Good videos, articles and books to learn about our neighborhood history

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NE Union Avenue (Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd) at Alberta ca. 1939

Articles

Albina – A New Home in Portland. The Volga Germans in Portland.

Vanport, Oregon (1942 – 1948). BlackPast.org.

Bleeding Albina: A History of Community Disinvestment, 1940-2000. Dr. Karen Gibson, Portland State University. 2007

Albina Community Plan. Portland Bureau of Planning. 1993.

The History of Portland’s African American Community (1805 to the Present). Portland Bureau of Planning. 1993.

King, Portland, Oregon. A Neighborhood in Transition. Edward J. SanFilippo. University of Pittsburgh. 2011

Videos

  • Albina, with Lew Frederick. KGW. 1980.
    “This documentary… is a follow up and companion documentary to the 1967 KGW special ‘Albina: Portland’s Ghetto of the Mind.’ Both look at the history and social change that was a part of life for Portland’s African American community and how the community worked for equal representation in social services and education.”
  • Albina: Portland’s Ghetto of the Mind. KGW. 1967.
    “This award winning documentary, originally aired in 1967… brought into focus the question of how the African-American citizens of Portland had historically been marginalized and how the Albina neighborhood had been overlooked by city leaders for development and educational opportunities.”
  • Local Color. OPB. 1999.
    “This documentary chronicles the little known history of racism in Oregon and the moving story of people, both black and white, who worked for civil rights.”
  • NorthEast Passage: The Inner City and the American Dream. Spencer Wolf & Cornelius Swart. 2002.
    “A feature length documentary about gentrification and affordable housing in the African American neighborhoods of Northeast Portland. Shot in the late 1990s, the film starkly contrasts city and non-profit efforts to provide affordable housing to the inner city, with the life of Nikki Williams, a black single mom struggling to survive in the ghetto. Northeast Passage paints a picture that is more than black and white. When homeowners replace renters in gentrified neighborhoods race and class lines can blur as the colors fly.” Available for purchase HERE.
  • Vanport: Oregon’s Lost City.. Brian Van Pesky 2008.Vanport City was born out of WWII as the Oregon Shipbuilding Company rushed to provide housing for the influx of workers in the shipyards. By 1943 it was the second-largest city in Oregon and remains the largest government housing project in U.S. History. In 1948 the Columbia River Dike broke and wiped out the entire city in a massive flood. This film explores the flood and Vanport City and its impact on the city of Portland.

Books