(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
<