The Oregon Laws Regarding African Americans
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| Photo of Louis A, Southland |
| It being the opinion of this legislature that a negro, Chinaman or Indian has no right that a white man is bound to respect, and that a white man may murder, rob, rape, shoot, stab and cut any of those worthless and vagabond races, without being called to account therefore; provided he shall do the said acts of bravery and chivalry when no white man be troubled by seeing the same. |
| -State Legislator George Lawson of Yamhill County 1864 |
The very first Oregon Constitution was a Territorial one and prohibited African Americans from living in the state under pain of 39 lashes "every six months until he or she shall quit the territory".
That law was changed in 1856, in the first state constitution to read as follows:
No free negro or mulatto, not residing in this state at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall come,reside or be within this state, or hold any real estate, or make any contracts, or maintain any suit therein; and the 1egislative assembly shal1 provide by penal laws for the removal by public officers all such Negroes and mulattoes and for their effectual exclusion from the state and for the punishment of persons who shall bring them into the state, or employ or harbor them.
That law was not repealed until 1924. In 1863, the following law was passed:
Any
negro, chinaman, kanaka or mulatto,
residing within the limits of this state1 shall pay an annual polltax
of five dollars, for the use of the oounty in which such negro, chinaman, kanaka or mulatto may reside.
Sec. 2. That every such negro,
chinaman, kanaka or mulatto, shall, between the first day of January and the
first day of March, of each year, pay to the county treasurer of the county in
which he may reside, the sum of five dollars, and thereupon said treasurer shall
make out and deliver to such person a receipt which shall be in substance as
follows:
STATE
OF OREGON, COUNTY OF___
Received of
—~—--—, (negro, chinaman kanaka or mulattto as the case may be) the sum of
five dollars, being his tax for the year 18— Witness my hand and dated this
day of , 18—.
And
such receipt shall be a protection such taxpayer from again paying such poll-tax
in the same or any other county in
this state, for such year.
Sec.3.
When such negro, chinaman, kanaka or mulatto shall fail and neglect to pay the
tax required by section 2 of this set, then it shall be the duty of the sheriff
of the county wherein such tax-payer may reside or be found, to immediately
collect such tax, witb the additional sum of one dollar, and mileage, which
additional sum and mileage shall go to the sheriff, as his fee; the balance
shall be paid into the county treasury, and the sheriff is required to make
return to the county treasurer of the taxes collected under the provisions of
this act, on the first Monday of June, and every three months thereafter.
Sec. 4. Should such negro, chinaman, kanaka or mulatto, faiI to pay the tax required by section 2 of this act, and should the. sheriff be unable to collect the same, or make the same out of property belonging ‘to such tax-payers, then it is made the duty of the sheriff to arrest such negro,chinaman, kanaka or mulatto, and put him at work on the public highways, under the direction of the road supervisor, in the district ~where the Negro, chinaman, kanaka or mulatto may be arrested or found and such tax-payers shall be required to work one day on such highways, for every half dollar of such tax due and unpaid.
Subsequent to the above, there was a shift in power within the legislature. Every new legislative proposal that was racist in its intent risked the wrath of Benton County's representative, A.G. Hovey (Hovey eventually was asked to join the Board of the University of Oregon in Eugene, where Hovey Hall is named for him). Hovey successfully diverted many of these proposals to the Subcomittee on Insane Asylums, which is where he believedthese bills, alongside their authors, belonged.
Note: Kanaka refers to the native Hawaiian word for the citizens of that Kingdom.