Oregon
White Supremacy
White Supremacy
This Amendment to the US constitution outlawed voting discrimination based on race in 1870, but was not ratified in Oregon until 1927.
The 15th Ammendment
This short-lived city containing the US's largest public housing project was founded in 1943, and built quickly using temporary housing. About 40% of the residents were Black and in 1948 the city flooded, leaving 18,000 people without homes.
The Portland chapter of this organization was founded in 1914, and is one of the oldest continuously chartered chapters west of the Mississippi River.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
This street was formerly named Union Avenue until 1989, when it was renamed.
Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
This matriarch of the "first African-American political family of Oregon" was the first Black person elected to public office in Oregon and has a familiar building named after her.
Gladys McCoy
This Oregon measure was passed in 1994, and required mandatory minimum sentencing for certain crimes and for juveniles over 15 to be tried as adults. Black youth are severely over-represented among measure 11 indictments.
Measure 11
The expansion of this hospital (funded by urban renewal money) led to the appropriation and demolition of around 300 homes in the Black community. Funds ran out after the demolition and the project was not completed for decades. Emanuel Hospital
Emanuel Hospital
A chapter of this group was established in Portland in 1969, and provided free meals and health services to the Black community, among a variety of other resources.
The Black Panthers
This NW building was Portland's first black owned hotel that served Black workers who were unwelcome elsewhere. It is now owned by Central City Concern and houses a vintage diner, named John's.
The Golden West
A prominent leader in the fight for women's suffrage, she helped secure voting rights for women in Oregon and was a key member of the Colored Women’s Equal Suffrage League. An affordable housing project in N Portland is named after her.
Harriet "Hattie" Redmond
This slave of William Clark was one of the first black people to travel to Oregon by land, and likely took many of the first steps on the Oregon trail.
York
This practice was codified in 1919 when Portland Real Estate Board's code of Ethics mandated that agents would not sell to individuals whose race would depreciate property values.
Redlining
After Black children were refused access to public schools, this Oregon city's Black community raised the funds to operate a school. A lawsuit from a Black father led to the school district opening the Little Central School for Black children in 1867 (the same year PPS institutionalized segregation).
Salem
This salon and barbershop may be the oldest continuously-operating Black-owned business in Portland, owned and operated by 3 generations of the same family.
Dean's
Appointed as Portland's first Black city commissioner in 1974, he served for nearly two decades and significantly expanded the city’s parks system. A community center in N Portland is named after him.
Charles Jordan
The first anti-black law in Oregon required that Black people (whether free or enslaved) be whipped twice a year until they left the Oregon territory.
The Lash Law
A chapter of this group was established in Oregon in 1921 and included a Multnomah County Sheriff, the Portland police chief, and the Portland Mayor.
Klu Klux Klan
In direct response to discriminatory lending and predatory foreclosure practices, this organization was formed in 1992 to preserve the Black community's legacy in historically Black neighborhoods through affordable housing, homebuyer education, and asset building.
Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives, Inc. (PCRI)
This N Portland building was originally home to the segregated, African American branch of Portland’s YWCA and served as an important Black community space until 1959. The building was purchased by a longstanding Portland chapter of a Black fraternal organization and remains owned, operated, and occupied by them and their women’s auxiliary today.
Billy Webb Elks Lodge
This state senator was an activist and organizer, and was also the first black woman to be elected to that position. A mental health clinic at OHSU is named after her.
Avel Louise Gordly
In 1859 Oregon becomes the only state with Black exclusion law written into its constitution. This law was repealed in 1926, but was not officially removed from the Oregon constitution until this year.
2001
In this year voters approved construction of Memorial Coliseum in the Eliot neighborhood (destroying more than 450 Albina homes and businesses) and federal officials approved highway construction funds that would pave Interstates 5 and 99 through South Albina (destroying more than 1,100 homes).
1956
In 2020, the organization Brown Hope launched this program dedicated to fostering healing and resilience by providing immediate and direct financial assistance to Black Portlanders. Since 2023 they have provided 25 households with 3 years of GBI and support pursuing their housing, education, and financial goals.
The Black Resilience Fund
This church moved to North Portland (Chautauqua Blvd) in 1994, but the original NE building (1st Ave) was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2022 to honor its cultural legacy. Since 1923 it served as a major shub for Portland’s Black community.
Mt. Olivet Baptist Church
This woman helped pass the Public Accommodations Act of 1953, which outlawed discrimination in public places on the basis of race, religion or national origin. In 2020, a park in the Centennial neighborhood was renovated and renamed after her.
Verdell Burdine Rutherford