Last month, the framed photographs of more than 30 past Multnomah County district attorneys -- stretching back more than a century and a half -- were removed from the front lobby of the DA’s Office.

All of them were white men.

Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill declined Wednesday to explain why, but he said in a July 31 email to staff sent on the day after the removal that he’d “decided to change the decor” of the sixth-floor office lobby in the Multnomah County Courthouse.

“It has always been my goal to make the office feel welcoming and inclusive to everyone that works in, or visits our office,” the email read. “I am looking forward to enhancing our public spaces with pictures and artwork that reflects our shared values of diversity and inclusion.”

The photographs had been there for at least a few decades. The story was first reported by KOIN TV this week.

Spokesman Brent Weisberg said no one had complained to the District Attorney’s Office about the portraits. Rather, the idea to take them down sprung from a discussion by the office’s 12-member Equity, Dignity and Opportunity Council. The group was established in Underhill’s first year as district attorney in 2013.

Underhill had the photos placed in storage, Weisberg said.

In Underhill’s staff email, he said he was “especially grateful to the (council) and others for continuing to bring forth suggestions that will improve our office and the work that we do on behalf of our community.”

Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill decided to have the wall of photos removed. (Teresa Mahoney/File photo)

In nearly all of the photos, the top prosecutors are wearing suits with bow ties or traditional neckties. Some sport robust mustaches -- clearly the style of their eras. Underhill’s portrait was featured among them.

The oldest photo was taken in 1861, just seven years after Multnomah County was established and two years after Oregon became a state. District attorneys currently are elected to four-year terms.

While the photos have been put away, framed photos of dozens of judges -- past and present -- still decorate the walls of the presiding judge’s courtroom on the second floor of the courthouse. Recent photographs show many female judges and some ethnic minorities.

On the first floor of the courthouse, photos of the five county commissioners are displayed on a wall next to the elevators. All five commissioners are women, and some of them are minorities.

Although Underhill declined to discuss his decision, Stacy Heyworth, who retired last fall after a 31-year career as a prosecutor in the office, said she supports Underhill’s action.

Heyworth said the photographs were there in 1987 when she was hired, and she didn’t think about the impact until it was brought to her attention while she was a member of the Equity, Dignity and Opportunity Council.

She said she imagined what it might be like, for example, for African American visitors to study the photographs and see “absolutely no African American, Hispanic or other people of color.”

“When I thought about it," Heyworth said, “I thought that’s a very, very good reason to get rid of the wall.”

“I think it’s a change that needed to happen a long time ago,” said Heyworth, who is white.

Ernest Warren, a criminal defense attorney who is African American, believes there’s a place for the photos at the Oregon Historical Society. He supports Underhill’s decision, and described it as a “new beginning” that could help foster a better future.

“Victims of crimes from marginalized communities don’t have to fear the portraits of ... prior prosecutors who practiced the opposite of diversity because discrimination in Portland was the law until 1964,” Warren wrote in an email, referring to the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964. “Can you imagine not being able to go in hotels and restaurants on Southwest Broadway in Portland -- a few blocks from the courthouse -- because the law discriminated against racial and ethnic minorities in Portland?”

Warren commended Underhill for bringing more diversity to the DA’s Office. According to the office’s statistics, 52 percent of deputy district attorneys are women and about 29 percent identify as minorities.

“I can see a future where women and minorities may be proud to aspire to be the head prosecutor in Multnomah County,” Warren wrote.

Earlier this year, Underhill announced his intention to retire as district attorney at the end of 2020.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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