The Portland Chapter of JACL is involved with many Civil Rights issues.
Here are a few that we’ve supported:
- We were involved in encouraging the City of Portland to withdraw from the Joint Terrorism Task Force because of concerns about lack of local oversight.
- When a local reporter brought up concerns that the City of Gresham would be honoring a former mayor who was very involved in a racist group to keep the Japanese Americans from returning to Oregon after internment camps, both Portland JACL and Gresham-Troutdale chapters testified before the Gresham City Council, and a very embarrassed City Council rescinded the planned statue and thanked both chapters for bringing this very unfortunate episode in local history to their attention.
- Our board works with and supports the local ACLU chapter and other Asian civil rights groups, including the Chinese American Citizens Alliance and APANO, as well as all of the local Japanese American organizations.
Through our Day of Remembrance we reach out to other minority groups, including the Muslim and Hispanic communities, and present forums to discuss our shared concerns.
We will continue to reach out and be involved in our community and welcome input from our members.