“We Have a Responsibility to the History That Has Created Our Present”

This Saturday a historical marker will be installed in Coos Bay. It’s a sober reminder of the days of slavery, and it memorializes Oregon’s only known public lynching. The marker is being installed outside of the Coos History Museum on Saturday and there’s a virtual event happening. The idea is to get at least 300 people to watch, which is the same number in attendance during the lynching. The livestream to Saturday’s event is here: https://bit.ly/35wDZkK

Taylor Stewart from the Oregon Remembrance Project sums it up saying “we can’t change the past, but we can always change our relationship to the past.”

Both Oregon and Washington lawmakers have passed a bill recognizing Juneteenth as a state holiday. June 19th, 1865 is when Union troops landed in Galveston, Texas and informed people enslaved in the state that they were free. That was two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Juneteenth will become a paid state holiday in Oregon starting in 2022.