 1865; of the State Oregon (Chicago: Lewis Publishing 67.”Greenwood County,” Leavenworth Company, 1893), 999–1,000; Early Oregonian Times (Kansas), November 11, 1869, p. 2; U.S. Database, accessible on the Oregon Secretary Census 1870, Janesville Township, Greenwood of State website: https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/ County, Kansas, p. 2; Kansas Territorial Mar- Pages/db-early-oregonians.aspx. Locating ad- riages, Records of Coffey County District Court, ditional poll books from November 1857 refer- 1859–1984, Unit ID 216809, Book A, p. 65, endum would be invaluable for further research. Kansas Historical Society; “Commissioners Pro- 63. On women’s leadership in abolitionism, ceedings,” The Eureka Herald and Greenwood see Sinha, The Slaves Cause, 1–5, 130–59, 195– County Republican (Kansas), January 26, 1871, 227, 266–338, 398–99; Julie Roy Jeffery, Great p. 4, April 13, 1871, p. 3, and July 27, 1871, p. 1; Silent Army of Abolitionism: Ordinary Women in H.H. Hicklin, Kansas Wills and Probate Records, the Antislavery Movement (Chapel Hill: University 1803–1987, Greenwood, Kansas, Case Number of North Carolina Press, 1998); Daniel Carpenter 198, ancestry.com. and Colin D.Moore, “When Canvassers Became 68. Davenport, “Slavery Question in Oregon Activist: Antislavery Petitioning and the Political Part II,” 372; Davenport, “ Slavery Question in Or- mobilization of American Women,” American Politi- egon Part I,” 236–37; “Hon. Timothy Woodbridge cal Science Review 108:3 (August 2014): 479–98. Davenport,” Portrait and biographical record of 64. Jane Hicklin, John L. Hicklin’s younger the Willamette Valley, Oregon, 942–44; Histori- sister, married Hugh Gordon also from Jennings cal note, Davenport Family Papers, University County, Indiana before moving to Clackamas of Oregon Special Collections and University County: U.S. Census 1860, Upper Mollala Pre- Archives, http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ cinct, page 175: H.S. Robinson, “Starkweather ark:/80444/xv88243/pdf (accessed November Saga” H.S. Robinson Papers, OHS Research 29, 2019). Library; Felix Hicklin’s older sister Emily Marga- 69. Robert R. Dykstra, “Review of The Fron- ret Hicklin married Benjamin Hall and settled in tier Against Slavery: Western Anti-Negro Preju- the Sandy Precinct with her brother and James dice and the Slavery Extension Controversy,” Civil M. Stott: “F.G. Hicklin” and “James M. Stott” War History, Vol. 14, No 2, Kent State University, Portrait and biographical record of Portland and June 1968. Edward Magdol, The Antislavery Rank vicinity, Oregon (Chicago: Chapman Publishing and File: A Social Profile of the Abolitionists’ Con- Co., 1903), 676–77; Early Oregonian Database, stituency (New York, Greenwood Press, 1986). https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/Pages/db-early- 70. Huston, “The Experiential,” 609–640; oregonians.aspx (accessed November 29, 2019). James L. Huston, “Abolitionists, Political Econo- 65. Henry Hicklin last appeared on the mists, and Capitalism,” Journal of the Early Washington County Tax Assessment Roles in 1859. Republic, 20:3 (2000): 487–521; Manisha Sinha, Oregon Territorial and Provisional Government Pa- “The Problem of Abolition in the Age of Capital- pers, Microfilm file 12279C, OHS Research Library. ism,” American Historical Review, 124:1 (February See also U.S. Census 1860, Lancaster Township, 2019): 144–63; Sinha, The Slaves Cause, 1–3, Jefferson County, Indiana, p. 168. 299–338, 381–460

Labbe, The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders 465 1781–1785

THOMAS JEFFERSON’S Notes on the State of Virginia was never intended to be a full-length book but was profoundly influential in how Europeans understood the young American country as well as how Americans viewed Jefferson’s home state of Virginia. Jefferson did not believe the United States could prosper as a multi-racial country, and those beliefs were blueprints for race relations adopted two generations later, when framers of the Oregon Constitution crafted racial R policies in the state. Excerpts from Jefferson’s draft of the book, which he first wrote as memoranda in 1781 and expanded through 1785, are reproduced here. A C I Massachusetts Historical Society A L

MACY & E R R E P S U

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E E W W “I advance it therefore as a suspicion only that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, S are inferior to the whites in the endowments of both body and mind.” U P E R I O R I T Y

“[T]heir griefs are transient. Those numberless afflictions which render it doubtful whether heaven has given life to us in mercy or in wrath, are less felt, and soon forgotten with them.” The excerpts below describe Blacks as naturally inferior to Whites, which became the very basis for White supremacy policies underlying “manifest destiny” claims of the pioneer generation. Jefferson goes on to describe Blacks as not feeling grief, or at least not for long, allowing him to escape the guilt of enslaving humans, even if he considered them naturally inferior. Observations such as the ones Jefferson penned were reflected on and replicated throughout U.S. history. They also formed some of the reasoning behind anti-Black arguments made during the Oregon Constitutional Convention in 1857.

467 Constitutionalizing Racism

George H. Williams’s Appeal for a White Utopia

PRIMARY DOCUMENT

by Philip Thoennes and Jack Landau

During the mid nineteenth century, migrants to Oregon created public policy around two issues then dominating national attention — race and slavery. The technologies of that age, in matters of transportation and communication, made Oregon isolated and far-removed from the rest of the country. This did not, however, mean that Oregon was cut off from traditions, legacies, and policies of White supremacy. Powerful ideas on slavery and race, formulated by the United States’ founding fathers, and especially Thomas Jefferson, influenced framers of the Oregon Constitution in 1857. It is not difficult to draw connections between Jefferson’s defense of slavery and belief that America could not succeed as a multi-racial society and White Oregonians’ adopting Black exclusion laws during the Provisional and Territorial periods.

BEGINNING WITH THE FOUNDING of a provisional government in 1843 and continuing through the writing of the Oregon Constitution in 1857, the framers of Oregon’s legal systems designed laws to exclude racial minorities — not only African Americans, but also Native Americans and people of Chinese descent — from enjoying equality before the law, participating in civic life, and living among White Oregonians. Indeed, one of the provisional legislature’s first official actions was to simultaneously ban slavery in Oregon and make black immigration to the region a crime punishable by whipping.1 Many of Oregon’s founders rejected slavery for the same reason they sought to exclude free Blacks: the desire for a White utopia. In the summer of 1857, sixty men gathered in Salem to draft Oregon’s first state constitution. The month-long convention proved a microcosm of the concerns and prejudices that animated political debate in mid-nineteenth-century Oregon — namely, fiscal conservatism, the question of slavery, and exclusionary racism.2 On July 28, 1857, just days before the Oregon Constitutional Convention began, the front page of the Oregon Statesman featured a letter to the editor, “Slavery in Oregon,” written by George H. Williams, a delegate to the convention, prominent

468 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 © 2019 Oregon Historical Society ON JULY 28, 1857, Judge George H. WIlliams wrote a letter to the editor titled “Slavery in Oregon,” appealing to readers to reject Oregon’s becoming a slave state and to exclude free Blacks as well. The letter appeared on the front page of the Oregon Statesman, which is pictured above.

Democrat, and Chief Justice of the Territorial Supreme Court. That letter, reprinted here in its original form, is an important primary document to consider when examining the power of language and the structures of Oregon’s White supremacy. Wil- liams’s arguments against slavery in Oregon helped set the political tone during the days leading up to the constitutional convention, and undoubtedly played a role in the eventual admission of Oregon as a free state — not because slavery was an abhorrent practice, but for the harm it would do to the “hardy pioneer” who had resettled the land.3 Two events in the 1850s provide a context for the political environment surrounding Williams’s opinions. The first was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The Kansas-Nebraska Act advanced the idea of popular sovereignty by giving the people of the newly created Kansas and Nebraska Territories the right to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery. The act had the effect of nullifying the Missouri Compromise of 1820, legislation that simultaneously admitted Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state to maintain balance between North and South, and prevented slavery in newly admitted territories north of the 36º 30’ parallel. Violence nevertheless erupted in subsequent years over the legality of slavery in new states.4 Williams decried the violence that erupted in other states over slavery and expressed hope that in Oregon “good feeling and moderation may prevail in all that is said or done about the matter.” This wish for tempered political discussions quickly moved to a racist argument about how slavery would be a burden in Oregon: “negroes are naturally lazy, and as slaves actuated by fear of the whip — are only interested in doing enough to avoid punishment.” The second event, two months before Williams wrote his letter, was the U.S. Supreme Court’s declaration in the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision that the framers had

Thoennes and Landau, Constitutionalizing Racism 469 never considered citizenship for African Americans: on the contrary, they were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings who had been subju- gated by the dominant race, and, whether emancipated or not, yet remained subject to their authority, and had no rights or privileges but such as those who held the power and the Government might choose to grant them.5

OHS Research Library, Org. Lot 500, box 7, folder 1122-A-2 500, box Org. Lot Library, OHS Research The court went on to opine that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was an unconstitutional infringement of the rights of slave owners to take their property into any state or terri- GEORGE H. WILLIAMS, pictured here in about tory they wished. Chief Justice 1863, was appointed to the Supreme Court of Taney wrote that Congress Oregon Territory in 1852 and served as a Marion lacked the authority to prohibit County delegate to the Oregon Constitutional slavery in federal territories and Convention in 1857. could not delegate that authority to the territories themselves.6 The process of drafting a constitution and applying for statehood would reveal, in sharp relief, the lengths to which Oregonians would go to ensure the exclusion of African Americans. Williams acknowledged that many of his contemporaries, such as Matthew Deady and Joseph Lane, held pro-slavery views and that his letter represented a break with prevailing party ideology. Williams, however, did not object to slavery as an institution. Indeed, his letter is full of sympathy and admiration for Southern slaveowners — “as high-minded, honorable, and humane a class of men as can be found in the world.” He attributed the entire controversy over slavery to northern abolitionists, whose “foolish zeal” hardened the views of the South and only exacerbated the national crisis. Williams opposed slavery in Oregon on economic grounds, arguing that his fellow Democrats were incorrect in looking to enslavement as a means to address the labor shortage in Oregon. In Williams’s view, such arguments were short-sighted for two reasons. First, Oregon’s climate did not support the type of agriculture that made the capital-intensive slave trade economically feasible: “To argue that slavery is a good thing in Alabama, and must therefore be a good thing in Oregon, is illogical, for Alabama has a hot climate and cotton bearing soil, which Oregon

470 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 has not.” Second, he argued that the presence of slaves in Oregon JUDGE GEORGE H. WILLIAMS would “degrade [the] labor” of A Timeline of His Political white workers because it puts and Legal Life them “upon a level with negroes.” Williams even claimed that the 1844: Admitted to the New York bar presence of Black slave labor in Oregon would degrade society 1852: Appointed by President Zachary as a whole: Taylor to serve as chief justice of the Supreme of Oregon Territory; arrived in Moral differences when they meet, Portland in 1853; reappointed in 1857 like water, seek a common level, and therefore if white men and August 1857: Marion County delegate to negroes are brought in contact Oregon Constitutional Convention; chair without that perfect subjugation and of the Committee on Judiciary; member rigid discipline which prevail among of the Committee on Corporations and the slaves of the South, the white Internal Improvement men will go down and the negroes go up, till they come to resemble 1859: Went into private practice each other in the habits, tastes and actions of their lives. 1865: Left Democratic Party and became a Republican; elected U.S. Senator He closed the letter with a final (served until 1871) plea for Black exclusion: “Taking everything into consideration, I ask 1873?: Ulysses S. Grant makes him U.S. Attorney General (served until if it is not the true policy of Oregon 1877); authored what would become to keep as clear as possible of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US negroes, and all the exciting ques- Constitution tions of negro servitude? Situated away here on the Pacific, as a 1886: Among the first directors of Commercial National Bank, opened this free state, we are not likely to be year troubled much with free negroes or fugitive slaves.” 1902: Elected Mayor of Portland at 79 It is impossible to know how years old. Won by 643 votes out of much impact the Williams letter 13,000 total cast. had on the proceedings of the 1902: Member of the new police constitutional convention of 1857 commission, a subcommittee of the new The letter itself, however, offers Executive Board that succeeded the valuable insight to the logic that Board of Public Works and approved prevailed in Oregon’s founding all city expenditures and franchise applications as a state that excluded both slavery and free Black people. A 1905: Lost re-election as Mayor of transcription of the original letter Portland is reproduced on the following pages.

Thoennes and Landau, Constitutionalizing Racism 471 EDITOR STATESMAN — Sir: Though perhaps inconsiderately taking sides, I have resided in Oregon more than and determining as to their votes upon four years, I have never appeared in this question. Differing reluctantly from the newspapers to discuss any ques- many friends for whose opinions I have tion, public or private, and would prefer respect, I am constrained to think that not to do so now; but deferring to the Oregon had better become a non- judgment of personal and party friends, slaveholding State. I shall argue with and under the rule prescribed by you facts and figures in favor of this position, for correspondence of this kind, I have I ask those concerned carefully and concluded to trouble your readers with dispassionately to consider the subject an article upon slavery in Oregon. in all its bearings, then do in reference thereto, what judgment dictates to be I do not reproach the slaveholders done. I appreciate the magnitude of the theme. To discuss all its features of the South for holding slaves. I and effects, one must know, like a consider them as high-minded, spirit of the past, and speak like a Sybil of the future. Conscious that honorable, and humane a class this slavery discussion has shaken of men as can be found in the the pillars of the republic — has rent world, and throughout the slavery the most powerful church of the nation in twain — has appeared upon agitation have contended that the plains of Kansas with fierce strife they were “more sinned against and bloodshed; I address myself to it, feeling somewhat as I would than sinning.” to approach a cloud charged with lightning and a whirlwind. I hope however, that the controversy will not I have no pleasure in the question grow up in bitterness, and bear its fruit — nothing directly to gain — perchance in convulsions here, as it has elsewhere, something to lose by its discussion. but that good feeling and moderation Expecting however to have my home may prevail in all that is said or done in this country, I confess to some about the matter. solicitude that a question so deeply Whatever else may be alleged affecting all its interests should be against those who oppose slavery in fully discussed and wisely decided. Oregon, they cannot, as it seems to Views like those here presented are me, be charged with commencing the not premature at this time. Much has contest about it. Daniel Webster said been said for Slavery. Candidates for in his celebrated speech of March 7th, office have become its champions on 1850, in the Senate of the U.S., that God the stump — documents have been had fixed the natural limits of slavery circulated — a paper has been set up southward of this, and though dead, his for its advocacy. These things invite, in words yet live and are true. On the 26th fact, force discussion. Men are rapidly, day of July, A. D. 1845, the real pathfind-

472 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 ers and pioneers to the Pacific coast the territory of the United States north resolved that “slavery or involuntary of the 31st parallel of north latitude. Now servitude should not exist in this Terri- slavery would have been either a ben- tory.” — On the 14th of August, 1848, the efit or an injury to that country. Jefferson Congress of the United States, by a law must have determined that it would be voted for by Stephen A. Douglas, and an injury, and no man was ever more approved by Jas. K. Polk, declared that competent to decide such a question. “slavery should not exist in Oregon.” On the 13th of July, 1787, the Congress of People came here — laws have been the Confederation voted unanimously enacted — social habits formed — an to exclude slavery from the Northwest entire system of polity set up, and I Territory. Massachusetts and South and those who think with me now, seek Carolina stood together in favor of that nothing but a continuation of this state measure. South Carolina, exasperated of things, which these laws of God and by sectional strife, would no doubt man have established. at this time, condemn that vote, but I quarrel with no one whose honest I appeal from Philip drunk to Philip feelings or prejudices incline him to sober. I appeal from South Carolina of favor the institution of slavery, but when nullification to the South Carolina of the any man says that slavery would be an revolution. I argue from this vote in 1787, advantage to Oregon if adopted here, that it was then the deliberate judgment I must be permitted respectfully to dis- of the whole United States in Congress pute the correctness of his judgment. So assembled, that Slavery would be an far as I am able to judge of myself, I have injury to the Northwest Territory, and no objections not local slavery. I do not therefore it was excluded. North Caro- reproach the slaveholders of the South lina, in 1786 declared the introduction for holding slaves. I consider them as of slaves into that State “of evil con- high-minded, honorable, and humane sequences and highly impolitic,” and a class of men as can be found in the imposed a duty of £5 per head thereon. world, and throughout the slavery agi- Virginia, in 1778, passed an act prohibit- tation have contended that they were ing the further introduction of slaves, “more sinned against than sinning.” and in 1782, removed all restrictions to Wise, patriotic and just were the emancipation. Maryland followed her fathers of the Republic, and their opin- example. Gradually these States were ions and acts come down to us like the preparing to get rid of slaves, when voice of departed experience to those abolitionism from the North, with a fool- just entering upon the stage of life. ish zeal which has characterized it from Thomas Jefferson was a great man — that time to this, wounded their pride towering, like Saul, above his fellows and awakened their jealousy, and then for sagacity and judgment — born and the movement went backwards, and bred in Virginia, and a slaveholder all slavery was forever enthroned in the his life. — On the 19th of April, 1784, he heart and interests of southern society. moved in the Congress of the Confed- I cite these facts simply to show that eration that Slavery be prohibited in all before the slave question was dragged

Thoennes and Landau, Constitutionalizing Racism 473 into the political arena, the judgment of to a committee of which the celebrated all parts of the country was against the John Randolph was chairman. I quote advantages of slavery. from his report thereon: “In the opinion I will now produce a case quite of your committee the labor of slaves analogous if not exactly parallel to is not necessary to promote the growth or settlement of colonies in that Gradually these [southern] States region — that this labor, demonstrably the dearest of any, can only were preparing to get rid of slaves, be employed in the cultivation of when abolitionism from the products more valuable than any North . . . wounded their pride and known to that quarter of the United States; that the Committee deem it awakened their jealousy . . . and highly dangerous and inexpedient slavery was forever enthroned to impair a provision wisely calculated to promote the happiness in the hearts and interests of and prosperity of the Northwestern southern society. country, and to give strength and security to that extensive frontier; in the salutary operation of this ours, to prove the impolicy of slavery sagacious and benevolent restraint, in Oregon. Indiana and Oregon are it is believed that the inhabitants of both north of the forty-second degree Indiana will at no very distant day find of north latitude. They resemble each ample remuneration for a temporary other in the productions of the soil. In privation of labor and emigration.” 1803, Indiana was a new country, and There spoke the statesman. Elevating almost as inaccessible as Oregon now his view above the exigencies of a day, is. — Railroads, canals and steamboats he looked into the future with prophetic were then unknown. Emigration was vision. Slaveholder as he was, he knew therefore slow and labor scarce. Prai- that the growth and prosperity of Indi- ries were “few and far between.” Farms ana did not depend upon the labor of were generally made by cutting down slaves, but upon the intelligence and the trees, and digging up the stumps. industry of a free people. Oregon is With his axe in one hand and his rifle in now suffering from a “temporary want the other, the hardy pioneer went forth of labor and emigration,” and that is the to his work, felling the forests with the great argument for slavery, but I meet one, and fighting the savage with the it with the reasoning of John Randolph, other. Trouble was of course incident to and the confirmatory facts of history. this state of things. The settlers looked Seven States of this Union, similar to round for relief. Some thought it would Oregon in soil and productions, and to be found in slavery, and therefore peti- some extent in climate, have tried the tioned Congress to suspend the ordi- institution of slavery and found it unde- nance of 1787, so that slaves might be sirable. Shall we now commit the folly introduced. That petition was referred of repeating the experiment? New York,

474 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Con- for doing just what we reproach Great necticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Britain for doing to us. If the citizens of New Hampshire ascertained by actual those Territories choose to establish trial that slavery was detrimental to slavery, and if they come here with their interests, and therefore abolished constitutions establishing slavery, I am it. — Can we for any reason expect to for admitting them with such provisions find it otherwise? To argue that slavery in their constitutions, but then it will be is a good thing in Alabama, and must their own work, and not ours, and their therefore be a good thing in Oregon, is posterity will have to reproach them, illogical, for Alabama has a hot climate and not us, for forming constitutions and cotton bearing soil, which Oregon allowing the institution of slavery to has not, but to argue that because slav- exist among them.” ery was objectionable in Pennsylvania Lewis Cass, in his Nicholson let- it would be so in Oregon, is logical, for ter, which gave the Wilmot proviso its with a cool climate, cereals and similar death blow, says: “We may well regret fruits are the chief productions of both. the existence of slavery in the southern I believe it is customary and proper States, and wish that they had been to use the opinions of distinguished saved from its introduction.” — Again, men in discussions of this kind. National he says, which is particularly worthy of whigs, I presume, have not forgotten our notice: — “Involuntary labor requir- Henry Clay. When three score years ing the investment of large capital, can and more had silvered o’er his brow, he only be profitable when employed in stood up in the Senate of the U. S. and the production of a few favored articles uttered these words. confined by nature to special districts, “Coming from a slave State as I do, and paying larger returns than the usual I owe it to myself, I owe it to truth, I owe agricultural products spread over more it to the subject to say, that no earthly considerable portions of the earth.” power could induce me to vote for a James Buchanan, speaking of the specific measure for the introduction of Compromise of 1850, says: “Neither the slavery where it had not before existed, soil, the climate, nor the productions of either South or North of that line. Com- California south of 36 degrees 30 mining as I do from a slave State, it is my utes, nor indeed any portion of it, north solemn, deliberate, and well matured or south, is adapted to slave labor, and determination, that no power, no earthly besides, every facility would be there power, shall compel me to vote for the afforded for the slave to escape from positive introduction of slavery either his master, and such property would be south or north of that line. Sir, while you entirely insecure in any part of Califor- reproach, justly too, our British ances- nia. It is morally impossible therefore, tors for the introduction of this institu- that a majority of the emigrants to that tion upon the continent of America, I Territory south of 36 degrees 30 min- am for one unwilling that the posterity utes, which will be chiefly composed of of the present inhabitants of California our citizens, will ever re-establish slav- and New Mexico, shall reproach us ery in its limits.” — Would Mr. Buchanan

Thoennes and Landau, Constitutionalizing Racism 475 vote for slavery in Oregon? Would he ers. There is no ambition, no enterprise, vote for a “moral impossibility?” no energy in such labor. Like the horse Stephen A. Douglas, in a speech to the tread-mill, or the ox to the furrow, delivered in the Senate on the 14th goes the slave to his task. Compare day of February, 1857, says: “I am this with the labor of free white men. aware, sir, that the act of Congress was Take the young man without family or passed prohibiting slavery in Oregon, property — no bondage fills the little but it was never passed here until six horizon of his life with its unchangeable years after the people of that Terri- destiny. Conscious of his equality, of his tory had excluded it by their own law, right to aspire to, and attain any position unanimously adopted. So Oregon was in society, he will desire the respect consecrated to freedom by act of their and confidence of his fellow men. All local legislature six years before the the world is his for action, and all the Congress of the United States by the future is his for hope. Employ the head Wilmot Proviso undertook to do what of a family to do your work. Anxious to had been done and well done.” Stand- make his home comfortable, to educate ing in the presence of a listening Sen- his children, to provide a competency ate, and pointing away to the Pacific, for old age, he will have strong induce- the “little giant” refers to the squatter ments to be diligent and faithful in sovereigns of Oregon and their slavery business. These motives energize free prohibition of 1845, and pronounces labor, but have little or no influence upon the slave. One free white man is worth more than two negro slaves in One free white man is worth the cultivation of the soil, or any other more than two negro slaves in business which can be influenced by zeal or the exercise of discretion. I do the cultivation of the soil, or any not claim that this is so where slaves other business which can be are worked in gangs by a task-master, influenced by zeal or the exercise but it would be so in Oregon; for no man here can have slaves enough to of discretion. justify the employment of an overseer and therefore every owner must manage his own slaves, or leave them upon them the plaudit of “well done.” to self-management. Situated as the May not a man safely follow in the farmer is in Oregon, he wants a laborer footsteps of Jefferson, Randolph and to be something more than a mere Clay, or stand with Buchanan, [Cass] and slave. He wants a man who can act Douglas upon this question? sometimes in the capacity of agent — to I will now proceed to show from the whom he can entrust his business when nature of the case that slavery would be absent from home, and who will go to a burden and not a blessing to Oregon. the field and work without watching Slavery is involuntary servitude — labor or driving. Negroes are naturally lazy forced by power from unwilling labor- and as slaves actuated by fear of the

476 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 whip — are only interested in doing and there is little help needed by the enough to avoid punishment. Now, if farmer during the other portion of the what I have said be true, it is perfectly year. But there are many other things manifest that a farmer in Oregon cannot to be considered. You employ a free afford to pay as much for the labor of man and you have nothing to do with a negro slave, as for the labor of a free him but to provide him with employment white man. I say in the language of John Randolph, that slave labor is “demonstrably the dearest of Negroes are naturally lazy and any.” And I affirm that it will cost as slaves actuated by fear of the the farmer in this country, more to obtain the services of one slave, whip — are only interested in doing than one free man. To show the enough to avoid punishment. high price of slaves in the States, I might refer to different public journals, but I will quote from but one. The and food, and pay his wages. But with a Central Organ, published in the parish slave it is different. Your house must be of Avoyelles, Louisiana, says that, “13 his home. You must provide everything field hands were recently sold in that for him, and pay all his expenses sick place, at prices ranging from $1,365 or well. You must watch him when he to $2,360. The lowest sum was paid works and when he plays. You must for a lad ten years — the highest was tell him what to do, and whip him if he paid for a man 31 years of age. Four of fails to do it. — Drunken, depraved and the negroes were women, and nine of vicious as he may be, you must control them under twenty years of age. Their his passions and be responsible for his aggregate value was $24,260.” Now acts. I remember that a slaveholder in from this statement, it is entirely safe to St. Louis told me that the vicious behav- assume that a good, healthy negro man ior of a female slave which for some in Missouri, would be worth $1000, and reason he could not or would not sell, the prospect in Kansas will not reduce caused him more trouble than all the the price. Horses and cattle more than other cares of his life. double in value by importation from the Suppose a farmer to own two or States to this country, and without doubt three negroes. They may be of profit the rule would hold good in reference to him in the summer, but what can to slaves, so that a good man in Oregon they do in the winter. They cannot then would be worth $2,000. Now the inter- plow or sow, or reap, or thresh. What est on this sum at 20 per cent would could a negro, fitted by nature for the be $400 per annum, which would hire blazing sun of Africa, do at chopping a white man for ten months, at $40 per wood, splitting rails, or making fence in month. State the facts in any way, and the cool drenching rains of an Oregon it will appear that the interest on the winter? One season of such exposure value of a good slave man will hire a would endanger his life. The fact is that white laborer from April to November, negro slaves other than house servants

Thoennes and Landau, Constitutionalizing Racism 477 would be perfect leeches upon the safe upon the soil of Oregon, then they farmer during our long rainy winters. would stay with you or not, just as they They would be more useless here than pleased. North is the Territory of Wash- in New England, for there the winter is ington with its sparse settlements — its cold and dry, and a man can work in the vast forests and mountain ranges, in barn or in the woods, but the reverse is which a fugitive slave might hide from true in this country. an army of pursuers. Eastward dwell There is another thing in this con- numerous Indian tribes, to whose wel- nection to be noticed. When a man come embrace a slave might fly and proposes to make an investment, the be safe. No fugitive slave law would risk of its loss is always taken into the avail there, or friends of the master be account. If you loan money on doubtful found to assist in his recapture. South security, you ask more for its use than is the free State of California, where when the security is perfectly good. doubtless the fugitive slave could Mr. Buchanan said “that it was morally find friends to speed him on to a more impossible for slavery to exist in Cali- perfect freedom in Mexico. fornia, because every facility was there Isolated as Oregon is by thou- afforded for the slave to escape from sands of miles from other slave States, his master, and such property would be and all the supports of slavery, an entirely insecure.” What is true of Cali- effort to maintain the institution here fornia in this respect is certainly true of would be almost as impotent as the Oregon. Slaves might accompany their command of the vain Canute to the masters to Oregon from attachment, waves of the ocean. Some say that but suppose a slave-dealer to start for slave property will not be so unsafe the Oregon market, across the plains, here as I pretend, for negroes will with a band of slaves bought here and not go to and consort with Indians, there; what regard would they have but otherwise is the evidence. Gen. for a man who had bought them to Jackson found fugitive slaves fight- sell again upon speculation, and who ing with the Creeks in the war of 1812. was taking them a returnless distance Maj. Dade’s command of 112 (except- from the “old folks at home?” With all ing four,) was slaughtered in the the safeguards of law and public senti- Florida war by a party of Seminoles ment, slaves are manacled to be taken and forty fugitive slaves, the negroes by the trader from one slave State to outstripping the Indians in ferocity and another; how then could they be safely brutal treatment of the dead. There is transported thousands of miles across another reason outweighing all others a wilderness country with feelings of for the unsafeness of slaves in this hatred and revenge rankling in their country. I refer to public sentiment, dark bosoms? To bring them by water, and I say that slavery can no more to say nothing about the expense, is a stand as a useful institution with one- hazardous and almost impracticable half of public opinion arrayed against thing. Suppose, however, all these it than a house can stand with one difficulties overcome, and your slaves corner stone.

478 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Look at the southern States. What would be left to help themselves. What a unanimity of sentiment exists there is it that we most need in Oregon? We in favor of slavery. Look at the laws have a beautiful country — a healthful enacted and the pains taken to pre- climate — a rich soil — mountains big serve this unanimity. This is a necessity with minerals — rivers for highways, and of the system. Every man of common an ocean stretching away to India for sense must see that slaves would our commerce. We want more people, not only be unsafe as property, but intelligent, enterprising and industrious dangerous if their ears were filled with people. Some profess to think that the discussions as to the legality or justice establishment of slavery here would of their bondage. be the most speedy and effective way Much is said about the necessity of supplying this want, but exactly the of slaves in Oregon for domestic servants. I admit that there is a great Introduce slavery, and the want of household help in this country at the present time, but I deny chance of hiring a white girl to that slavery would remove the evil. do housework is gone. — Various are the privations attend- ing the settlement of a new country. People in Oregon cannot reasonably reverse is demonstrably true. I refer to expect to have at this early day all the the census of 1850 for evidence. Ohio comforts and conveniences of an old and Kentucky are contiguous States, community. Indiana, Iowa and the new and nearly equal in size. Ohio has no States have suffered in this respect as advantages of climate or soil. — In 1800 we do now, but time brought to them as the population of Ohio was 45,028, it will bring relief to us. Immigration is the and the population of Kentucky was natural, and as the experience of other 179,871, but in 1850 the population of States attests, the most efficient remedy Ohio was 1,955,050, and the population for this complaint. Slavery, as it seems to of Kentucky 971,594, including 210,981 me, would aggravate the trouble. Now slaves. Can any reason be given for there is not one family in ten in Oregon this immense difference in the growth able to own a slave woman, (worth from of the two States only that the one $1000 to $1500,) so that if one family was a free and the other a slave State. would be benefitted, nine would prob- Take Indiana and Kentucky. They are ably be worse off than they are at this adjoining States, and Kentucky has time. Introduce slavery, and the chance the larger territory. In 1810, Indiana had of hiring a white girl to do housework is 23,890 people, and Kentucky 324,237, gone. White girls will hardly consent for but in 1850 Indiana was ahead, and had wages to occupy in one family a position 977,154. Illinois had in 1810, 11,501, but in like that which a negro slave-woman 1850 she had 846,034. I compare these occupies in another. Slavery might adjacent States, and contend that the provide the favored few with domestic figures show beyond controversy that help, but a large majority of the people slavery has been an obstacle to the

Thoennes and Landau, Constitutionalizing Racism 479 growth, and an incubus upon the ener- tionable to such men, for they are too gies of Kentucky. poor to be slaveholders, and too proud Everywhere the rule holds good. spirited to wear the badge of slavery. Missouri is a larger State, has a milder Slavery has a terror in its very name climate, a more prolific soil, and greater to foreign immigration. Oppressed facilities for commerce than the adjoin- at home, they look to America as the ing State of Iowa. She had too, more “land of the free.” — When they come than 25 years the start as a State, yet to us, they are generally ready to work Iowa has nearly overtaken, and before on our farms, canals and railroads with the end of the present decade will white laborers, but they are not willing surpass her in popular numbers. Who to take their places under the same can doubt that Missouri would now task master with negro slaves. Establish slavery here and the effect will be as it has been elsewhere. Establish slavery here and the effect You will turn aside that tide will be as it has been elsewhere. You of free white labor which has will turn aside that tide of free white poured itself like a fertilizing flood across the great States of labor which has poured itself like a Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and is fertilizing flood across the great States now murmuring up the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and is Will slaveholders in view of the now murmuring up the eastern slope great hazard of bringing and of the Rocky Mountains. keeping slaves here, immigrate to any considerable extent? Will men run a great risk with their property when there is noth- have double her present population if ing to be made by it? Slave property the foot of a slave had never touched is more secure and more profitable in her soil? Compare Wisconsin and Missouri than it would be in Oregon, Minnesota with Arkansas and Florida. then why bring it here? Millions of Have not the former sprung forward to untouched acres in the new States of giant greatness, while the latter have the South invite to the culture of cotton, slowly dragged the overburdening car sugar and kindred productions. Will of Slavery. the slaveholder wishing to emigrate Men who emigrate are not usually go where his slaves will be secure and men of large fortunes, who own slaves, valuable, or will he make a wild goose and live at their ease, but they are chase across the Continent to engage generally men whose limbs are made in raising wheat, oats and potatoes? sinewy by hard work; who go to new Some people talk as though voting countries to get land and homes, and for slavery would supply the country who expect to depend chiefly upon with labor, but it will be found that their own labor. Slave States are objec- money is more necessary for that pur-

480 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 pose than votes. Five hundred slaves the negroes worth one or two millions here would cost between five hundred of dollars. The exports of the South thousand and a million of dollars, and exceed those of the North, but that yet only one farmer in ten would be pro- proves nothing for slavery here, for 84 vided with a hand, if there be (of which per cent of exports of the slaveholding there is little doubt) 5,000 farmers in States are cotton, rice and sugar, which Oregon. Let it be remembered that out cannot be cultivated in Oregon. of 6,222,418 whites in the slaveholding I have heard it said that slavery States, only 347,525 own slaves. How would increase the price of lands in this can slave labor be made to pay in this country, but this is a very great mistake. country? Can any farmer afford to buy I find by the census of 1850 that the and keep slaves, and raise wheat at 75 average value of land per acre in New cents or $1 per bushel? If there were England is $20.27. In middle States it thousands of slaves now cultivating the is $28.07 per acre, while the average soil here, where would be the market, value of land per acre in the Southern and what the demand for the grain they States is $5.34. None who are familiar would produce. Slaves are certainly with current events, can be ignorant not necessary or desirable for fruit or of the fact that large quantities of land stock raising. in the South have been worn out and Much is claimed for slavery because reduced to a value merely nominal by the slaveholding export more and have slave labor. One very common argu- a larger amount of personal property ment for slavery is that laborers, if free, than the non-slaveholding States. I will will engage in mining where they are compare Pennsylvania and Virginia in wanted by the farmers. Admit such to 1850. They are adjoining States, and that be the fact, is the labor of a man lost is a fair way to try the question: to the country who makes $25 or $50 Now I submit upon these figures per month more in the mines than he which is the more powerful, wealthy would on a farm. Now the question is, and prosperous of the two States. what is good for the country, not what True, the personal property of Virginia is of benefit to A or B, or any class of exceeds that of Pennsylvania, but this individuals, and I say that is best for the is because 472,528 blacks, estimated country which gives to labor its greatest as so much population, are at the same reward, whether it be mining, farming, time considered as personal property, or any other business. Labor ought to worth from $500 to $2000 per head. be free so that it can go into that pursuit I will not ask if 1,000 Pennsylvania which pays the best, or produce that for families would not be worth more to which there is the greatest demand, and Oregon — would not make more blades thus enrich and improve the country. of grass — bring more wheat to market Scarce as laborers have been, and and dig more gold out of the mountains loud as are the complaints about the than so many Virginia negroes, and yet state of things here, no where is the the census taker would say nothing diligent farmer more prosperous than in about the value of the farmers, but call this much abused Territory of Oregon.

Thoennes and Landau, Constitutionalizing Racism 481 California has mines, and her farmers Negro slaves it must be admitted, are obtain help, and so it will be here if the an ignorant and degraded class of laws of free labor and free trade are left beings, and therefore they will vitiate to work out their natural results. I am to some extent those white men who opposed to slavery in Oregon because are compelled to work or associate it will degrade labor. Cavilled with as with them. Moral differences when this objection may be, it is vain to deny they meet, like water, seek a common it. Suppose A and B have adjoining level, and therefore if white men and farms. A is rich and can buy slaves to negroes are brought in contact with- do his work. B is less wealthy and must out that perfect subjection and rigid hire white men. Now does not the hired discipline which prevail among the slaves of the South, the white Negro slaves . . . are an ignorant and men will go down and the negroes go up, till they come degraded class of beings, and therefore to resemble each other in the they will vitiate to some extent those habits, tastes and actions of their lives. white men who are compelled to work Slaves in Oregon, if they or associate with them do any thing at all, must necessarily be “Jacks of all work.” They will go every where white man of B seem to take the same and do every thing. They will be free position with the negro slave of A’s. enough to see and learn all the vices of Does not this system inevitably beget a society, and slaves enough to practice sentiment that the man or woman who them without pride or self respect. I do hires out to do farm or house work is not see how white men who expect to put upon a level with negroes. labor in Oregon, can consent to have Society if true to itself will seek negro slaves brought here to labor with to elevate and not to degrade labor. them. Slaveholders, as a general thing, Labor changes waste places and the are not willing to sell their good men wilderness into the fruitful field and the and women to be taken thousands of beautiful city. Laboring men deserve miles from relatives and home, but will to be the honorable of earth. They sell the worthless and vicious, so that make the country and fight the battles the Oregon market would probably be for its defense. They fill up with vigor supplied with cheap negroes, which of mind and body where riches and are a curse to any country. Slavery is luxury produce decay. They give to intended to supersede the necessity of humanity and fame the Franklin’s, the white labor; but I deny that any system Fulton’s and the Webster’s of history. is an evil which compels white people Every community ought to have a to work. Industry invigorates mind and system of free or slave labor. To mix body. It makes the appetite good and them aggravates the evils of both, and the sleep sweet. It leads to content- subtracts from the benefits of each. ment, virtue and happiness. Suppose

482 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 a farmer has slaves to do his work, but we know what the sentiment of and sons to rear. Will these sons be the North is upon this question, and as industrious as they otherwise would we must take things as they are, and be, and is any father willing to have not as they should be. Can Oregon, his children grow up without habits with her great claims, present and proof industry? Indolence is a dangerous spective, upon the Government, afford luxury for young people, and there is to throw away the friendship of the good sense in the Spanish proverb North — the overruling power of the that “an idle brain is the devil’s work nation, for the sake of slavery? Would shop.” What will be the political effect it be advisable, when we can avoid it, of making Oregon a slave State? This to go into the Union in a tempest of is a grave question and ought to be excitement upon the negro question? carefully considered. Surrounded Oregon would have more influence in by non-slaveholding territory — her the councils of the country, as a free, geographical position — her climate than as a slave State. Free, conserva- — the productions of her soil and the tive, and impartial, she would be like nature of her commerce, all unite and California, of the family of the North, identify her with the northern States. and of the friends of the South; but as Suppose we go into the Union as a a slave State, she could only depend free State, the North will be pleased upon the sympathies of the slavehold- and the South satisfied. No statesman ing power? Slavery it is said, will save ever dreamed that slavery would ever us from fanaticism, but this is not true. exist in Oregon, and for that reason Fanaticism is not altogether confined Douglas voted for, and Polk approved to the free States. South Carolina is not its prohibition in our organic Act. And behind Massachusetts in this respect. last winter, Mr. Stevens of Georgia, said Garrison, Phillips & Co., occupy one in Congress, that he would be glad to extreme, and Adams, Rhett & Co. the have the northwest Territories come in other. The Tribunes and Couriers of the as slave States, but did not expect it, north, are seconded in their sectional for the laws of climate, production, and warfare by the Mercurys and Deltas of population would prevent. I believe the South. Political fanaticism within that we could go into the Union as a the last year, has desecrated elections free State, without objection or excite- in four of the chief cities of the South ment upon that ground, for this is what with violence and bloodshed. I admit all parts of the country expect; but as a that there is more intensity of thought slave State we should arouse the prej- and energy of action in the North than udices of the whole North; for, as there in the South, and that these produce is nothing in our circumstances or inter- many excesses which I condemn as ests to justify such a thing, it would be much as any man, but at the same time regarded as a mere political movement they work miracles in science and art, to extend the institution of slavery. I and all the improvements of the age. contend that we have a perfect right Fanaticism, even if we have it as a free to have slavery or not, as we please, State, will waste itself upon abstrac-

Thoennes and Landau, Constitutionalizing Racism 483 tions and idealities about something an equilibrium between slaveholding thousands of miles away, while with and non-slaveholding States in order slavery there will come a fanaticism that they may balance each other.” I like the Promethean vulture to prey add to this, that it would tend to cre- upon our very vitals. Slavery here, in ate a geographical division which all the nature of things, must be a weak true friends of the Union should try to institution. Fanaticism from the North break down and prevent. This theory would therefore assail it, and from the looks very much like Calhoun’s still South rush in to its defense. Torn and born project of dual executive in the distracted in this way, our happiness Government. and prosperity would be sacrificed to I might go further in this discussion, a miserable strife about negroes. but perhaps I have already written Some argue that Oregon should more than will be read. Whatever may become a slave State so as to make be inferred from my arguments against the slaveholding and non-slaveholding slavery in Oregon, I disclaim all sympa- States equal in the Senate. Admit- thy with the abolition agitators of the ted now as a slave State, we might North and deprecate and denounce make the States nominally equal in all sectional organizations upon that that body, but how soon would Min- subject. I take the ground that the nesota, Kansas, Nebraska, or some General Government has no right other Territory come in and destroy it. in any way to interfere with slavery, We might set to work to balance the except to carry out the fugitive slave Union, but have we any assurance clause of the constitution, and have that other Territories will concur in maintained the opinion that each State the movement. Territories ought and and Territory has the absolute right to will consult their own best interests establish, modify, or prohibit slavery upon this subject, and Congress has within its borders, subject only to the no right to regulate the admission of Constitutional restriction to “persons States so as to preserve the balance held in service or labor in one State of power between different sections escaping into another.” of the Confederacy. I will quote upon I hold, too, that a man’s views as this point from a speech made last to slavery in Oregon are no test of his winter by Mr. Douglas, in the Senate: Democracy. To be national, the Demo- “Is it, (says he,) to be a struggle to cratic party must necessarily embrace keep up an equilibrium between non- those who prefer a free and those who slaveholding and slaveholding States? prefer a slave State. Cobb no doubt Sir, I deny the power of this government upholds slavery in Georgia, where he to maintain any equilibrium upon the lives, and Dickinson would oppose it subject; it is contrary to the principles in New York, where he lives, and both of the Nebraska bill; it is contrary to are good democrats. Buchanan, Cass the principles of the Democratic party, and Douglas would vote against slavery it is contrary to the principles of State in the States where they respectfully equality and self government to keep reside, and if they mean what they say,

484 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 would vote against it here if they lived being put upon the ocean. Facilities for in Oregon. traveling are increasing and expenses Taking everything into consider- being reduced. The Pacific railroad is a ation, I ask if it is not the true policy of proximate reality. Men who can lift their Oregon to keep as clear as possible eyes above the little precincts of a day, of negroes, and all the exciting ques- will see in these things the promise of tions of negro servitude? Situated away our growth and greatness as a people. here on the Pacific, as a free State we I know what syren song self love sings are not likely to be troubled much with for slavery; how pleasant it seems in free negroes or fugitive slaves, but as prospect to have a slave to till our a slave state there would be a constant ground, to wait upon us while we wake, struggle about laws to protect such and fan us when we sleep, but are property — fierce excitements about these the ideas to possess men whose running off or stealing negroes, for business it is to lay the foundations of a which this country is so favorable, and State? History, philosophy, and posterity there would be no peace. plead with us not to be wholly absorbed I have faith in the future of this in the present, but to learn from the past country, but I do not conceive that its and look to the future, and if we hear prosperity depends upon the spiritless and obey this appeal, the lapse of 25 efforts of enslaved labor, but upon or 50 years, which is as nothing in the the energies of a free and intelligent life of a State, will find Oregon teeming people. New routes of travel are being with a people, intelligent, prosperous opened across the continent. New and happy, and every man a freeman. lines of steamships and clippers are Geo. H. Williams.

