Oregon's legal history includes explicitly racist laws from the time of westward expansion and destruction and including a pending claim arising from forced displacement of Black families and businesses from the Historic Central Albina Neighborhood in Portland. Inspired by the proximity of our conference to the neighborhood at the center of the litigation, as well as the prevalence of civil rights and reparations litigation as a subject of interest to courts, private law firms, and academics, this program will address approaches to historical state statutory research, extra- or non-legal sources that may be consulted in civil rights litigation, and useful strategies for researching historical local government sources. Speakers will recommend strategies to conduct state-focused historical legal research, using Oregon examples. Speakers will also highlight extra-legal sources and strategies that may be used in civil rights or reparations litigation, including historical census data, historical local government guidance and documents, and analytical approaches to evaluating those sources. With examples from the Central Albina Neighborhood litigation, this program will increase firm, government, and academic librarians' confidence in completing state-specific historical research and identifying historical and legal sources that may be useful in reparations and other civil rights litigation.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

Intended audience includes academic, private, and government librarians who provide reference or research assistance, as well as attendees interested in learning more about the Historic Albina Neighborhood reparations litigation.

This program is sponsored by the Black Law Librarians SIS (BLL-SIS).

TAKEAWAYS:

1. Participants will be able to plan and execute research in historic state laws.
2. Participants will be able to identify and evaluate non-legal, historical sources to consider consulting when supporting research or litigation related to reparations or other historical claims.
3. Participants will be able to suggest sources of law and evidence to library users considering or evaluating reparations and other civil rights claims.

SPEAKERS:

• A. Byrd, Emanuel Displaced Persons Association 2-EDPA2
• Kelly Reynolds, University of Oregon

COORDINATOR:

• Margaret Butler, Georgia State University College of Law Library

AALL BODY OF KNOWLEDGE DOMAINS: Research + Analysis

CANCELLATION AND OTHER POLICIES:

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