African American Resources in Portland MPD Form
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NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018 (Expires 5/31/2021) African American Resources in Portland, Oregon, from 1851 to 1973 Oregon Name of Multiple Property Listing State Table of Contents for Written Narrative Provide the following information on continuation sheets. Cite the letter and title before each section of the narrative. Assign page numbers according to the instructions for continuation sheets in National Register Bulletin How to Complete the Multiple Property Documentation Form (formerly 16B). Fill in page numbers for each section in the space below. Page Numbers E. Statement of Historic Contexts E-1 (if more than one historic context is documented, present them in sequential order.) Introduction E-1 Historical Background: African Americans in Early Oregon E-3 Context I: Settlement Patterns E-12 Context II: Business and Employment E-41 Context III: Journalism E-67 Context IV: Entertainment and Recreation E-82 Context V: Benevolent and Fraternal Societies E-97 Context VI: Religion and Worship E-109 Context VII: Civil Rights E-119 F. Associated Property Types F-139 (Provide description, significance, and registration requirements.) Residences F-149 Commercial and Professional Buildings F-152 Entertainment Venues F-155 Religious Facilities F-157 Civic and Social Organization Buildings F-161 Sites (Non-Archaeological) F-163 Sites (Archaeological) F-164 Objects F-166 Historic Districts F-167 G. Geographical Data G-170 H. Summary of Identification and Evaluation Methods H-171 (Discuss the methods used in developing the multiple property listing.) I. Major Bibliographical References I-174 (List major written works and primary location of additional documentation: State Historic Preservation Office, other State agency, Federal agency, local government, university, or other, specifying repository.) Additional Documentation AD-189 (Figures, Maps, Appendices, and other materials. Please include a list of all included additional materials) Residential Architectural Styles AD-189 Map of 2019 city limits of Portland, Oregon AD-191 Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C.460 et seq.). Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 18 hours per response including time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Chief, Administrative Services Division, National Park Service, PO Box 37127, Washington, DC 20013-7127; and the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reductions Project (1024-0018), Washington, DC 20503 NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018 (Expires 5/31/2021) African American Resources in Portland, Oregon, from 1851 to 1973 Oregon Name of Multiple Property Listing State _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ E. Statement of Historic Contexts (if more than one historic context is documented, present them in sequential order.) INTRODUCTION This Multiple Property Documentation Form (MPD), African American Resources in Portland, Oregon, is organized around properties associated with the African American experience in Portland from 1851, which marks the incorporation of the city of Portland, through 1973, the termination of urban renewal programs in Inner North and Northeast Portland.1 The first African Americans to settle in Portland arrived during the initial settlement phase of the Willamette Valley, during the early- and mid-nineteenth century. At the time of the 1850 census, less than a year prior to the city’s incorporation and the beginning of the period of significance, Portland had 821 residents; only four were identified as African American. Exclusionary policies enacted in the years leading up to Oregon’s 1859 admission to the Union had discouraged African American in-migration during the initial settlement period and for decades thereafter, resulting in Portland’s overwhelmingly White population at the beginning of the period of significance.2 Portland’s Black population grew only slowly through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, spiking briefly after the development of the First Transcontinental Railroad and capping at approximately 2,000 people by the time of the 1940 census. The small community, concentrated in Northwest Portland until the early twentieth century and in Inner North and Northeast Portland thereafter, developed a variety of social structures, industries, and institutions that paralleled those established and controlled by the city’s majority-White population. World War II marked a significant inflection point in the history of Portland and its African American community in particular. The Emergency Shipbuilding Program attracted thousands of people to the wartime shipyards in Portland and surrounding communities, and the city’s African American population increased tenfold in fewer than five years, topping 20,000 by 1944. Despite an active effort by the city’s dominant White power structure to limit African American employment and homeownership, about half this number remained in Portland following the termination of defense industry positions at the end of the war. Portland’s racist land use and real estate practices largely constrained this increased African American population to remnant wartime housing projects and less-desirable neighborhoods in Inner North and Northeast Portland. The parallel industries and institutions that the Black community had developed were also concentrated in this limited geographical area.3 1 For the purposes of this document, the terms “African American,” “Black,” and “of African descent,” are used largely interchangeably, except when the individual(s) referenced are from a country other than the United States, in which case the term “African American” is not used. The terms “person of color” and “people of color” are used broadly to describe non-White individuals and populations. Dated and derogatory terminology appears only sparingly, in the names of historic- period businesses and organizations as well as in quotations from period newspapers, court cases, or other relevant primary source material. 2 See the Historical Background, later in this section, for more information on these exclusionary policies and their impacts on the African American experience in early Oregon. 3 Darrell Millner, “Blacks in Oregon,” The Oregon Encyclopedia, last modified July 10, 2019, https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/blacks_in_oregon/#.WqLv4ujwaUk; Campbell Gibson and Kay Jung, Historical Census Statistics on Population Totals by Race, 1790 to 1990, and by Hispanic Origin, 1970 to 1990, for Large Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau, 2005), Table 38. E-1 NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018 (Expires 5/31/2021) African American Resources in Portland, Oregon, from 1851 to 1973 Oregon Name of Multiple Property Listing State As a result of the rapid expansion of Portland’s African American population during World War II, legal precedents and entrenched, racist social norms were meaningfully challenged in the postwar years. The 1950s and 1960s saw landmark civil rights victories that permanently impacted race relations at the local, state, and national level, including the Public Accommodations Act (1953) and Fair Housing Act (1957) in Oregon and the Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965) nationally. At the same time, midcentury urban renewal programs had their own impact on Portland’s demographic landscape. These development programs, many of which concentrated their efforts in Inner North and Northeast Portland, disproportionately impacted the city’s African American community and displaced hundreds from their homes.4 The Emanuel Hospital Urban Renewal Project, the last of the major urban renewal programs in Inner North and Northeast Portland, had a particularly devastating impact on the African American community in the years before its termination in 1973. With the changing social and physical landscape that followed the urban renewal period, 1973 is therefore an appropriate end date for the historic contexts provided in this document. Overview of the Document Section E, Statement of Historic Contexts, describes resources and resource types associated with the African American experience between 1851 and 1973 and located within the 2019 city limits of Portland, Oregon.5 Within Section E, this introduction is followed by a brief Historical Background that describes the African American experience in Oregon through the Civil War and into the subsequent Reconstruction era. The Historical Background, which extends slightly beyond the beginning of the period of significance, establishes a foundational history for the historic contexts that follow. These contexts, which comprise the bulk of Section E, cover seven major themes of the African American experience in Portland during the period of significance. The historic contexts address both the public and the private spheres of African American life from 1851 through 1973, reflecting the pervasive reality