Black Lives Matter Protests Spread To Newberg
Reported by: Aurora Biggers & Natascha Lambing
Photographed by: Natascha Lambing
Trigger Warning: this story contains racial slurs and profanities
NEWBERG, Ore. – This summer, Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests sprouted in metro areas all over the nation after the police killing of George Floyd. Now, protests are growing in smaller communities like Newberg, a rural, conservative, and overwhelmingly white city.
Newberg BLM protests. Photographed by Natascha Lambing
In May, Newberg locals Jessica Haney and Brie Zimmerman started a Facebook page, “Project ‘I have a Dream,’” and posted weekly places and times for protesters to meet in Newberg.
Zimmerman said Haney was the “driving force” behind organizing the protests. Zimmerman and Haney believe holding BLM and anti-racism protests in Newberg is important because “[t]here needs to be systemic change, and that includes systems in rural areas.” Although Newberg is predominantly white, according to Zimmerman, “[that] doesn't mean there isn't racism.”
This summer, an estimated 15 million to 26 million people participated in demonstrations. These numbers, even at some of the lowest estimates, surpass those of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, making it the largest social movement ever seen in the United States.
These record-breaking numbers represent the expansion of protest from metropolitan areas into rural communities. As reported by the New York Times, 40% of counties in the United States participated in some form of racially-focused protest this past summer. In 95% of those counties, the majority of the population is white.
At an estimated population of 23,800 people, Newberg is about 88% white.
According to a 2020 population review, the Black population in Newberg is 0.2% of the total population, and the city does have a history of racism — both past and present.
In the 1920s, approximately 60 chapters of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) had spread across Oregon. Newberg was home to “Newberg Klan No. 42.” Maybelle Bents, state head of one of the KKK’s women’s chapters, is buried in the Newberg Friends Cemetery.
While “Newberg Klan No. 42” no longer exists, events in Newberg’s recent history suggest the city is not reformed just yet.
In 2008, a George Fox University (GFU) employee discovered a life-sized cardboard cutout of President (then Senator) Barack Obama suspended by a fishing line from a tree on campus, with a sign that read “Act Six reject.” The effigy prompted the FBI to open a preliminary investigation to determine if a federal law had been violated, and through an internal investigation, four students confessed their involvement. The FBI concluded its investigation, and no federal charges were filed, and the students were suspended by the university.
In 2019, a Black man sued the city of Newberg for racial discrimination. A Yamhill County jury awarded the man, Greg Patton, $283,500 after finding that the city of Newberg discriminated against him based on his race by passing him over for a human resources job he applied for. Newberg had hired a different applicant who lacked qualifications, including a college degree.
And this year, Edwin Nuñez spoke with The Newberg Graphic about the consistent racism and discrimination he has experienced in Newberg, on the part of other residents and the police department. Nuñez recounted a passing driver pulling a gun on him. Afterwards, he called police but said he was racially profiled, and the officers questioned Nuñez rather than pursuing the armed driver. Nuñez has been pulled over by NDPD several times and routinely has racial slurs, including the N-word, shouted at him from passing cars. The NDPD denied Nuñez’s allegations.
In places like Newberg where unspoken history reflects racial discrimination and hate, outward protest is not as familar to locals as it might be in a metropolitan city. To see people protest on street corners as a vehicle for change is unusual, especially when, to some, racial injustices no longer seem like an issue.
According to Zimmerman, the community response to continued protest on Newberg’s streets has been mostly positive. Some drivers honk in support as they pass by the protesters and others shout at them, sometimes using racial slurs and profanities.
Dana Robinson, adjunct professor for the George Fox Honors Program, says she’s a “beginner activist.” Though she grew up in Oregon, she didn’t know about the state’s racist history, including Black exclusion laws. Until more recently, she said she “assumed race wasn’t an issue here [Oregon].” Robinson participates in the Newberg BLM protests, alongside her husband, Brooks Lampe, an assistant professor of English at GFU, and said the community response has not been entirely supportive.
In October, the protesters encountered a member of the Proud Boys, a far right, neo-fascist group. Robinson said the man approached the protesters, wearing a Proud Boys t-shirt that quoted President Trump: “Stand back and stand by.” According to Robinson, and multiple witnesses, the man told protesters, “Black Lives Matter is a fucking lie. The Proud Boys are here in Newberg. Be afraid.”
Another anonymous protestor carried a hand painted sign featuring Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed by police in her home. “Racism is alive and well out here,” the protestor said, “We’ve had so many vile, racist comments made while out protesting … someone drove by and yelled ‘heil Hitler.’ If that’s happening out here, we need to be out here doing this.”
Many feel that this continued effort is necessary.
Cody McCracken, a GFU alumnus, said “ultimately the value in it is keeping this at the forefront of conversation, when it seems like in some ways momentum has died down since May.” His homemade sign read “Newberg Rejects Police Brutality” with blue, red, and black lettering. “I think there’s value in making local white supremacists uncomfortable,” McCracken said, “and based off of certain reactions we’ve gotten, they certainly exist.”
The protestors seemed to agree that the protests should continue regardless of who wins the presidential election. “The election is just the beginning,” Robinson said, noting that herself and others intend to continue their weekly tradition of protest.
“Just because we [will] have a woman of color in the White House,” Zimmerman said, “doesn't mean that racism and inequality magically go away. There's still a lot of work to do to end the systems that keep white people raised up and everyone else pushed down.”