Vanport?? Where?

It doesn't exist anymore but it's where a lot of the racial change of this city came about. This is the post I promised. Here is my history lesson on the African American community in my city as we close this year's Black History month. I have enjoyed taking in some of the specials on TV, reading the books, and looking to the past. I have definitely appreciated that we have come a long way, and the future looks bright.

Now let me tell you my brief story. When I first moved to this city in 1991, I was a young, single, college student. I moved into a shack of a house in North Portland--which was then the hood. It was considered very black with lots of crime, which it was. The house next to mine was a crack house, and I heard gunfire occasionally and saw the cops a lot. The house across the street from that one was burned out and gutted from a house fire and no one cared. Since then, the crack house is gone and has been renovated--it is the showplace of the block. The burned out house has been rebuilt and sold for a major profit. The shack I lived in is still the cruddy shack it was back then. Some things don't change.

This link, click here, is the best synopsis of the basic story. I'll give you my version as well, because I have pulled from a few other sources as well.

Several things came to converge on this city in the 1940's. World War II was huge, and there was a huge demand for warships. Black labor was cheap, and African Americans were coming here by the thousands for work. There was a real estate code written forbidding real estate agents from selling minorities homes in white neighborhoods. And there was a flood that rearranged the living arrangements so nicely put in place. Sounds like the stuff of great novels!

First, the racial climate leading up to the 1940's. According to my research, the rewritten Oregon constitution around the turn of the century did not allow AA's to move into the state. The KKK was in full force with a membership of 200,000. Additionally, where could an AA person live anyway? No one would sell them a home. Yet, minority neighborhoods were not being built, because Oregonians did not allow them in the state anyway. I am sure it felt airtight.

That all changed when Pearl Harbor was bombed and this country need Liberty Ships on the west coast like crazy. Enter entrepreneur Henry Kaiser. He put together the largest ship building plant right here on the Columbia River. He put out advertisements across the country looking for workers. From the east and from the south came workers. Suddenly the AA population swelled to 6,000 in 1944 when just two years before it was one third that. Before this big boom, that small population of AA was allowed to live in a small spot called Albina, which is in North Portland. Well, this sudden boom made it impossible to fit all those people there.

Kaiser assumed the city would build affordable housing, not so. Some kind of compromise was met, and low incoming housing was built on the edge of the city. That is a nice word for the edge of the city and the edge of a levy. It was slums, from the descriptions I found, but it seemed to be the temporary fix at the time.

Until 1948. The levy broke. Here are some brief stories on the flood. This man, click here, actually witnessed the flood and the levy breaking and trying to escape. His story is harrowing. This lady, click here, remembers just meandering the city in the aftermath hoping for the hand out that would save her. What is interesting about her story is how a light colored relative was able to "pass" as a white person and was able to purchase a house. And how very uncomfortable that was. Very few were sympathetic to AA's in dire need after the flood. But it's interesting how that flood caused the melting pot to be stirred. I can't help but think that things in this city would have a lot different, and not for the better, had that flood not happened. It forced people to soften, open their hearts, and help others. Some didn't, but some did.

Jump ahead. The war is over, AA's have a home, mostly in the north side of town. The Albina neighborhood and the former Vanport seemed to be where the majority of these people stayed. If you travel between the Albina neighborhood and the former Vanport area, that is the North Portland area, for the most part, that we know today. Then the civil rights movement began. To make a long story short, suddenly the Constitution is changing, suddenly housing codes change, slowly the same changes that begin to be seen around the country are happening here.

Then a mysterious thing happened. The nineties. That same north end of town is one of the oldest places in the city with three story homes, hardwood floors, gingerbread woodwork, and young couples want to move in for the charm. Two things helped that. The geography. This city is surrounded by hills and rivers. It's hard to expand. Plus, urban growth laws put the kabosh on a lot of growth. Many experts say those laws inadvertently forced people to move in next to each other and think of the neighborhood and not who your neighbor was.

I think if we took a moment and looked at other big cities we might find the same kind of demographics for similar reasons. It makes me wonder about the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles. It makes me wonder about Detroit, MI. Referencing the documentary "Banished" where AA's were banished away from cities, I am not proud to say that my city did one step less than that and banished AA's to a small part of the city "so that we wouldn't have to put an officer on each corner". It is amazing to me the correlation (here comes a can of worms) people make when they see an AA person and they instantly think crime is going to happen. I have a side note to that at the end of this post.....

We have success. This article, click here, points out that segregation in this great city has decreased dramatically since the nineties, to the notice of other urban areas such as Chicago and Detroit--who are still very very racially divided. Not so here. Yes, the Albina neighborhood is still very much there. It is still very much AA and celebrates it's heritage. It is also very Latino, very white, and very diverse. It has had a great revival in the last few years, it gives me chills. It's stories like this that give me hope and also shows we are heading in the right direction.

One of my favorite coffee shops in this city is in Albina. I am always up for a cuppa somethin' if anyone ever wants to join me.

I pray the end of your Black History month is as fulfilling as mine has been. We'll do this again next year.

NOTE: At the beginning of this school year, my husband and a bunch of brand new, fresh faced freshman have a get together. It's a tradition and really helps students feel welcomed and comfortable. Lots of these students come from places far away, and not always diverse cities. One of these students was a rural kid from Idaho. He was talking about how safe he felt on campus. He mentioned that he saw these "scary looking teenagers walking through campus". I asked him what they looked like. Sure enough, they were basically high school students, walking through campus with their big sweatshirts and baggy pants--and AA. I gently pointed out that this part of town is very diverse and there is a high school nearby. Those were just high school students cutting through the campus to go home, no big deal.

I am still encouraged. Why? Because that young man is no longer in Idaho and getting a look at the diverse country we live in. I am thankful those high school students are cutting through a Christian campus and maybe even stopping to chat with someone. That may not have happened only a few years ago in my lifetime.

PS Can I ask a silly question of my faithful readers? I have a very very faithful reader who visits my blog 2-3 times a day from Pittsburg, Illinois or somewhere near there. I have no idea where Pittsburg, IL is! Can you post to me (I won't publish who you are unless you give me permission) who you are? In other words, if you post a comment, I have to moderate it first, and I won't put it on the blog unless you say it's okay. I'll delete it if you want. The suspense is killing me!