5. Grand Emancipation Celebration

Black community leaders in Oregon issued this embossed invitation in late 1868 to raise public awareness about the “Grand Emancipation Celebration,” scheduled for January 1, 1869. The event commemorated the sixth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, which freed slaves in confederate-held areas of the South during the Civil War.

Following the Civil War (1861-1865), African-Americans continued to migrate to Oregon in small numbers. As in other regions of the United States, they faced virulent racism and entrenched legal discrimination. The Oregon State Constitution, approved by white male voters in November 1857, barred blacks from voting. The Oregon legislature did approve the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery in the United States. However, the legislature passed but later rescinded the Fourteenth Amendment, which guaranteed equal protection and due process to male citizens, and refused to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment, which extended the vote to black male citizens. Local and state officials imposed additional restrictions on African Americans, including segregation in housing and education, and a ban on women and non-white minorities owning firearms.