The Place We Make
Breaking the Legacy of Legalized Hate
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
A thoughtful investigation into the incredible true story of a Black man convicted and exiled under the Oregon Exclusion Law in 1851—and a contemporary White woman wrestling with racism and faith after learning she’s a descendant of two men who assisted in the exile.
“A beautiful rendering of an ugly history. A worthy read.”—Chanté Griffin, advocate, journalist, and author
A SOJOURNERS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Moving back to the outskirts of Portland, called the “Whitest city in America,” prompted Sarah’s curiosity about the colonization of the West, her ancestors, and the legal exile of a Black man. She examined four city leaders involved in Jacob Vanderpool’s case—Oregon City’s founder, the case judge, Jacob’s accuser, and a local pastor—and the cultural and theological fallout of their decisions. Along the way, Sarah took a hard look at her tendencies, unconscious and deliberate, to ignore the possibility of prejudice in her heart.
Vanderpool’s case proved a fascinating lens on a far bigger story than one trial, illuminating truths to help us all come to honest terms with our past, learn to repent, and contribute to the good of the people and places around us.
Journey through this sensitive expedition into the events that remain a thorn under America’s skin and discover afresh the vast potential of the flawed but endlessly redeemable—human heart.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this thought-provoking debut, journalist Sanderson unpacks the legacy of Oregon's 1844–1926 racial exclusion laws, which "banned Black people from... being within borders." Sanderson became curious when she stumbled on an unfamiliar name while researching another topic—James Vanderpool, who was legally removed from Oregon for being Black in 1851. With few records available, she turned her search toward the four men responsible for Vanderpool's arrest: John McLoughlin, Theophilus Magruder, Thomas Nelson, and Ezra Fisher, all of them pioneers who are memorialized in the Oregon State Capitol Senate chambers. Aware that Fisher was a relative (she later learned she shared an ancestor with Magruder), Sanderson set out to understand how "racism warped the minds, imaginations, and behaviors of those who took it upon themselves to master Oregon." Along the way, she reflects on her own relationship as a white woman to the state's racial present and past. While Sanderson's narrative makes for occasionally uncomfortable reading, as when she discovered her ingrained racism on a mission trip ("I first realized White supremacy lived in me on my first morning in Malawi.... I wanted to spend myself on behalf of the needy, but I was about the discover the depths of my own neediness"), she offers an admirably candid self-examination and an insightful look at an underdocumented episode of racism in American history. It's worth checking out.
