“A Place Under the Sun”: African American Resistance to Housing Exclusion by Melissa Cornelius Lang

“A place under the sun”: African American Resistance to Housing Exclusion by Melissa Cornelius Lang PETER BURNETT, one of the design- Americans, “no matter what their jobs ers of Oregon exclusion laws in 1844, or income cannot rent or buy houses in argued they were imperative in order Cedar Hills, Cedar Mills and Hillsboro to “keep clear of that most trouble- areas.” Tom Sloan of Tektronix, Inc., some class of population . we wish followed Airy, stating that “Negroes are to avoid most of the evils that have so employed by his company, but — they much afflicted the United States and live in Albina.”4 The message to the Countries.”1 During the 1860s, Harvey Black community in Oregon, since the Scott, editor of the Oregonian and state’s inception and through much of co-founder of the Oregon Historical the twentieth century, has been clear: Society, wrote editorials arguing that the white majority has jurisdiction over Chinese should be “crowded on the where Black and Brown bodies can outskirts where they can carry on live, work, and gather. their beastly practices, smoke their An understanding of this history opium and enjoy their own intolerable is paramount if we want to find ways stenches.”2 In the fall of 1942, members toward reconciliation and reparations. of the Central East Portland Commu- Often, these stories — focused on the nity Club protested at City Council Vanport flood, exclusion laws, and against a so-called development of redlining — have been told without a “negro colony” in northeast Portland illuminating calculated and strategic as part of the wartime housing boom. methods of Black resistance and resil- “We feel it is a crime,” John Lee Strandli ience. This has resulted in narratives of argued, “and high treason to all prop- victimhood that diminish the power that erty owners and businessmen to allow exists in the Black community yester- such a settlement from a moral, a racial day and today. I want to try to remedy or a property appraisment [sic] . we this imbalance in my research. Today, I have heard of lynchings and thought am going to focus on three ways Black it was terrible. After rubbing elbows, Portlanders fought back and uplifted we now know why the South does its their community from within through: own work out of necessity.”3 In 1968, Black realtors, Black investment cor- the Oregon Advance Times reported porations, and white allies who worked that James Airy, President of the as fronts before 1926; Black-owned Beaverton Human Relations Counsel, and Black-centered banks and credit communicated to a group gathered for unions; and Black activist organizations a meeting at West Slope that African beginning in the 1940s. Housing Segregation and Resistance in Portland, Oregon 365 Much of my research begins When researching a specific his- with Black newspapers, which were toric site, for example, the Rutherford essential to community building in Home, which was also the offices of the the Pacific Northwest. They estab- NAACP (National Association for the lished roots and a shared narrative Advancement of Colored People) for among Black community members many years, I can see that the property divorced from the traditional kinship was purchased by the Rutherfords in networks they relied on in the South 1919, two years before the previously and Midwest. Black newspapers fur- understood recorded date of 1921.8 The thermore combated racial stereotypes deeds reveal that a Mrs. Ennes sold the perpetuated in white newspapers. home to William and Lottie Rutherford One way this was done was by cel- in 1919 for $1,700. Ennes was a widow ebrating Black homeownership. In of a small landholding developer in 1900, Booker T. Washington stressed Portland. The original deed included the need for the Black community to a strict payment plan, including a 6 report their property on the upcom- percent interest rate on late disburse- ing census in order to combat nega- ments, and a clause that stipulated the tive stereotypes.5 Editors of Black property would be recovered to Ennes newspapers in Portland took this call if a payment was missed. There is a one step further by celebrating Black second deed, in 1923 — not 1921 — that homeownership through photographs includes the same parties, Ennes to and bios across several issues of The William and Lottie Rutherford, for the Advocate in the 1910s and 1920s.6 same property, but for the sale of one Through these listings, I am work- dollar. What is important here is that ing to develop an extensive list of prop- these deed records play a significant erty exchanges in the community. From role in revealing the type of vulner- that data, I can pull real estate deeds ability Black Portlanders experienced from Multnomah County Records, Port- due to exclusionary housing practices land Directories here at the Oregon — something