A 'very dark history': Oregon's racist past fuels protests against injustice in Portland

A predominantly white city tucked away in the northwest corner of the USA hardly seems the logical spot to emerge as the new flashpoint of the protests against racism and police brutality that have raged across the country for nearly two months.

Then again, both Portland and its home state of Oregon have a troubled past that animates the demonstrations, in their eighth week.

Add to that a president sinking in the polls and eager to rally his base behind a vow to “dominate the streets” in an election year, and suddenly, Portland has been thrust into the national spotlight for something other than quirkiness.

Experts said the unrequested and unwelcome arrival of federal law enforcement agents in recent weeks and their violent confrontations with protesters in the city’s downtown rekindled a movement that had been simmering down.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reported more than 2,000 people, many of them belonging to parent groups, protested the federal intervention Monday night and into Tuesday morning. The officers guarding a federal courthouse responded with gas and less-lethal munitions during a midnight confrontation that lasted nearly an hour, the news outlet said.