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Good article, but it could have been even better.

Thanks to WWII especially, Portland is far blacker than the rest of the State, which better reflects the intention of her founding fathers.

While it accurately notes that the State Constitution rom the beginning banned blacks, and mentions that the Civil War amendments technically over rode this, it fails to mention several other things:

The punishment for blacks found in state, IIRC was enshrined in the constitution as something like 30 lashes, to be repeated every 30 days until the message was conveyed.

While the Civil War amendments may have technically over-ridden these provisions, they were not automatically stripped from the constitution, and remained so enshrined until the 1930’s when an initiative petition to remove them finally made the ballot and passed (it had previously made the ballot and failed an absurd number of times—like two dozen+)

Also to note: the Free Soil party meant free land (homesteading) that was free of slaves AND free of blacks, who were welcome to go to Liberia.

Three cheers to an outstanding high school teacher from Portland who slaved away in an obscure corner of the state.