Posted by:
Beth
(
)
Date: February 15, 2020 03:03PM
I live in Centralia, WA. I might as well put that out there, because what I'm about to write is going to doxx my black ass anyway.
So, a man named George Washington (not kidding), lived in St. Louis, MO with his white parents (long story - it's better described in the links below). After the Missouri Compromise, he said, "We're out!" and convinced his parents to go with him on the Oregon Trail.
When they arrived in the Oregon Territory, people were like, "Nope! No black man or Chinaman can own property here." Plus they ordered all of the black people to leave THE ENTIRE TERRITORY and entered the Union as an all-white state. You can't make this shit up.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/06/07/when-portland-banned-blacks-oregons-shameful-history-as-an-all-white-state/I haven't read the Oregon Constitution since ~2000, but IIRC the state didn't rescind the prohibition against Chinese people owning land until the 1960s, I think. It wasn't enforced at that time, but it sure as shit was in their constitution. Shameful. Washington state treated Chinese people like total crap as well, beat them up in Seattle. The Chinese Exclusion Act warrants discussion.
Back to George...
So, George was like, "Ain't this some shit right here in Oregon?", and he and his parents crossed the Columbia River and settled in The Washington Territory where no such restrictions applied. His father was a straw purchaser and bought land, and then sold it to his son for ~$6K. George picked this piece of land because he knew that the railroad was going to come through and Centralia would be a stop (we still are for Amtrak).
There was a depression in the late 19th century, and George gave people interest-free loans to keep them in town and solvent. He fed people. He donated land for a house to people who wanted to start businesses here. He was a decent guy.
Anyway, he did cool stuff, and some dude with a huge white truck with a huge black and white League of the South flag mounted in the bed (League of the South is a hate group), drives by my house on the regular.
https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/league-of-the-southMore about George Washington:
https://www.historylink.org/File/5276https://www.opb.org/news/article/centralia-washington-george-200-birthday-founder-oregon-trail/Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2020 03:09PM by Beth.