NOTES

The views expressed in this article are the authors’ letter was reprinted under the title “The ‘Free and do not represent the views of the Attorney State’ Letter of Judge George H. Williams: General or the Oregon Department of Justice Slavery in Oregon” in the Quarterly of the 1. “An Act in Regard to Slavery and Free Oregon Historical Society 9:3 (September Negroes and Mulattoes,” § 6 (June 27, 1844), 1908): 254—73. reprinted in J. Henry Brown, Brown’s Political 4. Kansas-Nebraska Act, Pub. L. No. 33-59, History of Oregon: Provisional Government 10 Stat. 277 (1854). (Portland, Ore.: Lewis and Dryden Printing Co., 5. Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857), 1892), 132–33. 404—405. 2. On the Constitutional Convention 6. Ibid., 452. Modern legal scholars debates about slavery, see Amy E. Platt, “‘Out regard Taney’s analysis of Congressional of order’: Pasting Together the Slavery Debate power over territorial slavery as dicta — that in the Oregon Constitution,” Oregon Historical is, not necessary to resolve the case and Quarterly 120:1 (Spring 2019): 74—101. therefore not precedential. See Jamal Greene, 3. George H. Williams, “Slavery in Oregon,” “The Anticanon,” Harvard Law Review 125:2 Oregon Statesman, July 28, 1857, p. 1—2. The (December 2011): 406.

Thoennes and Landau, Constitutionalizing Racism 485

V I O

L l, September 18, 1902 E N

C Journa Statesman E

MACY & E R R E P S U

S S

T T

E E

A A

T T

N N I I

C C

H H

E E W W Oregonian, July 1, 1900

1900–1902

WITHIN A SOCIETY defined by White supremacy, racism could be both extreme, as in the case of a violent lynching, or casual, as in the use of the demeaning “n-word” in a mundane advertisement. On the left is a graphic account a group of miners in Marshfield, Oregon, who took the law into their own hands and lynched Alonzo Tucker, accused of assaulting a White woman. Above, the D.M. Averill & Co. advertisement for fireworks on July 1, 1900, included “Nigger Chasers,” a thinly masked threat of violence toward Blacks.

In this environment created by White supremacist practices, non-White people could not control whether they encountered one, both, or neither of these examples of real and implied violence. Consequently, the stress of racial consciousness, whether on the surface or in the ever-present subconscious, is a burden non-Whites carry that often goes unrecognized by White people.

487 White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City

JOHANNA OGDEN

Throughout its history, White supremacy has been practiced in diverse ways with the goal of establishing systems of White control over societies. Local circumstances, pivotal events, and powerful individuals have shaped these systems, and the passage of time dictates constant change, adaptation, and variation — although violence as a means to uphold the system remains a commonality. During the early twentieth century, anti-Asian violence erupted along much of the Pacific Coast. How that violence played out in Portland, Oregon, differed from other locales, both in the United States and around the world. It stands as an example of how White supremacy, as practiced in one country, can both impact other systems and be impacted by expected and unexpected consequences.

ST. JOHNS, OREGON, sits on the banks of the Willamette River a few downstream miles from Portland’s center. Today, St. Johns is just another city neighborhood. In the early 1900s, this otherwise unremarkable town was home to an ugly ethnic riot and to the critical beginnings of a radical Indian independence movement.1 In 1910, St. Johns had freshly blossomed from a collection of tents, shan- ties, and docks to a bustling town of four thousand. It boasted a new city hall and school, streetcar service to Portland, telephones, sidewalks atop muddy roads, hotels and boarding houses, and a lively real estate market. That recent transformation was one measure of the economic boom that Portland’s ponderously named 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial and Ameri- can Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair had delivered to the region.2 In the wake of the fair, industries swelled and new residents, including tens of thousands of laborers, flocked to the area.3 Some two hundred Indians, overwhelmingly British subjects and Sikh military veterans or farmers from Punjab, were among those who had arrived and

A GROUP OF INDIAN, likely Sikh, mill workers stand in front of a North Pacific Lumber Company mill building in Barnet, British Columbia. During the early 1900s, Indians lived and worked from British Columbia to California and were persistently targeted by anti-Indian violence, including in St. Johns, Oregon. No known photographs of Indians in St. Johns or the greater Portland area exist.

Ogden, White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City 489 Clatsop County Historical Society

ACROSS THE WEST, Indians were members of multinational work crews, with English as a common language. While diverse workplaces were a source of friction in St. Johns, they also exposed Indians to radical labor organizers, including socialists and members of the IWW. This photo documents that perhaps half of Indians, for a variety of reasons, adopted western headgear over turbans.

were working in St. Johns’ new or newly expanded industries.4 The Monarch Lumber Mill and St. Johns Lumber Co. were their primary employers, and many lived in Monarch’s bunkhouse at the outskirts of town. Others shared apart- ments above downtown businesses or rented neighborhood houses. Years of articles in the local St. Johns Review had reported on the town’s growth and promise, urging residents to recruit friends and family to resettle in St. Johns and contribute to its glorious future. The Review, however, rarely mentioned the Indians living in town. One seeming exception occurred in the summer of 1907, a time of rampant anti-Asian sentiments in the North American West. The Review reported on the unspecified criminality of one “I. Wilson,” who the paper deemed representative of the “gang of Hindoos . . . temporarily” located in St. Johns who needed to be “given an emphatic invitation to move on.”5 That “invitation” was forcefully delivered on March 21, 1910. That night, downtown St. Johns erupted in anti-Indian violence perpetrated by a crowd of two hundred, including many White laborers, a Review reporter, the town’s

490 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 mayor, the police chief, and two police officers.6 Collectively, they attempted to terrorize and violently expel the Indians living and working in their midst. While the St. Johns riot is not broadly known today, in those times, ethni- cally motivated violence was all too common in the North American West. Chinese migrants were targets of western racial animosities, almost on their arrival in California during the 1850s. More proximately, the St. Johns’ rampage of 1910 appeared an unsettling repeat of the 1907 riots that rocked towns from California to British Columbia and targeted Indian, Japanese, and Chinese shopkeepers and laborers.7 In the wake of the 1907 attacks, laborers and their organizations effectively banned Indians from lumber mill work in Washington state.8 Government entities refused to prosecute and punish perpetrators and, instead, enacted proscriptions against the mobs’ victims. British colonial and Canadian national and regional authorities effectively ended Indians’ continued immigration to British Columbia. They also established a global policing unit to monitor Indians’ growing disaffection and to disrupt their increasingly radical affiliations. Given their 1907 experience, Indians in St. Johns were not inclined to suffer another attack without a fight. In 1910, they fought back on the night OHS Research Library, negative no. 45949, photo file 1698

THE 1910 RIOT IN ST. JOHNS began downtown outside Condon’s Saloon. The mob ransacked Indians’ homes and pushed one man, who lived above a downtown business, out of his second- story window. The crowd also targeted Indians working in nearby St. Johns Lumber Co. Indians were forced onto the trolley and told to never return, an order they ignored. This photograph documents downtown St. Johns in the summer of 1908.

Ogden, White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City 491 of the riot and broadened and sustained their resistance over the next two years. Individuals armed, declaring “we have no protection.”9 As a community, they demanded prosecution of the rioters and were backed by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office and the British Consulate.10 They waged a media campaign and won allies to their cause. Most significantly, after the St. Johns riot and protracted legal battle, they became a center of anti-colonial organizing. The St. Johns riot, prosecution, and Indian-activist aftermath illuminate a dense confluence of economic, race, and labor politics, globally and within Oregon, that shaped Indians’ daily lives and ultimately their anti-colonial movement. Several key premises guide this analysis. First, “race” is a wholly human creation whereby differences in human physiognomy — hair, facial features, skin tone, and the like — are assigned social value and power.11 Second, “White supremacy” connotes the global system of structural power and privilege arising from and in defense of the dominant, and often assumed, belief in the supremacy of people defined as White that underwrites colonial empires. Or, as W.E.B. DuBois more trenchantly put it, “Whiteness is the ownership of the earth forever and ever, Amen.”12 Third, while White supremacy has long dominated humans’ global relations, it was and is neither invariable nor all- controlling. Instead, White supremacy shape-shifts across time, region, gender, and class, affecting the means and modes of both suppression and resistance. This article will center on three interrelated aspects of White supremacy as expressed by, or with respect to, laborers. It connects the prosecution of St. Johns’ rioters to a particular brand of White supremacy pursued by powerful Oregonians to ensure a labor force. It explores why laborers dominated ethnic riots in St. Johns. Finally, it links the global forces shaping labor animosities and Portland’s racial policy to Indians’ anti-colonial organizing in the wake of the St. Johns’ affair.

RIOT IN THE “HINDU” CITY

Indians migrated to Oregon in pursuit of work and safety, incentivized by the seemingly unconnected events of Portland’s 1905 fair and 1907’s widespread western ethnic riots. Four to five hundred Indians were among the tens of thousands of laborers who came to work in the region’s new and growing industries in the wake of Portland’s fair. They settled from The Dalles to Astoria, most living along the Columbia River and working in its many lumber mills. Besides promising employment, Oregon’s added attraction after 1907 was that it was the only state in the West that did not erupt in communal anti-Asian violence. Oregon, then, seemingly offered Indians jobs and safe harbor from a punish- ing political storm. So it was a particularly bitter pill when, in 1910, hundreds of their neighbors and coworkers violently attempted to drive Indians from

492 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 their jobs, homes, and sense of safety in St. Johns. By early 1910, Indians’ presence in St. Johns was a simmering undercur- rent. In February, despite evidence being “scant,” the Morning Oregonian reported on the arrest of a “Hindu,” on suspicion of having set a fire at a St. Johns manufacturing site.13 Rumors circulated that St. Johns Lumber would replace Whites with “Hindus.”14 After the fact, the Morning Oregonian opined that the “race feeling” had been intensifying in St. Johns for weeks prior to the violence.15 Still, the exact trigger for the St. Johns riot remains unclear. The Oregonian reported that it began as an encounter between men in Condon’s Saloon, with alcohol a predictable fuse.16 A St. Johns Review article, head- lined “Big Doings in St. Johns — Mob Chases Hindus from City in a Hurry,” provides a basic, if distorted, outline of events: A crowd of Hindu haters met Monday night, either by accident or design, upon the street, and threats were made of chasing them all out of town. . . . The THIS FRONT-PAGE HEADLINE in the March crowd had grown larger every minute, 25, 1910, edition of the St. Johns Review and a number of Peninsula young men reported that the town was “in a condition had been attracted and joined the almost bordering anarchy” on Monday, March assemblage. The necessary leader 21, 1910, when an anti-Indian riot broke out. That [Gordon Dickey] then came to the front night, some two hundred White laborers, the and a movement was rapidly formed to mayor, the police chief, and two police officers seek out the British subjects and banish tried to violently expel Indian residents. them from St. Johns forthwith. With this intention a crowd made for the quarters occupied by the Hindus, while others went to the mill [St. Johns Lumber Com- pany], which is running night and day. Every Hindu that was encountered was peremptorily ordered to stop work and get out of town at once.17

Ogden, White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City 493 OHS Research Library, OrHi 90075 Library, OHS Research

ST. JOHN’S, “THE HINDU CITY?” In April 1910, the St. Johns Review declared that Indian presence in the city gives strangers the impression it is a “Hindu city.” This July 4, 1913, photograph of downtown St. Johns highlights the absurdity of that claim. The paper’s outrage likely came from Indians’ taking part in town life, rather than their force of numbers — conceivably reflecting the town’s comfort with them as laborers but reviling them as fellow citizens.

The paper described the night as “bordering on anarchy” and lauded the night police chief and mayor for calming the crowd.18 The Review also opined that Indians had not been robbed of valuables or cash, merely that the “Hin- dus” were treated “pretty rough” or even “decidedly rough.” One man’s leg was “reported to have been broken” and others “slightly wounded.” Finally, the Review reported that a “number of the Hindus” were “escorted” to or “placed” on the streetcar to Portland, and told not to return.19 Portland newspapers were more inclined to depict the actual violence, describing windows broken, doors off hinges, bits of clothing scattered, “Hindus [pulled] out of their beds,” and “everywhere the evidence of riot, and in a fw [sic] cases, bloodshed.” The Morning Oregonian reported that one Review reporter had participated in the riot.20 But neither the Review nor the Oregonian interviewed Indians until well into the trials some three months later. In court, Indians testified to being robbed at gunpoint of valuables and hundreds of dollars and to being beaten, sometimes with a gun. They revealed that one man was pushed out of a window, and that local authorities either passively watched or actively participated in the attacks.21 The Review contested only the means of the riot — it was unlawful and brought trouble to the city — not its aims. The paper claimed to speak on behalf

494 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 of “all” townspeople. “We all want the Hindus to go and mingle with their own kind. If they were cleanly in their habits, conform to American dress and customs, be of some good to the community, no objection to their remaining and becoming useful citizens would be made. . . . They love to parade up and down the public thoroughfares. Strangers coming to town get an impression that it is a Hindu city, and it is a great incentive for them to make a hasty exit. But to remove them, mob methods are not the proper ones.”22 In short, Indians had no place in the town and no right to threaten St. Johns’ reputation and future with their public “parading” — that is, being a part of town life. Indians, however, were not cowed by the rioters or by the sentiments expressed by the paper. Instead, they fought against their attackers and for their right to live and work in St. Johns as equal members. On the morning after the violence, a group of Indians, led by labor contractor Kanshi Ram, went directly to British Consulate James Laidlaw in Portland to demand action. Laidlaw contacted the Multnomah County D.A.’s office and requested intervention. On March 22, the day after the riot, Indians walked the streets of St. Johns with Deputy District Attorney C.W. Garland in tow, pointing out their attackers. Garland issued nearly two hundred warrants. Laidlaw lodged a complaint with the U.S. State Department,

Ogden, White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City 495 National Archives and Records Center, Seattle Center, National Archives and Records

AS THIS CABLE from U.S. Attorney General George Wickersham attests, the riot aftermath in St. Johns was not merely a local affair. It warranted state-to-state communications between British and U.S. authorities and generated directions from America’s highest legal counsel to Portland-based prosecuting attorneys.

which instructed the U.S. District Attorney’s office to assist with the local prosecution. U.S. Secret Service agents soon appeared in St. Johns, questioning and arresting area residents.23 Laidlaw hired local attorneys to assist with the prosecution.24 These agencies’ convergence on the town within a week of the riots ratcheted up tensions even more. The Review was incensed that Garland arrived with a “horde of deputies and a band of dark-skinned British subjects . . . arresting citizens right and left without the least regard as to their guilt or innocence.”25 A Multnomah County grand jury eventually issued formal indictments, but getting to that point involved a messy public fight.26 On the first day of St. Johns’ Justice Court hearings, the courtroom was packed with supporters of the accused. Indians were also present, but reportedly stayed outside.27 In deference to the workingmen, proceedings were held at night and on Saturdays, with sessions sometimes lasting until midnight. Judge Conrad Olson feared the hearings would consume the entire summer, given the sheer number of cases as well as the number of

496 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 witnesses, attorney fights, and translations necessary. Every day seemed to add new drama. John Kim, a plaintiff and the acting interpreter, was accused by St. Johns City Attorney Henry Collier of influencing testimony.28 A brazen Hendricks took the stand that day and admitted to watching a “Hindu” being beaten but claimed to be unable to identify the perpetrators. 29 The major turning point came with the removal of Olson for his remarks following the testimony of N.E. Ayer, manager of St. Johns Lumber Company. Piqued by Ayer’s continued support of the Indians, including his promise to hold their jobs, the Review reported that Olson said, “if the wife and children of Mr. Ayer of St. Johns Lumber Co. were forced to mingle daily with the Hindus, the lumberman who is assisting the prosecution would soon change his opinion regarding them.” The Ayer family was present in the courtroom. Olson went on to accuse the Indians of lying in their testimony.30 The Oregonian reported that the Hindus “resented” the statement, and “gathered in the hallway immediately and decided to protest.”31 Garland, the lead prose- ON APRIL 27, 1910, the Morning Oregonian cutor who had already expe- reported that the St. John’s mayor and eight others, including eight police officers, were indicted for rienced other means of the failing to disperse rioters who attacked the town’s city’s obstructionism, declared Indian residents. Charges against the mayor Olson’s remarks the final straw. and police were eventually dropped. Two White He ordered the investigation laborers were convicted, but their sentences were immediately removed from the suspended.

Ogden, White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City 497 local court and turned over to the grand jury, a body empowered to compel testimony with the threat of jail. Judge Olson may not have been entirely unhappy with this turn of events; days earlier, he had requested the grand jury take charge. He was, after all, in the unenviable and volatile position of agreeing with the sentiments of the rioters but charged with prosecuting them in clear public view.32 In this politically charged atmosphere, Indians and non-Indians alike awaited the grand jury findings, most especially whether city officials would be indicted for not attempting to quell the riot. The grand jury worked for three weeks, as local newspapers speculated on the findings and their release date.33 On April 26, 1910, the Morning Oregonian announced the indictments for failing in their duty to disperse the rioters or stop the dis- turbance: Mayor J.F. Hendricks; G.W. Dunbar, the night Chief of Police; O.R. Downs, Justice of the Peace; and G.W. Etheridge, a policeman. Dunbar and Etheridge were also indicted for assem- bling to drive the Indians out of town, assault, battery, robbery, carrying weapons, and disturbing the peace. Collier was implicated by the grand jury’s official report, but escaped indictment.34 Dickey was indicted as the ringleader. “Dickey,” the Morning Oregonian wrote, “is accused of having dragged one of the terrified Hindus from the very presence of Mayor Hendricks by the hair of his head, while the dusky skinned University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, UW Yearbooks Libraries, Special Collections, UW Yearbooks University of Washington native of India screamed for protection. The Mayor was at that time presiding in the City Hall at a meeting of the firemen, and the Hindu had fled to him for protection, it is charged.”35 Besides Dickey, FORCED TO LEAVE Vancouver, B.C., due laborers Ray Van de Bogard, John N. to his radical activism, Taraknath Das was Groves, and Dan Herrold, along with living and studying in Seattle at the time of Milton Unger, a sweetshop owner’s son, the St. Johns events. Surprisingly, he was 36 appointed translator for some of the legal were also charged. Given the conten- proceedings. He is pictured here in 1912 in tious nature of this case, and that St. a yearbook photograph from the University Johns was a small town, it is notewor- of Washington. thy that the 100 or so local witnesses

498 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 interviewed by the grand jury, and thus responsible for the formal charges being made against their neighbors PLAINTIFFS IN 1910 and city officials, were named in the ST. JOHNS RIOT TRIAL indictment.37 Separate trials for the indicated men were set in Portland. Dickey, considered B. Singh the ringleader and the legal linchpin, Khem Chand was the first to be tried in June1910 .38 Taraknath Das, one of the more promi- Ali Raka nent Indian radical activists on the West Indgar Singh Coast, was appointed as the court’s inter- John Kim preter in the proceedings, raising a seri- G. Frank ous question about how closely Oregon Ali Mahamad authorities were attuned to the broader C.A. Dass 39 politics of the Indian community. Dickey N. Box was represented by three attorneys, F. Mahamad and his trial lasted two weeks.40 The Succha Singh British Consulate had attorneys present to assist with the state’s prosecution, as Ber Singh did the U.S. District Attorney’s office.41 Scandee Jan Dickey’s defense team subpoenaed Suba Singh at least seventeen witnesses, and the Hernamg Singh state almost ninety, White and Indian Me Ha alike.42 Throughout, the St. Johns Review editorialized about the autocratic and “czar-like” legal tactics being employed against the town’s citizens and officials.43 After two years and multiple hearings and trials, ultimately only two laborers, Dickey and Van De Bogard, were convicted. Both had their prison or jail times suspended, and both were released on parole without bond, “pending . . . good behavior.”44 Charges were dropped against all of the indicted police.45 After a year, Hendrick’s felony charges were dismissed.46 He promptly petitioned the St. Johns City Council to pay his legal fees, which, on a close vote, it agreed to do.47 All trials were completed by March 1912, a full two years after the riot. Their repercussions, however, echoed long and far after. While justice was woefully inadequate, that the trials even occurred was nonetheless notable for the times. The much larger 1907 anti-Asian riots in Bellingham and Vancouver, B.C., received no such prosecutorial attention.

Ogden, White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City 499 The British Consulate in Seattle performed the formality of a complaint to the U.S. government but pressed no further. Bellingham authorities threatened action, but those arrested were never prosecuted, reportedly due to their inability to secure witnesses.48 In Vancouver, the government took no action against the rioters. Instead, the local and provincial governments, in league with British colonial authorities, banned further Indian immigration and intensively surveilled the extant community.49 Yet, in response to a smaller riot, Oregon authorities, with the aid of the British and U.S. governments, pursued, prosecuted, and convicted assailants. The ensuing legal and political battle was unprecedented in the West, and its ambivalent outcome is emblematic of Oregon’s specific racial strategy.50 By prosecuting the rioters, including the city officials, Portland authorities made an object lesson about mob violence in small-town Oregon.51 But the failure to secure numerous convictions, impose jail time, or definitively incriminate city officials indicates the strategy’s ultimate loyalties. The verdicts suggest a political unwillingness to convict Whites over issues of race. Ultimately, authorities seemed to say enough was enough and declare the matter closed. The British Consulate’s involvement in the St. Johns prosecution was significant. As a Portland resident and member of the city’s elite, Laidlaw likely embraced the local racial ethos.52 More importantly, he likely viewed mollifying Indian subjects as best serving British interests. By 1910, the British Crown and its consulates were closely monitoring the unrest and radical organizing among Indians in the North American West. By intervening in the St. Johns affair, Laidlaw attempted to blunt Indians’ roiling discontent and foster the belief that British and American authorities could be trusted to protect Indians’ lives and dignity. His actions had little effect. As radical St. Johns’ resident Sohan Singh Bhakna later wrote, Laidlaw “did not do anything meaningful” with respect to the riot.53 Shortly after the close of the trials, Indians in St. Johns began organizing to overthrow British rule of India.

OREGON’S RACIAL STRATEGY

The comparative racial calm of Portland and its environs, relative to the West Coast, was not due to a pervading sense of equality, but instead, to a particular iteration of White supremacy with respect to labor needs. Western Oregon’s racial strategy directly facilitated the nurturance of a White state built on the labor of workers from around the globe. It was not meant to champion Chinese, Japanese, or Indian rights or to foster their inclusion as citizens. As articles in this issue highlight, Oregon was founded as a state for White people. Laws such as the Oregon Donation Land Claim Act (DLCA) fostered the dispossession of sovereign Indigenous peoples and the transfer of land

500 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 ownership to Whites. Founders excluded African Americans from residence in Oregon. The state constitution was an overtly exclusionist document that explicitly denied the vote and property ownership to any “Negro, China- man, or Mulatto,” and restricted the vote only to “male” citizens. Oregon’s founding in the late 1850s reflected an America wracked by race and an impending Civil War. Yet influential Oregonians in and around Portland also forged a strategy to attract and retain Chinese migrants. Men who penned and supported Oregon’s constitutional racial proscriptions came to recognize that Chinese migrants fleeing violence in California during the 1860s could provide Oregon with needed labor. As historian Marie Rose Wong writes, Oregonian editorial- ist Harvey Scott believed that, “as long as the country was filled with a large number of Asiatics willing to work, why not adroitly exploit them as a state resource?”54 Scott and others continued to oppose citizenship or any civic equity to Chinese and other non-White peoples. But those powerful men also utilized their judicial and policing positions, along with control of the influential Oregonian editorial page, to establish a civic compact decrying and combating ethnic violence. They proved effective. Widespread ethnic rioting and expulsions did not take place, and from 1880 to 1910, Portland’s Chinese population increased as people fled the violence of other regional cities. Second only to San Francisco’s in size and prestige, Portland’s Chinese community hosted opera houses, shops, and gardens, and by 1890 comprised 25 percent of Portland’s foreign-born population.55 Millionaire businessman Moy Back Hin was appointed an honorary consul in 1906, one of only four in the United States.56 Portland was also a global center in the production of forged documents for subverting exclusion, a business involving both Chinese and White people and aided by local port inspectors.57 Portland leaders’ strategy created rifts between local authorities and federal agencies overseeing immigration, with important implications for later Indian organizing.58 Scott’s “good sense” of promoting industry and growing rich by utilizing Asian labor gained considerable currency among local businessmen, politicians, and ordinary citizens, and the practice persisted through waves of migrants from Japan, India, and elsewhere. While the strategy failed to prevent violence altogether, the pact was well-established in western Oregon by 1910, as evidenced by the prosecution of the St. Johns rioters.59 Oregon’s history is a reminder that while the world was engulfed by what DuBois dubbed “the white religion,” its practice varied in time and place, shaping people and movements, sometimes with far-reaching consequence. The particular practice of White religion in Oregon impacted Indians’ migration to the state and their later political organizing. The St. Johns riot illustrates

Ogden, White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City 501 FOSTERED BY GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES and spread by mainstream sources, hysteria over the menace of Indians was rampant in 1910. Reports on the threatening “tide of turbans” reverberated across national presses as well as many local presses, including this November 18, 1906, San Francisco Call spread titled “Our First Invasion by Hindus and Mohammedans.”

that the policy could not always contain racialized fears, and that events well beyond Oregon influenced local sentiments. It also highlights the class fractures within White supremacy, locally and globally.

WHAT’S EMPIRE GOT TO DO WITH IT? ORGANIZED LABOR AND ANTI-ASIAN VIOLENCE

During 1910, national media ran fearmongering articles on the supposed “Tide of Turbans” and “Hindoo invasion” threatening the West.60 In turn, the riot in St. Johns was widely reported on, adding more grist to the region’s animosity mill.61 Anti-Asian vitriol spread in whispers and grumblings from

502 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 one mill to the next, with worn exclusionist handbills passed along in saloons and boarding houses. I have found no evidence of explicit exclusionist organizations in St. Johns before that March night. Nevertheless, leaders of organized labor and overt exclusionist movements dovetailed, in both strategy and philosophy, and the labor newspapers of the day framed a pervasive anti-Asian message. In this, Portland was no exception. The Portland Labor Press (PLP) was the city’s leading labor newspaper and the mouthpiece of the Portland Federated Trades Council. In the summer of 1907, the PLP reported that the council represented five-thousand men and women, and over forty unions.62 By February 1910, the paper declared that “every union in Portland” reported an increase in membership and “slow but steady improvement in hours and wages.”63 During the years preceding the St. Johns unrest, the PLP reported on strikes, documented the state of various trades, and opined on civic elections. The pages of the PLP were also consistently peppered with anti-Asian rhetoric, primarily against the Chinese and Japanese. This included numerous reprints of exclusionist missives and demands to maintain the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. There were calls to prevent the admission of “coolie labor” and enjoinders to “join a labor union and protect yourself against the Japanese invasion.” The PLP argued that the solution to crime was to target immigrants. It carried numerous reports on New Zealand and Australian labor organizations’ efforts to restrict Chinese immigration.64 In March 1907, the PLP supported the launch of a local Labor Party, which supported Asian exclusion. The paper did not simply express fears about competition for jobs but also constructed Asian laborers as morally deficient if not depraved. Its pages carried obscene notes such as “Three bad Chinamen have been turned into good ones by electrocution [at] the Massachusetts state prison for killing four others in a tong war. Total of seven reformed Chinese for the state.”65 In the supposed service of labor, in February 1910, the PLP wrote: “It is said no one ever sees a Jap funeral and that the 10-cent Jap restaurant makes use of the cadavers to save butcher bills. This is a little strong, but it is passing from hand to hand among some of the union labor men as a means of encouraging patronage of white cooks.”66 While obviously dehumanizing, the articles fed White supremacist views and actions, and delineated the PLP’s position on the racial boundary of laborers to be organized and defended. Intersecting with its consistent anti-Asian politics was the PLP’s hostility toward the newly formed Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The PLP condemned the IWW for two reasons. First, the IWW opposed the American Federation of Labor (AFL), with which the PLP and the Trades Council were associated. Unlike the IWW, the AFL under the leadership of Samuel Gomp- ers organized only skilled, and overwhelmingly White, workers and was an

Ogden, White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City 503 avid proponent of Chinese exclusion. Second, the PLP attacked the IWW for recruiting Chinese, Japanese, and Indian workers — all overrepresented in unskilled positions — into its organization. In one article, the PLP dismissed the IWW’s recruiting principles as being merely in service of a numbers game to undermine the AFL, writing it was “little wonder that that organization is accepting Japanese into membership in order to make a showing.”67 In 1907, the PLP refused to back an area IWW-led strike of 3,000 lumber mill workers, a large stoppage by Portland standards.68 Instead, the PLP criticized the IWW’s disruption of the American labor movement with respect to the movement’s ethnic and skill divides.69 The PLP, like other western labor presses, consistently demeaned “coolie” or “contract” laborers. These were dog-whistle terms signaling non-White and, by definition, unfree, inferior workers’ inhabiting a demeaned position within the global colonial labor system that privileged organized, White laborers.70 In February 1910, the PLP reprinted shrill claims from the Asiatic Exclusion League (AEL), an explicitly exclusionist San Francisco–based organization that drove the 1907 riots: “There recently arrived in one day 191 Hindoo laborers at the port of San Francisco. Many people consider them worse than the Chinese coolie.”71 The AEL, and thus the PLP, were agitated over a lapse in San Francisco immigration officers’ regulation of Indian migration. U.S. immigration officials instituted the selective enforcement of administrative rules and effectively slashed the entry of Indians from1 ,710 in 1908 to a mere 377 in 1909. Several immigration agents in San Francisco, however, refused to abide by the prejudicial policy promoted by agency superiors and local nativists, and by the close of 1910, they briefly restored Indian immigration to previous years’ levels.72 The resulting landings that year — a mere 1,700 Indians amongst millions of other migrants — constituted “nothing more nor less than a threatening inundation of Hindoos over the Pacific Coast” that mainstream and exclusionist newspapers hysterically railed against.73 This political hurricane of national headlines and western labor agitation made landfall on March 21, 1910, turning a routine Monday night in St. Johns explosive. White workers were key organizers and actors in the St. Johns violence, much as laborers had been in other ethnic conflicts in the American West. They had grounds to be frustrated with their lives. They suffered the dangers and physical tolls of the mills and mines that built the West, while the wealth they produced overwhelmingly flowed to bankers and industrialists. Given the global power and legacy of White supremacy, however, White workers’ frustrations frequently manifested in beliefs that if other laborers, including Indians, were shut out, their position could be improved or at least safeguarded.

504 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 THE PORTLAND LABOR PRESS published this headline on July 6, 1906, for an article describing how longshoremen refused to unload “coolie-operated” boats, and mill workers refused to work alongside “Asiaties.” While Indians in North America were not “coolie” or “contract” workers, these were terms signaling non-White and, by definition, inferior workers in a system that privileged organized, White laborers.

Laborers’ organizations were largely unwilling to stand for parity as the most effective weapon in their fight for economic equality.74 While many, if not most, western workers believed that Asians threatened “white jobs,” only a vocal minority organized to expel Asian workers or were swept up in moments of rage. A tiny percentage of laborers, most notably those affiliated with the IWW and a few within socialist circles openly rejected this outlook. Yet, given how endemic White supremacy was and is globally, it is difficult to argue that workers were more racist than anyone else. For years, men and women from all walks of life took part in anti-Asian violence, from California to British Columbia. In St. Johns and elsewhere, shop owners and professionals spoke from podiums, mingled in crowds, threw rocks, broke windows, and robbed and beat “Hindus” and others. Mainstream newspaper reporters fanned if not instigated the hysteria. Editors and politicians recited a litany of differences — from ethnicity, skin tone, and appearance to religious practices, values, and ethics — that branded them as impossibly and forever alien. People in similar positions around the globe offered similar rationales with similar intent and effect: the curtailment of the rights of “Asians.”75 Still, while the belief in and action on White supremacy dominated society, laborers had specific fears and animosities rooted in the racial hierarchy of global

Ogden, White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City 505 colonialism that played out in global mills, mines, and factories. Whiteness, in other words, was and is rent by class. Between 1850 and 1930, more humans traveled the world than at any previous time in history.76 In North America, migrants were not primarily shopkeepers, doctors, or teachers. They were workers who came by the millions and did the critical, and often dangerous, labor of felling the trees, working the mines, and setting the rails that built the country. In the North American West, these workers were in the trenches of a labor system that formed the epicenter of the world’s ethnic mixing. This massive movement of global peoples, so essential to industry, also threatened the promises and expectations of the White settler society that very same industry underwrote.77 Colonialism and democracy were deeply incised by a global racial hierarchy. European powers did not grant democratic rights in India or in other countries they colonized, which gained those rights only after ending colonial rule.78 In settler colonies such as the United States and Canada, however, White men fought for and benefitted from the greatest extension of democratic rights ever extended to commoners. Globally, in belief and in fact, “White” became synonymous AS THE 1910 ST. JOHNS TRIALS began, with republican self-rule, “free” people, the Sunday Oregonian’s “Woman’s and the privilege of work befitting “free Department” reported on the new labor.” This correlation had even greater “fashionable headgear” that women in valence in America, the only settler coun- Portland were making and wearing. While try that maintained a slave system within Indians were being beaten, robbed, and otherwise targeted for their turbans, the its territorial borders. As historian David same garment was appropriated as a Roediger argues, domestic chattel slavery fashion statement. bound “white” and “free” in America’s

506 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 labor rhetoric, a conflation that endured after slavery was formally abolished and enveloped other non-White peoples.79 These beliefs and their underlying economic realities constructed and maintained a two-tier labor force and civic polity largely and enduringly defined by race. White laborers’ ethnic hostilities festered in the disconnect between settler colonies’ social and political expectations and their economic realities. Industrialists’ need for legions of workers and settler colonies’ political promises to White commoners did not perfectly align. Moreover, the power relations in which such disparities were resolved favored industrialists, not workers. Laborers’ anxieties were further heightened by the rapid, and rav- aging, industrialization that upended their lives following the American Civil War. It transformed not only how they lived and worked, but with whom, as millions of global workers migrated to the western United States. Founded on the promise of land ownership and an ever-expanding western frontier, the late 1800s also brought Americans to the end of a continent and, for millions, to the end of dreams of being independent, landed producers, rather than permanent wage laborers.80 For millions of American laborers, unprecedented race mixing and often brutal proletarianization were entwined realities; their politics reflected this dual reality. Sociologist Jonathan Hyslop dubs labor’s particular brand of racism fused with class struggle as “white labourism,” arguing that it dominated the global organized labor movement and served as a “partner in empire.”81 Or, put in the parlance of those times, the “our” in the common fighting refrain of “don’t take our jobs” and “don’t invade our country” was deeply tied to the legacy of settler colonialism and the specific expectations of European commoners. In a young town such as St. Johns, where the social order was still being determined — very much including whether the community would accept its many global laborers — it is not altogether surprising that the brooding racial and class animosities of the entire coast turned a Monday night saloon encounter explosive. Powerful Oregonians were ultimately unable to control these larger empiric dynam- ics of labor and race. Focusing on empire broadens the conceptualization of the race politics of organized labor beyond White workers’ fear of wage competition, the existence of an economic downturn heightening fears of job loss, or a specific tactic used by “bosses” for keeping workers divided and exploitable. All of these claims hold some truth, but in other ways fall short. They overstate owners’ planning and control and degrade laborers’ agency, if sometimes of an ugly sort. In 1910 St. Johns, there was no economic downturn, Indians were not substantially underpaid, and area unions were strong. Perhaps more

Ogden, White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City 507 importantly, “competition” implies rationality, while notions of colonial “entitlement” and “promise” reverberate precarity and manifest unpredictably. A global, colonial frame on labor also helps explain Indians’ political focus in St. Johns in the wake of the trials. Notably, while they suffered no fools, Indians’ organizing focus was not against White workers; and, although they utilized the justice system, their essential focus was not on greater rights in America. Instead, as Sohan Singh Bhakna put it, “The St. John’s attack was a wakeup call and a game changer for all Indians working in Oregon and Washington State. . . . [workers] took the slavery curse to their hearts [for the] first time.”82 In the spring of 1912, nearly simultaneous to the close of the St. Johns riot trials, they organized a new group called the Pacific Coast Hindi Association and elected Sohan Singh Bhakna president, Kanshi Ram treasurer, and G.D. Kumar secretary.83 They became the organizing nucleus for Ghadar, the global, radical independence movement formally launched downriver in Astoria, Oregon, in 1913.84 From North America, Ghadar gathered recruits from across the world, primarily through the distribution of its newspaper. Ghadar sought the overthrow of British rule of India, and with the outbreak of World War I, several thousand recruits returned to India with that intent. Ghadar represented a particular political turn that can only be understood through the global lens of empire. As historian Maia Ramnath writes, it was a merging of “the history of race and class in the United States, and of colonization,” which organizers linked to “an explicitly anti-imperialist revolutionary program, rather than simply calling for inclusion in the existing society. Thus the Ghadarites’ galvanizing moment occurred precisely at the point where the politics of race, labor and imperialism converged.”85 Those frames came together in St. Johns not singularly, but in the context of the wider attacks on and resistance by Indians. In other words, like the causes of the St. Johns riot, the source of Indians’ political awakening was not simply a result of local events, but an expression of global colonial currents. Not coincidentally, that awakening came in North America, where racial targeting, exclusion, and laborers’ democratic rights existed side by side. Indians’ organizing highlights a surprising synergy to the racial targeting and democratic exclusion of Indians and others, which paralleled White laborers’ (relative) democratic rights in settler colonies. The Indians who founded Ghadar fought those laborers who targeted them for their non- Whiteness, but they also sought the rights and relative freedoms those same workers exercised. They explicitly did both in St. Johns. It was in their exposure to democratic freedoms, if deeply riven by class and racial oppression, that Indians saw the power of self-rule and organized to

508 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 become citizen laborers of India.86 Indians came to understand that obtaining the rights to rule and be citizens of their own country — rights globally reserved for Whites — was crucial. Without such powers, they would always be considered “black thieves everywhere” as later Ghadar poems put it.87 Skin tone and turbans were markers of the global colonial hierarchy of race and labor that followed Indians from the fields of Punjab to the mills of the Pacific Northwest. They arrived in an America perverted by domestic Afri- THIS 1916 PORTRAIT of Sohan Singh Bhakna was can chattel slavery, where published in India Against Britain by Ram Chandra. notions of free and unfree Bhakna was a farmer from Punjab who lived and labor and citizenship were worked in Oregon mill towns and was present deeply implicated by ethnicity. in St. Johns during the riot and its aftermath. He (Europe, by contrast, profited was president of the St. Johns Pacific Coast Hindi from that “peculiar institution” Association, and soon a prominent member of Ghadar, the radical nationalist group focused on at arm’s length with overseas overthrowing British colonial rule of India during colonies.88) “Coolie” was an World War I. epithet hurled at them despite their being, like millions of other migrants to North America, “free” wage laborers. By virtue of their ethnicity, Indians carried onto tainted American soil the racial signifier of “coolie,” racialized and degraded as unfree workers by the PLP and other labor newspapers.89 Whiteness wears many markers, but at its heart is, and was, the suitability for citizenship, political inclusion, and self-rule. In the wake of the St. Johns riot and with the aid of radical intellectuals, Indians came to realize that without overthrowing British colonial rule, they would always be considered “black thieves everywhere.”90 This linkage between global colonialism’s racial hierarchy and the conditions of labor guides us beyond consideration of the injurious curse of racists to the workings and divides of global labor,

Ogden, White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City 509 which politicized and motivated thousands to reverse the course of their lives and risk everything to return to India to overthrow colonial rule. The interdependence of labor, race, and colonialism is intrinsic to understanding North American labor politics. As Hyslop argues, the “internationally constructed synthesis of militant labour and racist visions was a major cultural source of the rise of working class racism” across the colonial empire specifically aimed at and in response to Asian laborers.91 Without this perspective, our history is distorted. A false divide is imposed between so-called ethnic history and labor history. A radical history under our nose — the Indians of St. Johns who drove the foundation of Ghadar — is silenced. The politicization and actions of Indians and others must instead prompt rethinking of the frame of American labor history to include a global colonial perspective that shapes the attitudes and position of all laborers, not just non-White “others.”

