13 Trial Lawyer • Spring 2024 transferred Japanese Americans to three different “camps,” only one of which was located in Oregon.34 Oregon’s Hispanic populations in the early Oregon territory were naturally comprised of early Spanish settlers and Mexican immigrants.35 Oregon has had a somewhat bipolar relationship with Mexicans in particular.36 In the early 1900s, Oregon needed and welcomed the inexpensive labor of Latinos to build its railroads and work its farms.37 By the 1930s, however, Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals and Latinos were blamed for the economic fallout from the Great Depression, leading to massive deportation efforts.38 During WWII, Oregon had another mood swing and actively recruited Mexican men to alleviate the farm labor shortage and to work the railroads.39 When the war ended, Oregon returned to its massive deportation efforts under the Eisenhower-era militaristic campaign called “Operation Wetback.”40 As the Oregonian explained on May 15, 1953, “Oregon gets its share of the illegal hordes of wetbacks who sneak across the border to collect the American dollars U.S. farmers are glad to pay them.” White Oregon grows a conscience Oregon enacted its Public Accommodations Bill/Civil Rights Bill in 1953,41 which mirrors the federal civil rights law and ensures that “[a]ll persons within the jurisdiction of this state shall be entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges of any place of public accommodation, resort or amusement, without any distinction, discrimination or restriction on account of race, religion, color or national origin.”42 Half a century later, the white population had only decreased to 89.3% in the year 2000, and 87.1% in 2010.43 The legislature expanded the protections of the law to include sexual orientation in 2007, age in 2013 and gender identity in 2021.44 However, in 2022 Oregon is holding steady at 87.42% white and is the eighth whitest state in the U.S.45 Nationally, the push-back to the civil rights era manifested in extremist groups such as the Moral Majority, a farright religious group,46 and the neo-nazi group led by Tom Metzger, White Aryan Resistance (WAR).47 Oregon saw its share of that extremism. In November 1988, Lon Mabon’s anti-gay group, the Oregon Citizen’s Alliance (OCA), managed to sway a majority of Oregon voters to pass Measure 8 and revoke the Governor’s executive order banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation by state employers.48 On November 13, 1988, three skinhead members of East Side White Pride Gang, an affiliate of WAR, attacked three Ethiopian men in southeast Portland. One of those men, Mulugeta Seraw, was killed after being repeatedly beaten with a baseball bat and kicked with steel-toed boots.49 In the 1992 decision in Merrick v. Board of Higher Education, the Oregon Court of Appeals struck down OCA’s Measure 8, then codified at ORS 236.380, as unconstitutional.50 The following year, in 1993, the Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed the jury’s $12.5 million damages award in the wrongful death action brought by Mulugeta Seraw’s estate against Tom Metzger.51 The right to marry In early 2004, Multnomah County determined that Oregon’s marriage statutes do not expressly prohibit same-sex marriage, but if they did, the statutes violate Article 1, section 20 of the Oregon Constitution, guaranteeing equal privileges and immunities for all citizens or class of citizens.52 Thereafter, the county issued approximately 3,000 marriage licenses to same-sex couples and the governor thereafter intervened.53 Following a lawsuit and appeal, the Oregon Supreme Court concluded that Oregon’s statutes limit marriage to a male husband and female wife and that Multnomah County’s marriage licenses to same-sex couples were void.54 In 2013, after the U.S. Supreme See Winding Road p 14 Oregon has a long history of being unfriendly to non-whites.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Nzc3ODM=