Teresa Patterson

Javier Cardoza-Kon
Portland
Spring 2016

Unspoken History Of Portland Oregon

Santayana. The importance of history is something that many have not grasped the
concept of. When you are not aware of what occurred in history you can be feed a false
reality, which is what happened for the African Americans in Portland, Oregon. I too, am
a victim of the false reality that is taught in history classing growing up. I was told about
the North and how it was a beautifully free place but that was recently snatched from my
imagination. Once I started to do some researching of my own I was faced with the
harsh realities from the unknown of my own history.
During the antebellum period the major issue for this nation was slavery. Slavery
was not only a cruel institution but it was an economic system, where one race of
people made a living off of another. Although there were those who were anti-slavery
they were also anti-black which is the struggle many faced in the North. This was what
mentality Portland, Oregon was built off of. Even as a territory Oregon outlawed slavery
but also banned blacks upon moving into Oregon by pain of public whipping every six
months until they left. The land that Blacks were excluded from was land that was stolen
from natives but Acts such as the 1815 Oregon Donation Land Act(Elizabeth,McLagan)
which was only free to whites and natives that had white fathers. Oregon was created
as a white homeland, this was the term they used when recruiting people to move into
the state. In 1859 Oregon was the first and only state admitted to the union with a

racially exclusive law written into the constitution. It banned any free negro from living
or entering into a contract in the state.

Many laws were passed that denied blacks the rights and access to resource. In
the city of Portland many things such as the right to vote and public education were
denied to the people of brown skin. Although the fourteenth and fifteenth amendment
had passed it look almost a decade for the state to pass such laws almost one hundred
years for the fourteenth. Many Blacks arrived in Portland for the railroad jobs trying to
escape the institutional oppression but were faced with the same attitudes that were in
the south. The Portland Real Estate Board code of Ethics mandated the Real Estate
agents not to sale to individuals whose race would lower the determined value of the
property in that neighborhood in 1919(Taylor, Quintard). Then later specified to blacks
and asians allowing only people of color to live in small segregated areas, this was also
known as redlining. Due to all this things that blacks faced it helped strengthen the black
community in Portland and across the nation. Many blacks came together a formed
groups and organizations that helped fight against the injustice from city to city.

For instance, the Portland chapter of the NAACP and other black community
leaders followed the national organization's campaign to boycott D. W. Griffiths film the
Birth Of A Nation a Anti-black glorification of the creation of the Klan. the film was also
the first to be screened in the White House. In 1916 they successfully banned the
screening of any film that would strike hatred and violence between the races. In 1926
the film was banned in the city of Portland, Oregon completely.Although the black
community made some important strides to a better outcome the KKK was still a big

percentage of the population, 25% of the people in portland were apart of the Klu Klux
Klan. In downtown portland both chinatown and what was once knowns as japantown
were both affected by the Allen Land Bill which was passed in 1923 to prohibit people of
color as well as the minorities from owning or even leasing housing in
portland(Lawrence,B). There were many businesses that profited off of black people but
one was in Portland and was opened in 1931 it was called The Coon chicken inn which
was a restaurant Diners entered through the mouth of a smiling black face. There is a
restaurant similar that is still open in Lincoln City. All over oregon there were hate crimes
that were legalized against the black community such as the the White only signs only
on portland but as well as in bend, they were later taken down but the segregation still
stood(Lawrence,B).
Redlining: divide a concare was one of the many tactics that was meant to
oppress the black community but blacks had some tactics of their own to stay strong.
Music, culture and community helped keep many blacks sane in the fight for their rights.
Although there was strict redlining, there was a very tight community in portland the
heart of which was N Williams Ave. This area was known as the underground Jazz
treasure many of the national jazz legends played there and you could hear jazz for 24
hours a day. The second great migration occurred when many companies were
recruiting black people for labor and due to the lack of space in the redlined
communities they had to create another housing area which was also known as Vanport
where 40% of black people stayed. Once there was the Vanport flood in 1948 many
black people as well as other minorities were left stranded and without housing. The
urban league of portland passed its Civil Rights Bill also known as the Public

Accommodations Act. Housing once again became an issue for the black community in
1956 when the construction of the Manorial Colosseum took place right on top of the
Albina neighborhood, which blacks redlined into after the flood in 1960. This is the same
that happens across the country which the building of bridges in the 1950s(Black past).