NOTES

I would like to thank the editor and guest edi- times, however, were Sikhs, along with a tors for their vision and hard work in bringing small number of Hindus and Muslims. “Hindu” this edition together, along with Erin Brasell was commonly used as a racial pejorative, and Helen Ryan for their smart and focused alternatively spelled as “Hindoo.” I use the help in finalizing this piece. term “Asian” as a term of convenience, but 1. I use “Indian” to denote people who advisedly given its Orientalist connotations. hail from current-day India and Pakistan, In American race politics, it has worked to roughly lands formerly known as Hindustan lump people of many cultural backgrounds before independence in 1947, and who were into one alien “other.” then British subjects. “Native” or “Indigenous” 2. Carl Abbott, The Great Extravaganza: denoted the peoples whose lands in North Portland and the Lewis and Clark Exposition, and South America were occupied and 3d ed. (Portland: Oregon Historical Society stolen, initially as part of a British colony Press, 2004), 59 and then by the newly minted American and 3. Carl Abbott, “Starting a New Century: Canadian governments. “Hindu,” in its best The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, usage in these times, meant people from 1905: America’s Pacific Vision,” Oregon His- Hindustan. Its common usage also conflated tory Project, https://oregonhistoryproject.org/ a religion and a people. The majority of Indian narratives/lewis-and-clark-from-expedition- immigrants to North America during these to-exposition-1803-1905/starting-a-new-cen-

510 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 tury-the-lewis-and-clark-centennial-exposi- 11. Ian Haney López, White By Law: tion-1905/americas-pacific-vision/ (accessed The Legal Construction of Race (New York, May 20, 2017). London: New York University Press, 2006), 4. Joan Jensen, Passage to India, (New 8–12, 67. Haven and London: Yale University Press, 12. Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds, 1988), 6, 26. Drawing the Global Colour Line: White 5. St. Johns Review [hereafter Review], Men’s Countries and the Question of Racial July 12, 1907, p. 2. Equality (Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: 6. The riot was on the night of Monday, Cambridge University Press, 2008), quoting March 21, 1910. Because the Review was a Dubois, 2. weekly, the first report of it was on Friday, 13. “Factory is Burned,” Morning Orego- March 25, 1910. nian, February 15, 1910, p. 14. 7. For a detailed account of these events, 14. “Big Doings in St. Johns,” Review, see Erika Lee, “Hemispheric Orientalism and March 25, 1910, p. 1. the 1907 Pacific Coast Race Riots,” Amerasia 15. “21 Arrests Made; Hindus Accusers,” 33:2 (2007): 19–47, electronic version. Morning Oregonian, March 23, 1910, p. 5. 8. Jensen, Passage to India, 51. 16. Ibid. 9. “More Arrests for Riots Promised,” 17. ”Big Doings in St. Johns,” Review, Morning Oregonian, March 24, 1910, p. 4. March 25, 1910, p. 1. The Review was a bi- The Daily News [hereafter TDN], responded weekly paper and this was the first edition to the Indians returning to work, and that after the riot. some of them were armed, and threatening 18. Ibid. This Review account stands in to cause a “Race War,” as its front page article sharp contrast with the fact that the next put it. (“Race War?,” TDN, March 25, 1910, p. day numerous city authorities were served 1, 3). TDN, a Portland paper, was consistently warrants for their arrest by the Multnomah sympathetic to white laborers in its coverage County District Attorney and the sheriff. of the riot. In the wake of the riot, it tacked 19. Ibid. It is worth noting that the street- from lamenting that “innocent men [were] car men who participated in the riot that eve- arrested” (meaning the rioters), to predicting ning were union men who won a long strike an ensuing “race war” (”Race War?”), and by beginning in late 1906, which had broad April, claiming “there was no riot” (“All About community support. See, for example, Port- That ‘Riot’,” TDN, April 2, 1910, p. 3). land Labor Press, “Carmen Are On Strike,” 10. “More Arrests for Riots Promised,” December 17, 1906, p. 1; and “Were Illegally Morning Oregonian, March 24, 1910, p. 4; “St. Under Arrest,” January 21, 1907, p. 1. Johns Mayor and 8 Indicted,” Morning Orego- 20. “21 Arrests Made; Hindu Accusers,” nian, April 27, 1910, p. 14. “U.S. Is to Assist,” Sun- Morning Oregonian, March 23, 1910, p. 3. See day Oregonian, May 1, 1910, p 7. Precedence also “Big Doings in St. Johns,” Review, March for Oregon authorities’ prosecution of the St. 25, 1910, p. 1. Johns’ rioters is seen in their prosecution of 21. “State Hurries Hindu Riot Case,” Morn- the Boring, Oregon, murder of 1907. Indians ing Oregonian, June 14, 1910, p. 12. hired attorney Dan J. Malarkey (later involved in 22. “The Hindu Situation,” St. Johns the prosecution of the St. Johns rioters) for the Review, April 8, 1910, p. 1. shooting murder on October 31, 1907, of one 23. “21 Arrests Made; Hindus Accusers,” of their countrymen in Boring. They ultimately Morning Oregonian, March 23, 1910, p. 5; secured a conviction. See “Hindu Shot by Fel- “Hindus Roiled by Remark of Olson,” Morning low Workman,” Morning Oregonian, November Oregonian, March 29, 1910, p. 12; “U.S. Is To 2, 1907, p. 13, and Untitled Opinion piece, April Assist,” Sunday Oregonian, May 1, 1910, p. 27, 1908, p. 6. “Malarkey to be Retained,” Morn- 7. Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Judicial ing Oregonian, June 9, 1910, p. 10. District of Oregon, 1907–1921, Box 1, Record

Ogden, White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City 511 589, HMS/MLR Number: 7599, ARC Number: “Grand Jury Ready,” April 23, 1910, p. 14. 5218591, Seattle Federal Records Center, 34. The court did not follow the recom- Seattle, Washington, mendation of the grand jury. 24. Notably, they included Dan J. Ma- 35. “St. Johns’ Mayor and 8 Indicted,” larkey, who several years earlier helped Morning Oregonian, April 27, 1910, p. 14. prosecute the murder of Harnam Singh in 36. “Politics Injected in Hindu Trouble,” Boring, Oregon, a murder which occurred in Morning Oregonian, March 25, 1910, p. 14; close proximity to the Everett, Washington “St. Johns’ Mayor and 8 Indicted,” Morning anti- Hindu riots. The Boring case resulted in Oregonian, April 27, 1910, p. 14. “Nine Are a conviction. See Morning Oregonian, “Hindu Indicted,” Review, April 29, 1910, p. 1. Shot By Fellow Workman,” November 2, 1907, 37. “Grand Jury Ready,” Morning Orego- p. 13, “Begin Hindu Murder Trial” Morning Or- nian, April 23, 1910, p. 14; “St Johns’ Mayor egonian, April 23, 1908, p. 6; “Jury in Murder and 8 Indicted,” Morning Oregonian, April Case Still Out,” Morning Oregonian, April 25, 27, 1910, p. 14. 1908, p. 8; “Jail for Father and Son,” Morning 38. “Hindu Riot Trial Will Open Today,” Oregonian, April 29, 1908. p. 6. Morning Oregonian, June 11, 1910, p. 14; 25. Untitled Editorial, Review, June 10, “State Hurries Hindu Riot Case,” Morning 1910, p. 6. Oregonian, June 14, 1910, p. 12. 26. On March 22, 1910, TDN recounted 39. “State Hurries Hindu Riot Case,” that Laidlaw swore out affidavits in the local Morning Oregonian, June 14, 1910, p. 12; justice court. “British Consul Swears Out State of Oregon v. Dickey, June 13, 1910 100 Arrest Warrants,” TDN, March 22, 1910, “Be It Remembered” entry by Judge John S. p. 1; “St. Johns’ Mayor and 8 Indicted,” Morn- Cook, Presiding Judge of Dept. 4, Multnomah ing Oregonian, April 27, 1910, p. 14; “Grand County Circuit Court, microfiche records ac- Jury Ready,” Morning Oregonian, April 23, cessed at Multnomah County Courthouse, 1910, p. 14 Portland, OR. 27. “More Arrests for Riots Promised,” 40. “Hindu Riot Trial Will Open Today,” Morning Oregonian, March 24, 1910, p. 4. Morning Oregonian, June 11, 1910, p. 14. 28. Kim was replaced, and Laidlaw, who 41. “U.S. Is to Assist,” Sunday Oregonian, was in the courtroom, suggested an alterna- May 1, 1910, Section 2, p. 7. tive interpreter. The hearings proceeded. 42. State v. Dickey, Multnomah Co. Cir- “Grand Jury Will Not Probe Riots,” Sunday cuit Court, Motion and Affidavit, on behalf of Oregonian, p. 4; “Three Men Held for Grand Dickey, undated; Affidavit on behalf of Dickey, Jury,” Morning Oregonian, p. 9. Undated Certification of R.L. Stevens, June 4, 29. “Three Men Held For Grand Jury,” 1910, Sheriff Multnomah County Oregon of Morning Oregonian, March 26, 1910, p. 9. Service of Subpoenas by JH Jones, Deputy; 30. “Hindus Roiled by Remark of Olson,” Form CC9 Criminal Subpoena on behalf of Morning Oregonian, March 29, 1910, p. 12. the State of Oregon, June 2, 1910; Affidavit of The Indians were accused of lying several C.W. Garland, June 1, 1910; Multnomah County times, including of falsely accusing men of Circuit Court microfiche, Portland, Oregon. having taken part in the riot. 43. Review, June 10, 1910, p. 6. 31. “Hindus Roiled by Remark of Olson,” 44. State v. Dickey, Multnomah Co. Morning Oregonian, March 29, 1910, p. 12. Circuit Court, Untitled document, January 32. “Three Men Held For Grand Jury,” 15, 1912, Multnomah County Circuit Court Morning Oregonian, March 26, 1910, p. 9. A microfiche, Portland, Oregon;State v. Dickey, new grand jury would be impaneled a few Multnomah Co. Circuit Court, Discharge of days later, on April 1. Bondsmen, February 6, 1911, Multnomah 33. “Officials of St. Johns Under Fire,” County Circuit Court microfiche, Portland, Morning Oregonian, April 19, 1910, p. 4; Oregon.

512 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 45. State v. Dunbar, C 1538, Multnomah motivation for the merger, it is possible that County Circuit Court, undated and untitled the small town’s ethnic policy chastening document, Multnomah County Circuit Court was part of the terms of St. Johns’ admission. microfiche, Portland, Oregon. 52. My research regarding Laidlaw and 46. “Hindu Riots Case Ended,” Morning his role in St. Johns are limited to records Oregonian, March 6, 1912, p. 12. I have not held in Laidlaw’s personal records held in the yet located the court documents for the James Laidlaw papers, 1886–1977, MSS 21, mayor’s case. Oregon Historical Society Research Library, 47. Supplement to the Review, March Portland, Oregon [hereafter OHS Research 8, 1912. Dunbar similarly petitioned for the Library], which hold nothing specific to the City to pay his legal fees, but it was not St. Johns events. I also reviewed the records approved. “Council Proceedings,” Review, of the U.S. Attorney for the Judicial District of March 15, 1912, p. 1; “Council Proceedings,” Oregon held at the Seattle Federal Records Review, April 5, 1912, p. 1. Perhaps more can Center, Seattle, Washington. Laidlaw was also be learned if more case files are located. involved on some level with the Boring, Or- The grand jury records, rich in witness testi- egon, prosecution of the murder of an Indian mony, reportedly have been destroyed. Court laborer. With time and money, research in the records indicate prominent local citizens National Archives and Records Administration posted the thousands in bail after Dickey’s (NARA) in Washington, D.C., and the British Na- and others’ arrest. Who in the community tional Archives in London might secure more felt the need to support the rioters, and what correspondence between Laidlaw and his about the many who seemingly did not sup- superiors and with the U.S. State Department. port them and gave testimony against them? 53. Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna, ed. Mal- 48. Multiple conversations and emails winderjit Singh Waraich and Sita Ram Bansal, with historian and Bellingham riot expert, Dr. Jeewan Sangram (2015 publication; Barnala, Paul Englesberg of Ferndale, Washington, India: Tarakbharti Parkashan, 1967), section January and February 2014. 6, page 10. (Informal translation from Urdu to 49. On the formation of the political English for the author by Professor Malwinder police force, see Harish Puri, Ghadar Move- Waraich in March 2017 in private email). ment: Ideology, Organisation & Strategy 54. Marie Rose Wong, Sweet Cakes, Long (Amritsar: Guru Nanak Dev Press, 1983), Journey: The Chinatowns of Portland, Oregon 42–43; and Seema Sohi, Echoes of Mutiny: (Seattle, London: University of Washington Race, Surveillance & Indian Anticolonialism Press, 2004), 51. I have largely adopted Marie in North America (New York: Oxford Press, Rose Wong’s argument from Sweet Cakes, 2014), 39–44, 84–85, 89–91. On the Con- Long Journey, regarding the establishment tinuous Journey provision see, Joan Jensen, of Oregon’s racial policy with respect to the Passage from India, (New Haven and London: Chinese, which was not homogenous through- Yale University Press, 1988), 75. out the state, but more in northwestern parts 50. Some precedence for Oregon au- of Oregon. See especially pages 6, 31, 33–34, thorities’ prosecution of the St. Johns rioters 47, 49–50, and 51–60. can been discerned in the response to the 55. Wong, Sweet Cakes, Long Journey, 16, Boring murder trial of 1907. That murder and 47. Carl Abbott provides the following statistics: trial demand further research and attention, in 1880, the Chinese numbered 1,700; by 1900 including in its proximity to the Everett, they were at least 7,800. Abbott, Portland in Washington, riot. See footnote 24 for more Three Centuries: The Place and the People on that incident. (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 51. St. Johns officially became part of 2011), 56–57. Portland soon after the trials concluded. 56. Wong, Sweet Cakes, Long Journey, While economics was likely the primary 176, 178. San Francisco, Boston, New York,

Ogden, White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City 513 and Portland all had Chinese consuls. Italians, Slavs, Irish, Jews and others — that 57. Ibid., 123. was an integral part of those times. 58. Ibid., 143–44. If ruled by a port in- 71. “News Notes of Here and There,” PLP, spector ineligible to enter, or reenter, the February 10, 1910, p. 8. United States, a Chinese person could ap- 72. Sohi, Echoes of Mutiny, 28–34. peal through the courts through a process 73. Chandrasekhar, S. “Indian Immigra- called a habeas corpus filing. Eighty percent tion in America.” Far Eastern Survey 13:15 of such filings in Portland were by Chinese (July 1944): 138-143; Herman Scheffauer, and the vast majority of these were ruled in “The Tide of Turbans,” Forum XLIII, (June favor of them, to the distress of customs au- 1910): 616–18; “The Hindu Invasion,” Colliers thorities and their overseers in Washington, Weekly, March 26, 1910, 15; “The Hindu: D.C. Ibid., 141. The Newest Immigration Problem,” Survey, 59. See Wong, Sweet Cakes, Long Jour- October 1, 1910, 2–3, https://www.saada. ney, for an extended analysis of the racial org/item/20110808-293 (accessed March 4, policy forged around Chinese and its impact 2014). For comparison, in 1907, often noted on Portland. as the peak year for European immigration, 60. Herman Scheffauer, “The Tide of more than 1.2 million persons entered the Turbans,” Forum 43 (June 1910): 616–18. United States, and by 1910, some 13.5 million 61. One example is the front page, immigrants called the United States home. “Mayor, Justice, Police Indicted,” Los Angeles Olivia B. Waxman, “Ellis Island’s Busiest Day Herald, April 27, 1910, p. 1, reporting on the Ever Was 110 Years Ago. Here’s Why,” Time, indictments of the St. Johns city officials. April 17, 2017, https://time.com/4740248/ 62. Portland Labor Press [hereafter PLP], ellis-island-busiest-day/ (accessed October July 15, 1907, 2. 9, 2019); Migration Policy Institute, “U.S. 63. PLP, February 11, 1910, p. 4. Immigrant Population and Share over Time, 64. “Jap Labor Unsatisfactory,” PLP, 1850 – Present,” https://www.migrationpolicy. March 2, 1906, p. 2; “Complete Platform of org/programs/data-hub/charts/immigrant- the Champion of Statement 1,” PLP, March 30, population-over-time (accessed October 1906; PLP, July 6, 1906, p. 2; PLP, February 9, 2019). 11, 1907, p. 2; “Labor Notes,” PLP, July 20, 74. Ali Kazimi, Undesirables: White 1906, p. 6 Canada and the Komagata Maru, An Illus- 65. “News of Here and There,” PLP, Oc- trated History (Vancouver: D&M Publishers, tober 28, 1909, p. 6. 2012), 53. 66. “Notes of Local Labor,” PLP, February, 75. For the global perspective on the 10, 1910, p. 6. proponents of and organizing efforts for 67. PLP, August 24, 1906, p. 2 “whiteness,” see Marilyn Lake and Henry 68. “The Millmen’s Strike,” PLP, March 11, Reynolds, Drawing the Global Colour Line: 1907, p. 2; “Trades Council Acts,” PLP, March White Men’s Countries and the International 18, 1907, p. 1; Abbott, Portland in Three Cen- Challenge of Racial Equality (Cambridge: turies, 64. Portland, and Oregon generally, Cambridge University Press, 2008). See also never matched the monstrous lumber mills Daniel Rosenberg, “The IWW and Organiza- found in Washington State. tion of Asian Workers in Early 20th Century 69. “Is It Human Frailty?” PLP, June 24, America,” Labor History 36:1 (1995): 77–87. 1907, 2; “An Open Letter,” PLP, March 18, 76. Lake and Reynolds, Drawing the 1907, 1. Global Colour Line, 6, 23. 70. This writer is aware of, and does not 77. As historian Rudi Batzell writes, “Often mean to naturalize, the concept or erase the seen as simply racist, the [Chinese] Exclusion historical and often violent history involved in Act was specifically aimed at barring labour determining who was considered white — for migration: Chinese scholars and merchants

514 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 and their minor children were still free to enter movement is, however, credited with being the United States.” Rudi Batzell, “Free Labour, the opening salvo of twentieth-century in- Capitalism and the Anti-Slavery Origins of Chi- dependence and with inspiring successive nese Exclusion in California in the 1870s,” Past radical movements and organizers. and Present 225 (November 2014): 143–44. 85. Maia Ramnath, Haj to Utopia: How 78. It is outside the bounds of this article the Ghadar Movement Charted Global to discuss democracy and neo-colonialism. Radicalism and Attempted to Overthrow the 79. David R. Roediger, The Wages of British Empire (Berkeley, Los Angeles, Lon- Whiteness, Race and the Making of the Ameri- don: University of California Press, 2011), 62. can Working Class (London: Verso, 2007), 86. Puri, Ghadar Movement, 20, 31–33, passim, 20–21, 31–32. Roediger’s work rests 110. Puri highlights the British fears of Indian on the important insights of Eric Foner regard- migration to North American democracies, ing the embedded racial history and meaning and how organizers like Taraknath Das and of “free labor” in America. Eric Foner, Free Har Dyal referenced democracy in their Soil, Free Labor, Free Men. (Oxford: Oxford response to British Indian subjects, both in University Press 1995), passim. India and in North America. Josh points to the 80. In the 1890s, the closing of America’s political difference in atmosphere between so-called “frontier” became an important India and North America and its impact on American historical reference point and political consciousness. Sohan Singh Josh, analytical frame as expressed by Frederick Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna: Life of the Jackson Turner. Founder of the Ghadar Party (New Delhi, 81. Jonathan Hyslop, “The Imperial Work- Ahmedabad, Bomby: People’s Publishing ing Class Makes Itself ‘White’: White Labourism House, 1970), 14 in Britain, Australia, and South Africa Before the 87. Ronald Takaki, Strangers from A First World War,” Journal of Historical Sociol- Different Shore, A History of Asian Ameri- ogy, 12:4 (December 1999): 398–421. Hyslop cans, (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, in a sense, argues Roediger’s and Eric Foner’s 1989), 301. points noted in FN 72 above in a global colo- 88. Perhaps as a consequence, Marx nial context, and in turn, Foner and Roediger never fully theorized this pressing issue that are indispensable in considering the long-line stands at the core of the call for workers of and particularities of race and labor in America, the world to unite. especially regarding African Americans. 89. With England’s outlawing of African 82. Bhakna, Jeewan Sangram, section chattel slavery in the 1830s, the nation sent 6, page 11. out Indian indentured labor — “coolies” — 83. Puri, Ghadar Movement, 52.The exporting men and women across the empire, group is also referred to, given translitera- if not to North America. Compared to the tion issues, as the Hindustan Association of millions of indentured Indians working across the Pacific Coast. On his return in India for the globe, the several thousand in North Ghadar, Kanshi Ram was executed. Bhakna America were a mere drop. To the later regret was arrested and sentenced to death, later of British colonial overlords, however, these commuted to life imprisonment. He was re- few Indian “free” wage laborers in North leased after sixteen years, but re-imprisoned America, buoyed by Queen Victoria’s 1858 for his revolutionary activities. He remained promise of equal status, unleased a clash of active in radical politics until his death at the competing colonial promises and aspirations age of ninety-eight. that with Ghadar came to haunt British rule. 84. Ghadar translates as either mutiny 90. Takaki, Strangers from A Different or revolution. In the immediate sense, Gha- Shore, 301. dar was unsuccessful, with most adherents 91. Hyslop, “The Imperial Working Class immediately jailed or executed in India. The Makes Itself ‘White,’” 399.

Ogden, White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s “Hindu” City 515

E T H N O C E N T R I S 1904–1916 M THESE TWO ADVERTISEMENTS, published in the early to mid 1900s in La Grande and Klamath Falls, Oregon, echo anti-Chinese sentiments during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1882, Congress passed the first Chinese Exclusion Act, which specifically banned entry of Chinese laborers into the United States. In MACY & E R R E P 1902, the law was renewed and made permanent; it was not repealed until 1943. S U

S S

T T

E E

A A

T T

N N I I

C C

H La E E On March 1, 1904, (top right) the owners of Pap’s Chop House advertised in the W W Grande Observer for “white help only” and guaranteed patrons would receive polite, clean service where “no Chinaman has prepared your food.” In this advertisement, the restaurant owners revealed that racism and ethnocentrism — a belief in the superiority of one’s own ethnic group — were acceptable to newspaper readers.

On February 21, 1916, (bottom right) Roberts & Hanks hardware store owners participated in a “Pay-up Week” campaign designated by the Klamath Falls mayor and endorsed by the Klamath Falls Businessmen’s Association. The campaign was intended to encourage people to pay their debts to local-run businesses, and many hoping to collect advertised on the page. In their “The Chinaman Always Pays His Debts” advertisement, the hardware store owners explicitly state that White people are superior to Chinese people. La Grande Observer, March 1, 1904 Evening Herald, February 21, 1916

517 Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards

Racial Discrimination in Kaiser’s Portland Shipyards, 1940–1945

JOHN LINDER

During the turn of the twentieth century, a time shaped by Jim Crow policies, unions won significant battles over workplace control. Unfortunately, many prioritized their power to favor perceived self-interest over equity and merit. The impact went far beyond employment itself. If the Black family breadwinner could not provide stable, adequate financial support for their family, it affected every other aspect of life. Little or no money coming in means no access to housing, no access to sufficient food, no health care, no money to send children to first-rate schools, no money to influence the political process, etc. — all of which predetermines that the penalties imposed by racism will be passed on to the next generation to be repeated there.

THE BLACK POPULATION of the Portland-Vancouver area grew tenfold during World War II, from approximately 2,000 in 1940 to more than 20,000 in 1945.1 The new arrivals were part of a demographic tilt that brought millions of Americans west to work in the burgeoning war industries and the businesses that supported them.2 In Portland, most sought work in three huge shipyards the Kaiser Company constructed to produce freighters, known as Liberty Ships, as well as aircraft carriers, tankers, and landing ships. Most African Americans came to Portland from the South, leaving behind an average family income of less than $500 a year for jobs that paid nearly $3,000 per year at the height of the war boom. One thing they did not leave behind was Jim Crow segregation. Nearly three-fourths of the skilled jobs in the Kaiser shipyards were under the jurisdiction of Local 72 of

DURING WORLD WAR II, eight million Americans moved West seeking work in the growing war industries. In Portland, most sought work in Kaiser Corporation shipyards, constructed to produce LIberty Ships, aircraft carriers, tankers, and landing ships. In this 1943 photograph, the SS Robert Newell launches from the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard in Portland, Oregon.

Linder, Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards 519 the Boilermakers Union, which refused to admit Black members.3 While the shipyards were crying for skilled labor, qualified Black workers were con- signed to laboring jobs or forced to join a segregated and powerless “auxiliary local.” Called on to build weapons for the “war for freedom” abroad, Black workers were systematically denied the most ele- mentary freedoms at home. This history sheds light on how today’s gross racial inequality — exemplified by the nearly seven-to-one ratio between White and Black average household wealth — is rooted not only in slavery but in systematic discrimination ever since.4 It also provides lessons in how both corporations and the government reinforce THIS CARTOON, published on June 29, 1943, in discrimination while claim- the People’s Observer, a Black-owned newspaper in ing to do the opposite. Seg- Portland, Oregon, highlights the bitterness felt by many regation in the Kaiser yards African Americans who were being sent to fight a “war of was initiated by the Boil- democracy” against proponents of a “master race” while ermakers Union, but the the U.S. government allowed and even promoted blatant Kaiser Company brought discrimination at home. the union into the yards and followed its dictates to fire Black workers. The federal government, more interested in maximizing war production than ending segregation, failed to enforce its own anti-discrimination order. Significant victories were won by Black workers and organizers who relied on mass action and the threat of mass action rather than the promises and proclamations of government and company officials.

520 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 “ONLY AS JANITORS”

The rapid increase in war production, beginning in 1940, held out the prospect that Black workers might finally establish themselves as a permanent part of the country’s industrial labor force. While war spending ended the Great Depression for Whites, however, jobless African Americans found that “No Help Wanted” signs at factory gates had been replaced with signs reading “Help Wanted — White.”5 Company officials were often equally blunt. The president of North American Aviation, asked by Black civic leaders about prospects for employment in his new bomber factory near Kansas City, Kan- sas, stated, “the Negroes will be considered only as janitors and in other similar capacities. . . . While we are in complete sympathy with the Negro, it is against the company policy to employ them as mechanics or aircraft workers.”6 More than half the openings in war industries were closed to African Americans, with the exception of shipbuilding, where 28 percent were closed. Most defense plants had no Black workers at all. In late 1940 and early 1941, the National Association for the Advance of Colored People (NAACP) and other civil rights organizations “held mass protest meetings, but the exclusion” of African Americans continued.7 Black leaders were quick to point out that U.S. politicians’ angry denuncia- tions of Hitler’s master-race ideology were hard to square with the federal government’s tolerance of racism in its own front yard. Roy Wilkins, editor of Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), wrote: “It is pretty grim . . . to have a black boy in uniform get an orientation lecture in the morning on wiping out Nazi bigotry, and that same evening be told he can buy a soft drink only in the ‘Colored’ post exchange!”8 The experience of mass layoffs and racist violence following World War I had taught African Americans not to wait for war’s end to resume the fight for equality; their leverage was greatest when they were needed in the factories and armed forces. A popular story circulated about a Black soldier on a Southern bus who “resisted the driver’s efforts to shift him to the Jim Crow section by taking off his coat and declaring, ‘Well, I’m fixing to go off and fight for democracy. I might as well start right now’.”9 A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Por- ters union, rallied this sentiment when he called for 10,000 Black people to march on Washington, D.C., on July 1, 1941, to demand “the abolition of Jim-Crowism in all Government departments and defense employment.” Randolph mobilized the finances and membership of the Brotherhood to spread the call nationwide. The official call for the march, published in the brotherhood’s journal, The Black Worker, stated:

Linder, Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards 521 While billions of the taxpay- ers’ money are being spent for war weapons, Negro workers are being turned away from the gates of factories, mines and mills — being flatly told, “NOTH- ING DOING.” Some employers Yale University, Beinecke Library Beinecke University, Yale refuse to give Negroes jobs when they are without “union cards,” and some unions refuse Negro workers union cards when they are “without jobs.”10 As the date for the march approached, predictions of the turnout rose to 100,000, and Roosevelt moved into full gear to stop it. Both Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roos- evelt met with Randolph and other Black leaders, but they held firm in their demand for an end to discrimination in the war industries and armed forces. On June 25, one week before IN JANUARY 1941, A. Philip Randolph, president of the scheduled march, Roos- the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the largest evelt issued Executive Order union of Black workers in the country, called for a march 8802, which banned discrimina- on Washington to demand an end to discrimination in war industries and the armed forces. The March on tion “in defense industries or Washington, D.C., Movement won passage of Executive Government because of race, Order 8802, banning discrimination by war contractors. creed, color, or national origin,” ordered that all government defense contracts include a provision “obligating the contractor not to discriminate,” and established the Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) to ensure compliance.11 Only then did Randolph “postpone” the march, but he maintained the March on Washington Movement to press for effective action by the FEPC and led ral- lies of more than 10,000 people in New York, Chicago, and St. Louis during the summer of 1942.12 Executive Order 8802, perhaps the most important victory for civil rights since the Fifteenth Amendment, was won through mass action and the

522 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 threat of mass action by African Americans. Before the march was called, Randolph and other civil rights leaders could not even get an appointment to see Roosevelt, whose priority was war production, not ending discrimination.13 This helps explain why the FEPC often appeared to be fighting with one hand tied behind its back. Attacked by southern Democrats and lacking consistent support from the Roosevelt administration, the FEPC never had the power to force the most hard-nosed employers and unions to desegregate. The conflict that would soon erupt in the Kaiser shipyards demonstrated that FEPC attempts to enforce Executive Order 8802 were trumped by the desire of both Kaiser and Roosevelt to avoid any action that might slow the shipyards’ record-setting launches. OHS Research Library, 019627

PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT addressed employees of the Oregon Shipyard in 1942. In the foreground from the left: Gov. Charles Sprague, Henry Kaiser, Edgar Kaiser, and Roosevelt. Kaiser was the nation’s preeminent military contractor. Oregonship launched freighters faster than any shipyard had before or has since.

Linder, Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards 523 LIBERTY SHIPS AND JIM CROW SHIPYARDS

In January 1941, with a contract to build cargo ships for Britain to replace those being sunk by German submarines, Henry Kaiser and his son Edgar Kaiser leased eighty-seven acres on the Willamette River and broke ground for the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation, commonly referred to as Oregonship.14 Henry Kaiser had no shipbuilding experience, but as the leader of the Six Companies consortium that built the Boulder, Bonneville, and Grand Coulee dams, he had a reputation as a man who could get things done — the “Atlas of Industry,” as Fortune Magazine dubbed him.15 After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Kaiser Company built two more shipyards, one on Swan Island and one in Vancouver, Washington.16 The shipyards operated twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and generated an insatiable demand for steel plate and labor. Beginning with no shipyard workforce of his own, Kaiser turned to the Metal Trades Department of the American Federal of Labor (AFL), the coordinating body for thirteen unions in the shipyard trades, to help him recruit skilled workers and begin construction of the yard.17 In May 1941, with only 66 workers employed at Oregonship, Kaiser signed a contract with the Metal Trades Department and the Portland Metal Trades Council. A year later, with only 191 workers employed at the Vancouver yard and none at Swan Island, Kaiser and nearly all the other major West Coast shipyard owners, Kaiser chief among them, signed a regional “master agreement” with the Metal Trades Department.18 These closed-shop contracts required workers to join the appropriate AFL union — to “get union clearance” — as a condition of employment, but workers had no voice or vote in choosing the unions. Before the war, Boilermakers Local 72 had no funds and fewer than 200 members. Two years later, the local had close to 60,000 members and collected dues from nearly three-fourths of the shipyard workers in the skilled trades, making it the “largest local union in the world.”19 Kaiser had essentially created Local 72, and in the process locked Black workers out of most skilled jobs. The Boilermakers union typified the craft unions that comprised the majority of the AFL. With the exception of a brief period after its founding in 1886, most AFL unions representing skilled workers excluded African Americans from membership, treating them as competitors who threatened the jobs and privileges of the skilled, White, male workers who comprised its base. Randolph’s repeated appeals to the AFL to hire Black organizers and to refuse membership to unions that barred African Americans were met with calls for “patience” from AFL officials and statements about the

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FOLLOWING THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR, Kaiser opened yards in Vancouver and on Swan Island, and workers from throughout the country flooded into the Portland-Vancouver area to fill the new jobs. Here 15,000 to 18,000 people are gathered at Multnomah Stadium in Portland on February 12, 1942, to receive applications for the Boilermakers Union. The union controlled nearly 75 percent of the skilled jobs in the shipyards and refused to admit Black members.

need to “educate” White workers, rendered hypocritical because those same officials refused to fund any education.20 Black workers were only able to join unions in large numbers after dis- sident AFL leaders, recognizing the necessity of organizing all workers in any given industry into a single “industrial” union, formed the Congress for Industrial Organization (CIO) in 1935 and split from the AFL. In 1936 and 1937, the CIO conducted the most successful organizing drive in U.S. labor history. By occupying factories in sit-down strikes and fighting pitched battles to defend their picket lines, workers in auto, steel, and other basic industries won union recognition. The CIO recruited all workers, regardless of race; no attempt to organize basic industry could have succeeded otherwise. Between 1935 and 1940, Black union membership grew from 100,000 to 500,000.21

Linder, Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards 525 Despite these successes, nearly all of the AFL unions representing skilled workers maintained their color bars, weakening themselves in the process.22 At the 1937 Boilermakers International Convention, delegates’ two dominant concerns were competition from the CIO and from Black workers. A delegate from Newport News, Virginia, complained that in shipyards there, the White wage scale ranged from 38 to 94 cents an hour while the Black wage scale ranged from 14 to 20 cents an hour, “with the white man doing the same work.” The delegate concluded, “I ask you delegates to consider this very serious question, because it means organization or no organization in the shipbuilding industry.”23 The divide-and-rule approach evident in the employers’ racist wage scales was reinforced by a union policy that could be described as “divide-and-be-ruled.” Fearing that the CIO would organize “the Negro” and anticipating increased shipyard work, the Boilermakers delegates authorized segregated auxiliary locals, stipulating “that the membership of the colored men be confined to such separate locals.”24 The rules governing the auxiliaries leave no doubt that their purpose was to control Black workers while denying them full union membership. Auxiliaries were under the supervision of White locals and were not allowed to choose their own business agents or form grievance committees. Auxiliary members received only one-half as much in death and disability benefits as did White members. Worst of all, Black workers were barred from transferring to other locals, could not be employed as apprentices, and could not be promoted to higher job clas- sifications without the approval of the White local and the international union president.25 As Thurgood Marshall wrote several years later, the only thing equal about the auxiliary unions was the dues paid.26 Auxiliaries also ensured that Black workers would be first to lose their jobs when the war ended. Responding to several White workers in Los Angeles who feared that auxiliaries would divide Black and White workers, a Boilermakers’ business agent argued that if Black workers became members of the regular union, they would retain their membership after the war, whereas the auxiliaries would be dissolved.27

RESISTANCE

Discrimination by Boilermakers Local 72 received national attention in the fall of 1942, after the Kaiser Company, facing a severe labor shortage, sent recruiters throughout the country. Thousands of workers poured into the Portland area, among them African Americans who discovered on arrival that they were excluded from most skilled jobs by the Boilermakers

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ON SEPTEMBER 30, 1942, five hundred men from New York arrived in Portland, Oregon, to work in the Kaiser shipyards. Thirty-nine of those recruits were Black. A photograph of the “Kaiser Karavan” train was published on that day in the Oregonian.

Union and the Kaiser Company. In an angry letter published in the August 7 Oregonian, Rev. J. James Clow, Portland president of the NAACP, protested the Boilermakers’ exclusion of six Black workers. “We are constantly called upon to forget everything, to concentrate upon winning this war,” he wrote, but some people “seem unable to forget their race prejudice for the duration.”28 On September 30, 1942, the first “Kaiser Karavan” arrived in Portland.29 The train carried 490 men, recruited from New York City, of whom 39 were Black.30 According to historian Frederic Lane, when the Kaiser organization began hiring in New York, “they were reminded [by federal manpower officials] that they must not discriminate, and in consequence filled some cars of their westbound trains with Negroes.”31

Linder, Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards 527 By this time, approximately 3,000 Black people had arrived in Portland by their own means, more than doubling the city’s Black population and challenging established patterns of domination and subservience. Even before the first train arrived, the growing Black population was met with hostility. A mass meeting of 500 Albina residents demanded that no more African Americans be housed in their district, blaming them for increased crime.32 “We Cater to White Trade Only” signs sprung up in restaurants and taverns.33 The Portland Central Labor Council protested the importation of “undesirable” workers “from other sections without regard to local conditions” and sent a letter to Henry Kaiser demanding that no more workers be hired unless they were cleared through representatives of appropriate unions and assigned to the appropriate crafts.34 Shortly after the Kaiser Karavan arrived, seventy-five Black workers living in Hudson House, a huge dormitory complex for single men near the Vancouver shipyard, voiced their own protest against Kaiser’s hiring practices. In what became known as the Hudson House Resolution, the workers stated: We, the Negro people employed by the Kaiser Company, maintain that under a false pretense we were brought from east to west to work for defense, and we demand, within due process of law, the following rights: (1) to work at our trades on equal rights with whites; (2) to go to vocational school or to take vocational training on equal rights with the whites.35

The workers charged that when they were signed up in New York, they were classified according to their skills, but when they arrived in the shipyards, they were assigned to work as unskilled laborers receiving less pay than agreed on in New York..36 “We can work at common labor in New York,” one worker said. “When we signed up we were promised the opportunity to get something better. If there’s nothing but common labor for us we ask to be sent home.”37 These workers had not just come west for higher wages. They knew that the war industries would bust as quickly as they were booming; even the Liberty ships were built to last only five years. Although wages were higher

“WE CATER TO WHITE TRADE ONLY” signs began appearing in businesses in Portland following an increase in African Americans who came to work in wartime industries. The cartoon on the right, published on September 30, 1943, in the People’s Observer, shows a Black U.S. soldier walking past one of the signs.

