[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 16 (Monday, February 25, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S997]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BLACK HISTORY MONTH

  Mr. SMITH of Oregon. Madam President, in honor of Black History 
Month, I have come to the floor twice this month to discuss some of the 
early contributions of black Americans to my home state of Oregon. 
Today, I come to the floor for a third time to discuss some of the 
changes to Oregon civil rights that occurred during the middle part of 
the 20th Century, at the same time similar changes were sweeping across 
our entire nation.
  In the early 1900's, Oregon was not home to many black Americans. 
Eighty-five percent of Oregonians were born in the state, and the rest 
generally came from Canada and northern Europe. This was no accident 
Oregon, which had joined the Union as a ``free state'' had, in its 
constitution, technically barred black Americans from moving to the 
state until 1926. While it may not have been uniformly and vigorously 
enforced across the state, Article I, Section 35 of the Constitution of 
the State of Oregon read:

       No free negro, or mulatto, not residing in this State at 
     the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall come, 
     reside, or be within this State, or hold any real estate, or 
     make any contracts, or maintain any suit therein; and the 
     Legislative Assembly shall provide by penal laws, for the 
     removal, by public officers, of all such negroes, and 
     mulattoes, and for their effectual exclusion from the State, 
     and for the punishment of persons who shall bring them into 
     the state, or employ, or harbor them.

  Thus, during the first decades of the 20th Century, Oregon was 
probably home to no more than 2500 black citizens, a population only 
one-tenth the size of Oregon's then politically active Ku Klux Klan.
  The nature of race relations in Oregon changed for the better, 
however, when World War II created an explosion of jobs in Portland's 
shipyards and other defense-related industries. A large influx of black 
laborers immigrated to the region--primarily from Oklahoma, Texas, 
Arkansas, and Louisiana--and, almost overnight, ballooned Oregon's 
black population to more than 21,000. These new citizens forced 
Oregonians to reckon with the civil rights issues they had ignored for 
decades.
  These new Oregonians immediately faced widespread discrimination in 
local businesses, public parks and playgrounds, and on the job. Black 
workers were routinely denied membership in local unions, and members 
of the Portland NAACP and Urban League worked diligently to organize 
black workers and integrate them fully into the workplace. In 
explaining the refusal of Harry Mills, a black longshoreman, into the 
International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, Local 8, a union 
vice-president stated that ``We are not opposed to Harry Mills. We are 
fighting the Negro race! We cannot open our doors to the Negro people 
after having kept them closed all this time.''
  The doors which had always been closed to black Oregonians were 
slowly opened after the end of the war. In 1947, a Fair Employment 
Practices bill was introduced in the state legislature in Salem. While 
soundly defeated initially, the bill was immediately resurrected by 
then State Representative Mark Hatfield, whose tireless efforts led to 
the bill's passage in 1949. In 1953, the State Public Accommodations 
Act was passed, guaranteeing black Oregonians access to the restaurants 
and public parks which had for so long denied them service.
  Those two bills changed the civil rights landscape in a state which 
had only years before explicitly excluded black Americans in its 
constitution. World War II, and events across the country, served as a 
catalyst to that change. Oregon, which had never had a large population 
of black Americans, was suddenly forced to confront the civil rights 
demands of a growing group of citizens, and responded slowly through 
its laws and practices. Positive change occurred during the middle part 
of the last century, and more positive change, which I will discuss 
later in the week, was still to come.

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