Portland, Oregon, 1988: the brutal murder of Ethiopian immigrant
Mulugeta Seraw by racist skinheads shocked the city. In response
disparate groups quickly came together to organize against white
nationalist violence and right-wing organizing throughout the Rose
City and the Pacific Northwest.
It Did Happen Here compiles interviews with dozens of people
who worked together during the waning decades of the twentieth
century to reveal an inspiring collaboration between groups of
immigrants, civil rights activists, militant youth, and queer
organizers. This oral history focuses on participants in three core
groups: the Portland chapters of Anti-Racist Action and Skinheads
Against Racial Prejudice, and the Coalition for Human Dignity.
Using a diversity of tactics—from out-and-out brawls on the streets
and at punk shows, to behind-the-scenes intelligence gathering—brave
antiracists unified on their home ground over and over, directly
attacking right-wing fascists and exposing white nationalist
organizations and neo-Nazi skinheads. Embattled by police and
unsupported by the city, these citizen activists eventually drove the
boneheads out of the music scene and off the streets of Portland.
This book shares their stories about what worked, what didn’t, and
ideas on how to continue the fight.