528 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Linder, Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards 529 Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs, LC-USW3- 028671-C Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs, LC-USW3-

JOSIE LUCILLE OWENS, was a welder in training for skilled positions offered to Black workers in Kaiser’s Richmond, California, shipyard. Trained workers often were denied opportunities to use their skills in the Kaiser yards in Portland. Eventually, many Black workers were employed as welders, most often after being forced to accept membership in Jim Crow auxiliary locals.

than they had been during the Depression, inflated prices combined with a war-time wage freeze left Richmond, California, shipyard workers with weekly savings of about six dollars.38 A few workers might buy a house or a little land with what they would save, but most would be left with only one bankable asset after the war — their skill. An experienced welder or machinist would be in demand following the war, and Black workers were determined to have an equal opportunity to learn and apply these skills. On October 17, the Oregonian reported that “spokesmen for nearly 100 New York Negroes who were imported to work in the Kaiser company shipyard at Vancouver, Wash., Friday said that the Negro workers might fail to report to

530 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 work Monday unless they are given definite assurances that alleged discrimination against then will cease.” The spokesmen “contended that approximately half their number are qualified for journeymen’s scale, but are able to get only helper or laborer jobs.”39 Following these protests, Kaiser began employing a number of Black workers at skilled jobs, initially without any union clearance, utilizing a clause in the contract permitting companies to hire workers without union clearance when the union could not supply sufficient numbers. Eventually, most unions granted some form of clearance to Black workers.40 In general, the exclusion of Black workers depended on the skill level of the trade. The Laborers Union, whose members did heavy, unskilled work, was about one-third Black, and the Scalers and Cleaners Union was about 20 percent Black. The Machinists Union and the Molders Union, representing skilled workers, excluded Black workers from membership while collecting dues from a handful of Black helpers in exchange for temporary work permits that could be revoked at any time. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) was an exception among the skilled trades; concerned about winning public support for unions, it accepted many Black members and had several Black leadmen and shop stewards. The Boilermakers, with jurisdiction over 72 percent of the skilled jobs, continued to deny any union clearances to Black workers.41 On October 21, the Portland Metal Trades Council sent a letter to Kaiser Company demanding that Black workers promoted since October 16 be returned to their former positions. A front-page headline in the Oregonian read: “Negro-Yard Difficulty Nears Crisis: Boilermakers Union Chief Protesting Kaiser Promotions.”42 Hoping to avert a crisis, representatives of the Kaiser Company, the U.S. Maritime Commission, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, the Portland Metal Trades Council, and other parties held a conference in Port- land on November 10 and 11. They unanimously agreed that their organizations would abide by both the letter and spirit of Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802 and pledged, “there will not be permitted, either by management or by labor, any limitation or restriction against workers because of their race, creed, color or national origin in the processes of recruitment, upgrading, training or any other phase or condition of employment.”43 Despite their pledge, the Boilermakers lost no time in evading the agreement by charter- ing a segregated auxiliary local, No. 32-A, in December. The auxiliary had no meetings, no elections, and no union hall, but it provided a fig leaf for the Boilermakers to claim that they would clear “any man regardless of race, creed or color” — all he had to do was sign up with the auxiliary.44 Recognizing a trap, many Black workers fought the auxiliary. “200 Negroes Oppose Union: New Auxiliary Plan Meets Disapproval,” read a

Linder, Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards 531 headline in the January 31, 1943, Oregonian. Julius Rodriguez, chairman of the recently formed Shipyard Negro Organization for Victory (SNOV), explained that leaders of the Hudson House protest had formed the SNOV, which included the New Yorkers who lodged the initial protest and another 400 Black shipyard workers. “If faced with the alternatives of joining the auxiliary or being discharged, the Negroes still will refuse to join and will ‘continue the battle from the outside,’ Rodriguez asserted.”45 Local 72 officials used the auxiliary to drive Black workers out of skilled jobs in the shipyards. Following the union’s demands, Kaiser personnel gave stop-work cards to Black workers employed as welders and in other clas- sifications under Boilermakers’ jurisdiction and told them that they would have to join the auxiliary. Company records showed that between January and November 1943, a total of 345 Black workers were discharged, or fired, after they refused to join the auxiliary; 217 were rehired within a week, presumably after joining the auxiliary.46 Estimates of the auxiliaries’ membership ranged between 600 and 800, but workers were often reluctant to admit to being members.47 In April 1943, Lee Anderson filed suit in Multnomah County Court against Local 72 and Oregonship. Anderson, a forty-two-year-old man from Winslow, Arizona, had moved to Portland in March 1942. He worked as a laborer on swing shift at Oregonship while taking welding courses at a government training school from 12:30 at night to 7:30 in the morning. After he had 300 hours of training, he was told by the instructor to go to the union hall to get cleared as a tack-welder, the least skilled welding job. When he got to the hall, his White classmates were all given cards, while he and another Black worker were denied them. In testimony before the FEPC, Anderson recounted how Earl Ingram, president of Local 72, had told him, “For your benefit, in the Constitution and By-Laws of the Boilermakers Union, under no circumstances will a Negro be allowed in the Boilermakers.”48 After he had 500 hours of training, Anderson returned to the Boilermakers’ hall and was again sent packing. In January 1943, a supervisor at Oregonship promoted him to a welder’s position. The job lasted all of four hours before company officials told Anderson that he was being pulled off for non-union clearance and suggested he join the auxiliary. “I told them that was out. . . . Because I wasn’t joining no dirty discriminatory setup like that where I had no rights at all.” When company personnel tried to get Anderson to go back to his old job as a laborer, he recounted telling them, “if I go back and couldn’t work as a welder, I wanted no part of the shipyard.” He quit and found a job building the Vanport housing project, his 500 hours of training as a welder

532 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 having earned him a grand total of four hours work.49 The People’s Observer newspaper championed Anderson’s case. Launched in June 1943, the Observer was published and edited by William H. McClendon, a shipyard worker who had earlier published the Portland Observer and revived it at the behest of SNOV members. The People’s Observer advocated “courage, militancy, and aggressiveness” in the struggle against discrimination in the shipyards, condemning both the racists and those “pseudo-liberals” in the Black community who advocated acceptance of the auxiliary.50 In the midst of this conflict, the CIO demanded that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) void the closed-shop contracts between Kaiser and the AFL unions because, having been signed before any appreciable workforce was hired, the contracts undemocratically denied workers the right to choose their own bargaining agent. The NLRB, following its own rule that closed shop contracts required approval from 50 percent of ON JULY 21, 1943, the People’s Observer the employees in a workplace, charged newspaper reported that the Kaiser Company Kaiser with entering into illegal bar- fired over two hundred Black workers for gaining agreements and ordered refusing to join the segregated auxiliary elections for workers to choose their union, which was subservient to the White union. AFL officials did not dispute local and would be dissolved after the war. the facts but charged the NLRB and CIO with disrupting war production. Roosevelt urged speedy settlement of the dispute, and in the summer of 1943, Congress passed a rider preventing the NLRB from interfering with any contract that had been in existence for over three months. Knowing

Linder, Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards 533 full well that the major AFL shipyard union was excluding Black workers, Congress vitiated its own labor laws and in so doing destroyed a golden opportunity to enable both union democracy and equal opportunity in the shipyards.51

MASS FIRINGS AND THE FEPC HEARINGS

Despite the severe labor shortage, the Kaiser Company complied with the Boilermakers’ demands that it fire Black workers who had not joined the Jim Crow auxiliary. The first large-scale discharges occurred on July 14, 1943, when Kaiser fired80 Black workers in its Vancouver yard for “non-union clearance.”52 When Kaiser laid off 120 more men later in July, the People’s Observer accused the company of conspiring with Local 72 to fire three key Black activists, who were informed by Kaiser’s personnel director that they would not receive clearances to work anywhere in this area.53 The SNOV and NAACP responded immediately. Rodriguez and Clow traveled to Washington, D.C., where they met with the FEPC and national officers of the NAACP. When he returned, Clow addressed a rally of nearly 1,000 Black shipyard workers at Hudson House.54 In August 1943, the SNOV and the Portland NAACP filed a complaint with the FEPC, leading to hearings in Portland on November 15 and 16. The record of the FEPC hearings provides a rich source of personal testimony by the victims of discrimination and a case study in buck-passing by its practitioners. Statements by shipyard worker Raymond Gee demonstrates that, above all, Black workers wanted to gain the skills and experience needed to achieve a foothold in the skilled trades: About four months after we were out there, we demanded to be working as the regular welders. As I said before, we were tacking. That is, we were just helping the ship fitters put a slip here and dog there and such as that. On a Sunday morning, approximately April 19th, we went down to Mr. Hunt’s office. That is the superintendent of welding. And we asked that we be allowed to do regular welding. Mr. Hunt told us, he asked us, were we satisfied with the pay we were getting, weren’t we getting $1.20 an hour, the same as everybody else? We told him that was not the main issue. The main issue was that we wanted to learn the whole art of welding the same as anybody else. We wanted an equal opportunity. Mr. Hunt told us in these very words, “War or no war, as long as I am superintendent of welding in this yard, you will not work along side of a white man.55

Apparently, a company official told Hunt to back down, because a little while later, he permitted Gee and his coworkers to resume regular welding,

534 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 demonstrating the pressure Kaiser was under from Black workers who were demanding that the company follow the law. In their complaint, the SNOV and NAACP alleged that in addition to enforcing discriminatory stop work orders issued by the Boilermakers, Kaiser also practiced unlawful discrimination in many cases where union membership was not an issue. The company denied work to a skilled Black draftsman “solely because of his race and color.” No Black employees held foreman positions in any of the three yards, and only a few were employed as leadmen. The company maintained all-Black work crews under the supervision of Whites.56 Edgar Kaiser and the company’s lawyer claimed that their hands were tied by the union when it came to upgrading and training Black workers because the issue of union clearance was strictly an internal union matter; company intervention would be a violation of the National Labor Relations Act. Local 72’s representatives contended that they wanted to help Black workers advance but were forced to deny them union membership because of the international’s constitution and bylaws. The union’s expressions of concern for Black workers were clearly fraudulent, but there is validity to the claim of domination by the international. Fearing that their power would be eroded by “this great mass of new members” who “knew little or nothing about Unions or Union procedure, and unfortunately didn’t want to learn,” the international officers directly governed at least ten “subordinate” locals nationwide, including Local 72.57 The Boilermakers International sent no representatives to the hearings but expressed its views in a telegram from Vice-President Charles MacGowan, stating, “We have no specific knowledge of any Negroes being held out of work, but Negroes and Whites alike can return to work if and when they pay their dues as provided by the Constitution of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders and Help- ers of America, including the Auxiliary constitution.”58 The international assumed the legitimacy of the auxiliary, ignoring that its discriminatory character was at the heart of Black workers’ grievances. After the FEPC issued its findings in favor of the Black workers, the international, evading responsibility for its own role in fueling racial hostility, threatened that if upgraded Black workers faced attacks from Whites, the FEPC “will have to bear full responsibility for racial outbreaks that will shock the nation — if not the world.”59 In its findings, issued on December9 , 1943, the FEPC stated the motivation behind Kaiser’s discrimination was “entirely irrelevant’’— no labor contract could stand above the Executive Order banning discrimination:

Linder, Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards 535 OHS Research Library, photo file 2209 Library, OHS Research

The Companies admit that they are and have been following the policy and practice of refusing to hire Negroes in skills subject to the jurisdiction of the Boilermakers’ Union . . . and the policy and practice of discharging Negro employees certified as not in “good standing” by these Unions, notwithstanding the Companies have had notice and knowledge that Negroes are not admitted to membership in these Locals. . . . The Companies contend that they are bound to follow the aforesaid practices because of the closed shop provision of a contract known as the “Master Agreement.”. . . This contention cannot be accepted. . . . Regardless of the measure of the Union’s responsibility in this case, the power to hire and fire remains with the Companies, and their obligation to eliminate the obvious and

536 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 SCALERS at the Oregon Shipbuilding Corp.’s north storage yard pose for a photograph on March 12, 1944. With millions of men in the armed forces, the war industries were forced to employ older workers and those they had excluded in the past — women and African Americans.

admitted discrimination because of race or color in hiring and firing is primary and fundamental. . . .60

The committee directed the Kaiser companies to “desist from refusing to hire and discharging Negroes who fail to secure clearance from said unions” until the commission informed the companies that the unions had eliminated their discriminatory practices.61 The FEPC had no judicial power to enforce its ruling, but court decisions in two other states supported Black workers who were opposing other Boilermak- ers auxiliaries. The California Supreme Court ruled that the auxiliaries were “the equivalent of a complete denial of union membership.” In Providence,

Linder, Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards 537 Rhode Island, where the Boilermakers’ local had admitted Black workers as full members, the international replaced the local’s officers and demanded that Black workers join an auxiliary, despite opposition from a majority of White workers. The Black workers sought and won a court injunction that declared the practice of segregating them into an auxiliary local “illegal and void.”62 Despite these judicial rulings and the FEPC’s harsh condemnation, the Boilermakers reaffirmed their auxiliary policy at their 1944 convention, although they modified it to grant auxiliaries representation at conventions of the international.63 In May 1944, Local No. 72 again demanded discharges of Black workers in the Kaiser yards “for non-payment of dues” to the auxiliary, and Kaiser again complied.64 Henry Kaiser and Edgar Kaiser publicly proclaimed the importance of ending discrimination in order to meet the needs of war production but bowed to the demands of Boilermakers officials. Had the Kaisers instead followed the law, they would have confronted both the institutional power of Boilermakers officials and racism among White workers, many of whom had never worked alongside Black people. In August 1944, Kaiser management at Swan Island promoted Roland Veney, a Black electrician who had studied electrical engineering, to the position of leadman of a mixed-race crew, responding to “a directive issued by the FEPC . . . and enforced by the Maritime Commission.” Eighty percent of the White electricians walked out in response, declaring, “We white men will not stand for a Nigger to be our boss.” As reported by “A Worker,” in a letter to the editor, “the strikers returned to work the following day, after being told to do so by the union.”65 While the work stoppage demonstrated racism among White workers, company supervisors apparently encouraged these attitudes. The Swan Island worker’s letter stated: “The root of the strike can easily be traced to the company. The supervisor on one occasion before a hearing of the F.E.P.C. stated that in his opinion no Negro should be upgraded higher than a journeyman. . . . Four leadmen (company men) participated in the walkout.” None of the strike leaders were disciplined.66 By enforcing the Boilermakers’ Jim Crow practices, Kaiser Corp. sent an unspoken message to its supervisors that discrimination was acceptable. Had Kaiser Corp. refused to fire Black workers, it would have reinforced the best elements among the workforce. White workers were by no means unanimous in supporting discrimination and were influenced by contact with Black workers, attitudes of company and union officials, and the nature of the war itself. Shortly after the electricians’ strike, Maynard Olsen, a White electrician who helped lead the strike and had just been inducted into the Navy, apologized for his actions. Explaining that he had been influenced by the racism of other White workers, Olsen told Walter Carrington, a Black electrician

538 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 THIS ARTICLE, published on June 17, 1945, in the Oregonian, paints a grim picture of post-war employment prospects for African Americans. Even before the war ended, the Kaiser yards laid off 2,000 Black workers. Smaller shipyards in the area were more openly discriminatory than the Kaiser yards, and outside the shipyards, only 1.1 percent of the workforce was African American. Employers surveyed held out little hope for Black workers, except perhaps as janitors or if White labor was unavailable.

who had fought for Veney’s promotion, that, as the People’s Observer put it, he could not “fight with his life for his own freedom . . . knowing that he had thwarted another man from enjoying that same basic privilege — freedom.”67 Chauncey Del French, an Oregonian who led a pipefitting crew in the Vancouver yard, relates how working with a Black man altered the racist views of three White crew members from the South. When John Willie, a powerful Black man from Arkansas, joined their crew, the three started complaining. French assigned them to work with Willie to move an extremely heavy, twenty-foot length of pipe across the yard and up two decks. When they finished the job, one of the three approached French and explained why the three, who had never “worked shoulder to shoulder with a Negro” and were ready quit, had changed their minds. After the three White men placed a board under one end, just to see if they could lift it, Willie easily picked up the other end himself with one hand! When they reached the

Linder, Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards 539 staircase, Willie took off and returned with a block-and-tackle, or pulley. The White worker who related the story wondered what Willie was thinking because the only place he could hang the pulley was a gun stand higher up than they needed to go, so Willie explained that they could haul the pipe up to the stand and then slide it down the stairs far more easily than carrying it up them. “Brains, that’s what he’s got” the worker concluded. “He’s all man, an’ he kin work with us anytime, anywhere.” Had French shared the racist views of the men under him, the outcome would certainly have been different.68

VICTORIES: SOME MOOT, SOME LASTING

In May 1945, sixteen months after the FEPC ordered Kaiser to stop firing workers who refused to join the auxiliary, the company indicated it would do so. By that time, however, it was largely a moot victory, because shipyard workers were being laid off in large numbers as the war was drawing to a close. “Negroes in Portland: What is Their Postwar Outlook?” asked a feature article in the June 17, 1945, Oregonian. The answers were grim. The war years had seen no tangible advances in Black employment outside the shipyards. Most employers interviewed by the Oregonian stated bluntly that they would only hire Blacks as janitors, or if White labor was unavailable — an unlikely scenario, given the thousands of Whites who would be returning from military service and looking for work.69 The end of the war also brought an end to the FEPC; Congress cut its funding in 1945 and terminated it altogether in 1946. Its job of winning equal employment opportunity certainly had not been completed, but the government no longer needed Black labor or was as fearful of Black unrest. Lee Anderson’s case never went to trial. Lawyers for Kaiser and the Boil- ermakers filed enough motions to stall the case and drain the resources of the NAACP, which was backing Anderson’s efforts. Records at the Multnomah County Courthouse show no legal action after September 21, 1943, and the case was dismissed in 1951.70 Segregated unions remained legal until the civil rights movement won passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

CONCLUSION

It was not inevitable that the majority of Black shipyard workers would remain locked out of skilled trades for the duration of the war. If the Kaiser Company had prioritized equity in employment and its contractual obligations under Executive Order 8802, it could have permitted workers to elect their own bargaining agent. Most of the smaller Seattle shipyards, those not covered by the “master agreement,” signed contracts with the CIO Industrial Union

540 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America, leading to much greater equity both during and after the war.71 As the shipyard industry’s sole customer, the federal government exerted control over the entire operation. The Navy and the U.S. Maritime Commis- sion chose the location of the yards, the design of each type of ship, and the time allotted for construction, often with Roosevelt’s direct involvement. Above all, government officials signed and canceled contracts, giving them a tremendous amount of weight that could have been thrown into enforcing Executive Order 8802. The FEPC never exercised its power to call for the cancellation of contracts with companies that were in violation of the order. The work of breaking down color bars imposed by corporations and unions ultimately fell to Black people and their allies. When he proposed the March on Washington, Randolph wrote: “Only power can effect the enforcement and adoption of a given policy. Power is the active principle of only the organized masses, the masses united for definite purpose.”72 During the war years, Black workers did not have enough power to effect the enforcement of policies they had won, but the struggles they launched began building the power that would successfully challenge Jim Crow in the Civil Rights era.

NOTES

1. “Negroes in Portland: What is Their 5. Herbert Garfinkel, When Negroes Postwar Outlook?” Sunday Oregonian, June March: The March On Washington Movement 17, 1945, 54. in the Organizational Politics for FEPC (Glen- 2. David M. Kennedy, The American coe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1959), 21. People in World II: Freedom from Fear, Part 6. Herbert Roof Northrup and Richard L. Two (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), Rowan, Negro Employment In Basic Industry: xiv, 322–23, quoted in Katherine Archibald, A study of Racial Policies in Six Industries Wartime Shipyard: A Study in Social Disunity (University of Pennsylvania, 1970), 147. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press) xv. 7. Philip S. Foner, Organized Labor and 3. Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma: the Black Worker, 1619–1981 (International, The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy New York: 1981), 239. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1944) 364; 8. Roy Wilkins, “The Negro Wants Full Negroes in Portland: What is Their Postwar Equality,” in R.W. Logan, ed., What the Negro Outlook?” Sunday Oregonian, June 17, 1945, Wants (Chapel Hill: University of North Caro- 54; June Herzog, “A Study of the Negro lina Press, 1944), 130. Defense Worker in the Portland-Vancouver 9. Sterling A. Brown, “Out of Their Area,” (B.A. Thesis, Reed College, Portland, Mouths,” Survey Graphic (November 1942), September 1944). 482, in Garfinkel,When Negroes March, 23. 4. “The colour of wealth: The black-white 10. Foner, Organized Labor and the Black wealth gap has been constant for half a Worker, 240. century,” The Economist, April 6, 2019, p. 23. 11. New York Times, June 26, 1941, in

Linder, Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards 541 Foner, Organized Labor and the Black Journal of Ethnic Studies 8:1 (Spring 1980): 43. Worker, 241. 28. Oregonian, Letter from J. James Clow, 12. Garfinkel, When Negroes March, August 7, 1942, p. 12. See also Rudy Pearson, 96–98. “J.J. Clow (1803–1979),” BlackPast (accessed 13. Foner, Organized Labor and the Black November 11, 2019). Worker, 239. 29. Kramer, It Takes More Than Bullets, 14. “Yard to Cost $4,7000,000 Before 6.3, 10. Single Ship Built,” Sunday Oregonian, Janu- 30. Herzog, “A Study of the Negro ary 12, 1941, p. 1. Defense Worker in the Portland-Vancouver 15. George Kramer, It Takes More than Area,” 15. Bullets: The World War II Homefront in 31. Lane, Ships for Victory, 254. Portland, Oregon (Eugene, Ore.: Heritage 32. “Court Action Voted to Block Housing Research Associates, 2006), 3.3, 8–9. Plan for Negroes,” Oregonian, September 16. Ibid., 4.3, 7. 30, 1942, p. 17. Frederic Chapin Lane, Ships for Vic- 33. “Hudson House Group Asks Negro tory: A History of Shipbuilding Under the Admission to Cafes,” Oregonian, March 19, U.S. Maritime Commission in World War II 1943, p. 1. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 34. Oregon Labor Press, November 27, 2001), 277. AVAILABLE AT CENTRAL LIB. FOR 1942. USE THERE. 35. “Negro Crisis Given Airing: Charge of 18. Ibid., 296. False Pretense Made,” Oregonian, October 19. Harry H. Harrison, “Eclipse of World’s 16, 1942, p. 10. Largest Local,” Sunday Oregonian, November 36. “Negro Shipyard Workers Threaten to 24, 1946. Herzog, “A Study of the Negro De- Quit Work,” Oregonian, October 17, 1942, p. 8. fense Worker,” 12, 30. 37. “Negroes Ask Better Jobs,” Orego- 20. Foner, Organized Labor and the Black nian, October 9, 1942, p. 13. Worker, 207–211. 38. Kennedy Hickman, “World War II: The 21. Ibid., 231. Liberty Ship Program,” https://www.thoughtco. 22. Herbert R. Northrup, Organized Labor com/the-liberty-ship-program-2361030 (ac- and the Negro (New York: Harper & Brothers, cessed November 21, 2019); Mark S. Foster, 1944), 3–5. Henry J. Kaiser: Builder in the Modern Ameri- 23. Proceedings of the Sixteenth Consoli- can West (Austin: University Press of Texas, dated Convention of the International Brother- 1989), 73. hood of Boilermakers, 1937, in Philip S. Foner 39. “Negro Shipyard Workers Threaten to and Ronald L. Lewis, eds., The Black Worker Quit Work,” Oregonian, October 17, 1942, p. 8. from the Founding of the CIO to the AFL-CIO 40. Herzog, “A Study of the Negro De- Merger, 1936–1955 (Philadelphia: Temple fense Worker,” 16, 20. University Press, 1983),361–63. 41. Ibid., 16, 20; “Negro Shipyard Workers 24. Ibid., , 295. Threaten to Quit Work,” Oregonian, October 25. Northrup, Organized Labor and the 17, 1942, p. 8. Negro, 215. 42. “NEGRO YARD DIFFICULTY NEARS 26. Thurgood Marshall, The Crisis, 51 CRISIS, Boilermakers Union Chief Protesting (March 1944): 77–78, in Foner and Lewis, The Kaiser Promotions,” Oregonian, October 21, Black Worker From the Founding, 300–302. 1942, p. 1. 27. Clarence Mitchell to George Johnson, 43. Transcript of Fair Employment Prac- October 27, 1943, FEPC Records, reel 105, tices Committee Hearing held in Portland, in Alonzo Smith and Quintard Taylor, “Racial November 1943, p. 267, reproduced in Her- Discrimination in the Workplace: A Study of zog, “A Study of the Negro Defense Worker.” Two West Coast Cities During the 1940s,” The 44. “Union to Halt Dual Signups: Boil-

542 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 ermakers Get Official Order” Oregonian, sas City, Mo.: January 31, 1944), 83, copy in December 18, 1942, p. 12; Complaint to the author’s possession. Fair Employment Practice Committee sub- 58. Transcript of FEPC Hearings, in Foner mitted by the Shipyard Negro Organization and Lewis, The Black Worker from the Found- for Victory and the Portland Branch, National ing, 294. Association for the Advancement of Colored 59. International Brotherhood of Boil- People, in Herzog, “A Study of the Negro De- ermakers, Iron Shipbuilders and Helpers of fense Worker,” 111; “Kaiser Assures Fair Setup America, Report and Proceedings of the Sev- If Union-Negro Row Solved,” Oregonian, enteenth Consolidated Convention, 58, 61. November 17, 1943, p. 22. 60. Transcript of FEPC Hearings, in Foner 45. “200 Negroes Oppose Union: New and Lewis, The Black Worker from the Found- Auxiliary Plan Meets Disapproval,” Oregonian, ing, 294. January 31, 1943, p. 4. 61. Ibid. 46. FEPC Hearings, Summary Findings 62. Foner, Organized Labor and the Black and Directives, in Herzog, “A Study of the Worker, 247–48. Negro Defense Worker,” 124. 63. International Brotherhood of Boil- 47. Herzog, “A Study of the Negro De- ermakers, Iron Shipbuilders and Helpers fense Worker,” 30. of America, Report and Proceedings of the 48. FEPC Hearings, Summary Findings Seventeenth Consolidated Convention, 296. and Directives, p. 229, in Herzog, “A Study of 64. “Deception in the FEPC,” People’s the Negro Defense Worker,” 35–52. Observer, June 8, 1944, p. 4. 49. Ibid., 50–51. 65. “Roland Veney Promoted,” “Apology 50. “Declaration of Policy,” People’s Ob- Offered After Demonstration: Realization of server, June 29, 1943, p. 1; “Worker Efforts May War Aims Results in Explanation,” and “Strike Compel Restraining Order Here,” People’s at Swan Island,” Letter to the editor by “A Observer, April 15, 1944, p. 1 Worker,” People’s Observer, August 31, 1944, 51. Congressional Record, July 2, 1943, p. 1, 4. p. 7034, in Lane, Ships for Victory, 297; “CIO 66. Ibid., 4. Brought Charges to NLRB,” Oregon Labor 67 “Apology Offered After Demonstra- Press, November 27, 1943, p. 1; Foster, Henry tion,” People’s Observer, August 31, 1944, p. 1. J. Kaiser, 79–80. 68. Chauncey Del French, Waging War 52. “80 Negroes Taken Off Job,”People’s on the Home Front: An Illustrated Memoir of Observer, July 16, 1943, p. 1. World War II, (Corvallis: Oregon State Univer- 53. “More Negroes Lose Jobs,” People’s sity Press,), 127–30. Observer, July 31, 1943, p. 1. 69. Oregonian, June 17, 1945, p. 3. 54. “Workers Hear Rev. J.J. Crow,” People’s 70. Multnomah County Courthouse Observer, August 18, p. 1; Smith and Taylor, Records, No. 149-054, Complaint in Equity, “Racial Discrimination in the Workplace,” 40. April 7, 1943. 55. Transcript of Fair Employment Prac- 71. Quintard Taylor, “The Great Migration: tices Committee Hearing held in Portland, The Afro-American Communities of Seattle Oregon, November 1943, p. 148, in Herzog, and Portland During the 1940s,” Arizona and “A Study of the Negro Defense Worker,” 31 the West, 23:2 (Summer 1981): 112, http://www. 56. Complaint to the Fair Employment jstor.org/stable/40169136 (accessed Novem- Practice Committee, in Herzog, “A Study of ber 11, 2019). the Negro Defense Worker,” 110–11. 72. A. Philip Randolph, “Why I would not 57. International Brotherhood of Boil- Stand for Reelection as President of the Na- ermakers, Iron Shipbuilders and Helpers tional Negro Congress,” American Federation- of America, Report and Proceedings of the ist, 48 (July 1940), 24–25, in Foner, Organized Seventeenth Consolidated Convention (Kan- Labor and the Black Worker, 239–40.

Linder, Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards 543 S T 1910–1916 E THE POWER OF NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES lies not in some truth or insight they R capture, but rather, in their usefulness to the dominant culture. When consistently attached E to non-White individuals and groups, stereotypes marginalize and dehumanize their targets, such as in these two advertisements published in newspapers in Medford and O Ashland, Oregon. Blacks were often labeled as lazy, shiftless, prone to criminality, and T dangerous as a way to rationalize imposing discriminatory treatment on them. Native Y Americans were typically portrayed as sullen, untrustworthy, dishonest, and suspicious, when doing so served the need to direct special, negative treatment toward them. P E Ironically, such depictions could be flipped in the case of Native Americans, while still not acknowledging their basic human qualities. When the notion that dishonesty is the S default quality of Indigenous peoples, those who defy that description are elevated by the unexpected rarity of their exceptionalism. Their nonconformity to the assumed norm singles them out and raises them to the epitome of the quality for which they now stand, MACY & E R in its most rare and eminent expression. R E P S U

S S

T T

E E

A A

T T

N N I I

C C

H H

E E W W , March 13, 1910 Medford Tribune Ashland Tidings, October 26, 1916

545 “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

OREGON VOICES

by Sandy Polishuk

A system of White supremacy has many spinning wheels, all interactive and interdependent. Perhaps the most important level of every White supremacy system is the ground floor, the everyday normal people, who through their daily and routine decisions, behaviors, and attitudes allow the system to operate. This level makes a system of White supremacy so entrenched, so enduring, so powerful. It is also this level that makes it vulnerable, that makes evolution, correction, possible. To be permanent, White supremacy must be unanimous. But it never has been. Most people want to do the right thing. When the actions of those few who do resist make it apparent that continuing to support White supremacy is not that right thing, then comes change.

THE INTERNATIONAL Longshore- resulted in contradiction when a local men’s and Warehousemen’s Union asserted autonomy in its decision (ILWU, now “International Longshore to exclude Black workers.1 In 1968, and Warehouse Union), the union of this contradiction took center stage West Coast longshoremen, adopted when twenty-six Black longshore- a new constitution “that specifically men filed suit against ILWU Local 8 exempts race, religion, creed, color, and the Pacific Maritime Association, nationality, or ‘political affiliation’,”at the organization of the employers, its fourth annual convention in 1941. asserting they had been allowed to Because the union also had a long work but had wrongly been denied tradition of and commitment to democ- promotion and membership in the racy and local autonomy, that clause union. The result, by year’s end, was a

IN 1964, these Black men were hired as longshoremen in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 8. Celebrating their twenty-second anniversary of that hire, they met up in Portland, Oregon. In this photograph, published in the Portland Observer on November 19, 1986, are: (left to right standing) Levan Johnson, B.C. Jones, Harold Burns, Sandy Harris, Robert B. Fambro, Julius Moore, Huey Martin; (left to right seated) Bobby Barber, Na-eem Muhammad, A.W. Hammonds, Abe Graham, and Billy Rhymes.

consent agreement with Local 8 that International Longshore Association would eventually change the face of (ILA). The ILA headquarters were on the union in Portland. the East Coast and its more conserva- Under the leadership of the ILWU’s tive president, Joseph Ryan, tolerated founding president and master nego- Bridges only because of his power in tiator, Harry Bridges, longshoring had the union’s West Coast branch. When become a well-compensated and Ryan finally cut off Bridges’s salary in desirable profession, so it is not surpris- 1937, Bridges took all but three of the ing that membership in the union was West Coast locals with him and formed — and is — something to fight about. the ILWU. Bridges was a rank-and-file longshore- The ILWU became an affiliate man who rose to leadership in the of the CIO, which, “at its founding union during labor struggles culminat- convention in 1938 . . . declared its ing in the San Francisco 1934 General ‘uncompromising opposition to any Strike. At that time, the union was the form of discrimination, whether politi-

Polishuk, “They can’t come in through the front door because you guys won’t let them” 547 cal or economic, based on race, and Theophilus Jermany.5 During the color, creed, or nationality’.”2 Some 1960s, African Americans’ hopes for ILWU locals, however, failed to fully fair labor practices were raised by the live up to those anti-racist ideals. In civil rights movement and the resulting 1945, for example, the Stockton local 1964 Civil Rights Act. The act did not charter was suspended after members end discrimination in private employ- refused to work alongside a Japanese ment or grant the Justice Department American worker recently released power to initiate desegregation or job from wartime incarceration, and in the discrimination lawsuits, but it did cre- early 1970s, Black longshoremen sued ate an atmosphere and expectation Local 13, Port of Los Angeles and Long that discrimination would no longer Beach, California, under the 1964 Civil be tolerated — as well as grounds on Rights Act, seeking equal treatment in which to sue. The docks were hiring in promotion and other effects of racism. 1963, and both civil rights groups and Portland’s Local 8 was an especially the international pressured Local 8 to flagrant offender.3 include some Blacks. For the first time, Unlike most other ILWU city ports, forty-six Black men were hired as Class the Portland waterfront had been lily- B longshoremen.6 white through much of the twentieth Then, as now, there are three clas- century. The City of Portland itself sifications of workers on the waterfront. was very ‘white’; before the influx of Class A longshoremen are fully regis- shipyard workers during World War II, tered and are the only ones eligible for Blacks comprised only 0.6 percent of union membership. Class B are called Portland’s population — slightly over to work after all the class As have 2,500 people. By 1960, Portland was been placed in a job that day. Casuals, home to over sixteen thousand African holders of “white cards,” with no official Americans, an eight-fold increase but standing, are technically issued to any- still only 2.1 percent of the population.4 one asking for a single day when there There had been pressure on Local are no available A- or B-men and more 8 from above, from both Bridges and workers are needed. These titles were the international union, as well as from adapted to an already existing system within by progressive longshoremen in 1959, in response to the Labor Man- who wanted to see change, but those agement Relations Act of 1947, better Local 8 members were very much in known as the Taft-Hartley Act. Class the minority. Some Black men had B workers were to be allowed into tried to make their way on the Port- the union and could be promoted to land waterfront, but had hit a wall and Class A after a probationary period.7 given up. As an oral historian in the A longshoreman’s workplace differs region, I had interviewed a number from most unionized workplaces, of retired members of Local 8 and because the invitation (or requirement) had heard about two Black men who to join the union when one is hired, or made the attempt during World War II shortly thereafter, does not come auto- when work was plentiful: Harry Mills matically or quickly but only after a trial

548 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 OHS Research Library, org. lot 700, OrHi 87254 period and a vote of the local membership. Together, the Coast Labor Relations Com- mittee (CLRC) in San Francisco, consisting of representatives of the international union, and the employers’ organization, the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), serving the ports in the Northwest, approves the addition of names to the B list. But the local union and the local PMA, as the “joint committee,” ran the Portland hiring hall.8 In 1968, forty-six Black men were working on the Portland waterfront, and twenty-six of them filed suit, alleging they were not being advanced from Class B to Class A.9 Julia HARRY BRIDGES founded the International Ruuttila alerted me to this Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in 1937. struggle when I was interview- He is pictured here in 1967 giving a speech at the ing her for an oral history of ILWU Ladies’ Auxiliary in North Bend, Oregon. her life and work. This story was beyond the scope of the biography of Ruuttila I was writing, but and of the African Americans who knowing the progressive reputation of fought back. the ILWU, my curiosity got the better Linell Hill’s name was on the case of me. In 1994, three years after Ruut- as lead plaintiff. He had been allowed tila’s death, I interviewed a number to work as a B-man under pressure of the players in the conflict. Excerpts from the international and the federal from those interviews, as well as some government to admit Blacks workers earlier ones, are reproduced here. Hill rose to work as a crane operator Participants on both sides of the case and a foreman. He later served as vice predictably had memories and ideas president of Local 8 and 92, the walking influenced by their differing roles and boss or foremen’s local.10 I interviewed points of view, sometimes contradict- two other Black workers, Bob Fambro ing each other: “We were doing it” vs. and Theophilus Jermany. Fambro had “We had to sue to get it.” It is a story of previously worked on the waterfront in what happened when an autonomous Philadelphia, where the union was the local’s membership was sufficiently ILA. He was the only African American racist to successfully resist opening working on the Portland waterfront its membership to African Americans when he started there as a casual in

Polishuk, “They can’t come in through the front door because you guys won’t let them” 549 OHS Research Library, 0026P311 Library, OHS Research

IN MAY 1943, Lawrence Sefton (center) examines donated clothing bundles with Mrs. A.L. Cohn, clothing collection chairperson, for the local Russian War Relief warehouse. Sefton was one of the ILWU Local 8 members who actively worked to integrate the union.

1961. By the time I talked to him in the surprisingly, their points of view (and mid 1990s, not only was he in the union, their clients’ interests) differed, and but so was his son, Bob Fambro, Jr. His therefore their accounts of the case wife, Clara Fambro, was President of the are quite different as well. Portland ILWU’s Federated Auxiliary. Bob Jr. and attorney Paul Meyer represented Clara were present for the interview. the Blacks who filed the complaint Fambro Sr. did not join the suit and, in against Local 8 and the PMA. Meyer fact, was proud that he had gotten into was one of the lawyers who had the union the “regular” way. Jermany restarted a defunct Portland American had tried to work on the waterfront Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) affiliate in much earlier, during World War II, but 1955. The union was represented by grew discouraged and gave up.11 Frank Pozzi, who was still their attor- I also interviewed the lawyers on ney when we spoke in 1994. His first both sides, one a Jewish American experience on the waterfront was as and the other an Italian American. Not a working longshoreman.

550 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 I also interviewed three White men sixteen years, retiring in 1985. Again, who were union longshoremen. Larry there are conflicting accounts. No one Sefton and Jimmy Fantz, the latter on the defendant’s side — that is, the a strong ally of Harry Bridges, both union — wanted to be seen as racist. began working on the waterfront in The plaintiffs naturally wanted to be the 1930s and were part of the fac- seen as justified in taking their action. tion wanting to break the color barrier I have also included excerpts from in the local. In 1959, Fantz replaced my interviews with Ruuttila, who was Matt Meehan as the Northwest inter- secretary to the Northwest interna- national representative. G. “Johnny” tional representative, Matt Meehan, Parks came to the waterfront after his from 1948 through the late 1950s. discharge from the Navy following She also worked as a reporter for the World War II. He worked as the North- union’s newspaper, The Dispatcher, west Regional Director of the union for until 1987.

Here, the ILWU’s attorney gives some And he did this time too. It took a lot of historical background and recounts years, but he did it. how one African American worker, There was a guy in Portland from Harry Mills, was working as a long- the NAACP and he was involved. We shoreman on the Portland docks but had marches on the hall, you know, was refused admittance to the union: and all that baloney. Which did no good by the way, it really was no good. FRANK POZZI: It all started . . . [because] It slowed things down a lot, actually in the employers didn’t want blacks. This getting things done. was the truth. . . . Then at the beginning of World War II or during, there Sefton recalled an African American was a fellow named [Harry] Mills. worker’s efforts to make it as a long- Mills came to Portland. Some guys shoreman during World War II. Jermany had supporters among the union mem- got him in. Jimmy Fantz did a lot to get bership, but it was not sufficient. him in, [to] help. And they just turned him down, the local. And they did it LARRY SEFTON: A decision was made really because, one, they didn’t know during the Second World War. Theophi- any better, but number two, it wasn’t lus Jermany was working as a casual, because he was black, it was because had applied and had been passed by everybody thought Harry [Bridges] had the [union] committee. The man that put the whole deal together and this is was business agent at the time moved typical of the local saying to Harry, “Go regarding the application of Jermany to hell Harry.” But Harry would always that for the good of the local his appli- come out on top before it was all over. cation be denied.12

Polishuk, “They can’t come in through the front door because you guys won’t let them” 551 OHS Research Library, org. lot 700, OrHi 87253 Library, OHS Research

JIMMY FANTZ AND JULIA RUUTTILA are pictured here on June 7, 1969. Fantz was a white longshoreman who supported integrating the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

There were eight of us that voted me in Vancouver at the restaurant no. Only eight of out more than a and talk to me about taking the job. thousand. It was cut and dried. I am That’s how secretive they were about positive that this was the first time it, you know, they wanted to talk to that a recorded position [on Blacks] me over there. . . . then I went in and was taken. signed up. Sefton did more than just vote no. He I never had any idea about any was one of the longshoremen who, promotion. I know that they quit hoping to break the color barrier, had signing me out. Larry [Sefton] made actively recruited Jermany. Here, Jer- many explains how, despite literally me a plug with my number on it and having a “plug” that would allow him I would go down to put the plug to be selected, White union members in early in the morning and then effectively excluded him from access to everybody that worked there knew daily jobs. my plug so when jobs would come THEOPHILUS JERMANY: Some up in the morning, they’d just pass of the Longshoremen would meet the plug on and put it in the bottom

552 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 and just never get signed on some guy from Seattle, they had made a tour days. In other words, I was just frozen of the Gulf coast to see how things out and people I’d wanted to be a were going down there and invited partner, they never would sign us them to come out on the West Coast out together. and see what the union had done for the West Coast, you know, and to work Jimmy Fantz was another White longshoreman who supported the integra- for awhile. So some of them did that. tion of the workforce but struggled to Well eventually one of [the Black effectively change the local’s practice. workers] that was from the gulf’d been a longshoreman for years came to : JIMMY FANTZ Well, nobody got Portland and the dispatcher said, “You mistreated during the war because have to go before the executive board we were following a strictly pro-war and request a work permit here.” program and we needed lots of A longshoreman on the execu- casuals during the war. Blacks were tive board stood up and he started needed. One of them [Harry Mills] saying, “Well, you know, we’ve never stuck around. . . . Come time to take really had any of you fellows here him in the union, we had a proce- and, you know, it might be better if dure. . . . There was some people you go to some local where it’s not that objected so they voted down his any problem,” and he reached in his acceptance. pocket and got some money and he I talked to [Mills]. I did the best I said, “I’m willing to give you so much,” could, you know, to convince him it was and everybody on the darn executive for the benefit of his race as well as board I think, except me, was willing himself to try to get past this stumbling to put out five or ten dollars and he block. He said, “I don’t have to put up could go on to Seattle. with this.” That had been a stick in my I even hate to admit that hap- craw and I was determined to try to pened here, but that’s the problem change that and it was a lot of years that we faced. They said, “Well, we’re there that I was trying to do whatever a democratic meeting and we don’t I could. I even joined the NAACP and want him here.” told them what my objective was, that it was the right thing to do, to change Another Black man, Bob Fambro, had a very different experience when he first [the union’s policy of excluding Blacks]. came to the docks after relocating to When I was president in 1937, of Portland in 1962. the local, by that time quite a few of these blacks had decided that they ROBERT “BOB” FAMBRO: [I] went by were going to take advantage of the the Longshoremen’s hall and every- privileges we had in our industry to body was pretty courteous to me cause go to any local and present our book I still had those [ILA] buttons that I had and work for awhile and see what’s on the east coast on my hat. I went going on.13 [Bob] Robertson, who was in and I was told, “You come back in international vice-president, and this a few days and we’ll put you on.” So

Polishuk, “They can’t come in through the front door because you guys won’t let them” 553 OHS Research Library, org. lot 700, OrHi 086154 Library, OHS Research

G. JOHNNY PARKS (far right) waits to speak at an IWA convention in Portland, Oregon, in the late 1970s. Parks was the ILWU representative of the Columbia River District at that time. Also in this photograph are Juila Ruuttila (far left), Lois Stranahau, and Jesse Stranahau (retired ILWU).

a morning came where it was a lot of They had the gang system, certain snow on the ground and I said, “This gangs I tried to keep from going in is a good chance.” cause they was so racist and some- A few guys didn’t like the idea of times those guys would be getting me being there but they didn’t say the long jobs and it’d be sometime nothing. . . . Every once in awhile you’d I would be without work for a long come around . . . where a group of while and not being able to go in on guys is standing there and they would those gangs.14 I didn’t want to go in on hush up real quick, change their con- them because I didn’t want to [get] into versation right quick. trouble. I mean I would have to carry a After I figured out who to talk to, it firearm with me all the time. was not bad. I went around and made One time they dropped paper on friends with a few guys, a few of the me in the hold. . . . I jumped . . . but a old-time longshoremen. They might whole bolt of paper was sliding back have said a good word for me. They and forth and it hit me just as I went gave me a little protection. If some- to get up under the coal bin. I knew it body was gonna do something they’d wasn’t an accident. One of the guys tell them to lay off. even admitted it later on, did it on

554 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 purpose, but he could always say the little discussion. We went forward to winches was bad. finally conclude it and that took what Periodically, the international would two years, three years before any intervene. damn law suit. G. “Johnny” Parks, a White longshoreman, JULIA RUUTTILA: Things got so bad resisted allowing Blacks in the union. that Lou Goldblatt, secretary-treasurer of the international union, came to Port- G. “JOHNNY” PARKS: I started out land. He was one of the best people on the waterfront in 1947. There were the union had. That was 1964 when no blacks there. The old-time long- work was booming on the waterfront shoremen were very set in their ways and they were going to take in four and they didn’t care if the world knew hundred new “B” men, and Harry it. Some of the old timers that were Bridges had said that every one of the here from the 1934 days and so forth, four hundred should be black to make resented not only blacks, they resented up for the years of discrimination. my being on the waterfront and that’s Lou Goldblatt came to Portland where I got the name Johnny. They and he said, “Things can’t go on like called me a Johnny-come-lately and this,” and he said, “There’s got to be they wouldn’t even talk to me. a compromise. You’ve got to take in When the controversy came up 15 forty blacks.” about blacks, I took offense at that. I The 1964 compromise resulted in forty- don’t want the international union or six Blacks being admitted as “B” men. the courts saying “You’ve got to take Frank Pozzi, attorney for the ILWU, so many because you don’t have any.” I argued that the lawsuit therefore was opposed that theory. I was even called unnecessary. a racist at times. FRANK POZZI: We had an all-day I said to myself, “There aren’t any meeting, negotiating with the Interna- blacks here, but if blacks want a job tional in San Francisco in about ’64 . . . here let ’em get a job the same way the there wasn’t any pressure. It was a Swedes and the Norwegians and the friendly meeting. It was the union itself Irishmen and these other ethnic groups that was doing it regardless of [the] civil get it. Let ’em come in through the front rights [act] because the union always door.” And a lot of my black friends, believed in civil rights. There were a especially in San Francisco, who were few guys in Portland that weren’t very officials of the union, agreed with me good and we worked it out. and said, “Johnny, we understand that. Anyway we agreed in a very infor- Only thing is it can’t happen that way mal manner and then finally formally because they can’t come in through to do something about getting blacks the front door because you guys won’t into the local. So the International was let ’em in.” saying one thing and we were really But anyway it worked out. We took agreeing but, you know, there was a in those black people and had some

Polishuk, “They can’t come in through the front door because you guys won’t let them” 555 pretty good restrictions too. They JULIA RUUTTILA: When they finally couldn’t have a police record, felonies did take those forty [sic] “B” men in, it that is, and they had to be registered was still difficult for the blacks because voters because the committee felt that there was a ruling on the waterfront if a person that was a registered voter you were in a fight — you know it’s so was a little more responsive to civic dangerous working on the waterfront duties and not an irresponsible person. — that the people in the fight would And so the black people that came into both be fired; but in those early days, Local 8 in the main were good people. the only ones that got fired were the blacks. So some of the real racists down there would provoke fights and they got rid of a great many of them, but Robert Fambro, he stood up to all of it. He was one Courtesy of ILWU Archives Courtesy of ILWU of three or four or five, maybe, that survived.

