Download this stock image: Portland, Oregon, USA. 7th Mar 2026. A World on Fire Dept fire truck carrying banners reading USA Addicted to War and Love Not Hate Makes America Great crosses the Hawthorne Bridge accompanied by cyclists during a Portland Community College Federation of Faculty and Academic Professionals pre-strike rally. Credit: Joshua Norboe/Alamy Live News - 3DYGRWD from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors.
This syllabus and timeline of the protests organized in Portland throughout the summer and early fall of 2020 was compiled and written by Portland State University students enrolled in Professor Katrine Barber’s HST 4/593, Introduction to Public History in Fall 2020. It was prepared in partnership with the Oregon State University Press and presented to them at the conclusion of the course. It combines local Portland journalism with a number of other scholarly resources to attempt to answer the question: “Why Portland?” The goals of the project at the outset were to correct inaccuracies or oversights in national coverage of the protests, as well as to provide context for these events. The mission of OSU Press is, in part, to “contribute to the intellectual, cultural, and social development of Oregon and the West,” as well as to “extend the benefits of the university’s teaching, research, and public service beyond the usual boundaries of the university community.” In keeping with these values, this project seeks to bring scholarly context to an event that has touched many Oregonian lives.