Oregon Are You With Us

Red text inside an illustration of the state of Oregon in white with a red background.

Oregon is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest, which has a particularly unique history. It was inhabited by Paleo-Americans over 15,000 years ago, and has since been home to many Native American nations. Spanish explorers first sailed up the coast in the late 1500s, and Lewis and Clark made their famous expedition to the area in the 1800s. This sparked the Oregon Trail with many settlers moving West. Oregon’s admission to the Union has shaky beginnings. It was against slavery, but did not allow black people into its territory. Although Congress reluctantly admitted Oregon into the Union as a free state in 1859, its black exclusion laws were not fully repealed until the 1920s. 

However, today Oregon is a bastion of freedom and equality, being among the first states to legalize gay marriage, physician-assisted suicide, and recreational marijuana.