BOB FAMBRO: A lot of pressure came from Bridges. This local here had always been a head- ache of his. He dried up this port once for ten or twelve months when they refused to do something. He had all the ships pull out of here. He had a lot of power. Those shippers would listen to him pretty close. African American Long- LINELL HILL poses for a photograph published in the shoreman Linell Hill owed Dispatcher on November 5, 1976, in an article about his his hiring to the compro- efforts to save the life of a Portland police officer. Hill mise. received an award from then mayor, Neil Goldschmidt, LINELL HILL: We were for stopping an assailant from firing a gun and killing originally hired in 1964 the officer. In the photograph, Hill demonstrates how he used his hand to block the gun’s hammer from hitting as “B” men. We were the pin. After stopping the gun from firing, according to a what they call “off- November 25 account in the Oregonian, Hill held down street” hires. It was a lot the suspect while the officer placed him in handcuffs. of institutional racism,

556 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 subtle racism, outward racism, out- against Local 8 and the PMA, under ward animosity, not only towards the the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In June, the EEOC “found that reasonable cause black longshoremen, but to the white existed to believe defendants . . . were longshoremen who were considered in violation of Title VII,” the section “off the street.” In other words, you making discrimination in employment had registered longshoremen who illegal. When conciliation efforts to felt as though their child should have achieve voluntary compliance proved unsuccessful, Paul Meyer filed a law- had this job. suit in U.S. District Court. In December, Oh yeah, I was concerned with my representatives of all the parties met in safety. You had winch drivers, you had Judge Gus Solomon’s chambers to work hold men, you had a lot of people that out a settlement. The representatives of did try to put you in what we call the the Joint Port Registration Committee agreed to begin admitting the Blacks bite, put you in a precarious position to to “A” status and to move them for get hurt. I mean, I took all precautionary union membership by August, but they measures, you know. But there’s a lot refused to allow continuing oversight of of other ways to get to you as opposed new applications by the state Bureau to just hurting you. Work practice, you of Labor.16 know. There was work practice that PAUL MEYER Attorney for the plain- make you do the majority of the work, tiffs: Prior to ’64 they had a thousand you know, put you in the position to fifty “A’s” and a hundred and fifty “B,” work the hardest. Not being told how none of whom were black, nor were to do the work, where they would tell any black men admitted to member- the white longshoremen. You know, you ship in Local 8, for which you needed can do a whole lot of work and then the to be for “A” registration. And the 300 boss’d come back and tell you to tear men then holding casual, or white it down. “Why did you do it like this? cards, only eleven were black. Why’d you do it like that? “ Registration then opened for A lot of the guys that they didn’t approximately 300 “B” longshoremen harass out of here, black and white, and the joint committee established they worked ’em out of there. I mean criteria. One hundred would come it was hard work, real hard work from the best qualified applicants then. Everything was hand mucking. among the then casual, 200 from Most of the black longshoremen that other applicants. The civil rights orga- were hired at that time come from nizations made efforts and so46 of very menial jobs: bellhops, busboys, the 299 “B” were black, as registered worked in hospitals. You did jobs that in February of ’64. That was about didn’t require any physical. The intent the first time blacks had been permit- was to hire people that wouldn’t last. ted to work except for a few casual Maybe six or seven guys got run off. workers. . . . The Black workers filed their 1968 We alleged that they [the joint complaint with the Equal Employ- committee] intentionally engaged in ment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) unlawful practices, in violation of Title

Polishuk, “They can’t come in through the front door because you guys won’t let them” 557 The lead plaintiff: -3 LINELL HILL: The 117 9- , 7 ’68 suit was to eliminate the um se u practices within Local 8. The M S H O officers and the rank and file of Local8 had come up with a thing called the point system where we had to have 70 points to move into the class “A” status. You could lose points but you couldn’t gain points. You had no knowledge of who had filed charges against you. A gang boss, any registered longshore- THIS MEMBERSHIP PIN for the International Longshore man, whatever they and Warehouse Union is held in the OHS Museum perceived to be “bad collections. work practice,” you got to work late or whatever, and they VII. Part of the way it came about was would write you up and they would they established a point system when turn it into the hall. Everyone started they added the black men into the “B” with 100 points. Only thing you could registration to determine when “B” do was maintain or lose. would be promoted to “A.” That had I had 100 points so to me it was never been done before. Prior to ’64 it saying it was a stronger case when a was customary when class “A” registra- person with 100 points complained. It tions opened to promote substantially didn’t bother me because I knew that the entire class of “B” men to “A” status I had the backing of the Pacific Coast which then made them eligible for the Longshore Contract Document.17 union. We had run our gauntlet with the [The point system] was a tech- grievance procedure, that much of the nique to discriminate against blacks. grievance procedure that we could And then we also had nine who had eke out of our officers. And we had been promoted to “A” and therefore the backing from the coast committee, ostensibly should have been entitled also Harry Bridges. Matter of fact, the to union membership, but they were International was a friends of court in each refused because each had the law suit. opposed practices made unlawful by A lot of them [black workers] didn’t Title VII. sign [onto the lawsuit] because the

558 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 officers of Local 8 told a lot of guys, if happen. It had to happen. Everybody you don’t sign we’ll see to it that you agreed it would happen. Even the get registration. And they did. The guys one or two in the diehards. And it did that didn’t sign, they weren’t held back. happen. . . . [The law suit] didn’t make A lot of the guys just come right out any difference. [Did it speed it up?] six front and told us, said, “Man I’m afraid months, a year, maybe. No I don’t think I’m gonna lose my job. I been through that really did it. this before and when they get through shaking out the sheets and iron the LINELL HILL: You could tell Pozzi had laundry, I was left holding the bag.” cut some deals with Judge Solomon. Judge Solomon’s consent decree PAUL MEYER: [Judge] Gus Solomon, stated that they weren’t supposed to was a very dedicated civil libertarian. discriminate against us on registration, He wanted to make some progress. but they did. We walked out of that Frank Pozzi, who in his public per- God-damned room, nothing changed. sona purported to be a liberal and a We just had some shit on paper, but it Democrat and all the good things that was up to us to push it. A lot of things liberals are supposed to be, but in this that I feel we achieved through the law case, to me, he was supporting the suit, it was never put down on paper. union and their bigotry, unashamedly We achieved “A” registration but we and with passion. I was not afraid of didn’t achieve Local 8 registration, see. going to court because I think it would The coast registered us above the have been devastatingly difficult for objections of Local 8. The local couldn’t the union. I think we would have stop us from working class “A” man, exploded them. but by not giving you local registration, they could keep you out of the Local FRANK POZZI Attorney for the union: 8 membership meetings. I had all the Gus [Solomon] got us in there and Gus benefits. I was dispatched as a class “A” said what are you doing? Say “We’re longshoreman, but I paid “B” longshore- doing it.” We were. At the time, we were man dues because I was not a member. doing it, you see. We were taking ’em So then time came to pass where in. Well a couple of guys tried to stall the rank and file started waking up. it, but it was coming and so we told “Here’s a guy working right next to me. Gus what we were gonna do and he He’s paying twenty dollars a month in effect okayed it. and I’m paying forty. He’s getting the Right then the only thing that the same benefits I am and it’s costing me local was concerned with, the local another twenty dollars a month to keep president, as I recall, was just insist- him out of the membership meeting?” ing on doing it in order, the way we So they say, “Shit, let’s give ’em Local had agreed upon, his union. That’s 8 registration.” We got coastwise regis- all. And that’s all the hell Gus did. tration in ’68. [Local 8 registration came It was all overgrown. It was gonna in August of 1969.]

Polishuk, “They can’t come in through the front door because you guys won’t let them” 559 PAUL MEYER: The major thing was country, another year or six months that it got all of my people, as I recall, isn’t gonna be the be-all end-all and it into “A” status and into the union. And probably will quote “take better” if the there were some face-saving devices. union isn’t offended by the process or To me it was a bunch of pettifoggery feel like they’ve been bloodied. about we’ve got to save our faces so Longshoreman Parks, who advised Afri- we’ll do it gradually as if we’re doing can Americans to come in through the it out of the goodness of our hearts, (closed) front door gets the last word: not because we are required to by the law. And you know, Gus is sitting there G. “JOHNNY” PARKS: I said, “Well, as a judge looking at the long run and I’ll tell you something Judge, we must figuring probably that, you know, for have something good going for us. people who have been discriminated It’s the only union in this country that against for 300 hundred years in this people are suing to get into.”

NOTES

1. Foster Hailey, “Bridges Code Put Into Community (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Union’s Laws; Race, Creed, Color, or Politics Winston, 1972), 68. Barred by Coast Dock Group as Membership 5. All interviews in person unless Test,” New York Times, April 9, 1941, p 22. See otherwise noted; all tapes in possession of also https://www.ilwu.org/about/ten-guiding- author. Robert (Bob) Fambro with Bob Jr. and principles/. Clara Fambro, February 25, 1994; Jimmy Fantz 2. Bruce Nelson, “The ‘Lords of the Docks’ with Charlotte Fantz, June 11, 1992; Linell Hill Reconsidered: Race Relations among West March 1, 1994; Theophilis Jeramy, June 13, Coast Longshoremen, 1933–61”, in Waterfront 1990; Paul Meyer March 21, 1994; G ‘Johnny’ Workers: New Perspectives on Race and Parks May 13, 1992; Frank Pozzi December Class, ed. Calvin Winslow, (Urbana & Chicago: 26, 1990, June 10, 1992 (on phone), March University of Illinois Press, 1998), 155. 29, 1994 (on phone); Julia Ruuttila multiple 3. Nelson, ‘The “Lords of the Docks” interviews between December 1, 1983 & April Reconsidered,” 159; Jake Alimahomed- 16, 1984 &, April 6, 1987; Larry Sefton April 2, Wilson, “Black Longshoremen and the Fight 1994. Interview transcripts have been heavily for Equality in an ‘Anti-racist’ Union,” Race edited for publication here. and Class 53:4 (April 2012): 39–53. 6. Pilcher, Portland Longshoremen, 60–62. 4. William W. Pilcher, The Portland See also Sandy Polishuk, Sticking to the Union: Longshoremen: A Dispersed Urban An Oral History of the Life and Times of Julia

560 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Ruuttila (Palgrave Mcmillan, 2003), 133–34. American Longshore coalition, sent on April 7. Charles P. Larrowe, Harry Bridges: 9, 1993, and reading, in part: “Our employer, The Rise and Fall of Radical Labor in the The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), and United States, (New York: Lawrence Hill & our union, Local 8, have failed to respond to Co., 1972), 362. our letters of inquiry [sent January 27, 1993] on 8. Since the PMA’s founding in 1949, the issue of African American Longshoremen the principal business of the PMA is to being systematically phased out of the negotiate and administer maritime labor Longshore Industry in Portland.” agreements with the International Longshore 12. The business agent is an elected and Warehouse Union (ILWU). This includes and paid union officer who represents a coast-wide contract covering nearly 15,000 the interests of the members of the local longshore, clerk, and foreman workers at in disputes with the employer; in other twenty-nine ports along the West Coast, from unions, the position is often called a union southern California to the Pacific Northwest. representative or steward. See http://www.pmanet.org/overview. 13. At this point in the interview, Jimmy’s 9. See Polishuk, Sticking to the Union, wife Charlotte interrupted to say that she did 134. not think he had been president that early. 10. See “In Memory of Linell Hill, August 14. Pre-mechanization, when the work 12, 1939 – March 5, 2012,” http://obits. was heavily physical, gangs of four to six men dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/ formed to unload and stow cargo. obituary.aspx?n=Linell-Hill&lc=4868&pid=15 15. The Modernization and Mechanization 6336869&mid=5022403 (accessed October (M & M) agreement, negotiated by Harry 9, 2019). Bridges in 1960, included a shifting to a 11. One might get the impression that, more coastwide hiring strategy and to due to the eventual success within the union the international wielding authority over of Hill and the Fambros, issues of racism and promotion of B-men to A. For more detail discrimination ceased to exist in the local. see Louis Goldblatt, Men and Machines (San That is not the case; these problems persist Francisco: ILWU,1963). in the local as they do elsewhere, and issues 16. Minutes of Special Meeting of the continue to arise with minority and female Portland Joint Longshore Labor Relations members sometimes organizing and/or Committee for Registration, no. 41, August 20, calling out their concerns within the union 1968, no. 45, ILWU:P; Complaint for Injunctive and even in public. A recent example took and Affirmative Relief and Damages under place in 1993, as documented by Jim Hill, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the “Black Longshoremen Cite Bias,” Oregonian, United States District Court for the District April 10, 1993, p. E01: “The African American of Oregon, civil no. 68-608, filed October Longshore Coalition said it had sent letters 29, 1968; Linell Hill, et al, v. Local 8, ILWU, to Gov. Barbara Roberts, Mayor Vera Katz et al, civil no. 68-608, 6 December 6, 1968, and Rep. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asking them transcript of proceedings, pp. 3–4. to help create ‘an open and fair workplace.’ 17. The ILWU-PMA Pacific Coast The target of the coalition’s efforts is Local Longshore and Clerks’ Agreement. 8 of the International Longshoremen’s and The parties are the International of the Warehousemen’s Union. ‘Racism is very International Longshore and Warehouse rampant and alive on the waterfront,’ said Union and the coastwise Pacific Maritime Jerome Polk, a Portland longshoreman and Association. A more resent version can be coalition member.” The article was likely in seen here https://www.ilwu.org/wp-content/ response to a press release of the African uploads/2010/12/1999-2002-PCLCD.pdf

Polishuk, “They can’t come in through the front door because you guys won’t let them” 561 R A C I S M

MACY & E R R E P S U

S S

T T

E E

A A

T T

N N I I

C C

H H

E E W W

1939

AGATHA CHRISTIE is one of the world’s most popular authors of mystery novels. The novel shown here is one of her most successful. Written in the 1930s, it was an example of how casually acceptable the use of demeaning racial language was during that time. The book was eventually made into a popular movie in 1965, titled Ten Little Indians, with numerous remakes into the twenty-first century. The basic plot of the novel remained the same, but the evolution and imagery of the title changed dramatically over time. It is perhaps a revealing and hopeful sign. Change is possible. While it is not possible to determine whether such change is driven by increased sensitivity or the pressures to preserve profitability, it still stands as evidence that the influence of White supremacy is not immutable. 1940 1960s

563 From Nativism to White Power

Mid-Twentieth-Century White Supremacist Movements in Oregon

RESEARCH FILES

by Shane Burley and Alexander Reid Ross

The Ku Klux Klan, a racist, terrorist organization born after the Civil War, was rebooted following World War I. This resurgence was the high-water mark of classic White supremacy ideology in Oregon. By the end of the 1920s, the Klan’s influence had died of self-inflicted wounds. The vehicles that would carry White supremacy activism into the next generations of Oregon life were inspired by international strains of anti-Jewish bigotry and competing claims of White Protestant religious destiny — both conjoined with classic notions of nineteenth-century racism. The individuals, organizations, issues, and activities those forces introduced to Oregon culture and politics redefined what White supremacy ideology would look like in Oregon during the second half of the twentieth century.

DURING THE PERIOD between combative relationship between the the two world wars, White supremacist good, productive “people” and the organizations in Oregon were influ- evil, parasitic “elites” — but racism enced by rise of fascism in Germany and remained their guiding principle. Italy. Thoroughly antisemitic and White Leadership repeatedly asserted supremacist, these groups focused that the implementation of federal outrage against what they misconstrued New Deal policies amounted to a as outsized Jewish influence in banking consolidation of a Jewish-dominated and in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s admin- ruling class responsible for the istration. Although their membership 2 numbers remained relatively small, impoverishment of common people. these organizations provided a crucial The leading scholar of comparative link to the development of radical right- fascist studies, Roger Griffin, argues wing groups during the postwar era.1 that fascism is defined by calls for or All of these interwar fascist attempts to reclaim a mythically pure groups in Oregon could appear pop- past, and we add that fascism can fur- ulist — with their rhetoric outlining a ther be defined as a mass movement

THE AMERICAN GENTILE YOUTH MOVEMENT distributed stickers such as this one across the country during the late 1930s, according to a 1938 Investigation of Un- American Propaganda Activities in the United States hearings report. This and other White supremacist materials are held in the George Rennar Papers at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library in Portland, Oregon.

with intense reliance on specific, we focus on White supremacism’s collective identities.3 In the cases of taking the form of an ideological the groups discussed here — from emphasis on mystical Aryan glory interwar German-associated orga- in opposition to a paradoxical loath- nizations to the postwar Christian ing of Jews as, simultaneously, rich Identity movement — that sense of bankers, Bolsheviks, and federal identity is linked to White supremacy authorities. and is rooted in antisemitism. Significant documentation of those We define White supremacy as interwar organizations in the Pacific a set of ideological or institutional Northwest can be found in just two document cases that compose the precepts attributing superiority of George Rennar papers in the Oregon White people over everyone else. Historical Society Research Library. While White supremacism is often Covering the years 1922 to 1959, the expressed through individuals or collection includes meeting minutes, group ideologies, it can also mani- correspondence, leaflets, and other 4 fest in institutional inequality. In this primary-source materials that provide discussion of fascist-inspired White- glimpses into a variety of interlinked, supremacist movements of the mid- racist, and nationalist organizations twentieth-century Pacific Northwest, from those years. The documents

Burley and Ross, From Nativism to White Power 565 University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, SOC13714 University of Washington

SILVER LEGION OF AMERICA members, also known as Silver Shirts, pose in front of Silver Lodge in Redmond, Washington, in about 1936. William Pelley, pictured in black in the center of the second row from the front, founded the group and embraced White supremacy, antisemitism, racism, and anti-communism.

reveal connections among leaders, between the interwar organizations and some organizing strategies, and both the more militarized White supremacist, consistencies and changes in espoused or White nationalist, organizations that ideologies. Some groups documented took root during the postwar period in in the collection, and discussed here, the Pacific Northwest. The ideology of include Friends of New Germany British-Israelism — that is, the belief that (later the German American Bund, or Anglo-Saxon people and not Jews are simply, the Bund), the Silver Legion of the true genealogical descendants of America or Silver Shirts, the American the Bible’s “chosen people” — appears Defenders, and Americans Incorpo- as a connecting feature, with spiritual rated. At times, the Portland Police’s leader William Dudley Pelley a central “Red Squad” coordinated with some of figure in that connection.6 these organizations, and membership It is possible to say that Pelley’s overlapped. Membership also over- devout Methodist upbringing in a lapped with the Ku Klux Klan, which was hard-bitten coastal Massachusetts prominent in Oregon during the 1920s town determined his ambitious rise and has been extensively studied by to American mystic. A talented writer, other historians.5 Materials in the Ren- Pelley imbued into his early stories his nar collection indicate important links millenarian faith in a utopian future of

566 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 direct democracy, which gained him and “pyramid dates,” around which the stature enough to leave his East Coast universe vibrated most intensely, Pel- roots for a career in what he called “the ley came into contact with Nazi ideas. necromancy of movie making.”7 During With the rise of Hitler, Pelley converted the 1920s, Pelley’s increasingly arcane his mystical sect into a paramilitary mixture of the occult and populism political movement, espousing a brand was influenced by prevailing spiritual- of state corporatism in which White, ist ideas of the time as well as his 1918 native-born citizens would own equal sojourn through Civil War–ravaged shares of national stock, Black people Siberia, where antisemitic attitudes would become “wards of the state,” and pervaded, and a sense that Jewish Jews would be relegated to one city in producers held back his Hol- lywood career. His biographer OHS Research Library, Mss 2819, box 2, “Misc.” folder argues that “the great irony of Pelley’s work during the 1920s is that he had to dwell among the libertine residents of southern California to produce defenses of traditional values.”8 At the end of the decade, Pelley experienced a dream-vision that drove him to dedicate himself entirely to mystical pursuits. He understood humans to be refractions of “Love by Vibration” emanat- ing from the “Divine Mind” that was accessible through clai- raudient communication with the “harmonious plane” above Earth.9 Published in 1929 in the popular American Magazine, Pelley’s testimony of spiritual transformation “became WILLIAM DUDLEY PELLEY is depicted here one of the most widely read in a line drawing on a pamphlet titled “What You accounts of paranormal activ- Should Know About Pelley Publications.” Pelley was a central figure in White supremacist movements ity in American history.” He across the United States, including the Silver moved to Ashland, North Caro- Legion of America. In the pamphlet, Pelley explains lina, to immerse himself in the that readers should ready themselves “with a development of his new cult. knowledge of Red-Jewish tactics,” so that they will As he built a following based know how to lead “when the aroused Christian on an apocalyptic interpreta- element of the nation finally takes the form of tion of the “Age of Aquarius” vigorous vigilantism.”

Burley and Ross, From Nativism to White Power 567 each state and would risk death if they a list of crimes to Jews and encouraged strayed beyond those boundaries to supporters to “Buy Gentile! Employ migrate.10 Gentile! Vote Gentile!”15 The emergence of Germany’s “New The U.S. government declared Reich” also stimulated some German the Friends of New Germany to be an immigrants to the United States who extension of the German Nazi Party in blamed the Weimar system for political 1936, and as the group imploded, Hoch- instability and economic precarity. With scheid stepped down from his posi- the help of the government in 1932, a tion as president and focused on the German immigrant founded a group Nachrichten.16 Later that year, Friends called Friends of the Hitler Movement of New Germany was replaced by the to promote the idea of German culture German-American Bund. Within a year identified with Nazi propaganda. It of establishment, the German-American was soon reorganized and renamed Bund claimed about ninety Portland the Friends of New Germany (Bund members with roughly the same mem- der Freunde des Neuen Deutschland), bership as its predecessor.17 What the and at a national convention in 1936, Bund lacked in numbers it made up for elected new leadership and became in performative impact. According to an the German-American Bund. Members informant report, meetings were held needed to demonstrate German-lan- in the backroom of a Portland cafe, “A guage skills and to guarantee that they large colored picture of George Wash- possessed Aryan racial pedigrees.11 ington occupies a prominent position on By the mid 1930s, the Friends of New the wall facing the membership and a Germany boasted some 5,000 to 10,000 crayon sketch of Horst Wessel, young members nationwide, although its Port- Nazi, killed in Hitler’s abortive ‘Beer land chapter likely never exceeded 100 Hall Putsch’ occupies a less prominent active members.12 position on another wall.”18 In 1934, a Portland newspaper edi- The Bund’s Oregon stronghold in tor named Adam Hochscheid became Portland was never particularly large president of the local chapter of the relative to some chapters in other cit- Friends of New Germany.13 Virulently ies throughout the country.19 While the antisemitic, Hochscheid’s Nachrichten national membership grew to some newspaper became a staunch defender 8,500 members, 5,000 to 6,000 “anony- of the Nazi regime, identifying opposi- mous sympathizers,” the only chapters tion to Nazism with anti-German senti- in the Northwest were the Portland, ment. The Hochscheid warned readers Seattle, and Spokane Ortsgrups, pre- of another newspaper that lies were sided over by the Bezirke, based in being spread about Germany and pub- Oakland.20 It is difficult to estimate the lisher Nachrichten publisher, A.E. Kern, total membership in Portland. Average provided lists endorsed businesses.14 In attendance of the meetings was about 1935, according to an informant report, thirty members, and events could sum- Friends of New Germany members mon up to three hundred members began handing out a flyer that attributed and sympathizers.21 To gain clout, the

568 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 OHS Research Library, 0024P227

THE NEW EARLE HOTEL, located at what is now Northwest Sixth Avenue and Davis Street in Portland, Oregon, was reported as the location of Friends of New Germany meetings during the 1930s. Aided by the Nazi government, a group of German-Americans founded the group to promote German culture aligned with Nazi ideals, including Aryan racial pedigrees.

Bund’s leadership built bridges with Speakers addressed things such as the other organizations that organized “communism run by the Jews,” and how around antisemitism, especially Pelley’s American citizens will have to stop the Silver Shirts. threat by use of violence, if necessary.24 The Silver Shirts first appeared in Talking points at a November 30, 1938, Portland soon after the national group meeting included statements such as:: was established in 1933. Initially caught “Jews claim to have caused all wars up in power struggles between former of the past 2000 years and brag that Klan leaders and associates, the openly they have made therefrom immense pro-Nazi Silver Shirts in Oregon grew to profits,” and “Jews plan destruction of some 400 members in Eugene alone the American Government in the near by the end of that year.22 Meetings future and under the present adminis- included lengthy speeches by White tration control both government and supremacists, Klansmen, and regional finance to further these plans.”25 One organizers such as Roy Zachary, a Seat- lecturer discussed “a definite plan of the tle restauranteur who helped shape the Jewish Communist to ruin the country,” Washington-based Christian Party as adding that “the International Jewish the political wing of the Silver Legion.23 bankers financed the Russian Revolu-

Burley and Ross, From Nativism to White Power 569 tion[,] that two percent of the population the scourge of Communism, which were Jewish and they controlled the threatened the destruction of America.32 [sic] 98 percent of the Russian white Thus, interlocking opposition to Jews as people.”26 Articles from Pelley’s journal, the embodiment of foreignness, elites, Liberation, circulated by the Oregon and Communism became a central Silver Shirts even suggested geno- component of a burgeoning movement cide. On August 15, 1936, Pelley gave that implicitly identified Whiteness as a speech in Portland, which, according the principle criteria for entrance into to the Oregon Liberal, a weekly broad- the national community. sheet edited by former Klansman Lem While the Federal Government Devers, was attended by some 500 monitored the Silver Legion and the Silver Shirts.27 Bund for dangerous activities, some Oregon’s Silver Legion remained members of local governments found active through the 1930s, with chapters them useful, particularly as a coun- in The Dalles, Bend, Medford, Toledo, terforce to communist influence. The and St. Helens. By 1939, the Silver Shirts Portland Police Bureau’s “Red Squad” boasted 125 neighborhood councils in did much of the work against left-wing Portland with between six and twenty social movement, particularly orga- members each, as well as several nized labor, that would have been councils across the Columbia River in in line with Silver Legion’s politics.. neighboring Vancouver, Washington.28 Formed in the 1910s to monitor radical In 1938, between 250 and 300 people activities, the secretive “Red Squad” came to hear Zachary speak in Portland. produced a series reports that detailed “Every red blooded American citizen different groups, that harbored “red” should have a good gun and ammuni- sympathies. By August 1937, the Red tion,” Zachary told a captivated crowd. Squad’s leader, Captain Walter Odale, “Put up a target and have your wife had joined a Silver Shirts spin-off called practice shooting it if you want to keep a the American Defenders.33 Accord- free government.”29 As one early distrib- ing to meeting notes, the American utor of Silver Shirts material exclaimed, Defenders received support from a man “look what has happened — the Jews named “Kemp” — likely Wilford Kemp, wax fat while gentiles struggle for mere a San Diego millionaire who had been existence.”30 One Pacific Northwest Pelley’s running mate on the Chris- leader suggested that Jews should be tian Party ticket in 1936.34 In turn, the fully disenfranchised, and their voting American Defenders contributed $100 rights provided to Native Americans, toward printing Pelley’s propaganda continuing Pelley’s romanticism about and made plans for a “Committee of American indigenous people.31 The One Thousand” to serve as a vigilante Bund similarly promoted the narrative of organization.35 the “vast Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy,” Odale wrote that Portland was in the words of political scientist Leland “reportedly the third largest center of V. Bell, declaring that their shared pur- Nazi activity in the United States,” in pose with Nazi Germany was to fight the October 1, 1937, Red Squad “Weekly

570 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 OHS Research Library, 0098P214 Report of Communist Activities” and asserted: “It can be safely said, that if it were not for the Communist Party, there would be no Fascist or Nazi scare.”36 That would prove one of the final Red Squad reports. The Oregonian revealed on Octo- ber 26, 1937, that Red Squad member and school district board director Louis E. Starr had interrogated a student union leader at Lincoln High School. Public controversy ensued, with the president of the Council for Economic and Social Research stating four days later to city council that the squad’s work could “by no stretch of the imagination, be termed engaged in law enforcement.”37 On October 30, a CAPT. WALTER ODALE, pictured here new group called Americans Incor- in 1949, led the Portland Police subversive porated, filed articles of incorpora- activities detail, or “Red Squad,” during tion under Oregon’s state laws.38 A the 1930s. Odale’s Red Squad integrated month later, during a business-only with groups such as the Silver Legion and meeting of American Defenders, it American Defenders in its efforts to quash communist influence, especially among was reported that should Odale’s organized labor. Red Squad have to stop its activities, “his work and records will be taken over by a new [private] organization, Americans Incorporated.”39 International Woodworkers of America Ten days after that meeting, the first “with 133 signatures obtained in less issue of Americans Incorporated’s Radi- than three hour’s [sic] time.”41 The orga- cal Activities Bulletin came out, picking nization looked abroad as well, con- up where the Red Squad had left off. demning support for the Republicans With lengthy articles on the activities in the Spanish Civil War as pro-Soviet of the Congress of Industrial Organiza- and anarchistic, while denouncing as a tions (CIO), a labor union’s organizing of Communist front a Chinese-American timber workers, and internal struggles picket against a pig iron plant that was within the Portland School Board, the sending munitions to the Japanese Radical Activities Bulletin maintained Empire.42 Key members were promi- the general drift of the Red Squad’s nent businessmen and police officers, reportage.40 It reported that “one Legion including Odale, who was on the post in Milton-Freewater,” returned a board of directors, and Louis Starr, who petition to deport the president of the headed up the organization. As the

Burley and Ross, From Nativism to White Power 571 Anti-Defamation League’s David Rob- man Hall, and Redman Hall, which was inson noted, the organization attracted associated with a romanticized notion “certain fascist individuals who saw an of Native American culture. Historian opportunity to ride their hobby under Roger Griffin has argued that fascists’ the guise of fighting communism.”43 identification with indigeneity and the Americans Incorporated had sig- representation of an archetypal human nificant partners. In a February 24, community manifest their desire for 1939, event at Benson Polytechnic rebirth of their own mythical, ancestral Auditorium, former governor Charles community, whether Nordic or Italian H. Martin performed the task of public or “100% American.”46 In early 1938, honorary chairman at an Americans the American Defenders announced Incorporated National Defense and they were joining the Americanization Americanism Rally, emceed by Mayor Council that was already affiliated with Joseph Carson.44 It is difficult to assess “twenty one patriotic organizations in the size of Americans Incorporated, the city of Portland,” including “the partly as a result of the secretive German Folksbund and the K.K.K.”47 behavior of some of its members, but Many of the groups listed were rela- its influence in high society is indicated tively small, and there is little evidence by the major politicians who helped to that the Americanization Council ever promote the group. Examining Ameri- manifested to any public effect. cans Incorporated in light of its obscure One of the phenomena that drew origins (out of the cross-over between together members of the fascist milieu the Portland police and Silver Shirts, during the 1920s and 1930s was the and fostered by the American Defend- growing popularity in North America ers) brings to focus the group’s role of an eccentric body of thought known as a public-facing brand of Portland’s as British-Israelism. British-Israelists far-right ecosystem. The existence of a asserted that Anglo-Saxons were the relationship between the Silver Shirts true genetic descendants of Biblical and Portland’s police is further illus- Hebrews. Emerging as early as the trated by a February 1940 informant’s sixteenth century, this idea gained report found in the Rennar papers, popularity during the late nineteenth which notes that Silver Shirts boasted and early twentieth centuries, foster- of “making excellent progress in the ing a sense of Anglo-American mis- Police Department and that it would be sion in the world.48 While many British- well organized.” The report added that Israelists thought that the Jewish the organization’s members believed people were either Khazar “Asiatics” “if any trouble starts in Portland the or had originated through a rebellion Police will be with [the Silver Shirts].”45 against the divine commandment not The American Defenders, Bund, to intermarry with “Edomites,” more and Silver Shirts met in houses, cafes, virulently antisemitic formulations, and Portland’s Turnverein Hall, run by which formed the basis of the post– pro-Nazi activist Otto Uhle, as well as World War II Christian Identity religion, the Harmony Hall, Norse Hall, Wood- asserted that Jews were the spawn

572 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 OHS Research Library, Mss 2918, box 1, Anglo-Saxon Federation file

THIS CHART, published by the Anglo-Saxon Federation, provides the group’s justification for why Anglo-Saxon people, not Jews, are true descendants of the Bible’s chosen people. These views, known as British-Israelism, were shared by many fascist groups during the 1920s and 1930s.

of Satan.49 In either case, the genetic Connections to British-Israelism bearers of the divine covenant, a run deep in Oregon. Reuben Sawyer, chosen people, were Anglo-Saxon the leading lecturer and organizer for and not Jewish, according to British- the Oregon Ku Klux Klan, had lectured Israelism. on British-Israeli principles while serv- One of British-Israelism’s promi- ing as a pastor at Portland’s Eastside nent acolytes was William Cameron, Christian Church during the early 1920s who, during the 1920s, had edited the and played a role in the founding of Dearborn Independent, the Michi- the British-Israel World Federation in gan publication of Henry Ford that 1920.51 A.A. Beauchamp, editor of the published a series on the menace of British-Israelist publication Watchman “The International Jew.” In the 1930s, of Israel, found the viciousness of Klan Cameron served on the executive com- antisemitism and racism distasteful, mittee of the Anglo-Saxon Federation and Sawyer’s affiliation with the Klan and lectured in the United States and came to an end in 1924. He remained Canada on the Bible as a “racial book” active in British-Israel circles until the that told the story of the Anglo-Saxon 1930s, when leadership passed into race.50 new hands.52

Burley and Ross, From Nativism to White Power 573 OHS Research Library, Mss 2819, box 1, Americans Incorporated folder Mss 2819, box Library, OHS Research

THIS FLYER, titled “Shall These Subversive Forces Dominate the United States?,” was distributed by Americans Incorporated. The group was founded in 1937 and continued the work of the Portland Police “Red Squad,” railing against forms of foreign extremism, such as communism, dictatorships, and fascism.

