ILLUMINATION: Why we do it

1851 - 1868

Photo: November 28, 1958. Courtesy of the Lane County History Museum, catalog number KE3383.

1851  An extensive body of discriminatory legislation was enacted in California including testimony restrictions which outlawed testimony by African Americans, Chinese and Native Americans against Whites in any court of law.

1860’s  Large numbers of Asians, primarily Chinese, began to arrive mostly to mine and construct railroads.

1862  Oregon adopted a law requiring all Blacks, Chinese, Hawaiians (Kanakas), and Mulattos (an archaic term referring to people of mixed ethnic heritage) residing in Oregon to pay an annual tax of $5. If they could not pay this tax, the law empowered the state to press them into service maintaining state roads for 50 cents a day. Also, interracial marriages were banned in Oregon. It was against the law for whites to marry anyone ¼ or more Black.

1866  Oregon banned all interracial marriages The state’s ban on interracial marriages was extended to prevent Whites from marrying anyone who was ¼ or more Chinese, or Hawaiian, and ½ or more Native American. It was previously illegal for Whites and Blacks to marry.

1868  Large numbers of Japanese laborers arrived in Hawaii to work in sugar cane fields.

This content is from Looking Back In Order to Move Forward: An Often Untold History Affecting Oregon's Past, Present and Future, Timeline of Oregon and U.S. Racial Immigration and Education History. This document was compiled by Elaine Rector as part of Coaching for Educational Equity (Revised May 16, 2010).

1876 - 1885

Photo: C. 1890. Courtesy of the Lane County History Museum, catalog number GN3735.

1876  A California Senate committee investigated the “social, moral, and political effect of Chinese immigration.” Asian immigrants were blamed for crime and drug use and therefore they were considered “undesirables.”

1880’s  Chinese immigrants were driven by mobs out of Oregon City, Mount Tabor and Albina.

1882  Ignoring the crucial role Chinese immigrants played in constructing the infrastructure of the West, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. It suspended further Chinese immigration until 1892. It also made all Chinese immigrants ineligible for citizenship and barred them from several professions including mining.

1884  The Oregon statewide railroad system was completed connecting all regions of the state. Oregon remained relatively isolated until this completion of the railroad network. The Central Pacific's Chinese immigrant workers received $26-$35 a month for a 12-hour day, 6-day work week and had to provide their own food and tents. White workers received about $35 a month and were furnished with food and shelter. Chinese immigrant workers saved as much as $20 a month which many eventually used to buy land. They earned a reputation as tireless and extraordinarily reliable workers. 12,000 of the Central Pacific railroad's 13,500 employees were Chinese immigrants.

1885  Congress banned the admission of contract laborers. The Contract Labor Law was largely a response to Chinese “coolie” labor but it explicitly had exemptions written into the law that demonstrated occupational preference.

This content is from Looking Back In Order to Move Forward: An Often Untold History Affecting Oregon's Past, Present and Future, Timeline of Oregon and U.S. Racial Immigration and Education History. This document was compiled by Elaine Rector as part of Coaching for Educational Equity (Revised May 16, 2010).

1888 - 1910

Photo: December 16, 1957. Courtesy of Lane County History Museum, catalog number KE2646.

1888  In a trial in Enterprise, Oregon, three men were acquitted of murder for the massacre of at least 34 Chinese gold miners. The ring-leaders fled the area and were never tried. Unknown is how much gold the gang might have plundered. Rumors put the figure from $3,000 to more than $50,000. The trial attracted little attention from the press, and Wallowa County folks swept the sordid saga under the carpet for more than a century. In 1995, a county clerk opened an old safe in the Wallowa County Courthouse and found a long-secreted cache of documents relating to the massacre.

1890’s  Reduction in Chinese immigration contributed to a dramatic increase in Japanese immigrants to Oregon: typically young males arriving without families. They came to work on railroads, in lumber and canning industries and as farm workers. Many restaurants and businesses posted signs reassuring customers that they employed no Asian help.

1898  The U.S. Supreme Court recognized children born in U.S. of Chinese parents as citizens.

1907  The United States and Japan formed a “Gentleman’s Agreement” in which Japan ended issuance of passports to laborers and the U.S. agreed not to prohibit all Japanese Immigration. Therefore only certain “types” of Japanese could come to the United States; only if they were educated or of a higher socio-economic status than a poor laborer.

1910  Angel Island began operation. Although billed as the “Ellis Island of the West” within the Immigration Service, it was mostly known as “The Guardian of the Western Gate”, designed to control the flow of Chinese into the U.S. The facility was primarily a detention center to inhibit immigration under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. All Asian immigrants were affected, but the greatest impact was on the Chinese.

This content is from Looking Back In Order to Move Forward: An Often Untold History Affecting Oregon's Past, Present and Future, Timeline of Oregon and U.S. Racial Immigration and Education History. This document was compiled by Elaine Rector as part of Coaching for Educational Equity (Revised May 16, 2010).

1913 - 1923

Photo: Date unknown. Courtesy of Lane County History Museum, catalog number GN7937.

1913  California’s Alien Land Law ruled that "aliens ineligible for citizenship" (i.e. all Asian immigrants) were barred from owning land or property, but permits for three year leases of agricultural land were permitted.

1917  Immigration Act prohibited the entry of immigrants who were “induced…to migrate to this country by offers or promises of employment”, imposed a head tax and excluded “immigrants over 16 who could not read in any language.” Its provisions banned almost all Asian Immigrants.

1922  The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Ozawa v. United States that first-generation Japanese were ineligible for citizenship and could not apply for naturalization.

