Tom McCall

Playing what they wanted, with great taste

I loved profiling this independent radio station.

continued below, then to right column.

Bigotry: Oregon's sad history

After a rash of swastika graffiti swept the Oregon town where I was working, I dug into the history of the state. And I found that it was no accident that Oregon was about 98 percent white and Christian. The easy-going, eco-friendly image of the state belied a xenophobic past.

This account of that past was news to many people who read it, when it filled an entire issue of the Statesman-Journal's Sunday magazine, Oregon Territory.

I heard from many teachers afterward that they intended to use it in their social studies classrooms.

Here it is, in two PDFs.

Part one.

Part two.

RIP, Tim Hardin

Tim Hardin, the great singer-songwriter who wrote "If I Were A Carpenter," died with little notice in 1981 and happened to be buried in a small town near Salem, Oregon.

I believe I was the only journalist to attend his funeral.