574 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 British-Israel gospel spread through U.S. entry into World War II, had helped the network of Oregon’s interwar White promote pro-Axis causes without clear supremacist organizations. G. Fred and direct associations with fascism. Johnson, president of the Oregon The movement therefore received, branch of the Anglo-Saxon Federation and accepted, the support of fascist of America, a British-Israel organization, groups.56 Shortly before the Japanese spoke on themes such as “Masonic His- attack on Pearl Harbor, Oregon Sen. tory,” “Pyramid Symbolism” (a particular Rufus Holman told fellow lawmakers: obsession of Pelley’s), “Racial Origins,” I have always deplored Hitler’s ambitions 53 and “Israel Truths.” The Anglo-Saxon as a conqueror. But he broke the control Federation of America, including How- of these internationalists over the com- ard B. Rand, who sat on the national mon people of Germany. It would be a commission and the executive council good idea if the control of the interna- of the British Israel World Federation, tional bankers over the common people of England was broken, and good if it was obtained support from local Episcopa- broken over the wages and savings of the lian and Presbyterian churches and from common people of the United States.57 the Associated Fraternal Societies and Portland Chamber of Commerce.54An Following the declaration of war on intelligence memo from 1936 noted that, Japan and subsequent dissolution of as they made the rounds of churches the national America First Committee, and luncheons, the British-Israelists’ former Silver Shirt Delmore Lessard talk “seemed very much like the mouth- declared himself the head of Oregon’s ings of William Dudley Pelley.”55 The anti-interventionist America First Com- proximity between Johnson, Rand, and mittee.58 Under the guise of the group the ideology of the Silver Shirts further that had already officially disbanded, elucidates the extent of fascist networks Lessard disseminated pamphlets pro- that were both within Oregon and tied duced by A.E. Kern & Co., the same pub- into larger, transnational ideological lisher responsible for the Nachrichten.59 systems. That the British-Israelists Following World War II, in 1947, Lessard found such a warm welcome from local joined Holman, a former Klansman, to religious and political representatives create the anti-Zionist group American suggests that the Silver Shirts also had Foundation, Inc.60 a fertile seedbed on which to cultivate Meanwhile, other Silver Shirts car- their bizarre and occult theories. ried on, in spite of the official dissolution of their group in April 1940. Erst- THE EXPERIENCE of World War II while Silver Shirts leader Henry Beach would forever change the character consolidated his activities into what he of fascism in the United States. Amid discretely called the “Research Club.” pressures on fascists from the House Once considered the spokesperson Committee on Un-American Activities for the Silver Shirts in Oregon, Beach under Congressman Martin Dies dur- hoped to organize “ten thousand ing the late 1930s and early 1940s, the armed people in Portland.”61 Beach isolationist movement, which fought faced pressure from the U.S. army to

Burley and Ross, From Nativism to White Power 575 stop his radical activities or leave the became involved with America Plus West Coast in 1942 after defending and urged its leaders to endorse his Pelley for publishing anti-government “Minutemen” idea, which would “have materials. He fought to remain in the a semi-military purpose in checking Pacific Northwest but retreated from the violence and sabotage, which the far-right politics.62 enemy constantly perpetrates in our After the war, former Silver Shirts country.” America Plus leaders proved joined with members of other interwar receptive but demanded absolute far-right groups to transform the British- secrecy. Desperate to stem the tide of Israeli interpretation of the Bible into the “one-worldists” and “international- the angrier denial of the humanity of ists,” del Valle went on to form a new Jews and other minorities. Emerging group called the Defenders of the in California and spreading throughout American Constitution, Inc., with other the Pacific Northwest, the so-called retired military officers.65 The secre- “Christian Identity” movement built on tive militarization of White supremacy British-Israel origin stories to express that characterized del Valle’s paranoid White supremacy. Instead of identify- ideas, disseminated in his bulletin TASK ing Jews as Asiatics, Christian Identity FORCE, would find a thriving ecosystem taught that Jews were the spawn of in the Pacific Northwest of the 1950s Satan and that all non-Whites were and 1960s.66 “mud people” who did not have One California-based Christian souls.63 Former Silver Shirt John Met- Identity group founded by Army lieuten- calf, who was inspired both by Pelley’s ant colonel William Potter Gale, called spiritualism and his focus on Jewish Army of White American Kingdom conspiracy, came to join the circles Evangelists (“Awake”), demanded that around the Christian Identity move- its chapter leaders subscribe to del ment, as did Henry Beach.64 Valle’s bulletin and join his Defenders Amid the growth of Christian Identity of the American Constitution, Inc.67 within the increasingly revolutionary far Gale’s close associate, Robert DePugh, right, an intriguing interplay emerged took inspiration from del Valle and between above-ground advocacy Gale’s ensuing, short-lived paramilitary groups and clandestine paramilitary group, The Rangers, forming a subrosa organizations. By 1951, right-wing activ- paramilitary group of his own called ist Irvin Borders had taken the leader- The Minutemen to prepare for an ship of a new group based in Los Ange- incoming Communist assault on the les called America Plus, Inc., which contiguous lower forty-eight states.68 attempted to counter disenfranchised DePugh’s Minutemen claimed tens of ethnic and racial minorities’ growing thousands of members, although the demands for wages and housing. A FBI estimated their national member- distinguished retired Marine lieutenant ship at between 200 and 1,000.69 Silver general, Pedro del Valle, who claimed Shirts and Klansmen joined the vigilante to have known Mussolini “personally Minutemen, which in 1965 plotted to and served with his forces in Ethiopia,” assassinate Martin Luther King, Jr., with

576 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 OHS Research Library, Mss 2819, box 1, “misc.” folder 1,400 pounds of stolen dynamite. Members of the group also allegedly blew up a police station in Redmond, Washington, a town that had been a thriving hub for regional Silver Shirts during the 1930s. They plotted to bomb Redmond’s City Hall and rob four banks before the FBI caught up to them in January 1968.70 After the FBI’s crackdown on the Minutemen, Beach helped pick up the slack of political organizing by piggybacking on Gale’s ideas and purportedly establishing the virulently antisemitic Posse Comitatus in Portland, Oregon.71 In a later interview with the Oregonian, Beach recalled that the Silver Shirts had been “a very spiritual group” and that Pelley wielded extraordinary metaphysical powers: “Pelley taught me to communicate with ON JULY 8, 1938, the Astorian-Budget the spirit world.”72 Beach would published this image of a an anti-Jewish flyer transfer what he had learned from found in a Portland, Oregon, store window. Pelley to Posse Comitatus, a pro- The image includes hand-written notes on the totype for the Patriot movement poster deriding its antisemetic content. that concentrated resentment against what leaders labeled as an encroaching federal government presence in all fifty states, by1974 , the captured by outside influences often FBI observed Posse Comitatus chap- assumed to be Jewish or of a compet- ters in six Oregon counties and labeled ing, usually Communist, nation.73 the Lane County chapter as the “most The post-war far right began reori- active to date.”75 Yet, during the mid enting toward Posse Comitatus. One 1970s, Beach was openly admonish- of del Valle’s contacts in Oregon, ing recruits to “never let it be known John Birch Society member and Hitler how many members you have. . . . Not admirer Dean Kennedy, announced knowing how many of you there are, that his Lane County chapter of the makes the TRAITORS more afraid of National Association to Keep and Bear the influence you have.”76 Arms (NAKBA) would join Posse Comi- Political geographer Carolyn Gal- tatus en masse,.74 Claiming to have a laher has argued that Posse Comitatus

Burley and Ross, From Nativism to White Power 577 578 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 began to gain power by instrumental- a literal spiritual war that justified acts izing the rural disenfranchisement of violence in the name of Armaged- stemming from the farm crisis in the don.80 Likewise, Posse Comitatus found Midwest and connecting it to Christian a new narrative of rural discontent Identity leader Richard G. Butler’s calls and form of organizing, one that was for a White homeland in the Pacific revolutionary because it depicted the Northwest.77 In 1973, Butler created federal government as captured by a Christian Identity compound on alien interests. That shift in ideological Hayden Lake, in Idaho, about eighteen intensity and praxis came with a shift in miles from the Washington state line, broader conditions, such as the change which became a hub for the most in social values after the Civil Rights extreme members of Posse Comita- movement, which contributed to the tus as well as Klansmen and other development of the “White power” extremists bent on race war across movement’s identity.81 Oregon and Washington.78 This center The new “White nationalist” or for the growing White supremacist “White power” movement in the post- movements in the Pacific Northwest war period was defined by an explicitly facilitated an interconnected network revolutionary character and reliance of organized crime responsible for on vigilante violence pitted as much bank robberies and assassinations against the federal government as throughout the 1980s.79 The “White against African Americans, Latinos, power” movement that had come to immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ roost in the Pacific Northwest was, community.82 White nationalists have therefore, not just informed by or imi- tried to distinguish themselves from tative of but directly descended from White supremacists by defining their Oregon’s interwar White supremacist, movement as the ideological pursuit of fascist movements. White political sovereignty and social separation from non-Whites; however, CHRISTIAN IDENTITY took on a this distinction does not absolve White much more revolutionary character nationalists from being identified as during the 1970s and 1980s than had White supremacists, because their earlier British-Israelism, reframing the ideology is simply a particular strategic story of supposed Anglo-Saxon dias- implementation of White supremacy.83 pora portrayed as the “lost tribes of In our study of the materials avail- Israel” in eschatological terms in which able regarding interwar fascist groups racial enemies (Jews) and subordinates and their immediate allies, as well as (non-Whites) were enemy combatants in the ensuing White power movement

LEFT: These two maps, published in a 1990 Coalition for Human Dignity report titled Organized White Supremacist Groups in Oregon, document White supremacist organizations that existed throughout the state. The report highlights over two dozen groups operating in Oregon at the time of publication. As the keys indicate, the maps point out the types of organizations, their location, and the type of media used to spread their messages.

Burley and Ross, From Nativism to White Power 579 Skanner, May 6, 1991, Dean Guernsey photographer, OHS Research Library, Org. Lot, 1286

ON MAY 5, 1991, White supremacists gathered outside Portland City Hall to protest the civil trial ruling against Tom Metzger, who was found financially liable for the recruitment of Skinheads in Portland, leading to Mulugeta Seraw’s murder in 1988. According to the Oregonian, the rally was organized by the White supremacist group American Front, and was met with about one hundred counter protesters.

that developed through their post- ers. Hence, the marginality of the iden- war networks, we have found several tity-bound fascist groups was folded important points. First, the interwar into a broader far-right ecosystem that period appears to have been a time included Portland’s then-mayor Carson, of coalition, through which Anglo- former governor Martin, then-Senator Saxon supremacy promoted by the Ku Holman, and police officers such as Klux Klan in the 1920s gave way to a Odale. Meanwhile, fascist groups and more marginal assemblage of identity- their allies were surveilled by the Anti- based, far-right groups, including occult Defamation League and the FBI, adding British-Israelists and German-American to the complexity. supporters of the Nazi Party. “Aryan” Our research suggests that, as heritage in opposition to Jewish hege- a result of federal opposition during mony appears to have been the glue World War II, those who had been that ensured this coalescence. Second, engaged with the Silver Shirts during we uncovered elements within Ore- the interwar period increasingly began gon’s political establishment, including to mobilize in opposition to the govern- members of the police, that supported ment and in favor of White political sov- groups intertwined within the fascist ereignty. Rhetoric of “Aryan” heritage networks around the American Defend- and Jewish hegemony was replaced,

580 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 in more public-facing discourse, with zations, such as Patriot Prayer and their conspiracy theories about a “One Alt Right bedfellows that bring fascism World Government” and “international- to bear again in cities such as Portland, ist” bankers, providing a more acces- we can see how the interwar fascist sible milieu for recruitment from a movement, while ultimately a failure, broad pool of political affiliations. With helped sow the seeds for today’s rural the rise of Donald Trump as President discontent as manifested in the mod- and of “Independent Trumpist” organi- ern Patriot movement.84

NOTES

The authors want to thank Larry Lipin for Lay, The Invisible Empire in the West: Toward substantial editorial assistance. a New Historical Appraisal of the Ku Klux 1. The literature on fascist organization in Klan of the 1920s (Champaign: University of Oregon is much less extensive than that on the Illinois Press, 2004); David A. Horowitz, “Order, Ku Klux Klan, reflecting the smaller size of the Solidarity, and Vigilance: The Ku Klux Klan in La movement. See Eckard Toy, “Silver Shirts in the Grande, Oregon,” in Lay, The Invisible Empire in Northwest: Politics, Prophecies, and Personalities the West; David A. Horowitz, “The Klansman as in the 1930s,” Pacific Northwest Quarterly 80 Outsider: Ethnocultural Solidarity and Antielitism (October 1989): 139–46. in the Oregon Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s,” Pacific 2. Cas Mudde defines populism as a Northwest Quarterly 80 (January 1989): 12–20; movement that sees two groups in antagonism Paul M. Holsinger, “The Oregon School Bill with each other, a corrupt elite and the pure Controversy, 1922–1925,” people. Cas Mudde, The Far Right in America Pacific Historical Review 37 (August 1968): (New York: Routledge, 2018), 2–3. See also, 327–41; Robert D. Johnston, The Radical Middle Martin Durham, White Rage: The Extreme Right Class: Populist Democracy and the Question of and American Politics (New York: Routledge, Capitalism in Progressive Era Portland, Oregon 2007), 8. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), 3. Roger Griffin,Fascism: An Introduction to 223–47; and Linda Gordon, The Second Coming Comparative Fascist Studies (Cambridge: Polity of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the Press, 2018), 40–45; Roger Griffin,The Nature American Political Tradition(New York: Liveright of Fascism (New York: Routledge, 1991), 34–40. Publishing, 2017). 4. George M. Fredrickson, White Supremacy: 6. Materials relating to the ideology of British- A Comparative Study in American and South Israelism can be found in Mss 2918, George African History (New York: Oxford University Rennar papers [hereafter Rennar papers], box 1, Press, 1981), xi. Anglo-Saxon Federation folder, Oregon Historical 5. See, for example, Eckard Toy, “The Ku Society Research Library, Portland, Oregon Klux Klan in Oregon,” in G. Thomas Edwards [hereafter OHS Research Library]. and Carlos A. Schwantes, eds., Experiences in 7. Scott Beekman, William Dudley Pelley: a Promised Land: Essays in Pacific Northwest A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult History (Seattle: University of Washington Press, (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2005), 1986); Toy, “Robe and Gown: The Ku Klux Klan 1–2, 41. in Eugene, Oregon, during the 1920s,” in Shawn 8. Ibid., 41.

Burley and Ross, From Nativism to White Power 581 9. Ibid., 55, 70–71. 19. Gretchen Jane Guber, View Master: The 10. Ibid., 57, 77–78, 86. Biography of William B. Gruber (Minneapolis, MN: 11. James E. Geels, “The German-American Mill City Press, 2014), 140. Bund: Fifth Column of Deutschtum?) (M.A. thesis, 20. Leland V. Bell, “The Failure of Nazism North Texas University, 1975), 53–59; Bureau in America: The German American Bund, 1936- of Immigration, Portland Office, “The German- 1941” Political Science Quarterly 85:4 (1970): American Bund,” report prepared in 1941, Rennar 589; U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, papers, box 1, Friends of New Germany folder 2, “German American Bund (Amerika Deutscher OHS Research Library. Volksbund),” New York City, November 17, 1941, 12. Francis MacDonnell, Insidious Foes: p. 6, https://vault.fbi.gov/german-american-bund/ The Axis Fifth Column and the American Home german-american-federation-bund-part-11-of-10 Front (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), (accessed November 18, 2019). 43. The Portland chapter estimate is based on 21. “Memorandum,” November 6, 1937, documents available in the Rennar papers, box Rennar Papers, box 1, Friends of New Germany 1, Friends of New Germany folders 1 and 2, OHS folder 1, OHS Research Library. Research Library. 22. Groups included former Klan editor Lem 13. U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration Dever and Roy Metcalf’s National Brotherhood, and Naturalization Service, Portland, Oregon, on one hand, and Fred Gifford’s National “File no. 235-4093, Record of Sworn Statement Crusaders, on the other. See “Satus of antis,” early made by Otto F. Decker,” Rennar papers, box 1, November 1933, Rennar papers, box 2, Silver Friends of New Germany folder 1; Howard L. Fenn, Shirts folder, OHS Research Library. A Portland Naturalization Examiner, Portland, Oregon, June observer wrote in a letter that in 1933 “one of 23, 1941, p. 2–3, Rennar papers, box 2, Silvershirt the local Italian societies joined en masse,” Legion of America [hereafter Silver Shirts] folder; see C.W. Houghtailing to Henry J. Berkowitz, “Report for Week Ending 3/31/34,” Rennar Papers, December 29, 1933, Rennar papers, box 2, Silver box 2, Silver Shirts folder, all held at the OHS Shirts folder, OHS Research Library. On Pelley, Research Library. see Suzanne G. Ledboer, “The Man who would 14. A. Hochscheid, Letter to editor, February be Hitler: William Dudley Pelley and the Silver 27, [no year], box 1, August Hochscheid folder, Legion,” California History 65:2 (June 1986): OHS Research Library; “Where do you buy? 127–36; Scott Beekman, William Dudley Pelley: Support those Firms that Advertise in the A Life in right-Wing Extremism and the Occult ‘Nachrichten’,” Rennar papers, box 2, A.E. Kern (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1995), & Co. folder, OHS Research Library. 63–71, 80–90. Also useful is Eckard V. Toy, “Silver 15. U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration Shirts in the Northwest.” and Naturalization Service, Portland, Oregon, 23. Toy, “Silver Shirts in the Northwest,” 142. “File no. 235-4093, Record of Sworn Statement 24. Silver Shirts Meeting Report, June 16, made by Otto F. Decker,” Rennar papers, box 1, 1938, Rennar Papers, box 2, Silver Shirts file, OHS Friends of New Germany folder 1. Research Library. 16. Ibid. See also, Frank C. Hanighen, 25. Silver Shirts Meeting Report, November “Foreign Political Movements in the United 30, 1938, Rennar Papers, box 2, Silver Shirts file, States,” Foreign Affairs 16:1 (October 1937):6–7. OHS Research Library; “Report of Meeting of the 17. Silver Shirts meeting report, February 10, Silver Shirt Region, Turn Verein Hall, Portland, 1939, Rennar Papers, box 2, Silver Shirts folder, Oregon,” June 16, 1938, Rennar papers, box 2, OHS Research Library. Silver Shirts file, OHS Research Library. 18. “Report: Activities of Portland branch 26. Silver Shirts lecture and meeting report, German American Bund [mid-1938],” Rennar February 10, 1939?, Rennar Papers, box 2, Silver Papers, box 1, Friends of New Germany folder 1, Shirts folder, OHS Research Library. OHS Research Library. Anna Bernstein, Swastika 27. “Portland Jews in Danger of Losing Many Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the Friends,” Oregon Liberal, 1:18, September 11, 1936, German-American Bund (New York: St. Martin’s pg. 1, Rennar Papers, box 2, Lem Devers folder, Press, 2013), 189. OHS Research Library. See also Rennar papers,

582 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Silver Shirts folder held at OHS Research Library. American Defenders folder, OHS Research 28. Silver Shirts meeting report, February 10, Library. 1939, Rennar papers, box 2, Silver Shirts folder, 40. A number of Radical Activities Bulletins OHS Research Library. These numbers were covering these subjects are located in the Rennar likely inflated, since they came from the Silver papers, box 1, Americans Incorporated folder, Shirts themselves. OHS Research Library. 29. “Report of Meeting of the Silver Shirt 41. Americans Incorporated, Radical Region, Turn Verein Hall Portland, Oregon,” June Activities Bulletin, Portland, Oregon, no. 14, 16, 1938, Rennar Papers, box 2, Silver Shirts folder, March 11, 1938, Rennar papers, box 1, Americans OHS Research Library. Incorporated folder, OHS Research Library. 30. Silvers, November 1933, Rennar papers, The report also noted that Australian-born box 2, Silver Shirts folder, OHS Research Library. Harry Bridges, who founded the International 31. Silver Shirts meeting report, November, Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in 1937, 20, 1938, Rennar papers, box 2, Silver Shirts should also be named on the petition. For more folder, OHS Research Library. on Harry Bridges and the ILWU in Portland, see 32. Bell, “The Failure of Nazism in America,” Sandy Polishuk, “They can’t come in the front 587. door because you guys won’t let them,” Oregon 33. Untitled American Defenders meeting Historical Quarterly 120:4 (Winter 2019): 546–61. notes, September 17, 1937, Rennar papers, 42. Americans Incorporated, Radical American Defenders folder, OHS Research Activities Bulletin, no. 14, March 11, 1938, Rennar Library. Papers, box 1, Americans Incorporated folder, 34. Untitled American Defenders meeting OHS Research Library; Americans Incorporated, notes, October 23, 1937, Rennar Papers, American Radical Activities Bulletin, no. 14, March 11, 1938, Defenders folder, OHS Research Library; Untitled Rennar papers, Americans Incorporated folder, American Defenders meeting notes, December 4, OHS Research Library. 1937, Rennar Papers, American Defenders folder, 43. David Robinson, “Preliminary OHS Research Library. Organization Report,” October 17, 1941, Rennar 35. Untitled American Defenders meeting Papers, box 1, Americans Incorporated folder, notes, October 9, 1937, Rennar Papers, American OHS Research Library. Defenders folder; Untitled American Defenders 44. “Fascist Party,” Portland Voter, July meeting notes, December 24, 1937, Rennar 30, 1938, Rennar papers, box 1, Americans Papers, American Defenders folder, OHS Incorporated folder, OHS Research Library; Louis Research Library. E. Starr to Myer Rubin, February 14, 1939, Rennar 36. Walter Odale, “Weekly Report of papers, box 1, Americans Incorporated folder, Communist Activities, Bureau of Police, Portland, OHS Research Library. Oregon,” October 1, 1937, Rennar Papers, box 1, 45. Report, February 29, 1940, Rennar Portland Police folder, OHS Research Library. Papers, box 2, Silvershirt Legion of America 37. “‘Red Squad’ Head Quizzes Student,” folder, OHS Research Library. Oregonian, October 26, 1937; “City ‘Red Squad’ 46. Meeting places are named throughout Flayed by Chief of Research Body,” Oregonian, the Silvershirt Legion of American folder in box October 31, 1937. 2 of the Rennar papers at OHS Research Library. 38. J.H. Hazlett, Corporation Department, Roger Griffin, “The Primacy of Culture: The State of Oregon, to Arthur A. Goldsmith, attorney, Current Growth (Or Manufacture) of Consensus December 22, 1937, Rennar papers, Americans within Fascist Studies,” Journal of Contemporary Incorporated folder, OHS Research Library; David History 37:1 (2002): 21–43. Robinson, “Preliminary Organization Report,” 47. American Defenders Meeting Report, October 17, 1941, Americans Incorporated, Rennar January 8, 1938, Rennar papers, box 1, American papers, box 1, American Defenders folder, OHS Defenders folder, OHS Research Library. Fred Research Library. Gifford had revived the Klan in 1937, claiming that 39. American Defenders Meeting Report, the primary focus was to fight both “communism December 4, 1937, Rennar papers, box 1, and fascism in this country” and to keep the U.S.

Burley and Ross, From Nativism to White Power 583 “safe for the democratic principles that made it debate (accessed November 15, 2019). great.” “Klan Revival Due in Oregon, Gifford Says,” 58. Letter from Delmore Lessard, Acting Oregon Journal, October 19, 1937. Chairman, Oregon Chapter, America First 48. Michael Barkun, Religion and the Racist Committee, April 30, 1941, Rennar Papers, box Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity 2, Misc. folder, OHS Research Library. Movement (Chapel Hill: University of North 59. David Robinson (Reporter), Preliminary Carolina Press, 1997), 18–27. Organization Report, Oct 17 1941, George E. 49. Ibid., 121–70. Rennar Papers. 50. Barkun, Religion and the Racist Right, 60. For more information on American 22–26, 31–40. Foundation, Inc., see the “American Foundation, 51. Ibid., 22–23. Inc.” file in the George E. Rennar Papers, which 52. Barkun, Religion and the Racist Right, includes newspaper clippings and the group’s 22–26; Lawrence M. Lipin, “Reexamining the articles of incorporation. Oregon Klan in the Age of Trump: True Believers 61. Alphabetical List of Individuals, HIA-R, and Fellow Travelers,” Common Knowledge, Barnhart Collection, N-5D-3-125-7, p. 11 and Pacific University, https://commons.pacificu.edu/ “Silver Shirt Legion of America, January 9, 1943, ashist/1/ (accessed November 18, 2019). HIA-R, Barnhart Collection, N-5D-3-125-7, p. 9-11, 53. Business card for G. Fred Johnson, https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/images/ Lecturer, Rennar papers, box 1, Anglo-Saxon Collections/78006/HIA-R-BARNHART-EDWARD- Federation folder, OHS Research Library. Rand’s N-5D-3-125-7.pdf (accessed November 18, 2019); public talks throughout the month of September Daniel Levitas, The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia included luncheons in Portland at the Rose City Movement and the Radical Right (New York: M.E. Church, Church Forum in the Imperial Hotel, Palgrave Thomas Dunne Books, 2002), 118. the Multnomah Civic Club at the Congress Hotel; 62. Levitas, The Terrorist Next Door, 118–20. and in Salem and Clatskanie at the American 63. See Barkun, Religion and the Racist Lutheran Church. See 1936 handbill published Right, 199–254; and Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, by the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Oregon Headquarters, Portland, Oregon, Rennar Politics of Identity (New York: New York University Papers, box 1, Anglo-Saxon Federation folder, OHS Press, 2002), 236–41. Research Library. 64. See Toy, “Silver Shirts in the Northwest,” 54. “Dr. Howard B. Rand Here Saturday,” 144. Clatskanie, Ore., Chief, September 11, 1936. 65. See letter exchange between del Valle to According to an informant memo, Rand also met Irvin Borders of America Plus, sent August 14, 1951, with Portland’s Mayor on September 11, 1936, and a response from American Plus via Aldrich Rennar papers, box 1, Anglo-Saxon Federation Blake sent October 3, 1951. Regarding his claim folder, OHS Research Library. See also, “Trunkful about Mussolini, see de Valle’s letter sent August of Theories,” Statesman Journal, September 9, 1962, and addressed to National States Rights 16, 1936. Party organizer J. Paul Thornton. For quotes on 55. “Memo” April 21, 1936, Rennar papers, “one-worldism” and “internationalists” see TASK box 1, Anglo-Saxon Federation folder, OHS FORCE, April 1955. This material is available in Research Library. Pedro Del Valle papers, 1949–1978, University 56. Manfred Jonas, “Pro-Axis Sentiment of Oregon Libraries, Coll 126. These sources are and American Isolationism,” The Historian, 29:2 included in an excellent summary of del Valle’s (1967): 221–25. work, which can be found in Kevin Coogan, 57. “Wheeler, Holaman Scored as Injecting “The Defenders of the American Constitution Anti-Semitism in Lend-Lease Debate,” Jewish and the League of Empire Loyalists: The First Telegraphic Agency, March 6, 1941, https://www. Postwar Anglo-American Revolts against the ‘One jta.org/1941/03/06/archive/wheeler-holman- World Order’, a paper delivered at Amsterdam scored-as-injecting-anti-semitism-in-lend-lease- International Institute for Social History, 2004.

584 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 66. For instance, among Del Valle’s myriad 72. Quoted in Toy, “Silver Shirts in the correspondents was Dean Kennedy, a John Bircher Northwest,” 144. Levitas similarly claims that Gale and Defenders of the American Constitution disliked Beach’s promotion of the group. See member who led a strange anti-gun-control group Levitas, The Terrorist Next Door, 116. called the National Association to Keep and Bear 73. Levitas, Terrorist Next Door, 108–111; Arms, based in Medford, Oregon. That group’s FOIA documents acquired by Levitas from FBI, acronym, NAKBA, is the same word Palestinians Sheriffs Posse Comitatus, Portland, OR: FBI, use to describe the mass displacement following PD 157-1432, archived here: https://archive.org/ the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, suggesting perhaps stream/SheriffsPosseComitatusDetroit15710687/ the same ultranationalist anti-Zionism that Sheriffs%20Posse%20Comitatus%20-%20 characterized del Valle’s own antisemitic writings. Detroit%20157-10687_djvu.txt (accessed To view their correspondence, see Pedro Del Valle November 16, 2019); Aaron Winter, “Posse papers, 1949–1978, University of Oregon Libraries, Comitatus,” Religion and Violence: An Coll 126. For more on Kennedy, see Levitas, Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict, ed. J. I. Ross, Terrorist Next Door, 115–16, 120, 137. (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2011), 575–80 67. Federal Bureau of Investigation, LA 74. Levitas, Terrorist Next Door,120. 157-571, “William Potter Gale,” January 22, 1964, 75. Ibid. p. 3, https://archive.org/stream/GaleWilliamP. 76. Ibid., 119. HQ1/Gale%2C%20William%20P.-HQ-1_djvu.txt 77. Carolyn Gallaher, “On the Fault Line: (accessed November 18, 2019). Race, Class and the US Patriot Movement,” 68. Steward A. Wright, Patriots, Politics, Cultural Studies, 16:5 (2002): 673–703. and the Oklahoma City Bombing (Cambridge: 78. Kathy Marks, Faces of Right Wing Cambridge University Press, 2007), 58–61. Extremism (Boston: Branden Books, 2011), 85, 139. 69. Ibid, 60. 79. Timothy G. Baysinger, “Right-wing Group 70. Silver Shirts built a “Silver Lodge” in Characteristics and Ideology,” Homeland Security Redmond and congregated there during the Affairs 2, Article 3 (July 2006). 1930s. See McNamara, N. and “Temple For 80. On the Christian Identity movement, see ‘American Hitler’ Once Stood In Redmond: George Michael, Theology of Hate: A History of Knute Berger,” Redmond Patch, May 29, 2018, the World Church of the Creator (Gainesville: https://patch.com/washington/redmond/temple- University of Press of Florida, 2009), 49–50. american-hitler-once-stood-redmond-knute- 81. Aaron Winter, “Posse Comitatus,” 575– berger (accessed November 16, 2019). See 80. also Silver Shirt Legion of America, Washington 82. Kathleen Belew, Bring the War Home: State Division photograph collection, circa The White Power Movement and Paramilitary 1930s, PH1521, University of Washington America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Libraries, http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ 2018), 106–117, 127, 140. ark:/80444/xv84258; James Aho, The Politics 83. George Hawley, Right-Wing Critics of of Righteousness: Idaho Christian Patriotism American Conservatism. Lawrence: University (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995), of Kansas Press, 2016), 246. It should be noted 57; and “7 ARE CONVICTED IN PLOT ON COAST: that in this case, it is pursuing political separation Guilty of Conspiring to Rob Banks for Minutemen,” motivated by their belief in in their inherent New York Times, June 23, 1968. supremacy. 71. While some sources follow Beach’s claim 84. Spencer Sunshine, “The Growing to have founded Posse Comitatus in 1969, Leonard Alliance Between Neo-Nazis, Right Wing Zeskind insists that Gale founded the group in Paramilitaries and Trumpist Republicans,” 1971 and Beach plagiarized him. Zeskind, Blood Colorlines, June 9, 2017, https://www.colorlines. and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist com/articles/growing-alliance-between-neo- Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream nazis-right-wing-paramilitaries-and-trumpist- (New York City: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2009), 72. republicans (accessed November 18, 2019).

Burley and Ross, From Nativism to White Power 585 S T 1946 E ON A MAJOR TRANSPORTATION ARTERIAL at 5474 Northeast Sandy Boulevard R in Portland, Oregon, stood the Coon-Chicken Inn, a popular restaurant defined by the E prominent display of a demeaning, negative Black stereotype. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Black Oregonians endured the constant reminder that it was acceptable in a White O supremacist society for their race to be publicly debased and humiliated. T Y The ideals and images of White supremacy co-existed deep into the twentieth century and beyond. While those who embraced the most extremist views on racism and violence P became a minority — rather than a majority — of Oregon’s White population, the legacy of E earlier generations continued to flow through the channels of Oregon life on many levels. S At times, that legacy can be detected in a continued pattern of advantage and special privilege enjoyed by Whites, embedded in the institutions and operations of Oregon life, of which they may be generally unaware. Non-Whites in Oregon consistently resisted MACY & E R and contended with the often submerged, yet powerful, forces of historic inequality. The R E P S U

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587 White Supremacy and Hatred in the Streets of Portland

The Murder of Mulugeta Seraw

OREGON VOICES

by Elden Rosenthal

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Pacific Northwest became once again targeted for creation of a White homeland. The creators of this racist paradise were not successful but did manage to focus national and worldwide attention on their attempt. For Oregonians, that attention harkened to the motives and behaviors of the pioneer generation and brought unpleasant comparisons to the surface. When White supremacy is infused into the institutions of a state, there is always tension between the concepts of law and the principles of justice. Which shall prevail, the democratic right to be a racist or the human right to not be the victim of discrimination? As the legacy of old ways and new justice battle on the streets of a new century, we shall see.

THE PORTLAND, Oregon, courtroom outside the courtroom; armed police I was sitting in had irreplaceable blood- sat inside while others patrolled the red marble walls and columns. The rug rooftop of the courthouse. In 1990, was tattered and soiled. It was an apt this was all highly unusual. So was the setting for the brawl about to begin. case: an immigrant’s family was suing A television camera had been the White Aryan Resistance, seeking set up to broadcast the proceedings. money damages for inciting the murder Out of concern for the jurors’ physical of Mulugeta Seraw. safety, the judge instructed that the Seraw was twenty-eight years old, camera operator was never to point one of approximately two-hundred Ethi- the camera at them, rather to focus opian immigrants living in Portland dur- only on himself and the participants. ing the late 1980s.1 The community was A metal detector had been set up tight-knit, and those who knew Seraw

PROTESTERS GATHER outside Pioneer Courthouse in Portland, Oregon, on September 18, 1989, after Kyle Brewster pleaded guilty to murdering Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian immigrant. Brewster, along with Ken Mieske and Steve Strasser, who also pleaded guilty to the murder, were members of East Side White Pride, a white supremacist group in Portland.

described him as intelligent, gentle, The assault was swift and deadly. and kind.2 Sometime after midnight on Kyle Brewster, a former homecoming November 12–13, 1988, a Saturday night, king at Portland’s Grant High School, Seraw was leaning in the passenger held Seraw down while Ken Mieske window of a countryman’s parked car assaulted him from behind. Swinging a in the quiet residential Kerns neigh- Louisville Slugger baseball bat, a sym- borhood of Southeast Portland. There bolic American icon, Mieske crushed was only one other car on the street, a Seraw’s skull. The skinheads then sped silver-and-black Nissan moving slowly away, leaving Seraw in a pool of blood toward the Ethiopians. Inside the Nissan on the pavement. He never regained were three neo-Nazi skinheads and consciousness. their girlfriends, members of a loose knit group that called itself East Side White THE MURDER of Mulugeta Seraw Pride. As the Nissan approached Seraw shocked Portland. The self-image of and his friends, racial epithets poured the state’s largest city was decidedly out the window. The three skinheads progressive and tolerant at that time. jumped out in full attack mode. That young men raised in Portland

Rosenthal, White Supremacy and Hatred in the Streets of Portland 589 would commit an unmistakably racist toed boots. The women . . . also have murder seemed unbelievable to the their hair cut short and are attired in fatigues and jackboots. Most of them city’s predominantly White citizenry. are covered with elaborate, permanent Portland should not have been so tattoos that feature skulls and other surprised. images of death. African Americans have been sub- [They] call themselves skinheads, jected to various forms of discrimina- and they believe it is their sacred duty tion for most of Oregon’s history, and to defend the sanctity of the white the Pacific Northwest was becoming a race. . . . [T]heir beliefs . . . are drawn from the teachings of the Ku Klux Klan haven for White-supremacist organiz- and from the heated rhetoric of the 3 ers during the 1980s. Richard Butler, European-based, right-wing National a Hitler-admiring racist, moved to Front party.8 Hayden Lake, Idaho, in 1974, established Aryan Nations as the White At about the same time, Tom Metzger, supremacist political arm of a racist once a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Christian church, and proposed the Klan (KKK), and his son, John Metzger, creation of a White ethnostate in the formed the White Aryan Resistance Pacific Northwest.4 A follower of But- (WAR) in southern California. WAR ler, Robert J. Mathews, subsequently published a crude racist and antise- founded the Order, a White suprema- mitic monthly newspaper and began cist terrorist group that committed recruiting skinheads to become the numerous armed robberies and at “shock troops” of the White supremacy 9 least two murders in pursuit of its goal movement. In the fall of 1988, Metzger to create an all-White Christian state in sent a recruiter, Dave Mazzella, to the Pacific Northwest.5 Mathews was Portland. Metzger instructed Mazzella injured escaping a shootout with the to organize Portland skinheads and FBI in Portland on November 24, 1984. recruit them to the violent ways of WAR. He was killed on Whidbey Island two Mazzella, boyishly skinny, almost frail in weeks later, when the FBI firebombed appearance, met the husky Mieske and his hideout in an effort to end an armed other members of East Side White Pride. standoff.6 His credo of street violence belied his During the mid 1980s, Nazi skin- appearance, and he found the Portland heads became a palpable presence skinheads receptive to his message. on Portland’s city streets and in the Mieske and his colleagues were clubs that played their brand of hard- arrested within days of Mulugeta core rock music.7 Six months before Seraw’s death. Mazzella was also Seraw’s murder, the Willamette Week jailed, but was released without being published a front page story describing charged. Mieske eventually pled guilty the city’s new breed of racists: to murder. Brewster and the third skinhead involved in the assault admitted The men, whose ages range from the late teens to the early 20s, have shaved to aiding and abetting the murder. heads and are dressed in militaristic- The Metzgers were never criminally looking outfits that include heavy, steel- charged.

590 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Courtesy of Willamette Week

ON MAY 12, 1988, six months before the murder of Mulugeta Seraw, Jim Redden, a reporter for Portland’s Willamette Week, published an article on the growing presence of White supremacist groups in the city.

A FEW MONTHS after the murder, I town, Paul explained, looking for local was invited by Paul Meyer to a dinner counsel to assist him in bringing a civil of civil rights lawyers at Allesandro’s, case arising from the murder of Seraw. a downtown Italian restaurant. Meyer Born and raised in Alabama, Dees was a founder of the American Civil and his law partner, Joe Levin, had Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oregon and a founded the Southern Poverty Law member of the national ACLU board of Center (SPLC) in 1971. In a series of directors. Morris Dees was coming to spectacular cases, Dees took on the

Rosenthal, White Supremacy and Hatred in the Streets of Portland 591 Courtesy of the author

DURING THE MID 1980s, Tom Metzger, former Grand Dragon of the KKK, and his son John Metzger formed the White Aryan Resistance (WAR) in southern California. This page from a WAR publication illustrates extreme violence advocated by the group and was included as a plaintiff’s exhibit in the civil suit over Mulugeta Seraw’s murder.

592 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 KKK in the South. His strategy was Since graduating from law school in to seek compensatory and punitive 1972, I had been practicing civil rights damages from the Klan for the victims and personal injury law in Portland. of Klan members’ criminal actions. By the time I met Dees, I had come Dees had achieved large jury verdicts to the view that, in the United States, for the families of African Americans civil rights violations are often best brutalized by the Klan, forcing Klan vindicated by making wrongdoers pay, chapters into insolvency. In retaliation, literally, for their misdeeds. I told Dees arsonists set the SPLC offices afire in that my personal and professional his- 1983 and Dees repeatedly received tory had prepared me for this case and death threats.10 that I would be honored to serve as his During dinner, Dees explained that co-counsel. He studied my face, and I Mazzella, the young man WAR sent to knew I had struck a responsive chord. Portland to organize skinheads, had I was about to work with Morris Dees turned himself in to the Jewish Anti- against American neo-Nazis to assert Defamation League (ADL) in Santa Ana, the primacy of law over violence. California. The ADL then contacted the The key to prevailing in the law- SPLC, and Dees immediately flew to suit was to prove that the Metzgers California to debrief Mazzella. Based intentionally incited the violence that on Mazzella’s statements — statements resulted in Seraw’s death, which would that corroborated information the depend primarily on Mazzella’s testi- SPLC had previously collected on the mony. Mazzella had told Dees about Metzgers and WAR — Dees intended to the inner workings of the Metzger sue WAR and the Metzgers for inciting operation, including how he had the murder of Mulugeta Seraw. Dees been instructed to recruit skinheads filled us in on the Metzgers’ neo-Nazi to WAR by encouraging violent street White supremacist beliefs and their confrontations with non-Whites. Dees goal of ridding America of non-Whites was understandably concerned that and non-Christians. He told us that the the Metzgers might try to intimidate our planned lawsuit in Portland, if success- star witness by sending skinheads to ful, was intended to put the Metzgers physically frighten him. and WAR out of business. For legal and Dees and the SPLC lawyers origi- logistical reasons, Dees and the SPLC nally filed the case in federal court in needed local counsel to assist in the Oregon, under a federal statute passed case.11 All expenses would be covered, during the aftermath of the Civil War he explained, but local counsel must that prohibits conspiracies to deprive be willing to serve pro bono, that is, persons of their civil rights.13 The law without being paid.12 was specifically intended to protect As Dees explained the case, I the formerly enslaved people, now thought about my mother’s parents freed. Dees, however, was unaware fleeing antisemitism in Russia and my that Oregon law does not require the father escaping from Germany in 1936. pretrial divulging of witness names

Rosenthal, White Supremacy and Hatred in the Streets of Portland 593 or their whereabouts. By contrast, in security. We were also of the view the federal court system, there are that exposing a judge to Metzger’s procedures available to require one’s shenanigans for months leading up opponents to identify the names and to a trial would be advantageous. We addresses of all witnesses that will decided to file a motion seeking the be called at trial. Oregon law only immediate assignment of a trial judge. requires each side to explain in pretrial Metzger was delighted to agree with pleadings what they intend to prove. A the request, seeing it as a way to get few weeks after the case was filed in the case away from Londer. Shortly federal court, I explained to Dees that after filing the motion, we convened if we brought the case in state court as in the judge’s chambers for him to a wrongful death claim, not as a federal consider the matter. civil rights claim, we would not have A judge’s chambers serve as a pri- to disclose Mazzella’s address. Dees vate office and as a place to conduct promptly agreed. The case was dis- business with lawyers away from the missed from federal court and refiled eyes and ears of the public. Lawyers in Multnomah County Circuit Court in are usually more relaxed in chambers, the fall of 1989. the conversations often more candid than in open court. Londer occupied THE MULTNOMAH COUNTY presid- the largest and nicest chambers in the ing circuit court judge, who is respon- courthouse, with comfortable chairs, sible for the administrative business of a sofa, and a view of a Portland city the county’s court system, was also at park. Typically, no court reporter is the time responsible for ruling on pre- present in chambers to transcribe the trial legal motions in all pending civil discussions. cases. When Tom Metzger discovered In attendance for the hearing were that the presiding judge, Don Londer, Tom Metzger (Metzger and his son were was Jewish, he began bad-mouthing ostensibly representing themselves, the judge to the various court clerks although they were receiving advice he was dealing with, complaining that from a Texas lawyer who did not for- a Jewish judge could not possibly be mally appear in the case), the county fair to him. It is never a good strategy docket clerk, and an official court to start insulting a judge. The court reporter. “What is she doing here?” I clerks, predictably, relayed Metzger’s thought as I sat down. Londer was all bad-mouthing to Londer. business — the customary chambers In Multnomah County at that time, informality was missing. Looking at the presiding judge would typically me sternly, he asked why I had filed assign a judge to actually preside over the request, listened to my explana- a trial the day before that trial was set tion of security concerns, and then to begin. Dees was concerned that a asked Metzger if he agreed. Metzger, last-minute assignment would make it of course, voiced enthusiasm for the difficult, if not impossible, to arrange immediate assignment of a trial judge. for proper courthouse and courtroom With the court reporter taking down

594 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Oregonian

JUDGE ANCER HAGGERTY, pictured here in 1989 during the Metzger trial, was a former public defender and the only African American circuit court trial judge sitting in Oregon during that time.

every word, Londer then asked me if I “Any objection, counselor?” Londer understood that assigning a judge now gravely asked. would mean that all preliminary matters Ancer Haggerty! A former interior as well as all trial matters would be lineman for the University of Oregon ruled on by the trial judge and that the Ducks, a Marine Silver Star recipient assignment would be final. I understood for combat bravery in Vietnam, and a this and stated so. Metzger expressed former public defender, Haggerty was his understanding as well. also the only African American circuit With a flourish Londer turned to the court trial judge sitting in Oregon. I county’s docket clerk, Gwen Byhre, and averted my gaze from Londer’s stare. asked what judge was available for a “No objection,” I mumbled. Metzger special advance assignment. Byhre quickly assented to the assignment. paused, leafed through some papers, “He must not know,” I thought. “He and then announced that Judge Ancer probably thinks Haggerty is Irish!” Haggerty was the next judge available Now I understood why Londer for a special assignment. had brought in the court reporter. He

Rosenthal, White Supremacy and Hatred in the Streets of Portland 595 immediately assigned the case to Hag- study at our colleges?”). At the end of gerty and again reminded us that the the first day of trial, we had questioned decision was final. As I left his chamber, all the potential jurors. In court the next Londer shook my hand. He never said morning, we selected a jury and the a word about it to me again. trial began. Dees made our opening state- TRIAL WAS SCHEDULED to begin ment. After telling the jury about on October 8, 1990, and skinheads Mulugeta Seraw’s life and murder, he began arriving in town days in advance carefully outlined how we intended to support WAR. Just before trial, my to show that the Metzgers were wife and I received a threatening personally responsible for what had call on our home phone. From early occurred. Dees outlined the twisted October through the trial, the Portland White supremacist thinking of the Police provided Dees, Haggerty, the Metzgers and their political goal of Metzgers, and me with police protec- making the United States a White tion. There were three shifts of two Christian nation. He explained that armed policemen assigned to protect Tom Metzger had developed the me twenty-four hours a day. Sixth plan of recruiting skinheads to act as Avenue, the street between my office his troops, training them to perform and the courthouse, was blocked off random acts of violence against “mud during the trial. A SWAT team armed people” and Jews in the hope of incit- with automatic weapons was stationed ing a White racial uprising. atop the courthouse. I had been concerned that Dees’s Dees had recruited Cathy “Cat” deep southern drawl and fractured Bennett to help us pick a jury. Ben- grammar would not work well in a Port- nett was one of the country’s first jury land courtroom. I could not have been consultants, an incredibly gifted and more wrong. Here was a man from observant woman who volunteered the Deep South who had traveled to her services for the trial. She had pio- Portland to represent the family of an neered a new approach for trial law- Ethiopian immigrant. The incongruity yers to use when questioning potential of the situation combined with Dees’s jurors. Rather than asking whether down-home way of talking to the jury they were for or against a party to a captivated the courtroom right from lawsuit (i.e., “Mr. Jones, will you have the start. any difficulty voting for the plaintiff Tom Metzger spoke for himself if the evidence favors his claims?”), to the jury. He was a short, square- Bennett encouraged lawyers to ask shaped man with an obvious toupee. open-ended questions with the hope He claimed he had nothing to do with that jurors would reveal their thoughts Seraw’s murder, that he was the victim and views about important issues (“Mr. of a witch hunt because of his views Jones, what are your thoughts about regarding White nationalism. Metzger immigrants who come to Oregon to portrayed himself as a victim, claiming

596 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Oregonian

TOM METZGER (left) is pictured here with Morris Dees (right) of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) at the civil trial over Mulugeta Seraw’s murder. SPLC brought a civil suit against Metzger and the White Aryan Resistance for inciting the murder.

that we were suing him because of his played incriminating tape recordings political views, that we were trying to of Metzger praising Mieske and the deny him the right to free speech that other skinheads for doing their “civic was protected by the First Amendment. duty” in Portland. We put into evidence The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has newsletters published by Metzger been clear that “preparing a group for with cartoons depicting Blacks as violent action and steeling it to such ignorant drug addicts and criminals. action” is not speech protected by We showed the jury WAR publications the First Amendment.14 Just as a mafia urging violence. We called the former boss cannot claim First Amendment state medical examiner, William Brady, protection for telling a lieutenant to to describe how Mulugeta Seraw had “take care” of a rival, so Tom Metzger died. Dr. Brady was well-known in the could not legitimately claim immunity courthouse for his lurid descriptions for sending Mazzella to Portland with of fatal wounds and his booming bass instructions to use violence to recruit voice. He described in brutal detail the skinheads. skull-crushing injuries Seraw suffered. After opening statements, the We brought Seraw’s father, Seraw plaintiff puts on evidence first. We Tekuneh, to Portland from the north-

Rosenthal, White Supremacy and Hatred in the Streets of Portland 597 Oregonian

ENGEDAW BERHANU, Mulugeta Seraw’s uncle, testified about Seraw’s life at the civil trial. Here, Elden Rosenthal shows Berhanu a photograph of Seraw as Berhanu wipes tears from his eye.

ern Ethiopian highlands where he Mussolini’s army. Seraw’s father had lived, along with Seraw’s son, Henock heard stories of the invasion. “It was Mulugeta Seraw, from Addis Abiba. those people,” I told him, “Fascists, Seraw’s father was a short, dignified people with the same beliefs as Mus- man who made his living as a farmer. solini, who killed your son.” Seraw’s He testified with the help of an Amharic father nodded solemnly — now he interpreter about Seraw’s life, about his understood. When we visited Seraw’s decision to leave Ethiopia and travel to grave, the police officers who were America to study. He told the jury about with us cried. selling a cow to pay for Seraw’s travels, We put the imprisoned Mieske and of his pain at losing his only son. on the witness stand as an adverse Before the trial I spent a few hours witness, forcing him to describe the with him, helped by an interpreter. assault. We called witnesses to the Seraw’s father asked me who the skinheads’ actions leading up to the people were who killed his son. I assault. Heidi Martinson testified responded by asking if he knew about that she was in the skinheads’ Nis- the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 by san when Seraw was murdered. She

598 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 described how the skinheads initiated Relying on the established legal the confrontation and stated that precept that holds persons and enti- Seraw was unarmed and did nothing ties liable for the expected actions of to provoke the assault. She told the their agents, as well as the law of civil jury that she saw Mieske club Seraw conspiracy, we established the neces- twice with a baseball bat. sary elements to prove the defendant’s And, of course, Mazzella testified. legal liability. He explained how he had been sent As the trial unfolded, Haggerty to Portland to recruit skinhead mem- remained stoic and judicious, ruling on bers of East Side White Pride to the various issues as they arose. Despite Metzgers’ organization. He testified the abhorrent racist evidence pre- that he took Portland skinheads into sented daily, Haggarty was expression- public parks looking for lone African less, sitting above the fray in his judicial Americans to assault. Violence, he robes, an ever-present reminder of the told the jury, built “respect” for WAR.15 Tom and John Metzger testified in their own defense, stressing that they had been a thousand miles away from Portland when the murder occurred, that they had nothing to do with what had happened. But we had the letter that John Metzger had written to the Portland skinheads, introducing Dave Mazzella and inviting the East Side White Pride to join WAR’s Aryan Youth Movement, a letter that concluded with the chilling admonition that “We work with any pro-White, anti- drug, White group as long as they do not talk. Racial Regards.” We also had bank MULUGETA SERAW (October 21, 1960– records that showed WAR November 13, 1988) was an Ethiopian immigrant was a for-profit business living in Southeast Portland. Those who knew that provided the Metzgers him described him as intelligent, gentle, and kind. with a steady, albeit modest, Seraw’s murder shocked the city and revealed a income from the sale of Nazi dark underpinning of White supremacy that many paraphernalia and donations. Portland residents had long ignored.

