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In the sloping green fields of Ethiopia, Mulugeta Seraw’s father sold off livestock so his son could be educated in America.

Honoring his father’s noble ambition, Mulugeta arrived in Portland, Oregon, studied business at a community college, worked as a janitor at a grade school – where he was adored by teachers and kids alike – and at a second job at a car rental company. He sent money back to his girlfriend and their 6-year-old son, Henock, in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

Mulugeta planned to bring them to the U.S. to live with him, but instead he met a brutal and deadly fate.

As a friend was dropping Mulugeta off at his apartment on Nov. 13, 1988, three skinheads in steel-toed boots and bomber jackets approached him on the sidewalk. The men – members of the East Side White Pride gang – were on the prowl for what they called “mud people.”

When they came across Mulugeta and saw that he was Black, they jumped him and knocked him to the ground. Their leader, who went by the street name of “Ken Death,” grabbed a baseball bat from his car and hit Mulugeta over the head, fracturing his skull. They left him there, bleeding to death on the sidewalk in front of his apartment.

Tom Metzger, the founder of White Aryan Resistance (WAR), was one of the most notorious white supremacist and skinhead leaders of the time. While he was not present at the murder of Mulugeta, the killers had requested help from him and WAR in the months just prior to the killing. He sent his top lieutenant to Portland to train and encourage them to “clash and bash” with people of color.

All three of the killers pleaded guilty to the murder and were sent to prison, even as Metzger praised them for doing what he called their “civic duty.”

In a landmark civil trial, the Southern Poverty Law Center used an innovative legal strategy to hold Metzger and WAR liable for the wrongful death of Mulugeta, winning a $12.5 million verdict that effectively put the racist hate group out of business.

The verdict, handed down 30 years ago on Oct. 25, 1990, directed the proceeds to Mulugeta’s family. Media came from all over the world to cover the tense proceedings. Police snipers were stationed on the roof of the courthouse, a surveillance helicopter hovered above, and bomb threats were made throughout the trial.

The murder – challenging the Northwest’s progressive reputation – horrified the citizens of Portland, led to a groundbreaking state law to monitor hate crimes and galvanized the city’s residents against racism.

Today, decades after the murder of Mulugeta Seraw, Portland has again become an epicenter in the national clarion calls for racial justice following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Sean Reed, Yassin Mohamed, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks and so many others.

Read more here.

In solidarity,

Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center