{"id":893,"date":"2025-07-25T21:26:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T04:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nlg.org\/pdx\/?p=893"},"modified":"2025-07-25T21:26:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T04:26:14","slug":"descendants-of-displaced-black-albina-families-reach-historic-settlement-with-city-of-portland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nlg.org\/pdx\/2025\/07\/25\/descendants-of-displaced-black-albina-families-reach-historic-settlement-with-city-of-portland\/","title":{"rendered":"Descendants of Displaced Black Albina Families Reach Historic Settlement with City of Portland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last month in an emotional city council session<\/a>, Portland councilors unanimously voted to award $8.5 million in a settlement with 26 descendants of Black families displaced on racist grounds from the Central Albina neighborhood. As reported<\/a> last year, the Emanuel Displaced Persons Association 2 (EDPA2) brought a suit against the City of Portland, Prosper Portland (formerly the Portland Development Commission, or PDC) and Legacy Emanuel Medical Center (formerly Emanuel Hospital) after compelling evidence<\/a> was found of a racist conspiracy to push a predominantly Black community off its land in order to profit from the real estate. Despite causing generations of harm to hundreds of families, much of this property remains abandoned. As Ed Johnson of the Oregon Law Center testified at the council session, the Emanuel Hospital expansion was “fundamentally different from other racist urban renewal projects because most of that expansion did not happen and in fact this neighborhood, this thriving neighborhood, was destroyed and replaced with nothing. A lot of that land, as we sit here today, remains vacant or is used for parking.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After years of effort, the 26 plaintiffs and EDPA2 initially reached a negotiated settlement agreement with city attorneys for $2 million. When this settlement was brought before the council for a vote on June 5th, many of the plaintiffs and other community members criticized the amount of money offered by the city and Prosper Portland as a small fraction of the total wealth lost to decades of urban renewal. It soon became clear that the city councilors had not been kept apprised of the negotiations, leading Councilor Loretta Smith to propose an amendment raising the settlement to $8.5 million. The amendment passed unanimously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond monetary compensation, the settlement also included other concessions. The city will recognize an annual Descendants’ Day for at least the next five years. It will provide letters of support for grants to fund a documentary about the Central Albina displacement and the community fightback. Keller Auditorium (named in honor of Ira Keller, the head of the PDC during much of the displacement) will for the next 10 years give hiring preference to the descendants as well as installing a prominent and permanent display inside the venue detailing the history of the displacement. The descendants will also have access to free licenses to use the Martin Luther King Heritage Marker site up to four times a year for community events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city and Prosper Oregon are also committed to transferring two properties to EDPA2 and the descendants, though the details of this transfer are still being determined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These concessions were made on the basis of an acknowledgement by the city<\/a> that “systemic discrimination and displacement harmed Black communities, by excluding them from homeownership and wealth-building opportunities; by denying them access to educational resources, jobs and healthy neighborhoods; and by perpetuating segregation, displacement, and harmful stereotypes through the zoning code, deeds and covenants, lending practices, public housing and urban renewal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council ultimately voted unanimously for the settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the June 5 session, city councilors also spoke to the future. Councilor Sameer Kanal stated “[w]e should be proactively creating a plan for restitution and rectification of the harms done to everyone displaced as a result of the city’s systemic discriminatory zoning, housing and lending practices.” He invoked Tulsa city’s Beyond Apology commission<\/a> as an example. This body was established by mayoral executive order last year after the Oklahoma Supreme Court threw out a tort claim by descendants of the 1921 Tulsa massacre of Black Wall Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of Albina displacements, only a small portion of those affected by the displacement were covered under the settlement. There are more homeowners who were not part of the suit, and renters and business owners weren’t part of its scope at all. This was due to the limited resources available to the EDPA2 organizers, as lead organizer Byrd pointed out during the city council session. This settlement is, from the perspective of both the plaintiffs and the municipal defendant, a first step, not a last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While public programs designed to address the past and present of racial oppression are under attack by the Trump administration at every level of government, this victory speaks to the importance of community organizing and long-term persistence. Byrd, a librarian and historical researcher by training, spent years combing archives and preparing materials that became the starting point for EDPA2’s fight. This was supported by research from PSU’s FutureLab and legally from Oregon Law Center, Legal Aid Services of Oregon, and Albies & Stark law firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Byrd was first putting the picture together, she met with Miss Thelma Glover, a displaced Black resident from Central Albina. According to an interview<\/a> with OPB, Byrd asked Glover what she should do with this information. Glover responded with one word:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month in an emotional city council session, Portland councilors unanimously voted to award $8.5 million in a settlement with 26 descendants of Black families displaced on racist grounds from the Central Albina neighborhood. As reported last year, the Emanuel Displaced Persons Association 2 (EDPA2) brought a suit against the City of Portland, Prosper Portland…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23821,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t