Send us Fan Mail

In Part 1, Robert Roosevelt Parker Jr. laid the foundation. In Part 2, the bottom falls out completely.

Bob walks us through Senate Bill 664, a bill championed by Oregon's mom-and-pop gas station operators against the stranglehold of Major Oil. Two hundred private jets descended on Salem Municipal Airport. People crowded outside the Capitol. The bill passed out of committee, and the very next morning, two Oregon State Police officers were waiting for Bob at work.

What followed was not justice. It was a machinery built on rumors of unknown origin, a press conference invoking a sham investigation, news footage of a handcuffed man incorrectly labeled with Bob's name while Bob sat at home with his wife, and a report that formally described him as a Black Muslim man in an interracial relationship, a descriptor that didn't reflect reality, implied infidelity, and weaponized every racial dog whistle available, because apparently that was relevant to a rumor about a gas bill. A grand jury refused to indict him three times. The DA charged him anyway, under a statute that didn't apply, and Bob deposed that DA into his own contradiction on the witness stand.

Barbara Roberts' deposition would later make clear who lit the match: the lobbyist for the oil companies started it all. That is what Oregon's own Secretary of State said under oath. That is the smoking gun that circled the wagons and shut Bob down for thirty-something years.

Bob also shares the dream that was two weeks from becoming real: First Insurance, a Black-owned commercial property and casualty insurer with $50 million in venture capital already on the table, a Cigna insider ready to run the company, and a niche in the market that had never existed before. They crushed him before the ink dried.

In 2021, the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 22, issuing a formal apology. In 2026, a bipartisan pair of lawmakers introduced an amendment to House Bill 4172 to begin the process of compensating him. Bob puts the number at $50 to $75 million. They have the apology. But without action, what is the contrition really?

At 70, with bad knees, Robert Roosevelt Parker Jr. is still standing.

Read more about Bob's story and the current legislative effort for compensation:

Portland Tribune: https://portlandtribune.com/2026/03/05/oregon-bipartisan-duo-push-for-compensating-committee-aide-wrongfully-accused-of-misconduct/

OregonLive: https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2026/03/lawmakers-of-both-parties-push-to-compensate-aide-wrongfully-accused-of-misconduct.html

KGW: htt

Thanks for listening to the Oregon Voices Podcast!

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a conversation. Sharing the show with others helps these stories travel farther.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonvoicespodcast
Instagram: https://instagram.com/oregonvoicespodcast

Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2550069/episodes/18811599

Oregon Campaign Finance Watch: https://orcampaigns.lovable.app/