Desegregation and Multiculturalism in the Portland Public Schools

 OHQ vol. 111, no. 1 Ethan joHnson and Felicia Williams Desegregation and Multiculturalism in the Portland Public Schools© 2010 Oregon Historical Society Helen Marie Casey’s booklet Portland’s Compromise: the Colored School,1867–1872 recounts the story of William Brown,anAfrican-American resident of Portland,Oregon,and his role in the first and only case of official segregation of African-American children in Portland Public Schools (PPS) in 1867.After unsuccessfully trying to enroll his children in one of Portland’s only two public elementary schools, Brown appealed to the school board, including directors Josiah Failing, W.S. Ladd, and E.D. Shattuck. Again, his children were denied access.The board of directors explained their resistance to integrated schools by saying:“If we admit them [African-American children ], then next year we will have no money to run the schools.”According to Casey, the directors were“afraid to provoke the taxpayers and rouse their ire.”1 Rather than attempting such a politically“risky”effort,the school board eventually allocated $800 — $765 more than it had offered prior to Brown’s threat of a lawsuit — for a segregated school at the corner Southwest Fourth and Columbia. Twenty-six African-American students, twenty-one boys and five girls — many of whom had previously attempted to attend another public, or “free,” school in Portland but had been denied — enrolled in the school. The continued existence of the “Colored School” was constantly in question at annual school meetings. Funding for the school was abolished in 1872, and the next year, thirty African-American children were admitted to the newly integrated PPS. Since Oregon acquired statehood in 1859, the relationship between African Americans and public education in the city of Portland has been complex and closely correlated to the broader racial dynamics of the city,  Johnson and Williams, Desegregation, Multiculturalism, and Portland Schools state, and nation. With three “Black exclusion laws” to its name, including one written into the original state constitution, Oregon was established in the late nineteenth century as the most formidable and dangerous place outside the South for an African-American person to call home. Oregon was never a slave state; however, historical records of lynchings, as well as institutionally denied or limited rights and access, effectively dispute the argument that it was a “free state” either.2 The pattern of response from Portland’s Euro-American–dominated public school system to the struggles of African Americans for desegregation and quality education stems from the historic racial dynamics of Oregon and, more specifically, of Portland. This pattern tends to echo the story of the Colored School. There is often initial resistance to change on any level, sometimes explained as being due to the system’s fear of taking “political risks” such as alienating Euro-American citizens in Portland’s subtly contentious racial atmosphere. Commonly, this is followed by persistent efforts of community members and groups — for example, Harrison Street school, shown here in about 1880, was in operation when William Brown asked for his children to be admitted to Portland’s public schools. The city’s schools were officially integrated in 1873. OHS neg. no. 38276, photo file 1842  OHQ vol. 111, no. 1 William Brown threatening to bring a lawsuit against the school board — eventually leading to the institution of a new policy, usually fulfilling only a portion of those community members’ goals. What typically ensues is a process of negotiation and occasional undermining of the new policy by parts of the community, the local and occasionally the national media, and even PPS and the Board of Education itself, as was the case with the Colored School. In the 140 years since the closing of the Colored School, Portland’s African-American community has continued to struggle to attain quality education for its children, an effort that has been mirrored by the national fights for educational equity, including desegregation and multicultural education. This study explores the relationship between PPS and the city’s AfricanAmerican residents, especially having to do with policy decisions about desegregation and multiculturalism.These efforts can be broken down into three broad time frames. The first is from 1859 to 1941, the period stretching from Oregon’s...