The woman who brought Juneteenth to Oregon
Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S., and is recognized as the nation’s second Independence Day. Despite its importance, the holiday is still largely unknown to (or misunderstood by) many non-Black Americans. You know what that means: It’s time for a history lesson! The story begins with another holiday that is little-known to…
Vendor Profiles
A call for kindness
Pineapple is honest to a fault, they said. So when their bosses at HBO in New York City in the late 1990s asked them what they wanted to do after their copy writing internship, they were honest: they wanted to move into video editing. “They expected me to say, ‘I want to move up in…
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Oregon’s deep, hidden history of slavery
Note: This story discusses human enslavement, sexual abuse, violence, murder and infanticide. In late 1849, Maj. John Pollard Gaines sold his Kentucky plantation — and approximately 12 enslaved people — to his brother. He then met with President Zachary Taylor before making his way to the Oregon Territory, where he arrived in August 1850 to…
Celebrating Juneteenth around Oregon
It’s 2026, and Juneteenth is still a relatively new phenomenon to many Oregonians. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day enslaved people in Galveston, Texas learned they were free — two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. In Oregon, most cities and towns didn’t hold their first “Freedom Day” celebration until 2021, following then-President Joe Biden’s…
