CCRH
Presents: Local Color
Segregation in Modern Times
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Post-Depression era Portland
was widely known as the most openly racist city outside
the south; for every 150 white residents there was a single
African-American resident. While buses and water fountains
were not segregated, many establishments in Portland were.
From restaurants to hospitals, African-Americans
were forced into separate “Negro-only” areas, or refused
service altogether. The racial climate was such that when
in 1931 the “Coon Chicken Inn” restaurant was opened,
it was well received by many white residents of Portland.
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A menu from the Coon Chicken Inn.
Courtesy Scott Farrar
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| During the 1930s and 40s most African-Americans found employment
in the service industry, as waiters and janitors for men, or as
domestics for women. It was not until the mid-1940s when World
War II shipyards needed workers that a new job market attracted
African-American workers to Portland. With the establishment of
Vanport in the Columbia-Slough area north of Portland, African-Americans
began to build a community of their own. However, this community
was short-lived, for within three years of Vanport’s birth it
was destroyed by a major flood in 1948. The majority of African-Americans
from Vanport resettled in the Albina district in Northeast Portland.
|
| Year
| White |
African-American |
| 1990 |
2,636,787 |
46,178 |
| 1950 |
1,497,128 |
11,529 |
| 1940 |
1,075,731 |
2,565 |
| 1900 |
394,582 |
1,105 |
| 1880 |
163,075 |
487 |
| 1880 |
12,038 |
55 |
Data courtesy of U.S. Census Bureau: Oregon-Race
1850-1990 |
Reflecting national trends resulting from the Civil Rights Movement,
Portland's African-Americans began to receive more equal treatment
in the 1950s. New areas of potential employment where they had
traditionally been excluded opened. While the struggle against
racism continues to this day, present-day Portland has come a
long way towards becoming an integrated city.
Learn
more about Vanport by visiting the Center for Columbia River History's
Columbia Slough Community History Site
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