Oregon's Black Pioneers

For decades, Oregon legally excluded black people from settling in the region. Despite racists laws and attitudes, some came anyway.

“Oregon’s Black Pioneers” examines the earliest African-Americans who lived and worked in the region during the mid-1800s. They came as sailors, gold miners, farmers and slaves. Their numbers were small, by some estimates just 60 black residents in 1850, but they managed to create communities, and in some cases, take on racist laws — and win.