Kayla Washington, Jason's daughter, speaks at the mural dedication for her father. The mural is on permanent display in the second-floor lounge of Smith Memorial Student Union.
A large bright-colored mural honoring Jason Washington, who was killed by campus police in 2018, now prominently hangs on the second floor of Portland State’s Smith Memorial Student Union in the heart of campus — a reminder of a life cut short and a call to action to ensure a tragedy like his doesn’t happen again.
The 10-foot-by-12-foot mural, painted by Kyra Watkins, anchors the second-floor study lounge overlooking the Park Blocks. Washington’s piercing eyes and smile invites passers-by to reflect, and photos of him and his family pictured inside the block letters of “JASON” show him as the family man he was.
“I just couldn’t imagine that we would have something like this,” said Kayla Washington, Jason’s daughter who served on the Jason Washington Art Committee alongside faculty and staff. “I was talking to my dad the other day and I was like, ‘Can you believe it? Who would have thought you would have gone out like this and then we got so much more out of it, like friends and a mural of your face. Everyone gets to see you.’ And there’s so many families that do not get this.”
The unveiling and dedication of the mural was part of a daylong symposium, “Beyond Bystander: The Legacy of Jason Washington” with an artist’s talk and panels on building an archive for justice and the psychology of racial stereotyping and bias in policing. Earlier in the week, Tom Hastings, a professor of conflict resolution and co-founder of the Portland Peace Team, hosted a de-escalation training and workshop.
The accountability marker on SW College.Efforts to memorialize Washington began in 2021 when the committee was formed. Patricia Schechter, a professor of history and chair of the committee, said the group took a restorative justice approach, centering the needs and interests of the Washington family. Three things became clear: an accountability marker needed to be placed near the site of the shooting; a memorialization of Washington needed to show him as the vibrant, loving person that he was; and his death needed to be contextualized in larger, ongoing teaching and learning around policing and racism.
Schechter said the art is the most visible part of remembering Washington, but she hopes it moves the campus to take on the work of racial justice, peace and equity for all.
“Jason died while de-escalating a fight. He was trying to be more than a bystander and be a force of peace,” Schechter said. “This is an opportunity to go beyond bystander and figure out for each of us what that means. This dedication of this beautiful mural will only be productive if each unit and member of this campus community makes Jason’s legacy their own in their teaching, service and learning.”
Schechter’s spring public history class built the “Jason Washington Memorial Archive for Justice,” compiling materials, documents, videos and images on topics including the history of campus policing, activism, the committee’s work and stories of Washington and how his death became a catalyst for reflection and activism. Schechter said many faculty and graduate students are already working in the areas of racial injustice and policing, racism, racial violence in the U.S., civil rights history and Oregon and Portland history — and she hopes the archive can become a resource for them in their classes.
“Building the archive is about embedding materials in the library so that this legacy can enter the curriculum because that's when it really comes to life,” she said.