There were many leader in the fight for justice amongst the black community but
the one that had some origin in Portland is the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther
Party was founded in the 60s by Kent Ford and supported by Reed College students.
The beginning of the Black Panthers Party was when many young black students would
meet together to study the writing of the Malcolm X and the little red book of quotations
from Chinas chairman Mao Tse-Tung. In June of 1969 one of the students from the
study group was beaten up and jailed. When he was released Kent Ford held a press
conference on the steps of the Portland Police on SW Third and Oak If they keep
coming in with these fascist tactics he announced Were going to defend ourselves
with this announcement members of the original group joined forces with the BPP.
Nothing could have been started officially without the approval of Huey Newton, and
later Ford went to California for the blessing of approval. The office of the party was on
the corner of Northeast Cook Street and Union Ave, which is now known as Martin
Luther King Boulevard. This was only the first of the four locations, by the end of the
year, the Portland Panthers had started a Childrens Breakfast Program at Highland
United Church of Christ where they fed up to 125 children each morning before school.
They also helped extend free medical care at Fred Hampton Memorial Peoples Health
Clinic. They extended health care five evenings a week at 109 North Russell to anyone

of any race. In february of 1970 the BPP also opened a dental clinic on 2341 North
Williams (BlackPast).
The Portland chapter for the Black Panther Party was steadily growing although it
never exceeded fifty members, about a third of them were women. Original members
included Johnson, a former U.S. Marine; Percy Hampton who joined while still at
Jefferson High School; Tommy Mills, a decorated Vietnam War vet; Joyce Radford, who
volunteered for the medical clinic; Sandra Ford whose work at the medical clinic
launched her a new career; and Kent Ford, a captain of the Portland chapter, who had
turned down a college scholarship in order to support his mother and siblings in
richmond, california. When Ford was arrested for the first time he was going door to
door and sold candy to send money home, this was his most publicized arrest.
In August 1967 J. Edgar Hoover declared the BPP a threat to national security
and issued an internal memorandum directing the FBIs counterintelligence program to
expose, distribute, misdirect, discredit or otherwise neutralize the party(Davenport,T).
There were many times that the party was faced with hardships in order to stop the
movements that the BPP was leading.This order from the FBI left both Fred Hampton
and Geronimo Pratt assassinated and many former members of the party ramin on exile
today. Portland Black Panther Party Members identities were tracked and were
published in news articles as criminals.The Black Panther Party ended in 1979 finally
closing the medical clinic, sondra Ford stated we decided that we just couldn't keep
going.(Black Past)
Today members will talk about the Black Panther party and the history they
contributed to the black community in portland. Recently both Kent Ford as well as The

Black Panther event was one of the many events on PSU campus that was taken very
lightly. It was orchestrated by two gentleman by the names of Kent Ford and Pastor
Leroy Haynes, only 10 to 15 attended. Pastor Haynes is the founder and pastor of the
Allen Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal church here in Portland. He also was an
advocate for justice with his marches throughout Portland. One of his marches included
Marching for Kendra James, who was killed at twenty one years of age. Haynes, other
local pastors, and one thousand other residents of the Northeast Portland area marched
down Killingsworth street to the Northeast Portland area marched down Killingsworth
street to the Northeast Police precinct. They were marching in the hopes of the office
who killed Kendra being exonerated. He also advocated for the fact that sickle cell
anemia patients were dying off due to the lack of resources and lack of caring about the
less fortunate, he spoke on his involvement in the black community.

Kent Ford talked about his son Patrice Lumumba Ford, one of the infamous
Portland seven. These seven were considered as terrorists by America and were
ordered to be arrested. The seven requested access to visas of Pakistan while legally
in China. These visas were denied, but that did not matter the United States
government. There were advised to take a guilty plea and serve five years in prison as
well as being listed as dangerous terrorists. Kent Ford is advocating the release of his
son on the boundaries of his son simply trying to help the people of Afghanistan. Patrice
Ford has been sentenced to a 18 year sentence in two thousand three.
Showing nuances of history in black community of Portland , rays of hope amid
really brutal realities. Sad to say that although many people fought for the right and the

justice for the African American community and not many of the youth find the history
important. Although the history of blacks in Portland, Oregon is not told there are not
many who are hungry and find it important enough to study.

Workcited
"The Amendments in History." The United States Constitution -. Web. 24 May
2016.<http://www.constitutionfacts.com/us-constitution-amendments/amendments-inhistory/>.
BlackPast, The Online Reference Guide to African American History.
www.blackpast.org
Millner, Darrell. "York of the Corps of Discovery." Oregon Historical Quarterly (Fall
2003).
Taylor, Quintard, Jr. In Search of the Racial Frontier: African American West,
1528-1990. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998.
Taylor, Quintard. "'There Was No Better Place to Go': The Transformation
Thesis Revisited, African American Migration to the Pacific Northwest, 1940-1950."
In Paul Hirt, ed., Terra Pacific: People and Place in Northwest America and Western
Canada. Pullman: Washington State University Press, 1998.

McLagan, Elizabeth. Peculiar Paradise: A History of Blacks in Oregon, 17881940. Athens, GA: Georgian Press, 1980.