many white Portlanders Historical Society and online, real avoided by having regular loan oppor- estate reports in the Oregonian, and tunities available to them.9 military and census records. Luckily for In an oral history conducted dur- me, in 1995 and again in 1997 Bosco- ing the 1970s, Otto Rutherford, son of Milligan Foundation compiled a list William and Lottie, spoke of a family of spaces rented or owned by Black lawyer, Mr. Thompson, who assisted Portlanders or otherwise significant them during the purchase of the home. to Portland Black history.7 Unluckily Whites and white-passing folks, Otto for me, the records on the list, drawn explained, would work as “fronts” by mainly from newspaper research, do assisting in the passing of property not always reflect the information avail- from reluctant white sellers to Black able through property deeds. families.10 I have not been able to 366 OHQ vol. 119, no. 3 Portland State University, pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/advocate University, State Portland THIS SPREAD, published in The Advocate on Saturday, December 20, 1918, is an example of how Black newspapers celebrated Black homeownership during the early twentieth century. Here on page five, the editors highlight area residents’ homeownership through biographies and photographs. Housing Segregation and Resistance in Portland, Oregon 367 OHS Research Library, OrHi 81811 Library, OHS Research E.D. CANNADAY is pictured here at his desk in the office of The Advocate, a prominent Black newspaper in Portland, Oregon. Cannaday was editor of the newspaper, and preliminary research indicates that he was also involved in helping Black investors purchase real estate. confirm the identity of the lawyer, “Mr. investment company under the same Thompson,” on any of the Rutherford name. The company allowed the com- deeds, but we do see a mention of the munity to pool its resources to buy “family lawyer” as responsible third and sell land. I have tracked many of party if deed conditions were not met. their purchases through deed records at the Multnomah County Assess- EARLY EXCLUSIONARY PRACTICES ment, Recording, and Taxation office White realtors used restrictive cov- as well as in the Oregonian under enants and redlining to legitimize “Real Estate Transactions.” By cross- exclusionary practices, however, the checking who Enterprise was buying Black community developed strate- from and selling to, I have learned that gies to circumnavigate the system, the corporation was not just dealing including by doing business with within the Black community but also 11 Black realtors and Black development with white folks. What is unknown corporations. In 1903, for example, is whether buying and purchasing several Black men who worked at the under the investment company title Portland Hotel expanded the Enter- allowed for some kind of anonymity, prise Lodge, a fraternal order, into an so that white buyers and sellers may 368 OHQ vol. 119, no. 3 not have been fully aware it was a parties? For now, I can only speculate, Black institution. but I am optimistic that a dig into the In one Oregon Daily Journal arti- sale of parts of this land will reveal cle, a white man by the name of J.B. some answers. Another next step is Murray was identified as a salesman identifying when racial clauses were for Enterprise.12 Currently, I am trying removed from property deeds. This to track his connection with the orga- may help me further identify the role nization through deeds found in the of Black investment groups, realtors, county records. Each and every deed and fronts. As my research devel- will list some parties to the sales for ops, I hope to illuminate this much- each property, and I am hoping that overlooked practice of self-resilience tracking these sales will allow me to that came from within the community determine whether Enterprise used itself. Three realtors I am currently a white or white-passing front to do following are Walter Greene, a real- business, and if so, how often. In order tor and investor with Walter Greene to do this, I have created an extensive & C.C. Craddock, who was active for spreadsheet listing every exchange much of the first half of the twentieth from Enterprise as well as other deeds century. The second is E.D. Cannady, exchanged with Black homeowners the husband of Beatrice Cannady and from 1900 to 1926. early editor of the Black newspaper What is important to understand The Advocate. And the third is Ruth is that limitations put on the Black Flowers, a daughter-in-law of Allen community in the workforce and in Flowers, a prominent early Black accumulating property never stopped pioneer in Portland. While dealing in African Americans from building real real estate is nothing special on face and substantial capital. They were value, it is hard to imagine it was not industrious to say the least.

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