Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this article also incorrectly linked Deady with the group The Secret Knights of the Golden Circle, a precursor to the Klu Klux Klan. There is no evidence for the link.
Oregon has one of the most progressive reputations as a state. But its own history, including the University’s beginnings, contains undeniable racist roots.
With Black History Month underway, groups on campus and throughout the community are acknowledging history and discussing the racism that people of color still experience today.
The history of racism in Oregon is evident in the legal system with examples such as “Lash Laws,” instituted in 1844, which mandated that every African American be whipped twice a year until they “left the territory.” In 1859, when Oregon was first inducted into statehood, a clause in the constitution (the writing of which was led by U.S. District Judge Matthew Deady, after whom our math department building was named) forbade African American settlement entirely.
When the KKK established in the state, it was able to gain more than 14,000 members by the 1920s, the highest per capita membership in the nation. In 1921, the Oregon Daily Emerald reported that some 500 students had joined the Klan College Club.
The first major legislation directly pertaining to civil rights was the Oregon Civil Rights Act of 1953. The law prohibited discrimination in public places of people by terms of race, religion, color or country of origin.
But Jim Crow laws still had their place within local communities.
“When I first came to Oregon in 1961, they had just gotten rid of the Sundown Laws in places like Medford,” said professor emerita Joan Acker of the sociology department.
Sundown towns, as they were referred to, allowed blacks, Asians and Native Americans
to pass through the town but mandated that they leave before sundown.
The Civil Rights Movement took hold in Eugene with chapters of several organizations
such as Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) taking hold and collaborating with the University. However, African American families that moved in were often met with protest.
“I remember that one time we recruited an African American sociologist who was a man, and he was married to a white woman, and they had one kid. They and their child were very badly treated in the community, and they stayed maybe two years and left,” Acker said.
Although she admits the racial climate has changed since then, Acker still holds to the fact that racism on campus has not been eradicated.
“White people are so unaware of their own patterns of racial thinking that their white attitudes can be very self-regarding. They can think, ‘I’m not racist at all,’ but the fact is that stereotypical thinking is very deeply embedded and extremely hard to get rid of,” Acker said.
The fact that minorities were not given the opportunity to develop communities early in Oregon’s history has led to minorities comprising less than 10 percent of the state’s population. Acker said this has led to less contact with other racial groups and contributed to stereotyping.
Deborah Butler, a member of the Black Law Student Association, stressed the importance of minority groups on campus spreading the word about diversity, especially on the University’s campus where minority numbers are low.
“There’s a lot of talk about diversity, and a lot of people here haven’t had to put that into action so there’s a lot of tension that comes up on a day-to-day basis,” she said.
Butler said Eugene’s lack of racially diverse communities causes some students to bypass the University.
“If there’s no community already here, I think a lot people would rather live in a larger city so they can find the people that look like them, so they can eat the food that they grew up with or go to a church that they like,” fellow BLSA member Lauren Charles said.
She said in a community lacking racial diversity and contact, racial “others” become categorized and stereotypes prevail. And sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference.
“You walk down the street and people kind of look at you,” Charles said.
BLSA Director James Nitta reiterated the point, saying, “And not like look at you in a bad way, just ‘Hey look, someone different.’ And sometimes you don’t want to be that person of curiosity. Sometimes you just want to go for a walk down the street.”
The Black Student Union and the BLSA are screening the movie “Good Hair,” a comedic documentary by comedian Chris Rock on Sun., Feb. 28, at 3:30 p.m. in 142 Lawrence. The film profiles the black hair industry and the extensive process that black women go to in order to achieve a “white” hairstyle.
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