Rosenthal, White Supremacy and Hatred in the Streets of Portland 599 Courtesy of the author

JOHN METZGER’S LETTER to Portland’s East Side White Pride group was submitted as evidence in the trial. He discusses sending White Aryan Resistance (WAR) recruiter Dave Mazzella to Portland to organize local skinheads and give East Side White Pride “a feel of how we [WAR] work” — committing violence against non-Whites.

600 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 ludicrousness of Metzger’s warped Metzger concluded by describing the views. plight of White Americans as he saw The two-week-long trial was front- it: “There is a growing underclass of page news and the talk of the town day white people in this country. They are after day. In addition to the live televi- dropping through the grating. They sion coverage, reporters from across are becoming poorer and poorer and the country sat in the courtroom. poorer. And they don’t like what’s happening in this country. . . .” CLOSING ARGUMENTS spanned I gave the rebuttal argument after two court days. Dees made the first Tom Metzger sat down. I stressed closing argument. He carefully walked the odiousness of his message, and the jury through the evidence we had concluded: “Our community will not presented. He pointed out how we remember the hundreds of thousands had provided overwhelming proof that of words spoken in this courtroom the Metzgers were in the business of when this trial is over, but our commu- hate and violence. He reviewed the nity and indeed our country is going to numerous ways we had proven this remember your verdict for a long time. and how the Metzgers’ decision to Give us the verdict to put this man out send Mazzella to Portland directly led of business.” to Seraw’s violent death. The jury began its deliberations at John Metzger followed Dees, 11:45 a.m. A few minutes before 5:00 reiterating the defense theme that he p.m., their verdict was delivered to a and his father had nothing to do with packed courtroom. By a vote of 11 to 1, the murder, that they were a thousand Tom and John Metzger, and WAR, were miles away when the killing occurred. found liable for the death of Mulugeta Court then adjourned for the weekend. Seraw. The family’s compensatory On Monday morning, Tom Metzger damages and the community’s puni- made his closing argument. He began tive damages were assessed at $12.5 by attacking lawyers, by referring to million, the amount we had asked the lawyers as a parasite class. He then jury to award. At the time it was one of argued that America was changing for the largest verdicts in Oregon history. the worse, and that his vision of White The verdict was national news.16 nationalism was justified. He claimed After the verdict, the entire litiga- that people who saw the world the tion team, along with our security same way he did were everywhere details, celebrated in the dark back and that he was being victimized for bar at Jake’s, Portland’s venerable his beliefs. downtown seafood restaurant. One Rereading Metzger’s argument of the celebrants at Jake’s was San almost thirty years later, his rhetoric Diego trial lawyer Jim “Mac” McElroy. is uncomfortably familiar and current: McElroy had spent the entire trial in “We’re being invaded from Mexico and Portland helping in whatever way he everywhere in the south,” he argued. could. After the verdict, Dees asked

Rosenthal, White Supremacy and Hatred in the Streets of Portland 601 him to take on the task of collecting of candidate and President Donald J. the judgment. Through McElroy’s Trump seemed to be copies of Tom efforts, we forced the sale of the Metzger’s closing arguments. Metzger family home and hounded METZGER IN THE COURTROOM: “We Tom Metzger as a creditor for twenty had a nice little community [in Fallbrook, 17 years. McElroy also traveled to California], . . . it was clean and nice. The Ethiopia to meet with Seraw’s family. schools were great. And they went over With the family’s blessing, he eventu- us like a steamroller destroying that ally adopted Seraw’s son, Henock. little town. . . . We’re being invaded from 20 McElroy raised Henock, who now is Mexico and everywhere in the south.” married and a commercial airline pilot, flying big passenger jetliners. PRESIDENT TRUMP, OVAL OFFICE: “Why are we having all these people The Metzgers appealed the ver- from shithole countries come here?»21 dict. The judgment was affirmed by a unanimous Oregon Court of Appeals PRESIDENT TRUMP TWEET: “This is an in April 1993. The Metzgers unsuc- invasion of our Country and our Military cessfully sought first Oregon Supreme is waiting for you!”22 Court and then U.S. Supreme Court review. The litigation finally ended in When Trump took office, he immedi- May 1994.18 ately began seeking authorization to build a wall on the southern border THE TRIAL AND VERDICT struck to stop immigration from Mexico and chords that continue to quietly rever- Central America and enacted policies 23 berate. Dees moved on to success- to greatly reduce asylum seekers. He fully sue Richard Butler and the Aryan enlisted advisors with avowed White Nations, in Idaho, forcing a sale of their nationalist connections.24 compound following a $6.3 million Along with the increase in White verdict and resultant bankruptcy.19 On supremacy rhetoric, hate crimes the thirtieth anniversary of Seraw’s nationwide have recently increased murder, Portland proclaimed “Novem- dramatically.25 In Portland we are ber 13th of each year to be Mulugeta acutely aware of this reemergence. Seraw Day.” If it is not a Jeremy Christian, it is the Metzger’s White nationalism pre- Proud Boys or Patriot Prayer bringing saged the current, widespread emer- violence to our streets.26 On August gence of White nationalism and White 12, 2017, White supremacists rioted in supremacy as a political reality, along Charlottesville, Virginia, terrorizing the with its accompanying violent shadow. city and killing Heather Heyer.27 On I had not considered the possibil- October 27, 2018, a White supremacist ity that Metzger’s message of White gunman killed eleven congregants nationalism and White supremacy worshiping at the Pittsburgh Tree of would gain traction, but recent events Life synagogue, the synagogue where have reminded me of what we heard my parents were married.28 On August in the courtroom. The public utterings 3, 2019, a White nationalist gunman

602 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Courtesy of the author

WHITE ARYAN NATION (WAR) propaganda from the mid 1980s that advocated violence at the U.S. border resonates today. In this flyer, WAR tells its followers: “If it ain’t white . . . waste it” to “stop the mudslide” into the United States.

Rosenthal, White Supremacy and Hatred in the Streets of Portland 603 posted an anti-Hispanic, anti-immigrant der of Mulugeta Seraw is part of a manifesto on an internet chatboard and continuum of violence that began then killed twenty-two persons in an El with the brutality of slavery, continued Paso, Texas, Walmart.29 through the decades of Jim Crow and Are there lessons to be learned lynchings, and have recently thrust from the sordid events in Portland of themselves into the news with disturb- November 13, 1988? Sadly, it cannot ing frequency. The threat inherent in be ignored that holding views of White racist ideology must be recognized nationalism and White supremacy and vigorously opposed on every inevitably lead to violence. The mur- occasion when its bile surfaces.

NOTES

1. Author’s December 4, 2018, telephone 2003), 42–49. interview with Abinnet Hile. 8. Jim Redden, “Young Nazis: Portland’s 2. Ibid.; testimony of Engedaw Berhanu, new breed of racists,” Willamette Week, May October 17, 1990, Berhanu v. Metzger et al., 12, 1988, excerpted at https://www.wweek.com/ Multnomah County Circuit Court, A8911-07007 news/2018/10/31/wws-reporting-on-how-hate- (1990). spread-across-portland-in-1988/ (accessed 3. See, for example, other articles in this November 6, 2019). “White Supremacy & Resistance” special issue of 9. “Tom Metzger,” Southern Poverty Law Oregon Historical Quarterly 120:4 (Winter 2019). Center, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting- 4. “Richard Butler,” Southern Poverty Law hate/extremist-files/individual/tom-metzger Center, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/ (accessed November 6, 2019). extremist-files/individual/richard-butler (accessed 10. “Fire Damages Alabama Center that November 6, 2019); Spencer Sunshine with Rural Battles Klan.” New York Times, July 31, 1983. Organizing Project, “Up in Arms: A Guide to 11. All jurisdictions require that a member Oregon’s Patriot Movement,” (Somerville, Mass.: of the local state bar association be involved in Political Research Associates, 2016), 47. any filed lawsuit. 5. Wayne King, “Neo-Nazis’ Dream of a 12. Pro bono is shorthand for the Latin phrase Racist Territory in Pacific Northwest Refuses to pro bono publico (‘for the good of the public’); the Die,” New York Times, July 5, 1986. client is not charged a fee. 6. Daryl C. McClary, “Robert Jay Mathews, 13. 42 U.S.C. § 1985. founder of the white-supremacist group The Order, 14. Noto v. United States, 367 U.S. 290, is killed during an FBI siege on Whidbey Island on 298 (1961). December 8, 1984,” HistoryLink.org, December 15. Testimony of Dave Mazzella, October 12 6, 2006, https://www.historylink.org/File/7921 and October 14, 1990, Berhanu v. Metzger et al. (accessed November 6, 2019); “Aryan Nations,” 16. “White Supremacist Leaders Penalized Southern Poverty Law Center, https://www. for Inciting Death.” New York Times, October 23, splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/ 1990; Richard A. Serrano, “Metzger Must Pay $5 aryan-nations (accessed November 6, 2019). Million in Rights Death,” L.A. Times, October 23, 7. Elinor Langer, A Hundred Little Hitlers: 1990; “Justice: Scalping the Skinheads,” Time The Death of a Black Man, The Trial of a White Magazine, November 5, 1990. Racist, and the Rise of the Neo-Nazi Movement 17. Under Oregon law, a judgment can be in America (New York: Metropolitan Books, the subject of collection efforts for only twenty

604 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 years. Oregon Revised Statutes, sections 18.180 2019); and Jessica Schulberg, “Trump Aide and 18.182. Derided Islam, Immigration and Diversity, 18. Berhanu v. Metzger, 119 Or. App. 175, Embraced an Anti-Semitic Past,” Huffington 850 P.2d 373 (1993), rev. den. 318 Or. 60, 865 Post, February 13, 2017, https://www.huffpost. P.2d 1296, cert. den. 511 U.S. 1106 (1994); John com/entry/michael-anton-trump-essay-publius- Snell and Tom Hallman Jr., “High Court Rejects decius-mus_n_589ba947e4b09bd304bff3c8 Metzger Appeal,” Oregonian, May 24, 1994. (accessed November 11, 2019). 19. “A Sound Verdict in Idaho,” New York 25. “2017 Hate Crime Statistics Released,” Times, September 9, 2000; Southern Poverty FBI, November 13, 2018, https://www.fbi. Law Center, “Richard Butler,” https://www. gov/news/stories/2017-hate-crime-statistics- splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ released-111318 (accessed November 11, 2019); individual/richard-butler (accessed December “NAACP Sees Continued Rise in Hate Crimes, 2, 2019). Legacy of Trump’s Racism,” NAACP, June 29, 20. Closing argument of Tom Metzger, 2018, https://www.naacp.org/latest/naacp-sees- October 22, 1990, Berhanu v. Metzger et al. continued-rise-hate-crimes-legacy-trumps- 21. Josh Dawsey, “Trump derides racism/ (accessed November 11, 2019). protections for immigrants from ‘shithole’ 26. Jeremy Christian killed two fellow countries,” Washington Post, January 12, 2018. passengers on a Portland commuter light- 22. Donald J. Trump (@ rail train who tried to intervene as Christian realDonaldTrump), October 29, 2018, was screaming racist insults at two teenage https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/ girls. See Matthew Haag and Jacey Fortin, status/1056919064906469376. See also “Two Killed in Portland While Trying to Stop Anthony Rivas, “Trump’s language. . . under Anti-Muslim Rant, Police Say,” New York scrutiny in wake of El Paso shooting,” ABC News, Times, May 27, 2017, https://www.nytimes. August 4, 2019, https://abcnews.go.com/US/ com/2017/05/27/us/portland-train-attack- trumps-language-mexican-immigrants-scrutiny- muslim-rant.html (accessed November 11, wake-el-paso/story?id=64768566 (accessed 2019); “Proud Boys,” ADL, https://www.adl. November 7, 2019). org/resources/backgrounders/proud-boys 23. Julie Hirschfeld Davis, “Trump Orders (accessed November 11, 2019); Alex Zielinski, Mexican Border Wall to Be Built and Plans to “Undercover in Patriot Prayer,” Portland Mercury, Block Syrian Refugees,” New York Times, January August 26, 2019, https://www.portlandmercury. 25, 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/ com/blogtown/2019/08/26/27039560/ us/politics/refugees-immigrants-wall-trump. undercover-in-patriot-prayer-insights-from- html (accessed November 7, 2019). See a-vancouver-democrat-whos-been-working- also Adam Serwer, “White Nationalism’s against-the-far-right-group-from-the-inside Deep American Roots,” The Atlantic, April (accessed November 11, 2019). 2019 , https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ 27. Joe Heim, “Recounting a day of rage, archive/2019/04/adam-serwer-madison- hate, violence and death,” Washington Post, grant-white-nationalism/583258/ (accessed August 14, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost. November 11, 2019); and Jayashri Srikantiah & com/graphics/2017/local/charlottesville- Shirin Sinnar, “White Nationalism as Immigration timeline/ (accessed November 11, 2019). Policy,” Stanford Law Review 71 (March 2019): 28. “ Pittsburgh shooter was fringe figure 197–209. in online world of white supremacist rage.” 24. See Keegan Hankes, “Breitbart The Guardian, October 30, 2018, https:// Under Bannon,” Southern Poverty Law www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/30/ Center – Hatewatch, March 1, 2017, https:// pittsburgh-synagogue-shooter-was-fringe- www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/03/01/ figure-in-online-world-of-white-supremacist- breitbart-under-bannon-how-breitbart-became- rage (accessed November 11, 2019). favorite-news-source-neo-nazis-and-white 29. Danner, Chas. “Everything we know (accessed November 11, 2019); Luke Darby, about the El Paso Walmart massacre.” New “There’s Nothing Controversial About Calling York Magazine, August 7, 2019, , http://nymag. Stephen Miller What He Is,” GQ, April 9, 2019, com/intelligencer/2019/08/everything-we- https://www.gq.com/story/stephen-miller-is- know-about-the-el-paso-walmart-shooting.html a-white-nationalist (accessed November 11, (accessed November 11, 2019).

Rosenthal, White Supremacy and Hatred in the Streets of Portland 605 Epilogue

by Eliza E. Canty-Jones

THANK YOU for reading this special issue of the Oregon Historical Quar- terly. The work of preparing this issue for publication has been both profes- sionally satisfying and emotionally wrenching. Since we began this project in summer 2017, the news has been filled with reports of White supremacist organizing and violence. White supremacists have repeatedly and proudly marched in Portland, Oregon. Men deploying White supremacist rhetoric have attacked Muslims praying in Christchurch, New Zealand, Jewish people gathering in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and families perceived to be Mexican shopping in El Paso, Texas. These events are tied to both the history we have been exploring through this special issue and to one another. After the massacre in El Paso, historian of radical right movements Kathleen Belew wrote: The white power movement imagines race war, incited by mass violence among other strategies. The core texts of this movement . . . provide a road map to how such violence could succeed. To call them manuals is too simplistic: They provide the collective ideas and vision by which a fringe movement can attempt a violent confrontation that could lead to a race war.*

As we undertook the labor of creating this investigation of White supremacy and resistance in Oregon history, it was impossible to ignore the contemporary violence that is linked to the legacy of that history. Our sincere hope, as Carmen Thompson wrote in the introduction, is that the work we have produced offers readers a “freshness of thought” that can itself be a tool for resisting White supremacy. While we believe this issue provides a substantial framework for understanding the history of White supremacy and resistance in Oregon, we know it is by no means comprehensive. The work of perceiving the structures of White supremacy, and the attendant expectations of Whiteness, is the work of a lifetime. For 120 years, the Oregon Historical Society has published this journal every three months. We expect that investigations of White supremacy will continue to fill its pages for years to come.

* Kathleen Belew, “The Right Way to Understand White Nationalist Terrorism,” New York Times, August 4, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/04/opinion/el-paso-terrorism.html (accessed November 26, 2019)

606 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Special Issue Background & Timeline

THE WINTER 2019 ISSUE of the Oregon Historical Quarterly (OHQ) presents authoritative scholarship on the subject of White supremacy and resistance in Oregon history. OHQ staff, in consultation with two guest editors and many additional advisors, have undertaken the work of creating this issue with extreme care and commitment. Focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the special issue includes new and newly considered scholarship, primary sources, and unique framing of a complex aspect of Oregon’s history. Twelve authors, supported by over twenty peer reviewers, explore themes such as settler colonialism, labor organizing, and the global color line. This project is not neutral on the subject of White supremacy. Its creators believe that organizations, leaders, and public policies that advance and institutionalize the idea that people categorized as White are superior to other people are harmful and always have been. It therefore is important to learn both about how White supremacy has been woven into many of our policies and social norms and about the many, diverse people who have resisted that institutionalization. The creation of this special issue reflects many of the Oregon Historical Society’s core values, as articulated in its 2019–2023 Strategic Plan, including: “address[ing] historical exclusion”; “exploring and embracing multiple ways of knowing”; and “welcom[ing] challenging conversations.” The process of creating the special issue continues OHS’ “work with diverse community partners whose advice guides many aspects of our work.” All issues of OHQ are the result of extensive research, peer review, revision, developmental editing and copy-editing, fact checking, and meticulous layout and proofreading. Because of the collaborative process we have used for this issue, that work has been even more extensive than usual. This timeline outlines that process. Through a brave, evidence-based, and scholarly investigation of some of the most uncomfortable parts of our state’s history, this special issue of OHQ offers significant fulfillment of OHS’ commitment to a vision of an Oregon Story that is meaningful to all Oregonians.

Special Issue Background & Timeline 607 TIMELINE

June 2017 OHQ Editorial Advisory Board asked staff to consider creating a special issue on the history of White supremacy in Oregon. The discussion was prompted, in part, by then-recent, racially motivated attacks and murders on the MAX (light-rail) in Portland. OHQ’s advisors recognized that — as a scholarly journal that embraces complexity and context — OHQ could bring to the public valuable perspective and knowledge on this subject.

October 2017 OHQ staff hosted two dozen scholars for a discussion of how the journal might approach the project. They discussed: What question(s) should be addressed by the special issue? Who should be involved in the work as authors? What major themes should provide parameters for the work? In response to this meeting and discussions with individual advisors, the OHQ Editor recruited a “design team” to hone the project’s direction. The team included: Natalia Fernández, Curator and Archivist of the Oregon Multicul- tural Archives and OSU Queer Archives; James Stanley Harrison, Portland Community College; Dr. David Lewis, NDN History Research; Dr. Darrell Millner, Portland State University; Scot Nakagawa, ChangeLab; Dr. Carmen Thompson, Portland State University and Portland Community College; and Eric Ward, Western States Center.

Winter and Spring 2018 Through two in-person meetings and remote communications, the design team created a proposed table of contents. OHQ staff, design team members, and advisors began soliciting proposals, which were due in mid June 2018. Historians and design team members Dr. Darrell Millner and Dr. Carmen Thompson agreed to serve as guest editors.

608 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Summer and Fall 2018 Guest editors and OHQ editorial staff reviewed and made decisions about proposals, editorial staff communicated responses to prospective authors, and all solicited additional submissions.

January and February 2019 Guest editors and OHQ editorial staff reviewed submitted manuscripts, and editorial staff recruited peer reviewers for all submitted manuscripts.

Spring and Summer 2019 Through multiple in-person meetings as well as email communication, the guest editors and OHQ editorial staff reviewed peer-reviewers’ reports, discussed revision requests, reviewed and discussed revised manuscripts and associated peer review reports, and made final decisions on editing and publication. OHQ staff communicated with authors about (often multiple) revision requests. Guest editors and OHQ editorial staff discussed additional material to include in the issue as well as how to make it as inviting as possible to a broad readership. Dr. Thompson began writing an introductory essay.

Summer and Fall 2019 In consultation with guest editors, OHQ editorial staff copy-edited all manuscripts, sourced images, created pages, fact-checked all articles, conducted research for additional features (timeline, pop culture interludes, and bibliog- raphy), oversaw proofreading, and incorporated final changes. Dr. Thompson completed the essay.

Special Issue Background & Timeline 609 OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Founded 1898

William Valach, president Mary Faulkner, vice president Sarah Newhall, secretary James Parker, treasurer Kerry Tymchuk, executive director

DIRECTORS ex-officio Hon. Kate Brown, governor of Oregon Jennifer Patterson, state librarian

Kris Anderson, Paul Andrews, Mort Bishop III, John Boylston, Dr. Steve Brown, Rhett Carlile, Sen. Margaret Carter, Carl Christoferson, Bobbie Conner, Serena Cruz, Mary Faulkner, Jamieson Grabenhorst, Scott Howard, Jon Kruse, Thomas Lauderdale, Marilyn Loy, Robert “Robin” Miller, Dr. Dinelli Monson, Dr. Alisha Moreland-Capuia, Anne Naito-Campbell, Sarah Newhall, Dr. Christopher McKnight Nichols, Peter Nickerson, Brian Obie, Doug Pahl, James Parker, Perry Pelos, James Richardson, Linda Shelk, Greg Specht, Leslie Spencer, Janet Taylor, Ivy Lenz Timpe, Linda Walker-Turner, William Valach, Bill Westphal

HONORARY COUNCIL Noydena Brix, Prof. Basil Dmytryshyn, Antoinette Hatfield, John H. Herman, Robert H. Huntington, Millard McClung, Laura Meier, Pat Ritz Oregon Historical Quarterly Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation 2. Paid In-County Subscriptions (Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685) Stated on Form 3541 0 0 3. Sales Through Dealers and Car- riers, Street Vendors, Counter 1. Publication Title: Oregon Historical Quarterly Sales, and Other Non-USPS Paid 2. Publication Number: 0030-4727 Distribution 125 150 3. Filing Date: September 30, 2019 4. Issue Frequency: quarterly 4. Other Classes Mailed Through the 5. Number of Issues Published Annually: 4 USPS 0 0 6. Annual Subscription Price: Indiv. $44; Inst. $68 c. Total Paid and/or Requested Circula- 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication tion 4166 4135 (not printer): Oregon Historical Society, 1200 S.W. Park Ave., Portland, OR 97205-2483 d. Free Distribution by Mail 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General 1. Outside-County as Stated on Form Business Office of Publisher (not printer): Oregon Historical 3541 0 0 Society, 1200 S.W. Park Ave., Portland, OR 97205-2483 2. In-County as Stated on Form 3541 0 0 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Pub- lisher, Editor, and Managing Editor: 3. Other Classes Mailed through the Publisher: Oregon Historical Society, 1200 S.W. Park Ave., USPS 43 33 Portland, OR 97205-2483 Editor: Eliza Canty-Jones, Editor, Oregon Historical Quar- 4. Free Distribution Outside the Mail 28 27 terly, 1200 S.W. Park Ave., Portland, OR 97205-2483 Managing Editor: Eliza Canty-Jones, Editor, Oregon Histori- e. Total Free Distribution 71 60 cal Quarterly, 1200 S.W. Park Ave., Portland, OR 97205-2483 10. Owner: Oregon Historical Society, 1200 S.W. Park Ave., f. Total Distribution 4237 4195 Portland, OR 97205-2483 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security g. Copies not Distributed 0 0 Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, and Other Securities: None. h. Total 4237 4195 12. Tax Status: The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal i. Percent Paid and/or Requested circula- income tax purposes: Has Not Changed During Preceding tion 98% 99% 12 Months. 16. Publication of Statement of Ownership will be printed 13. Publication Title: Oregon Historical Quarterly in the Winter 2019 issue of this publication. 14. Issue Date for circulation Data Below: Fall 2016 17. Signature and Title of Editor, Publisher, Business Man- AVERAGE NO. NO. COPIES OF COPIES EACH SINGLE ISSUE ager, or Owner and Date 15. Extent and Nature of Circula- ISSUE DURING PUBLISHED P ECEDING 12 NEAREST TO FILING tion: MONTHS DATE Eliza Canty-Jones, editor, 09⁄30⁄19 a. Total Number of Copies 4237 4195 I certify that all information furnished on this form is true b. Paid and/or Requested Circula- and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes tion false or misleading information on this form or who omits 1. Paid/Requested Outside- material or information requested on the form may be County Mail Subscriptions subject to criminal sanctions (including fines and imprison- Stated on Form 3541 4041 3985 ment) and/or civil sanctions (including civil penalties). CONTRIBUTORS

KATRINE BARBER is a history professor at Port- about abolitionists in Oregon during the 1850s land State University where she teaches courses and 1860s. in Western History and Public History. She is author of In Defense of Wyam: Native-White Alliances JACK L. LANDAU is a Distinguished Jurist in Resi- and the Struggle for Celilo Village (2018), Death dence at Willamette University College of Law. of Celilo (2005), and Nature’s Northwest (with Wil- He served as Associate Justice, Oregon Supreme liam Robbins, 2012) as well as numerous articles. Court, for seven years before retiring in 2017. He earned a B.A. from Lewis & Clark College and a SHANE BURLEY is a journalist based in Portland, J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School; he also holds Oregon. He is the author of Fascism Today: What a Master of Laws from the University of Virginia It Is and How to End It (AK Press, 2017) and edi- School of Law. After clerking for federal district tor of the upcoming anthologies ¡No pasarán!: court judge Robert Belloni and working in private An Antifascist Reader and Incendiary Identi- practice, Landau joined the Oregon Department ties: Experiencing Fascism in the 21st Century. of Justice, eventually becoming the Deputy At- His work has appeared in publications such as torney General. Gov. Barbara Roberts appointed Political Research Associates, the Baffler, the him to the Oregon Court of Appeals in 1992, and Independent, Jacobin, In These Times, Truthout, he served there until 2010, when he was elected and Perspectives. to the Oregon Supreme Court. He retired in 2017. Landau has taught at Oregon’s three law schools, KENNETH R. COLEMAN holds an M.A. in history published numerous law review articles on consti- from Portland State University. He is the author tutional interpretation and judicial review, and au- of Dangerous Subjects: James D. Saules and thored hundreds of appellate decisions during his the Rise of Black Exclusion in Oregon, winner time on the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. of the 2019 Oregon Book Award for General Nonfiction. His research interests include settler DAVID G. LEWIS holds a Ph.D. and is a member colonialism and racism in pre-statehood Oregon. of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, a He currently teaches U.S. history at Portland descendant of the Santiam, Chinook and Take- Community College. lma Peoples of Western Oregon. He is a recognized researcher, scholar, educator, and writer of THOMAS J. CONNOLLY holds a Ph.D. from the original histories of the peoples of Oregon and University of Oregon and is Director of the Ar- California, with an extensive record of collabora- chaeological Research Division of the University tive projects with regional scholars, tribes, local of Oregon Museum of Natural & Cultural History governments, and communities for over twenty and State Museum of Anthropology. He has au- years. He is a director of the SWORP collection thored dozens of journal articles and monographs at UO, former Chair of the Oregon Heritage on archaeology and ethnohistory of the Pacific Commission, and former Cultural Manager of Northwest, and is co-author of Oregon Archaeol- the Grand Ronde Tribe where for eight years ogy (Oregon State University Press, 2011). he helped the tribe write histories, conduct research, develop cultural archives, pursue JIM M. LABBE is a descendent French-Protes- language education, and create the museum. tant, German Jewish, and Anglo-American immi- David teaches at OSU in Anthropology and grants who settled in Oregon in the nineteenth Native Studies and curates exhibits in regional century. He was raised in Portland and earned museums. He lives in Salem in the heart of the a B.A. in history at Reed College and an M.S. in Santiam Kalapuyan territory with his wife Donna physical geography at Portland State University. and sons Saghaley and Inatye. His work and research in natural resource management in rural and urban Oregon spans three JOHN LINDER teaches fifth grade at the Creative decades and includes watershed management, Science School, a Portland Public School, and is a urban conservation, parks and green spaces member of the Portland Association of Teachers planning, and community-based advocacy and and Portland Area Rethinking Schools. Between stewardship. He is currently working on a book 1979 and 1980, he worked in the potrooms at the

612 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Kaiser Aluminum smelter in Chalmette, Louisiana, ELDEN ROSENTHAL holds a bachelor’s degree where he could still read “Colored” through a coat from the University of California, Los Angles and of paint on a restroom door. He was also a member a J.D. from Stanford Law School. Between 1972 of the Committee to Overturn the Webber Deci- and 2017, he represented individuals in civil rights sion, which sought to protect an affirmative action and personal injury cases, including serving as program that Black Kaiser workers and the United co-counsel in Seraw v. Metzger in 1991. Rosen- Steelworkers Union had won to reverse decades thal has received the Oregon State Bar Award of of racial discrimination by the company. Linder Merit, Oregon American Civil Liberties Union’s holds bachelor’s degrees in history and Spanish E.B. McNaughton Award, and the Oregon Trial and a master’s in education, from Portland State Lawyers Association Distinguished Trial Lawyer University. His article grew out of a term paper that Award. He is the author of The Plaintiff Lawyer’s he wrote in 1992 as a student in Darrell Millner’s Playbook (2019). Oregon Black History class. ALEXANDER REID ROSS is a Ph.D. candidate DARRELL MILLNER holds a bachelor’s in Eng- and instructor in the Geography Department lish from California State Polytechnic University at Portland State University, where he teaches and a Ed.D. in curriculum and instruction from classes on the Pacific Northwest, water issues, the University of Oregon. He began teaching in food systems, climate change, and globalization. the Black Studies Department at Portland State He earned an M.A. from the European Graduate University in 1975, serving as Department Chair School, and his latest book, Against the Fascist from 1984 to 1995. He is currently Professor Creep, was published by AK Press in 2017. Emeritus and continues to teach as an adjunct faculty member in the department. Millner is an PHILIP THOENNES is a third-generation Orego- expert on the history of African Americans in the nian born in Portland. He attended the University western movement with a special focus on the of Oregon, where he earned a bachelor’s of Oregon and California trail experiences, early Or- science, Portland State University, and Lewis & egon and California Black history, and the history Clark Law School. He was law clerk for Justice of the Black Buffalo soldiers in the Indian wars. Rives Kistler of the Oregon Supreme Court, now retired, and works as Assistant Attorney General JOHANNA OGDEN is an independent historian. for the Oregon Department of Justice. She received her B.A. from Portland State Univer- sity and her M.A. in History from the University of CARMEN P. THOMPSON is a historian and schol- British Columbia. Her earlier publication, “Ghadar, ar of race and the Black experience in America. Historical Silences, and Notions of Belonging,” Thompson earned her Ph.D. in U.S. History from won OHQ’s Palmer Award in 2012. In 2013, she, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and along with former city councilperson Karen Mel- her Master’s in African American Studies from lin, spearheaded the centenary celebration of Columbia University in New York. She received Ghadar’s founding in Astoria, Oregon. She has the Zora Neale Hurston Award for Excellence in spoken from British Columbia to California, and Writing by the Institute for Research in African in India, on Indians’ Oregon legacy in the context American Studies for her M.A. thesis. Currently, of global empire, and is currently completing a she is a Visiting Scholar in the Black Studies De- book manuscript on the topic. partment at Portland State University, where she is working on her book, The Making of American SANDY POLISHUK is an oral historian with an Whiteness. Since 2009, Thompson has taught emphasis on radical women as well as an in- a wide range of courses on race and the Black dependent scholar, writer, and climate activist. experience, including American slavery, Black She is the author of Sticking to the Union: An feminism, and race and racism. Thompson’s other Oral History of the Life and Times of Julia Ruut- research interests include the history of slavery tila (Palgrove Macmillan, 2003) and numerous and the slave trade in the New World and in articles and book reviews, both scholarly and pre-colonial West Africa, early African American literary. As a member of the Northwest Women’s history, race and ethnicity in early America, and History Project, she co-produced the DVD Good the Great Migration. Work, Sister! Women Shipyards Workers of World War II: An Oral History.