1923  The Oregon state legislature, dominated by members of the Klan, passed a number of restrictive laws. The Alien Land Law prevented first generation Japanese Americans from owning or leasing land. The Oregon Business Restriction Law allowed cities to refuse business licenses to first generation Japanese Americans.

1923  An Oregon WWI veteran was denied U.S. citizenship. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Bhagat Singh Thind could not be a naturalized citizen. Anthropologists defined people of India as belonging to the Caucasian race. A previous ruling had affirmed that immigration law referring to “white" meant “Caucasian” as it applied to denying citizenship to light skinned Japanese immigrants. In this case, Justice Sutherland argued that the "common man's" definition of “white” did not correspond to all "Caucasians". Even though Indians were considered “Caucasian” they were not “white”. Therefore they could not be naturalized. Thus the color of skin became the legal qualification for citizenship.

This content is from Looking Back In Order to Move Forward: An Often Untold History Affecting Oregon's Past, Present and Future, Timeline of Oregon and U.S. Racial Immigration and Education History. This document was compiled by Elaine Rector as part of Coaching for Educational Equity (Revised May 16, 2010).

1924 - 1942

Photo: C. 1898. Courtesy of Lane County History Museum, catalog number GN1994.

1924  Immigration Act of 1924 (the Johnson Reed Act) established fixed quotas of national origin and eliminated “Far East” immigration. In 1929 these annual immigration quotas were made permanent. The Oriental Exclusion Act prohibited immigration from Asia, including foreign-born wives and children of U.S. citizens of Chinese ancestry.

1927  The Oregon State Constitution was finally amended to remove a clause denying Blacks the right to vote and eliminating restrictions that discriminated against Blacks and Chinese voters.

1928  Japanese American Citizens League founded. There are two chapters in Oregon.

1941  Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, galvanized the U.S. war effort. Over 1,000 Japanese-American community leaders were incarcerated because of national security concerns.

1942  President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the building of “relocation camps” for Japanese Americans living along the Pacific Coast.

1942  A Japanese submarine shelled Fort Stevens near Astoria. Despite having caused no significant damage, the attack raised awareness of possible future threats. It is the only hostile shelling of a military base on the U.S. mainland during World War II and the first since the War of 1812. Also, a Japanese submarine launched seaplanes that dropped bombs on the southern Oregon coast. Incendiary (fire) bombs were to cause fires in the thick Siskiyou National Forest. If the trees had been as dry as normal, the Japanese plan might have worked, leaving forest fires to divert hundreds of fire fighters and large amounts of money from the war effort while also triggering panic in Oregon’s population.

This content is from Looking Back In Order to Move Forward: An Often Untold History Affecting Oregon's Past, Present and Future, Timeline of Oregon and U.S. Racial Immigration and Education History. This document was compiled by Elaine Rector as part of Coaching for Educational Equity (Revised May 16, 2010).

1942 - 1945

Photo: C. 1930. Courtesy of Lane County History Museum, catalog number KE764.

1942  After the attack on Pearl Harbor, all persons of Japanese heritage living in the western portion of Oregon (and all western states) were forced to move to camps by the Wartime Civil Control Administration. More than 4,500 Japanese Americans from western Oregon were sent to internment camps: 2/3 were American citizens.

1943  The Magnuson Act of 1943 repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, establishing quotas for Chinese immigrants but also making them eligible for U.S, citizenship.

1944  Federal government's Public Proclamation No. 21 of December 17, 1944 ended the exclusion of people of Japanese descent from the Pacific Coast.

1945  The Oregon House of Representatives passed Joint Memorial No. 9 on February 28, 1945. The statement called on President Roosevelt to prevent the return of Japanese Americans "for the duration of the present war with Japan." The legislators based their request on what they described as "considerable antagonism to such return" to Oregon. It also claimed that the internees would be "safer and cause less civilian disturbance in the relocation centers."

1945  The former internees who did trickle back to their old homes were often met with open hostility by white neighbors. Some found their homes looted and their orchards vandalized while others endured boycotts of their fruits and vegetables or heard racial slurs or threats. A few were assaulted physically. Along with the many instances of blatant racism, intimidation, and hatred, some Oregonians welcomed and supported the returning Japanese Americans.

1945  Hood River received national attention when the local American Legion Post removed the names of 16 “Nisei”, Japanese American members of the U.S. military from a plaque honoring local members of the armed forces.

This content is from Looking Back In Order to Move Forward: An Often Untold History Affecting Oregon's Past, Present and Future, Timeline of Oregon and U.S. Racial Immigration and Education History. This document was compiled by Elaine Rector as part of Coaching for Educational Equity (Revised May 16, 2010).

1988 - 2009

Photo: C. 1915. Courtesy of Lane County History Museum, catalog number GN1991.

1988  Congress approved Civil Liberties Act paying $20,000 to each surviving interned Japanese-American.

1993  A joint Apology Resolution regarding Hawaii was passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton. It requested forgiveness for the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. It was the first time in American history that the United States government officially apologized for overthrowing the legitimate government of a sovereign nation.

2001  A memorial honoring Japanese-American veterans and detainees opened in Washington D.C.

2009  To celebrate Oregon’s 150th birthday, the Oregon Library Association selected the book, Stubborn Twig, about a Japanese American family in Hood River, for the statewide Oregon Reads program. The Oregon Library Association wanted to bring focus on and stimulate dialogue and study of Oregon’s racial and immigration history.

This content is from Looking Back In Order to Move Forward: An Often Untold History Affecting Oregon's Past, Present and Future, Timeline of Oregon and U.S. Racial Immigration and Education History. This document was compiled by Elaine Rector as part of Coaching for Educational Equity (Revised May 16, 2010).