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Extending the Color Line

There is no reason why every Vanport tenant shouldn't be buying a little home. Portland Housing Commissioner


This restaurant stood directly across the road from the Kenton Theater. Similar signs sprouted all over Portland during the war as the African American population increased. After the Vanport Flood, the Portland Realty Board's "Red line" squeezed African Americans into north Portland. City statistics still reflect disproportionate numbers of African Americans in many neighborhoods. Courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society

   During the week following the Vanport Flood, refugees moved to temporary housing at Swan Island where by July 24, 1948 their numbers stabilized at 1,300. The other 16,000 Vanporters lived either in temporary trailers, public housing projects, returned to their hometowns, or fended for themselves. For the five thousand African Americans from Vanport, already limited choices narrowed further.

A Realtor should never be instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood a character of property or occupancy, members of any race or nationality, or any individuals whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values in that neighborhood. Portland Realty Board Code of Ethics, 1945, not repealed until 1953

   In Vanport's aftermath, institutionalized discrimination and local practices pushed African Americans into two census tracts in the Albina neighborhood. By 1950 almost half of Portland's African Americans lived in this previously restricted, white, working class area. As Blacks moved in, whites moved out, and the median income dropped. Since the 1950s, transportation, commercial and industrial development have displaced Black families. Unwritten discriminatory practices have maintained segregation long after civil rights legislation forbade it. The northeast Portland Peninsula still has the largest concentrations of African Americans and other minorities in the city.

Edna Pittman's Account of the Vanport Flood

Map of Census Tracts 22 and 23 in northeast Portland

Feasibility Study Recommendations for Vanport Property

Excerpts from Portland City Club "Report on The Negro in Portland: A Progress Report, 1945-1957"

Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods - Neighborhood Statistics


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