Jacob Vanderpool was the only person known to have been legally expelled from Oregon on the basis of its anti-Black exclusion laws. Born in the West Indies in 1820, Vanderpool was classified in court documents as “mulatto,” likely the descendant of a Dutch plantation owner … Read MoreJacob Vanderpool (1820-188?)
Ruffin Bridgeforth, president of the Genesis Group and priest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), was born in Melville, Louisiana, on March 18, 1923. His father, Ruffin Sr., and mother, Mary Adams Fips, had four children together. Bridgeforth moved from Louisiana … Read MoreRuffin Bridgeforth (1923–1997)
Beginning with the Exclusion Law of 1844 enacted by the provisional government of the region, Oregon passed a series of measures designed to ban African American settlement in the territory. Historian Elizabeth McLagan describes those laws in the article below. Oregon passed exclusion laws against … Read MoreThe Black Laws of Oregon, 1844-1857
