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Guest Column
Learning from history to improve our world
Black History Month allows for reflection and remembering mistakes in the past that we would not like to repeat in the future. Black History Month allows for the recall of names of heroes who worked to make Oregon a better place. It is important to remember history so that we do not make the same mistakes in the future. While some might think of the mistakes as putting down white men, if we remember history accurately, we remember white men and women who were both villains and heroes. Every generation has problems to work through.
Problems that this area of the country had to work through were numerous.
Historically, Oregon has always been opposed to slavery. Oregon in the beginning also had a second idea of trying to keep as clear as possible of Black people.
•Example: When I first came to Oregon in the 1940s, the Portland Realty Board rules were still in place. Its code of ethics prohibited agents from selling property to Blacks or Asians in an all-white neighborhood in a time when Oregon was more that 90 percent white. That code was not changed until 1952.
•Example: It was not until November 2002 that voters were asked to change some of the wording of the Oregon Constitution. Until that change, the number of Supreme Court judges was based upon the number of white inhabitants.
•Personal example: I can recall going to Blue Lake Park for a picnic and, after waiting in line, was told we could not go in because the park was for whites only.
• Legal example: I remember racial restrictive covenants that the U.S. Supreme Court validated, restrictive covenants that prevented property owners from selling to Blacks. Those that violated the contract risked forfeiting their property.
•Personal example: I remember when two police officers dropped dead opossums at an African American-owned restaurant so that the customers would know they were being served by "coons."
•Another personal example: I remember seeing the "We cater to white trade only" signs in Gresham and Portland.
I also remember the heroes, both black and white, who worked to make our state a better place. I remember Mark O. Hatfield and his valiant efforts to change the laws to make Oregon a better place in the early 50s. Without his fine effort, Oregon would be a very different place. I remember meeting Beatrice Morrow Cannady, who helped found the Portland chapter of the NAACP. I recall having Robert Grady Ford as a teacher in school; he was the first Black schoolteacher in Oregon. I remember Henry Kaiser, who was one of the people most responsible for change in race laws in Oregon with Blacks hired at the shipyards that he built in the 1940s and the medical care organization that he helped develop. I remember Portland State University starting as a two-year college and because of the effort of Henry Kaiser and others it now is the largest university in the State of Oregon. I remember a nice lady, Stella Maris, who helped Black people all her life to live better lives without regard to the fact that she was white and the problems she worked to solved was faced by people of other races.
All and all, the beauty of Black History Month is that it is not only about Black people. It is about how a state faced with problems grew and got better. We should remember Oregon's heroes of all races who worked hard for the change so that Oregon would be a better place.
Larry Dawkins is an MHCC speech instructor, a former forensics team coach and a faculty member here since 1972.
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