PAGE 16 • GO! MAGAZINE
Thursday, February 4, 2021 • The buLLeTIN
cover story
Key dates in Black history in Oregon
BY MAKENZIE WHITTLE • The Bulletin
T
he key events of Black history in the United States are long and rich, infuriating to modern sensibilities and often disheartening to read about, but
important to know and understand. Black History Month has been decreed every February by the President of the United States since 1976. Other
countries also have designated months celebrating the history of their Black citizens, but the reason why we celebrate in the U.S. comes from historian
Carter G. Woodson who was bothered that textbooks largely ignored the Black population and events that mattered to his community.
So he formed an organization now called
the Association of the Study of African
American Life and History in 1915 and
through it developed the idea for Negro His-
tory Week in February of 1926.
Eventually, the week was expanded to the
entire month of February, which Woodson
chose because it includes the birthdays of
both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Dou-
glass.
Here are just a few important moments
in Black Oregon history including several
broader national events that every Ameri-
can should know and should inspire further
research and reading throughout the year,
not just every February.
Not every significant event can be in-
cluded, blackpast.org is a good resource for
finding more information on large-scale na-
tional events.
Oregon history compiled from oregon-
hummanities.org, oregonblackpioneers.org
and Bulletin archives.
The anonymous folk painting from the late 1700s depicts
African American slaves dancing to music.
1513, present-day St. Augustine, Flor-
ida — Juan Garrido becomes the first doc-
umented Black person to set foot on what
would become U.S. soil when he accompa-
nies Juan Ponce de Leon on his search for
the fountain of youth.
August 1619, Virginia colony — The first
enslaved Africans arrive in the British Colo-
nies of North America.
Sept. 9, 1739, Stono, South Carolina —
About 60 armed slaves attempt to flee to
Florida, kill 25 colonists and are then pur-
sued and most are killed on-site or captured
and executed at a later date.
March 5, 1770, Boston, Massachusetts
— Escaped slave Crispus Attucks becomes
the first killed during the Boston Massacre.
The conflict is regarded as the spark to the
American Revolution.
1776, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — The
Continental Congress remove a passage
from the proposed Declaration of Indepen-
dence condemning slavery after pressure
from the southern colonial representatives.
Author Thomas Jefferson owned over 600
human beings throughout his lifetime.
1788, near present-day Garibaldi, Or-
egon — Black sailor Marcus Lopeus ar-
rives in Oregon with the crew of the Lady
Washington captained by Robert Gray.
Loepeus sticks his sword in the sand where
it is taken by a member of a local tribe.
The two fight and Lopeus is killed mak-
ing him the first confirmed Black person
to set foot in Oregon and the first to die in
the state.
June 25, 1844, Oregon — Oregon exclu-
sionary law goes into effect forbidding Black
pioneers to settle in the territory. According
to oregonhummanities.org, an Oregon City
saloonkeeper named Jacob Vanderpool is
the only person to have been expelled from
the state after he is turned in as violating the
law by a competitor.
1845 Myrtle Creek — Letitia Carson ar-
rives in Oregon with her husband. When
he died she successfully sued the executor
of his estate for their shared property and
later filed a claim under the Homestead Act
becoming the only Black woman granted a
160-acre homestead.
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