African American Business

Roscoe Dixon was born in Virginia in 1843. During the later part of the 19th century, Dixon migrated to Oregon and settled in Astoria where he married Theresa Antoinette Townes. Dixon owned and operated Roscoe’s Oyster House in Astoria. Many African Americans in Oregon encountered discrimination in the job market and were employed as servants or laborers, so Dixon’s position as a proprietor was extremely unusual.

The African American population of the state was relatively small at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1860, less than one per cent of the population in the territories of Oregon and Washington were African American. African Americans held a variety of occupations in Oregon. Many were farmers and farm laborers, artisans, merchants, servants, skilled laborers, sailors, railroad workers, porters, waiters, cooks, and barbers. Household servants, a position typically held by African Americans throughout much of the nation, were overwhelmingly Euro American in Oregon.