Contributors 613 CONTENTS FOR VOLUME 120

Articles “Breadwinning, Equity, and Solidarity: Labor Feminism in Oregon, 1945–1970” 6 Laurie Mercier

“The Oregon Skyline Trail: A Case Study in Evolving Attitudes Toward Nature 46 Tourism” Stuart Barker

“They Came for the Harvest: The Bracero Program in Jackson County, Oregon, 150 1951–1955” Madelina M. Cordia

“‘Providence will take care of me . . . I will wear a crown’: Frontier Circuit Rider, 246 James O. Rayner, and the Land Laws of Early Oregon” James V. Walker

“The History of Cricket in Oregon, 1870s to 1920s” 276 Craig Owen Jones

“‘We were at our journey’s end’: Settler Sovereignty Formation in 382 Oregon” Katrine Barber

“‘We’ll All Start Even’: White Egalitarianism and the Oregon 414 Donation Land Claim Act” Kenneth R. Coleman

“The Colored Brother’s Few Defenders: Oregon Abolitionists and their Followers” 440 Jim M. Labbe

“White Right and Labor Organizing in Oregon’s ‘Hindu’ City” 488 Johanna Ogden

“Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards: Racial Discrimination in Kaiser’s Portland 518 Shipyards, 1940–1945” John Linder

Essays “‘What’s in a name?’: The University of Oregon, De-Naming Controversies, and 176 the Ethics of Public Memory” Matthew Dennis and Samuel Reis-Dennis

“Expectation and Exclusion: An Introduction to Whiteness, White Supremacy, 358 and Resistance in Oregon” Carmen P. Thompson

614 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Research Files “From Nativism to White Power: The Interwar Fascist Movement in 564 Oregon and Its Aftermath” Shane Burley and Alexander Reid Ross

6 Primary Document “Constitutionalizing Racism: George H. Williams’s Appeal 468 for a White Utopia” 46 Philip Thoennes and Jack Landau

Oregon Voices “Oregon’s Pioneer Chinese Law Students and Their Untold Stories” 206 150 Li Chen

“An Oral History of the All American Toy Co.: An Oregon Original” 296 Martha A. Solomon 246 “White American Violence on Tribal Peoples of the Oregon Coast” 368 David G. Lewis and Thomas J. Connolly

276 “‘They can’t come in through the front door because you guys won’t let them’: 546 An Oral History of the Struggle to Admit African Americans into ILWU Local 8” Sandy Polishuk 382 “White Supremacy and Hatred in the Streets of Portland: 588 The Murder of Mulugeta Seraw” Elden Rosenthal 414 Oregon Places “Building the Oregon Coast Highway: An Oral History of the 1931–1932 Work 102 Camp at the Cape Creek Bridge, Lane County, Oregon” 440 Clyde E. Manning and Rick Minor

Staff Reflection 488 “‘Out of order’: Pasting Together the Slavery Debate in the 74 Oregon Constitution” Amy E. Platt with Laura Cray 518 OHS Directors and Honorary Council, 124, 228, 326, 610

Letter to the Editor, 139, 237, 349

176 Reviews, 125, 229, 327

Book Notes, 137, 346

358 From the OHQ Archives, 140, 350

Contributors, 142, 239, 351

OregonScape, 144, 240, 352 Matthew Cowan

Volume Contents 615 INDEX FOR VOLUME 120

Abernethy, George, 421, 435n43 Americans Incorporated, 566, 571–2, 574 abolitionists, 195, 364–5, 440, 445, 449–50, 470, Anderson, Lee, 532–3, 540 473–4, 484: state constitution vote, 451–6; inter- Andersen, Levi, 452 racial collaboration, 444, 446; as moral issue, Andrews, George H., 282–3 441, 447, 454, 458–9; opposition to, 442–4; Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, 573, 575 political parties, 448–50, 454; and racial equal- Applegate, Jesse, 86–7, 91, 99n24, 100n27, 100n29, ity, 442; women, 440, 456–9 419–20 Acklom, Alfred E., 279 Armitage, Sue: The Dreamer and the Doctor, by Adams, W.L., 442, 448 Nisbet, review, 136 AFL (American Federation of Labor), 15, 43n78: Arnold, Laurie: Power in the Telling, by Colley, gender equity issues, 12, 21; Metal Trades Dept., review, 129, 132 524, 531; racial discrimination in, 12, 503–4, Arriaga, Mariani, 163 524–6, 533–4; women leadership in, 9–10, 13, Aryan Nations, 590, 602 19. See also AFL-CIO. Asiatic Exclusion League (AEL), 504 AFL-CIO: gender equity issues, 14, 21, 23, 26; women Athapaskans, 370–2, 456 leadership in, 7, 13–14, 19, 29, 32–4 auto tourism, 46, 48–54, 59, 65–6, 68–9: alterna- African Americans, 188, 406, 416: activism, 364–5, tives to, 60, 62–3, 67 521–3, 532, 534–5, 540–1, 546, 548; citizenship Avril, Archie, 107, 113, 115 rights of, 20, 178, 188, 197–8, 395, 398–9, 441–2, 444, 447, 470, 501, 529; exclusion from labor Barber, Katrine, 363–4: In Defense of Wyam, review, unions, 12, 365, 523–7, 531–8, 541, 546–60; 128–9; Unlikely Alliances, by Grossman, review, housing discrimination, 402–3, 410n63, 432, 327 528, 576; Jim Crow segregation, 358, 518–41; baseball, 276–7, 283–5, 290–1 labor discrimination, 12, 32, 396–7, 520–2, 524, Bauman, Robert: The Integration of the Pacific Coast 526–38, 540, 546–60; pioneers, 394–5, 403–4; League, by Essington, review, 330 property rights of, 81–3, 85, 87, 89, 256–7, 270, Baxter, Samuel R., 455 387, 394–5, 406, 415, 418, 424–7, 429–32, Baxter, William Taylor, 444–7, 449, 455, 459 452; violence against, 178, 364–5, 402, 521, Beach, Philip F.: Wheat Country Railroad, review, 588–603; student activism, 176, 180–1, 193–4, 330, 334 197; wartime employment of, 402, 518–41. See Beach, Henry, 576–8, 584n51 also Oregon Constitutional Convention; exclu- Beauchamp, A.A., 575 sion laws; slavery; white nationalism; white Beatty, Marcella, 13, 14 supremacy Beavert, Virginia: The Gift of Knowledge, review, Albany, Ore.: cricket club in, 277–8, 280–1 125, 128 Alger, Theresa, 20 Beeson, Anna Welborn, 456 Alien Land Act, 387, 402 Beeson, John, 456, 457, 459 All American Toy Company, 296–303: die and sand Bennett, Cathy “Cat,” 596 casts, 297, 299–300, 306–7, 309–10, 312–14, Benton, Thomas Hart, 417, 433n16 316, 320; oral history of, 303–25; Timber Toter, Bhakna, Sohan Singh, 500, 508, 509, 515n84 300–301, 303, 305, 308, 309–10, 315, 317, 323 Black Radical Tradition, 362 Allen, Theodore: Class Struggle and the Origin of Black Student Task Force (BSTF) (UO), 180, 193, Racial Slavery, 361 197–8, 202n7 Alsea people, 370 Black Women of Achievement (UO), 181 America First Committee, 575 Blakely, Charles, 277, 286 American Association of University Women (AAUW), Black Worker, The, 521–2 21 Boardman, Bill, 11 American-Born Chinese Association, 209, 210, 221 Boilermakers Union: 520, 524–7, 531–2, 534–8, 540 American Defenders, 566, 570–2, 575, 579 Bourne, Jonathan, 282–3 American Gentile Youth Movement, 565 Bracero Program (Public Law 78): benefits of 156–7, “Americanization Council,” 572 160–2, 167, 169–70; exploitation of, 153, 159–60; American Plus, Inc., 576 labor camp conditions, 154, 158–60, 163–4;

616 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 and racism, 160–1, 165–8; regulation of, 151–2, 265–6; dissatisfaction by, 255–7; and property 158–9, 170; in the Rogue Valley, 150–71 ownership, 247, 250–63, 268 Bridges, Harry, 547–8, 549, 551, 555–6, 558 citizenship, 363, 405, 437n99, 441, 447: constitu- Bristow, W.W., 88–9 tional debate over, 80–4, 87–91, 186, 395; exclu- British Benevolent Society, 282, 291 sion from, 101n38, 206, 208, 386, 397–9, 402, British-Israelism, 572–3, 575–6, 578–9 406; race-based regulation of, 80–4, 87–91, Bronson, Bennet: Gold Mountain Turned to Dust, 186–8, 394–8, 400–401, 406, 410n49, 415, 420, by Wunder, review, 231–2 422, 424, 426–7, 429, 437n80, 470, 500–501, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union, 521–2 509, 575. See also exclusion laws. Buchtel, Joseph, 283–4 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 62 Buckley, Jay H.: Bitterroot: The Life and Death of Civil Rights Act, 365: Title VII, 29–30, 32–3, 557–8 Meriwether Lewis, by Stroud, review, 235–6 Civil War, 384, 392, 427, 441–2, 448, 454, 456–7, 501 Building Service Employees Union, 14–15 Clackamas Chinook, 369, 377n2, 433n14 Burgess, Doris, 197 Clackamas Construction Company, 106, 108, 110, Burley, Shane, 365 113, 115–16 Burnett, Peter, 391, 419–20, 421, 436n54 Clark, Orange Marcus, 214 Burns, Nellie, 22 Clarke, Clinton C., 68–9 Burton, Claudia, 81, 98n15 Clatsops, 376, 452 Bush, Asahel, 76–7, 442, 444, 449, 454 Cleator, Frederick W., 46, 48, 51–5, 58–9, 62, 65–9 Butler, Richard G., 578, 590, 602 Cleveland, Treadwell, Jr., 54 Bye, Marguerite, 28 Clow, J. James, 527, 534 Byers, William H., 167 Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), 33 Cobble, Dorothy Sue, 8, 26 Cameron, William, 573 Colby, William, 64 Cape Creek Bridge, 103, 104–109, 114, 118, 119–20 Coleman, Edwin, Jr.,178, 204n18 Carlston, Louretta, 15 Coleman, Kenneth, 363–4 Carrillo, Crio Fuentes, 157 Collier, Miriam, 61 Cascade Range, 55: road-building in, 46, 48, 51; Collier, Percy, 59–62 tourism in, 49, 51–4, 61–2, 69. See also Oregon Collier, Ruth, 59–62 Skyline Trail. Colley, Brook: Power in the Telling, review, 129, 132 Cayuse Indians, 246, 256, 270, 389, 395, 431 Columbia River Highway, 50–2 Cayuse War, 246, 256, 270 Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW), 26, Central Labor Council, 15 43n68 Chambers, Anne, 22 Committee on Political Education (COPE), 14 Chang Hong Yen, 213 Communication Workers union (CWA), 13, 18, 33 Chetco massacre, 372–3 communism, 566, 569–72, 574, 577 Chetcos, 372–4 Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, 373–4, Chinese and Chinese Americans, 197, 406: citizen- 393, 404, 444 ship rights, 88–9, 178, 206, 397–8, 400–401, Connolly, Thomas, 364 406, 452, 468, 501; civil rights of, 187, 468, 491; Cooke, Anna, 456 immigration restrictions on, 188, 206–208, 213, Cooke, George, 456 223, 397–9, 401, 406, 468, 501, 503–4, 514n78; Cooke, Horatio, 456 laborers, 89, 101n40, 207–209, 386, 397–9, 491, Cordy, Clifford B., 155, 168 500–501, 504, 514n78; law students, 206–23; Corvallis Cricket Club, 277, 279, 281 property rights of, 89, 397, 401, 429, 452, 501; Cow Creeks, 263 violence against, 185, 187, 207, 491–2, 501, Cowlitz River, 251 503, 571 Crater Lake National Park, 46, 48–9, 51, 55, 56, 58: Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), 206, 208, 215, 217, Rim Road, 48, 49, 53 223, 397–9, 401, 503, 514n78 Crawford, Peter, 250–1 Chong Quey Choy, 208 cricket, 283–5, 290–1; clubs, 276–81, 283–90; CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations), 43n78, decline of, 276, 289, 291 571: gender equity issues, 21; racial equity, Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS), 359 525–6, 533–4, 541, 547; women in, 6, 7, 19. Crocker, A.M., 277, 282 See also AFL-CIO Cross, Kelly, 296, 323, 324 Circuit Rider, The (statue), 246, 247 Cross, Paul, 296, 323, 324, 325 circuit riders, 246, 248–9: circuit routes, 255, 258, Cutler, Donald L.: “Hang Them All: George Wright

Volume Index 617 and the Plateau Indian War, 1858, review, 341, 18. See also University of Oregon. 345 exclusion laws, 363, 367n15: against African Americans, 176, 185–7, 387, 391–2, 420–2, 443; Daily Emerald (UO), 193 against Chinese, 101n40, 178, 188, 206–208, Darling, May, 20, 213, 223, 397–9, 401, 406, 468, 501, 503–4 Dart, Anson, 423, 428 constitutional debate over, 81, 84–5, 87, 89–93, Das, Taraknath, 498–9, 515n87 97n14, 99n23, 100n30, 101n40, 101n46, 397, Davenport, Timothy W., 454, 455, 458, 464n52 424–7, 429, 448, 450, 452–5, 458, 468–85; Deady, Matthew, 176, 179–80, 184, 188–9, 194, opposition to, 445, 448, 452–5, 458–9 199: as constitutional delegate, 86–91, 99n24, Executive Order 8802, 522–3, 531, 540–1 100n27; views on Chinese, 185, 187, 187; views on Native people, 187; views on slavery, 86–7, fascism, 598: in hate groups, 564–5, 571–3, 575–6, 177, 185–6, 195, 197, 470 578–80 Deady Hall (UO), 177, 188: de-naming debate, 176, Failing, Josiah, 452, 463n49 179–81, 183, 185, 189, 193–4, 196–7 Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC), 21, Dees, Morris, 591, 593–4, 596, 597, 601–602 522–3, 532, 534–8, 540–1 Del French, Chauncy, 539 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 23, 26, 28 del Valle, Pedro, 576–8, 584n55 Fambro, Clara, 550 Democratic Party, 76, 84, 417, 448, 451, 455, 523: Fambro, Robert “Bob,” 547, 549, 561n11 and labor movement, 19–20; and slavery, 80, Fambro, Robert, Jr., 550 86–7, 98n19, 100n27, 421, 449, 454, 470, 484 Fantz, Jimmy, 551, 552, 553 Denney, Thomas H., 444, 449, 452, 455–6 Fifteenth Amendment, 185, 187, 432, 522 Devils Elbow (Cape Creek), 104–106, 108, 119–20, Fisher, Ezra, 254 121n9, 122n34 Fitzhugh, A.R.: On Duty in the Pacific Northwest Dickey, Gordon, 493, 498, 513n48 during the Civil War, by Jewell, review, 338, 341 Dies, Martin, 575 Fleming, Crystal: How to be Less Stupid About Dillman, Robert, 30 Race, 362 Doctrine of Discovery, 368, 417 Floren, Hulda, 20, Dodge, John: A Deadly Wind, review, 136–7 Free Soil Party, 84, 87, 98n19: Convention (1855), Dowling, Eugene H., 65, 67 440–6, 448–50, 457–8 Downs, O.R., 496, 498 Fort Umpqua, 374 Dred Scott, 84, 99n23, 186, 427, 449, 469 Fountain, Steven M.: “Hang Them All: George Wright Dryer, Thomas, 74–7, 84–5, 87–9, 91, 96n5, 99n25, and the Plateau Indian War, 1858, by Cutler, 100n27, 454 review, 341, 345 Dunbar, G.W., 496, 498–9 Fourteenth Amendment, 185–6, 398, 429, 471 Duniway, Abigail Scott, 428 Fox-Edwards, Nellie, 7, 19, 32–3, 34 Dunn, Frederic S., 176–7, 179–80, 184–5 Fredrickson, George, Racism: A Short Story, 361 Dunn Hall (UO), 184: de-naming of, 176, 178, 180, Free-Soilers, 84, 87, 98n19 196–7 Friedel, Megan K.: Carleton Watkins, by Green, review, 232–3 Eagle Creek, 66, 67 Friedlander, Leo, 363 East Side White Pride, 589–90, 599–600 Friends of New Germany, 566, 568–9. See also Eaton, Walker Prichard, 50, 59, 62 German American Bund. Electrical Workers Union, 6 Fruit Growers League (FGL), 154–6, 169: and labor Equal Employment Opportunity Commission conditions, 157–60, 163–4; racism in, 161–2, (EEOC), 29 167, 170 Equal Pay Act (EPA), 20, 26–8 fur trade, 391, 419: racial hierarchies in, 388, 394, Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), 26, 33, 42n62 409n49, 420, 424; violence in, 369–70 Essington, Amy: The Integration of the Pacific Coast League, review, 330 Galarza, Ernesto, 160 Etheridge, G.W., 496, 498 Gamboa, Erasmo, 157, 159–60 Ethiopians, 588–9, 596, 598–9. See also Seraw, Garland, C.W., 495–7 Mulugeta Gary, George, 252–3 Etulain, Richard W.: Wheat Country Railroad, by Geary Act, 397–9 Beach, review, 330, 334 Gee, Raymond, 534–5 Eugene, Ore.: KKK in, 176, 180, 185, 190; labor strikes, General Land Office (GLO), 259, 262

618 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 German American Bund (Friends of New Germany), Ho Yen Sun, 206, 214, 222 566, 568, 570, 572, 575 housing: boarding, 488, 490, 503, 528; discrimina- Ghadar, 508–10, 515n85 tory practices in, 402–3, 410n63, 432, 528, 576; Gianini, Mildred Ripley, 10–13, 17–18, 38n17, 40n37 gentrification, 402–3, 432; racial covenants, Gilbreath, James C., 456 402–3, 432; wartime, 402, 528, 533 Gilbreath, John E., 456 Hudson, Gertrude, 393 Gjedsted, Charles Edward, 277, 284, 286, 294n39 Hudson, John, 393 Gonzalez, Alfonso “Al,” 158–9, 165, 169 Hudson, Marie, 393 Good Samaritan Hospital (Portland), 15 Hudson, Mattie, 393 Governor’s Committee on the Status of Women Hudson, Pearl, 393 (Oregon), 29 Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), 251, 369–70, 388–9, Grade, Andrew, 80 394, 415, 419, 424–5, 433n12 Greeley, William B., 54 Hudson House (Vancouver), 528, 532, 534 Green, Edith Starett, 19–20, 22–3, 25–8, 34, 41n43, Hull, Roger: Lucinda Parker, review, 233–4 42n65, 43n77 Humpal, Mark: Ray Stanford Strong, review, 135 Green, Tyler: Carleton Watkins, review, 232–3 Green Mountain Club, 63 immigration: British, 276–7, 279, 282, 284–5, 291, Griffith Rubber Mills, 29 488, 491–3, 495–6, 499–500, 515n87; deporta- Grossman, Zoltan: Unlikely Alliances, review, 327 tion, 153, 160–1, 164–8, 396; and labor, 150–3, Grover, La Fayette, 76 164–71, 386, 396–7, 399, 491–2, 503, 515n90; Groves, John N., 498 race-based restrictions on, 188, 276, 394–5, 397–8, 400, 406, 427, 503; state regulation Haggerty, Judge Ancer, 595–6, 599 of, 81–2, 88–9, 91, 387; undocumented, 161, Hancock, Christin L.: In Defense of Wyam, by Barber, 165–9. See also Bracero Program; names of review, 128–9 immigrant groups. Hanna, Esther Bell, 382–5, 393, 398, 404 Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), 165–8 Hanna, Joseph Anderson, 382–4, 392, 398, 404 Indian Relocation Act, 432 hate groups, 176, 180, 185, 190, 564–9: antisemitism, Indians (East Asian), 510n1: independence move- 564–70, 575, 593; meeting halls, 572; militari- ment, 365, 488, 508–9; laborers, 489, 490–3, zation of, 576–8; and Portland Police, 570–2; 500, 503–10; violence against, 365, 488, religious identity of, 565, 578–9; violence by, 490–504, 511n9, 511n10, 512n24 588–603. See also White Aryan Resistance. Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), 490, 503–5 Hawaiians, Native (Sandwich Islanders), 266–7, 425 Ingram, Earl, 532 Heceta Head, 104–105, 117, 120, 122n54, 123n64, International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s 123n71 Union (ILWU): anti-discrimination rule, 546–7; Hedberg, David-Paul: The Gift of Knowledge, by black membership, 546–60; membership clas- Beavert, Underriner, review, 125, 128 sifications, 548–9, 558–9; racial discrimination Hellie, Chip, 302–3, 317 lawsuit, 546, 548–51 Hellie, Ferne, 302–3, 317 Isaac Patterson Bridge, 104 Hellie, William, 302–3, 317 Hendricks, J.F., 496–8 Jackson County: pear industry in, 150–71 Herrold, Dan, 498 Jacksonville, Ore., 265–8 hiking, 49, 59–60, 62, 67–9: organized, 63–5, 69. Japanese and Japanese Americans: citizenship See also Oregon Skyline Trail. rights of, 400, 500; immigration, 398, 400–401, Hicklin, Henry Hamilton, 444–52, 455, 457–8 501; laborers, 397, 504, 548; union membership, Hicklin, James, 444, 448 504, 548; violence against, 491, 503; wartime Hicklin, John L., 444–6, 451 incarceration of, 548 Hicklin, Martha Thorn, 445, 457 Jennings, Stan, 16–17 Hill, Linell, 549, 556–9, 561n11 Jermany, Theophilus, 548–9, 551–2 Hill, Roy C., 25 Jewell, James Robbins: On Duty in the Pacific Hochscheid, Adam, 568 Northwest during the Civil War, review, 338, 341 Holman, Rufus, 575–6, 580 Jewish Anti-Defamation League, 593 Horowitz, David A.: Eleanor Baldwin and the Jews, 550: activism, 593; antisemitism, 564–70, Woman’s Point of View, review, 230–1 575, 593–4, 596 Hosford, Chauncy O., 263–5 Jim Crow, 358, 518, 521, 529, 524, 528, 530, 534, Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union, 10, 30 538, 541, 603

Volume Index 619 John K. Holt Company, 106–10, 113–16, 118, 122n34 on, 13, 18; strikes and pickets, 9, 12–16, 18, 30–1, Johnson, David, 184 33, 157, 160, 165; women leadership in, 7–11, Johnson, Elmer, 68 18–20, 32–33, 35. See also labor feminism; Johnson, G. Fred, 575 Oregon Labor Press; names of labor unions. Johnson, Mary Lou, 117 Laframboise, Michel, 370 Laidlaw, James, 495, 500, 513n53 Kaiser, Edgar, 524, 535, 538 Laing-Malcolmson, Bonnie: Ray Stanford Strong, by Kaiser, Henry, 523–4, 528, 538 Humpal, review, 135 “Kaiser Karavan,” 527–8 Landau, Jack, 364 Kaiser shipyards, 519: black employees, 402, land claims: federal, 257, 259–63, 265–6; provi- 518–41; segregation in, 518, 520, 523–60; union sional, 246–7, 250–1, 253–4, 256–7, 268, 414, influence on, 518, 520, 523–7, 531–5, 537–8, 419–22; seizure of Native lands, 246–7, 256, 540–1; women employees, 6, 530 263, 266, 270, 415–17, 419–20, 422–4, 430–1; Kalapuya Indians, 393, 428, 444 surveys, 259, 261. See also Oregon Donation Kang-Dhillon, H. Bindy K.: Not Fit to Stay, by Wallace, Land Claim Act. review, 132–3 Langford, George, 286 Kanzler, Jacob, 53 Latinos and Latinas, 398: activism, 154, 157–8, 160, Kendall, Thomas S., 450–1, 458–9 166; and deportation, 164–8; discrimination Kendi, Ibram X.: Stamped from the Beginning, 362 against, 153, 160–1, 165–8, 170, 404, 578, 602; Kennedy, Pres. John F., 26–7, 28 migrant labor, 150–3, 164–71. See also Bracero Kern & Kibb, 106 Program. Kiser, Fred, 53, 64 Leader, John, 291 Knights of Labor, 41n44 Lee, Charles S. (Lee Gon Kew), 206, 214, 220–1, 223 Know-Nothing (American) Party, 84, 88, 96n5, Lee, Jason, 248, 250, 252 448–9, 452, 454 Legacy Emanuel Hospital, 14–15, 402–3 Ku Klux Klan (KKK), 176, 180, 185, 190, 365, 566, Lessard, Delmore, 575–6 569–70, 572–3, 575–9, 590, 592–3 Levin, Joe, 591 Kwatamis, 369–71 Lewis, David, 364 Liberty Party, 445, 448, 456 Labbe, Jim, 364 Linder, John, 365–6 labor: agricultural, 150, 152–71; and colonialism, Linn, Lewis F., 417–19, 433n16, 434n22 491–2, 500, 504, 506–10; dual-pay systems, Lipin, Lawrence M.: Eleanor Baldwin and the 12, 22, 507, 526; immigrant, 89, 101n40, 150–3, Woman’s Point of View, review, 230–1 164–71, 207–9, 386, 396–9, 489, 490–3, Logan, David, 88 500–501, 503–10, 514n78, 548; migrant, 150–3, Londer, Judge Don, 594–6 164–71; minimum wage, 19, 23–5, 28, 34–5, Lovejoy, Asa, 76, 88 37n10; race-segregated, 12, 32, 35, 402, 518–41; lumber mills: immigrant labor, 489, 490–3, 497; sex-segregated, 6–9, 13, 44n87, 45n95; sexual strikes, 504 harassment, 17; in wartime industries, 6, 402, 518–41. See also Bracero Program; labor femi- MacGowan, Charles, 535, 580 nism; labor unions. Magnuson Act, 223 labor feminism: breadwinner trope, 6–9, 14–15, Malarkey, Dan J., 511n10, 511n24 17–19, 23, 25, 27–9, 32; childcare, 19, 23–5, Manning, Charles W., 104, 107–108, 111, 113, 117, 119, 29, 32–3, 35; equal pay measures, 7–9, 12, 14, 121n5, 123n68 18–23, 25–30, 32–4, 41n.44; and protective Manning, Clare, 116, 117 legislation, 8, 20, 22, 26, 29–30, 34 Manning, Clyde E., 104, 108–10, 113–18, 120, 121n5 labor unions, 503: anti-immigrant stances, 503, Marion Country Courthouse, 74, 75 507–8, 511n19; auxiliaries, black, 526, 531–2, Martin, Charles, 572 534–5, 537–8, 540; auxiliaries, women, 13–14, Mather, Stephen, 49, 54 16, 29, 34; black, 521–2, 531; decline of, 7, 29, Mathews, Robert J., 590 30, 32, 35; education programs, 13–15, 27, 34; May Peng Hai, 206, 214, 219–20 gendered hierarchies in, 6–35; immigrant mem- Mazama Club, 63–6, 69 bership, 490, 503–5; publications, 16–17; racial Mazzella, Dave, 590, 593–4, 597, 599–601 exclusion by, 10, 12, 21, 365, 520, 522–5, 527, McClendon, William H., 533 531–2, 534–8, 541, 546–60; racial hierarchies McCullough, Conde B., 102, 104 in, 12, 526, 531–2, 535, 537–8, 540; restrictions McKay, Floyd J.: Grit and Ink, by Willingham, review,

620 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 234–5 tions, 247, 263, 270, 373–4, 396; resistance to McDonald, J.D., 9 colonization, 384, 391, 404–406; sovereignty of, McElroy, Jim “Mac,” 601–602 374, 404, 416, 420, 423, 429, 444, 500; termina- McLoughlin, John, 370, 415, 435n43 tion act, 376, 399, 404, 406, 432; treaties, 246, Medford, Ore., 165, 169: pear industry in, 150, 152, 263, 371, 376, 391, 395–6, 399, 402, 415–16, 158–9, 161–2, 164 422–3, 428–31, 444; violent conflicts, 266–7, Medford Mail Tribune: on Bracero Program, 158, 270, 364, 369–74, 391–2; wars, 246, 256, 270, 162–3, 165–6, 168, 170 371–2, 376, 378n16, 391, 406, 425–6, 456–7, Meehan, Matt, 551 478; women, 360, 383, 389, 400, 420, 424. See Meeker, Ezra, 385 also names of Tribes. Melville, Tom, 276 Nauman, Esther, 20 Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC), 248–50, 252–3, Neil Creek Anti-Slavery Society (NCASS) (Indiana), 263–5, 268: Indian school, 246–7: land claims, 446–8 247, 252. See also circuit riders. Nesmith, James, 373–6 Metzger, John, 590, 592–4, 596, 599, 600–2 Neuberger, Maurine Brown, 18, 19, 26–7, 28, 40n41, Metzger, Tom, 590, 592–7, 599, 601–2 42n66 Meyer, Paul, 550, 557, 559–60 Nikkum, Helen, 20–1 Mexican Farm Labor Program Agreement, 150–1 Nilsen, Norman, 32 Mexico, 150, 165. See also Bracero Program; Latinos Nisbet, Jack: The Dreamer and the Doctor, review, and Latinas 136 Meyer, Paul (ACLU), 591 Norris, Robert, 158 Midway Camp (Mexican Labor Camp), 154, 164 Nugent, Walter: Color Coded, review, 345–6 Mieske, Ken, 589–90, 597–9 Miller, Augustus F., 372–3 Odale, Walter, 570–2, 580 Miller, Char: Where There’s Smoke, review, 236 Olsen, Maynard, 538–9 Millner, Darrell, 358 “Operation Wetback,” 153, 166–8 Mills, Harry, 548, 551, 553 Oregon Agricultural Association (OAA), 158, 164, 167 mining: Chinese labor, 207, 224n6, 224n7; gold, Oregon Annual Conference, 248, 253, 264–5, 268 255–6 Oregon Bankers Association, 22 Minutemen, The, 576–7 Oregon Black Pioneers, 404–5 Mitchell, H.L., 166 Oregon Bureau of Labor, 21, 23–4, 34 Molalas, 428 Oregon Business and Professional Women (BPW), Moore, John R., 21 21–2, 26–7 Morgan, Edmund, American Slavery, American Oregon and California Mission Conference, 248, Freedom, 361 264 Morse, Wayne, 16, 20 Oregon City Argus, 76, 448: pro-Free Soil, 441–3 Mount Hood, 46, 52, 54–5, 58. See also Oregon Oregon Coast Highway: construction of, 102–13, 119, Skyline Trail. 122n30; work camp, 103, 106, 108, 113–18, 120 Mount Hood Loop, 52 Oregon State Constitution: exclusion laws in, 81, Moy Back Hin, 501 84–5, 87, 89–91, 97, 99n23, 100n30, 101n40, Moy Bow Wing, 206, 214–15, 221–3 101n46, 176, 185–7, 197, 394–5, 397, 420–1, 429, Moy Gee Hung, 213 443, 445, 448, 454–5, 459; white nationalism Multnomah Cricket Club, 278, 289 in, 81, 83, 87–91, 99n23, 100n34, 395, 440–59. See also Oregon Constitutional Convention. NAACP, 402, 521, 527, 534–5, 540, 551, 553 Oregon Constitutional Convention, 74–5: Bill of Nash, Wallis, 281 Rights, 80–93, 395; black exclusion law debate, National Agricultural Workers Union, 166 81, 84–5, 87, 89–91, 97, 99n23, 100n30, 101n40, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), 533–5 101n46, 364, 397, 445, 448, 451–2, 454, 468, National Park-to-Park Highway Association, 49 470–85; citizenship, 80–1, 82, 84, 87–91, Native Americans: citizenship rights of, 187, 374–6, 101n38; draft documents, 77–83, 92–5, 395; 399–401, 403; constitutional disenfranchise- immigration, 81–2, 88–9, 91, 208; property ment of, 80, 88–9, 373; fishing, hunting, and rights, 81–3, 85, 87, 89, 395, 429, 452; records gathering rights, 368, 402; kinship relation- of, 76–7; slavery debate, 74, 80–1, 84–93, ships, 383, 389; loss of homelands, 247, 263, 99n25, 445, 449–59; suffrage rights, 80, 87, 266, 270, 363–4, 368–71, 384, 387–95; racial 89–90, 92, 420, 429, 443, 452; vote on, 82, discrimination of, 187, 266; removal to reserva- 85–7, 90–3, 97n14, 98, 100n30, 101n42, 445,

Volume Index 621 448–59; white nationalism in, 81, 83, 87–91, needs of, 150, 152–8, 160–4, 169 99n23, 100n34, 395, 397, 429, 440–59 Pelley, William Dudley, 566–8, 570, 575–7 Oregon Cricket League, 291 People’s Observer, 520, 528, 533–4 Oregon Donation Land Act, 246, 256, 382, 391, 401, Polishuk, Sandy, 365–66 421, 428: and Indian removal, 247, 263, 266, Portland Federated Trades Council, 503 270, 371, 384, 386, 416, 422–3, 427, 444, 500; Pinchot, Gifford, 54 provisions of, 257, 259, 261, 268, 414, 417–19, Portland Cricket Club, 277–8, 281–91 423–4, 444; racial exclusions in, 256–7, 270, Portland Labor Press (PLP), 503–5, 509 387, 394–5, 406, 415, 418, 424–7, 429–32; Portland Morning Oregonian: on anti-Asian riot, women’s rights to, 257, 401, 424, 427 493–4, 497–8 Oregon Indian Mission, 247–8, 250, 252, Portland Oregonian, 74, 506, 547: on African Ameri- Oregon Indian Mission Manual Labor School, 246 can labor, 527, 531–2, 539–40; on Asian labor, Oregon Labor Press, 11–12: women’s page, 16–17 501; on the constitutional convention, 76–7, Oregon Shipbuilding Co. (Oregonship). See Kaiser 87, 99n25; on hate groups, 577, 579; on union Shipyards. tension, 571 Oregon Skyline Trail: accounts of, 59–63; map of, Portland Pioneer Club, 283 56–7; organized trips along, 64–7; planning Portland Police Bureau: and fascist groups, 491, of, 46–9, 51–2, 55; redevelopment of, 67–9; 493–4, 496–8, 579–80; Red Squad, 566, 570–2 support for, 52–3, 55; survey of, 46–7, 52, 58–9 Port Orford, 369–74, 559 Oregon State Bar, 210, 212, 220 Posse Comitatus, 577–8 Oregon State Chamber of Commerce, 52 Pozzi, Frank, 550–1, 555 Oregon State Council of Retail Clerks, 21 public memory, 179, 181, 203n12, 202n13: ethics of, Oregon State Employment Service (OSES),154, 191–4, 199; versus history, 181–5, 188, 190–2, 157–8, 163–4, 167, 170 195, 199 Oregon State Federation of Labor, 12–13: education Puget, Peter, 387–8, 407n8 program, 13; gender equity issues, 17, 19, 32, 34; women leadership in, 9–11, 18 Quayle, George, 52 Oregon State Highway Commission, 102, 121n1 Oregon State Highway Department (OSHD), 105 Ram, Kanshi, 495, 508, 515n84 Oregon State Motor Association, 52 Ramsey, Jerry, 158 Oregon State University Extension Service, 154, 169 Randolph, A. Philip, 521–4, 541 Oregon Supreme Court, 208, 212–13 Rayner, James O., 248–9, 253, 255, 264–8, 270–1: Oregon Territory, 256, 374, 416 land claims, 250–2, 258–63; marriage of, Oregon Trail, 384–5, 392–3, 417, 420. See also 256–7; political campaigns, 248–9 overland emigration. Rayner, Sarah Hood, 256–60, 263, 265–8, 270 Oregon Treaty, 246, 250, 390, 416, 421, 433n12 Redden, Jim, 591 Organic Act, 250, 256, 263 Republican Party, 19, 27, 571: anti-slavery stances, Ottman, Alma, 13 442–3, 448–52, 454, 456, 458 overland emigration, 250, 254, 256–7, 391–5, Retail Clerks Union, 7, 16, 19, 21, 23, 30–1 398–9, 403, 405–6: accounts of, 382–6; by Richards, Diana, 29–30 African Americans, 404, 420. See also Oregon Roberts, William, 251–2 Donation Land Act. Robinson, Cedric: Black Marxism, 362 Owens, Josie Lucille, 530 Rodriguez, Julius, 532, 534 Roediger, David, The Wages of Whiteness, 361 Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), 49, 69 Rogue River Indians, 266, 376–7 Pacific Maritime Association, 546, 549, 561n11 Rogue River War, 266, 376, 456–7 Painters, Decorators & Paperhangers union, 25 Rogue River Valley: agriculture in, 150, 152–5, Palmer, Joel, 263, 372–3, 375–6, 428 160–2, 164–5, 168–70; Native homelands in, Parks, G. Johnny, 551, 554, 555–6, 560 263, 266, 371, 374, 431 Parrish, Josiah, 372–3 Roosevelt, Pres. Franklin D., 522–3, 531, 534, 541, Parsons, George, 155 564, 570 Parsons, Marion, 65 Rosenthal, Elden, 365 Patriot Prayer, 580, 602 Ross, Alexander Reid, 365 Patterson, Gov. Paul, 22 Royer, William L., 67–8 Paul, LaRene, 13, 18, 33 Rue, Ann, 303 pear industry, 151, 159, 170: decline in, 168; labor Rue, Homer, 298–9, 302, 303–9, 317

622 OHQ vol. 120, no. 4 Russell, Janet, 303 Steinke, Beth, 299, 305 Russell, Patrick, 296, 298–9, 302, 303, 305–309, Steinke, Clay, 299–302, 305, 307, 308, 310, 313, 316 312–14, 316–25 Steinke, Durwood, 299 Ruuttilla, Julia, 549, 551, 552, 554, 555–6 Steinke, Rodney, 299 Steinke’s Truck Repair, 298, 299–300, 304, 305 Safeway, 30–1 Stevens, Isaac, 428 Salem Oregon Statesman, 76–7, 87, 89, 442: anti- St. George’s Cricket Team, 278, 285 abolitionism, 442; “Slavery in Oregon,” 364, St. Johns, Ore., 491, 494, 513n52: Asian commu- 468–9, 472–85; on violence against Native nity in, 488, 490–510; ethnic riot in, 365, 488, people, 371 490–510; industries in, 490, 524 Sandovál, Nicolás Saldaña, 159 St. Johns Lumber Co., 490–1, 493 497 Sands, Martha, 393 St. Johns Review: anti-Indian (Asian) sentiment, 490, Sawyer, Reuben, 573, 575 493–5, 499 Saxton, Alexander: Rise and Fall of the White Stonefield, Anna, 105, 116, 119 Republic, 361 Stonefield, Charles, 105, 116, 119 “Schedule of Indian Land Cessations” (map), 430–1 Stonefield, Rufus, 102, 116, 119 Schill, Michael H., 176, 180–1, 183–4, 194–8 Stroud, Patricia Tyson: Bitterroot: The Life and Death Schmidt, Ethan: The Divided Dominion, 362 of Meriwether Lewis, review, 235–6 Scott, John B., 374 suffrage, 400–401, 432: constitutional debate over, Sefton, Lawrence, 550, 551–2 87, 89–90, 92; race-based, 87, 89–90, 92, 186, Seid Back, Jr., 206–14, 223 387, 398, 409n49, 420, 429, 443, 452 Seid Back, Sr., 208 Sweet, Gertrude, 9–11, 18, 30, 32, 40n37 Seraw, Mulugeta, 365, 579, 588–603 Swope, Gordon, 16, 21 Seraw, Tekuneh, 597–8 settler colonialism, 247–9, 263, 270–1, 360–2, Taft-Hartley Act, 13, 18, 28, 548 367n15: dispossession of Native lands, 363– Takelmas, 376, 456 4389, 394, 399, 405–6; immigrant labor, 396; Tarilton, Arthur Foderingham, 285–6 resistance to, 384, 386, 403, 406; western Taylor, Quintard, 184 expansion, 387, 389–90, 398; and women, Taylor, Sue: Lucinda Parker, by Hull, review, 233–4 436n59 Tejanos, 153, 165, 169 settler sovereignty, 382, 394 telephone workers, 13–14, 18 Shapiro, Dean Alan, 336 Terry, Chester, 77 Shastas, 456 Thirteenth Amendment, 186–7 Shipyard Negro Organization for Victory (SNOV), Thoennes, Philip, 364 532–5 Thompson, Carmen P., 358–66: The Making of Shortell, Christopher: Color Coded, by Nugent, American Whiteness, 358 review, 345–6 Thompson, Coquelle, 370 Sierra Club, 63–6, 69 Thompson, Mary Anna Cooke, 456, 459 Siff, Stephen, Where There’s Smoke, by Miller, Thornton, J. Quinn, 421 review, 236 Thornburgh, Margaret, 29 Silver Legion (Silver Shirts), 566–72, 575–7, 580 Three Sisters, 58, 65 Singh, Harnan, 512n24 Thurston, Samuel, 256–7, 421–6, 428, 435n43 “Skyline Party,” 46–7, 55, 58–61, 68, 70n2 Tichenor, William, 369–71, 374 slavery, 176–7, 185–7, 197, 205n30, 358, 359, 360– Tigard, Sarah Ann, 456 2, 364–5, 367n8, 387–8, 394, 404, 416, 520, Tigard, Wilson M., 448–9, 452, 456, 462n36 593, 603: constitutional debate over, 74, 80–1, Tillamooks, 376 84–93, 420, 451–2, 468–85; free labor debate, timber industry: decline in, 30; in Jackson County, 420–32, 443, 507, 509. See also abolitionists. 169 Smith, Delazon, 80, 87–8, 90–1, 101n45, 429, 442–4 Trump, Donald, 580, 602 Solomon, Gus, 557, 559 Trussell, Arlene, 313 Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), 591, 593, 597 Trussell, Glenn, 298–9, 301, 302, 303, 308–309, Starr, Louis, 571–2 313–16 statehood, 74, 84, 95, 449, 470: Congressional Trussell, Luzerne, 303 debate over, 91, 454; requirements of, 88–9, Tualatins, 369, 444 101n35. See also Oregon Constitutional Con- Turnverein, 283, 295n59, 572 vention. Tututni peoples, 369–70

Volume Index 623 Tweed, William C., 54 White Aryan Resistance (WAR), 365, 588, 590, 592: Tymchuk, Kerry: A Deadly Wind, by Dodge, review, lawsuit against, 593, 596–7, 599–601, 603 136–7 white nationalism, 365, 386: organizations, 566, 578–9, 596, 601–2; in the state constitution, Uhle, Otto, 572 81, 83, 87–91, 99n23, 100n34, 448–9, 451, Umpqua Academy, 248, 265, 267 469. See also Ku Klux Klan; hate groups; white Umpqua River, 258, 261, 265 supremacy. Umpqua Tribe, 263 “whiteness,” 358–66, 387, 433n11, 492, 506, 509, Umpqua Valley, 258–60, 263, 265–7, 269–70 570 Underground Railroad (UGRR), 446, 448, 456 white supremacy, 358, 366, 416, 441, 459, 460n10: Underriner, Janne L.: The Gift of Knowledge, review, “free labor” ideology, 421–2; institutionalization 125, 128 of, 362, 365, 369, 416, 418, 448–51, 456, 469; in Unger, Milton, 498 labor movements, 492, 500, 502–5; organiza- University of Oregon, 9: Black Cultural Center, tions of, 564–81, 589–92, 593, 596, 602; pseu- 180–1; building de-naming debate, 176–201; doscience of, 389, 387–9, 416, 418–19; “racial Chinese law students, 206–23, 225n24; cricket scripts,” 394; resistance to, 363, 365, 403, 406, team, 290; Grayson Hall, 189; McArthur Court 432, 442–4, 448–9; in settler colonialism, 360, renaming, 189; racist incidents, 178, 180, 197; 3625, 364, 377, 386–90, 394–6, 398, 405–6, recreation, 54–5, 67–8 415–16. See also hate crimes; white nationalism. Unthank, DeNorval, Jr., 197–9 Willamette Falls, 369 Unthank Hall, 198. See also Dunn Hall. Willamette Valley Treaty, 428, 444 U.S. Forest Service, 49: and auto-tourism, 46–7, Williams, George H., 80–1, 98n19: “Free State Letter,” 52–3, 55, 69; competition with National Park 364, 443, 468–85 Service, 54. See also Oregon Skyline Trail. Willie, John, 539–40 U.S. Highway 101. See Oregon Coast Highway. Willingham, William E.: Grit and Ink, review, 234–5 U.S. National Park Service, 46, 62: auto tourism, Wilbur, James H., 253, 255–6 48–50, 52, 54; competition with Forest Ser- Wilson, George, 166 vice, 54 Wilson, Joe, 158 Winchester, Ore., 248, 258–9, 265, 268 Van de Bogard, Ray, 498–9 Wolverton, Charles Edwin, 213 Veney, Roland, 538–9 women: abolitionists, 456–7, 459; childcare, 19, Vilas, Ned, 150, 155 23–5, 29, 32–3, 35; citizenship, 400–1, 420; in viva voce voting, 443, 448–9: precinct polls, 448–9, hate groups, 590; in labor unions, 6–35, 503; 450–1, 452–6, 459, 464n54 marriage alliances, 360, 389, 420, 424; property rights, 257, 401, 424, 427; in wartime industries, Wagner Act (National Labor Relations), 6 6, 537. See also labor feminism. Waitresses Union, 6, 9–10, 19, 40n37 Women’s Foundation of Oregon, 35 Walker, Dean, 290 Wong Back How, 206, 214–19 Wallace, Sarah Isabel: Not Fit to Stay, review, 132–3 World Community Day (Medford), 165 Waller, Alvan, 252, 254 Wunder, John R.: Gold Mountain Turned to Dust, Walls, Robert E.: Legends of the Northern Paiute, by review, 231–2 Wewa, review, 229–30 Waugh, Frank A., 55, 58–9 Yale University; de-naming debate, 176, 183–4, Waymire, Frederick, 75, 89, 96n8, 101n40 188–91, 194–5, 198 Weiselberg, Erik, 64–5 Yaquina village, 370 Weisiger, Marsha, 184 Yontocket (Burnt Ranch) massacre, 373 Weiss, Eric J., 32: “Self-Supporting Woman in Oregon,” 23–4 Zollinger, Clifford, 23 Wesling, Alice, 6, 10, 19 Western Oregon Indian Termination Act, 376, 399, 404, 406, 432 Wewa, Wilson: Legends of the Northern Paiute, review, 229–30 Whaley, Gray, 247, 252 Whig Party, 74, 76–7

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