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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 2003)
(Etje‘JjJortlaith (Obsemer Page A6 celebrates black History Month Fcbruaiy 26. 2003 Black History Month African Americans Find Racism in Journey West continued from A 5 where there’ll be no slaves and we all start even." Although things were bound to be better out west for African Americans than in the south, Morrison was dead wrong about everything “starting even." In the mid-19lh Century Oregon would become the “most racist and prejudiced” state in America out side of the deep South. Between the 1843and 1844 meetings o f O regon's Provisional Government, an incident happened that increased current hostilities between whiles and non-whites. Already afraid of blacks and Indians. Oregon’s racist white majority did not need much of an excuse to add fuel to the already burning prejudicial fires. An event known as the “Cockstock Incident” became the accelerant whites needed in that tire. It involved a black man by the name of George Winslow, also known as W inslow Anderson. He had hired an Indian named Cockstock to clear some farmland on Winslow ’ s Oregon City homestead. Cockstock was to be paid with a horse when the job was done. However, during this time, the farm and horse were sold to another black man named James D. Saules. After the work was finished, Cockstock demanded the horse in payment. When Saules refused Cockstock stole the horse and vowed revenge upon Saules and Winslow. Elijah White, the local Indian agent tried to mediate and have the horse returned. A violent gun battle broke out leaving Cockstock, Elijah White, and one other white man dead. Several other innocent bystanders were wounded. In 1844, the Oregon Country declared slavery illegal. Still, much prejudice existed in the state and Oregonians were still stinging from the Cockstock Incident. Thus O regon’s first exclusion laws were passed making it illegal fora black person to enter the state. In addition, the so-called “Lash Law” requiring all blacks to be beaten with a whip twice peryearcame into effect. Each black person was to be whipped no less than 20 and no more than 39 times. The only way out was to leave the state. By December of that year, the punishment was deemed too severe and reduced to “forced labor.” Some blacks and their families left, others moved out into the wilderness hoping to avoid being discovered. In 1848, O regon's Provisional Government began putting more em phasison exclusionary laws, hoping skirt the issue by not having any of Am erica’s blacks in the territory to deal with. A p h o to d a te d around 1 9 2 5 sh o w s th e African Am erican w aiters a t th e P o r tla n d H o te l. (O re g o n Historical S o ciety photo) Sadly the exclusionary laws were not fully re moved from the books in Portland unti I the late 1920s. Racist and prejudiced language can still be found in many small cities or communities today. In the midst of the exclusionary laws being taken in and out o f effect, a black man from Salem man was arrested and convicted of living in Oregon illegally. In 1851, Jacob Vanderpool was a successful busi nessman, owned not only a saloon, but also a restau rant and boarding house. His office was right across the street from the Oregon Spectator newspaper. Although the exclusionary laws were once again temporarily not in effect, opponents said that they were in effect when Vanderpool came to Salem in 1849. This technicality was ju st enough for him to be found guilty. He was forced to give up all his enter prises and leave the state empty handed. On the day after V anderpool’s conviction, the Oregon Statesman reported: “There is a statute prohibiting the introduction of Negroes in Oregon. A misdemeanor committed by V anderpool was the cause of bringing this individual before his Honor Judge Nelson, and a decision was called for respecting the enforcement of that law; who decided that the statue should be immediately enforced and that the Negro shall be banished forth with from the Territory." One o f Oregon’s well-known pioneers, Jesse Applegate spoke of locaH 'eclings regarding the black population: “Being one of the poor w hites’ from a slave state (Kentucky) 1 can speak with some authority for that class - Many of those people hated slavery, but a much larger number of them hate free Negroes worse even than slaves ” Another influential settler in Oregon was a man named Peter Burnett. An article published by him in a Missouri newspaper was said to have encouraged racist people to move to this state during the times of the Great Migration beginning in 1844: "The object (in moving to Oregon) is to keep clear o f this most troublesome (black) class of the popu lation. We are in a new world, under most favorable circumstances, and we wish to avoid most o f these great evils that have so much afflicted the United States and other countries.” Simply put. citizens o f Oregon pretended to be abhorred by the idea of slavery and yet at the same time were deeply unnerved by anything that re sembled equality between the races. You have the desire and the drive to make it to the top. Become a leader and shape your own future in the Army National Guard. Most Guard members serve one weekend a month and two weeks a year, leaving plenty of time for college or a career. Learn the confidence and skill lo lead any team and earn money forcoUege al the same time. In the Army National Guard, YOU CAN. 1 -800-GO-GUARD OREGON W/YOU www.1-800-GO-GUARD.com CAN Ex-Panthers Work to Preserve Legacy L ets d o th e bright thing Former Black P anthers B obby S e a le (right) a n d David Hilliard talk a b o u t their d a ys s p e n t in the m ilitant organization a n d its p h ilo so p h ies. continued from A 5 both Panthers and officers. Newton was convicted o f m anslaughter — a verdict later overturned — in the 1967 death of an officer who was shot when police stopped a car Newton was driving. Another officer and Newton also were wounded in that incident. Seale and others were charged with conspiring to murder a party member who was believed to be a police informant; those charges were later dropped. Yet these days, Seale wants to keep the focus on the Panthers' social programs. The group provided free, hot breakfasts to thousands of schoolchildren, for instance. It also conducted sickle cell anemia tests and advocated for more jobs and better hous ing for blacks. "I never thought I'd live to talk about this," says the 64-year-old Hilliard who, like Seale, lives in O ak land. "We were being murdered and driven intoexile and imprisoned. I spent no time thinking about history. We were too busy making it." Seale recently moved back to his family home in this city after almost three decades away to be closer to his youngest daughter, a junior at San Francisco State University. The home occupies an important place in Panther history: The group held some o f its first meetings around the dining room table in 1966. Hilliard and Seale say part of protecting that history now is fighting an unaffiliated group called the New Black Panther Party. PANTHER’S NAME‘HIJACKED’ T hey're considering a lawsuit against the organi zation, which they said has hijacked the Panther name to lend credibility to racist and anti-Semitic views. "The New Black Panther Party is totally antitheti cal toeverything we stood for,” Seale says. “T here's a youthful generation of people who will be totally confused." The New Black Panthers have been deemed a black-separatist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, but their chairman. Malik Shabazz. dis putes that description. Shabazz says the New Black Panthers focus on black power, ending violence in black communities and working with youth. They plan a national meet ing early this year, where members will consider changing the group's name, he says. But Shabazz, an attorney in Washington, D.C., also is confident the organization would win a legal fight over the name with the original Panthers. Hilliard also works with the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation, which he runs with N ew ton’s widow, Frederika. H e’s motivated by a sense that the Pan thers’ agenda remains unfinished. “There’s a generation of people that need to know this history, because it is more than about the Black Panthers. It is about America,” Hilliard says. The Panthers' activism could be a kind o f "how-to guide to help this generation fight today’s battles," he says. 9 O nce you realize w h at a big difference the sm allest changes in y o u r energy use can m ake, being resourceful just becom es second nature. Try these energy-saving tips: ■ Switch to com pact fluorescent light bulbs. ■ Set y o u r w ater heater at 120°F. ■ Use a pro g ram m ab le th erm o stat for heating and air conditioning. To find out more about how you can save energy and money, go to www.pacificpower.net. You can reach us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Just call I -888-221-7070. During Black History Month, Pacific Power celebrates the diversity that we support and value throughout the year. # PACIFIC POWER Making it happen. e I <
