c-span2. c-span, where history unfold daily. was created --n c-span was created by americans television companies. it is brought you by your cable or satellite provider. theirgonians are proud of piner. gauge. here in portland is an exhibit that highlights some of the pioneer legislation that has been passed date. -- past by the state. youhen the first pioneers -- moved here, and ever since, part of our culture is to be innovative and try ideas that have not been tried before. that has been done in the legislator time and time again over the course of the history

of our state, especially in the 20th century. the first example of the legislative innovation was in 1902 when the legislator created the oregon initiative and referendum. a system that allowed the public to play a lead role in writing and, writing regulations also in recalling elected officials. here in oregon, our ballots are often very lengthy. we know only vote for candidates, but we vote on referendums and ideas for the policy for legislation. one of the most important ones that was passed back in 1912 was giving women the right to vote. great oregonian stories with abigail. she came across from illinois in a covered wagon -- covered wagon. she was oregon's leading suffragists, plotting to give women the right to own property.

fighting to give women the right to vote. five times it went to the ballot and five times men voted it down. it was not until 1912 that women got the right to vote in oregon when the petition and referendum voted for it. the great story is that, while abigail was doing all she good -- could, one of the opponents was harvey scott, abigail's brother. unfortunately, the editor of the ericksonian. now the most influential and powerful newspaper in this date. harvey was against giving women the right to vote. famously said one time, women would get the right to vote over his head body. he died in 1910 and they got the right to vote in 1912, so i guess it worked out for everybody. one of oregon's greek assets is our 363 miles of pacific ocean shoreline.

way back in 1913, governor all's wild west, who was the first progressive governor declared all oregon's beaches to be public highways. private hotels and motels put on the beaches. fast-forward to 1966 when a motel owner in kanin beach on the north coast in oregon try to limit access to some of the beach. they had a hotel guests only and block the public from coming onto this area. it was from the sam mind to the vegetation mine. wanted toom mccall stop that. , in may ofically 1967, he flew down by helicopter, landed on the beach and are medically a line in the sand with a pull to say that --

pole to say that this too was part of the public beach. ,e would endorse his idea giving the governor power to declare more of the beachfront as public property where you cannot build anything on it. in 2017, where we are now, health-care reform remains on top of the national agenda, on top of the national the bead. you return -- debate. you return to 1939 and the health care debate was ill going on. oregon was the national leader ,ith the health services act which extended medicaid coverage to all oregon citizens below the poverty level. all citizens denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions. it was a revolutionary i there back then -- idea back then. one of the driving forces was senate president dr. john, he made health-care reform

signature of trump is meant. it would eventually lead to him -- health-care reform his signature position. it would eventually lead to him being governor. get in 1989 trying to coverage for as many citizens as you could possibly get. still change is going back and forth with the health plan improvements being made. part ofns a key oregon's bead of who we are. the fact that we provide health care to oregonians regardless of the income. perhaps one of the most controversial initiatives ever adopted by oregonians was what was called measure 16 adopted in 1994. it was known as death with dignity or assisted suicide.

it gives terminally ill oregonians the right to ill there -- and their lives with medication prescribed by their physicians. suicide. very much debated at the local level and national level. folks who lost a loved one, or saw a loved one dying painfully with a terminal illness. opposed by the catholic church and other religious organizations. by those who thought it was a slippery slope for assisted suicide. of thes later it is part equal tear here in oregon. it is still the law of the state. it was adopted by washington state, our neighbor to the north. they have a suicide law. it remains debated here in edegon, but generally accept

as a humane part of oregon's laws. the law to oregon pass was controversial nationally. congress try to weigh in and deny funds to oregon or block this from happening in oregon. eventually it reached the supreme court, which gave oregon the right to implement its own laws in this regard. oregons election day in and you are looking for a place to go vote, you would not find one. 1998, overwhelming by a majority of 69%, oregonians adopted vote by mail. that is the only way in which you can vote. there are no voting places in oregon. oregon has a rolling two-week election process. theirregonians receive ballot in the mail two weeks before election day. you have until election day to vote and to return it by mailing -- bydropping it off

mailing it or dropping it off at a library. local states are conducted by vote by mail. other states have gone towards that area allowing early voting, allowing mail voting, absentee voting. he saw the massive number of people across the country who took advantage of all early voting and voted before election day. in oregon there is no election day. you can only vote i mail. it has led to a dramatic change in strategy. if you are candidate running for off this in states were there -- for office, you want your commercials to be running close to election day. read --mmercials ran to two weeks out. a vast majority of people vote

immediately. once ballots received they cast their vote and mail it in. there is another rush on the actual last a. some people like to hold out to the last day. part of the reason some people vote early is that campaigns can purchase lists of people who have and have not voted. is offvote earlier name that list and you will not be pestered by calls from different campaigns. if you do not vote, and prolong your valid, you could get a lot of telephone calls. there are those who say there are two organs. the one where the majority of the people live, the city. portland is the suburbs. salem, eugene, the three big cities. then there is rural oregon. most of the people live in very concentrated areas. there are vast areas of the state where there are fewer people.

there are very big political differences between urban oregon oregon.l i think most oregonians have excepted, not endorsed the innovations that have happened here. like vote by mail, death with dignity, whether you are a real oregonian,n urban you're proud of what we have done to clean up oregon's environment. for staff traveled to portland, oregon to learn about its rich history. learn more about portland and other stops on our tour at cease then.org/store. you are watching american history tv all we can, every weekend on c-span3. >> american history tv was at the historian's annual meeting in new orleans where we spoke with professor leslie harris

about the legacy of slavery and colleges and university. she also discusses african-american access the higher education in the 20th century. this interview is about 10 minutes. >> leslie harris, what was the relationship between early colleges in america and the in -- institution of slavery? prof. harris: slavery was fundamental to early colleges. money that went into founding early colleges as craig wilder discussed in his book, came from people who were participants in the slave trade or who were merchants of slave producers. slavery drove the colonial of the early american economy. it is not surprising that those funds were part of the basic funds for colleges and university. the other important piece is that enslaved people were the main labor force in many parts of early america, so they