“This has been a long time coming,” Multnomah County Board of Commissioners chair Jessica Vega Pederson said at the June 26 board meeting before it voted to unanimously approve a resolution apologizing to the local Chinese and Chinese-American community. The board’s resolution acknowledges injustices committed during the sale, decommissioning and deconstruction of part of Lone Fir Cemetery and follows the approval of a million-dollar allocation to build a memorial recognizing the individuals and families whose graves the county desecrated during the mid-20th century.

The southeast area of Lone Fir Cemetery known as Block 14 on cemetery maps historically housed the remains of the city’s Chinese immigrants since it opened in 1868. Around 3,000 people are believed to have been buried in Block 14 by the time the county purchased the cemetery from its private owners in 1928. Nearly 100 years ago, the county forbade traditional Chinese burial customs upon taking ownership, and while families had previously been allowed to disinter bodies in accordance with folk ceremony and return them with dignity to China, the county crudely desecrated graves with construction bulldozers.

“The County’s past actions at Lone Fir Cemetery are reprehensible,” Multnomah County commissioner Vince Jones-Dixon (East Portland) said in a statement. “While our apology and investment can’t erase the disgraceful choices of the past, I see this as a vital step in acknowledging the pain and indignity imposed upon the Chinese and Chinese American community. We are committed to forging a new path forward, together.”

A group effort by the Buckman Neighborhood Association, the Oregon Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery found in 2004 that the county had also just paved over scores of graves and cultural artifacts without record (historical work has been underway since Metro took over Lone Fir’s operations in 2007). The Block 14 memorial is expected to be complete by next year.

“On behalf of our community, I want to express our deep appreciation to Multnomah County for your meaningful steps towards justice and reconciliation,” Neil Lee, OCCBA’s vice president, said at the June 26 board meeting. “This apology acknowledges not only the harm done, but also the weight placed on those who are forced to carry it.”

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