Celebrating Oregon's Black History

Floor Speech

CELEBRATING OREGON'S BLACK HISTORY -- (Senate - February 13, 2008)

Mr. SMITH. Madam President, each Congress I rise to honor February as Black History Month. Each February since 1926, we have recognized the contributions of Black Americans to the history of our Nation. This month I want to celebrate some of the contributions made by Black Americans in my home State of Oregon.

The story of Abner Hunt Francis, a merchant from Buffalo, NY, is particularly moving. Francis, a man who gravitated to leadership, co-founded the Buffalo City Anti-Slavery Society in 1838 and organized local colored conventions throughout the 1830s and '40s in his native state. In 1851 he left the East Coast for the City of Portland in the Oregon Territory, expecting to encounter freer country on the American frontier.

Francis was disappointed to discover that despite the progressive attitude of its settlers, racist laws still encumbered Oregon Territory. It was not long after opening a boardinghouse that Francis's brother, O. H. Francis, was arrested. O. H. was detained in Portland on the grounds that men and women of color were not legally allowed in Oregon Territory, pursuant to an existing ``exclusion'' law. The case went immediately before a lower court, where it was decided that O. H. would have 6 months to vacate the territory. Unsatisfied that the judge had given O. H. ample time to leave, the complainant in the case appealed and the matter was elevated to the Territorial Supreme Court.

Abner Francis was incensed by the fact that such a law existed in the so-called free territory of Oregon. He described the plight of his brother and detailed the case made before the Supreme Court in a letter to his friend and fellow civil rights advocate, Frederick Douglass. When Judge Orville Pratt ruled against the defense, giving O. H. 4 months to leave the territory, Abner engaged Col. William M. King, then the representative of Portland's district in the State legislature. Representative King agreed to try to repeal the law outright. The law was not repealed until 1926, but a group of outraged Portlanders, led by Abner, successfully petitioned for an exemption for O. H.

Douglass wasted no time in publishing Francis's letter. Many abolitionists and civil rights leaders were learning of racial injustices in the undeveloped West for the first time when they read of O. H. Francis's case.

Outspoken men and women like Abner Francis forced Oregonians and the Nation to acknowledge that the bitter struggle for equality was to be fought not just in the East, but also in the farthest reaches of the American West. Francis must be recognized as one of the first vocal advocates for racial equality in Oregon. Today, I honor Abner Hunt Francis for his contributions.

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