500 Black years of Month "d ""'American Experience •/rm n m u n itv service w rv community T W rtla n h (ßbscm-1 ‘City of Roses’ Established in 1970 www.portlandobserver.com Committed to Cultural Diversity Volume XXXVI. Number 6 Wednesday • Februaiy 8. 2006 Redlining to Gentrification Homebuying roadblocks improve, but still exist S arah B lount B ouie T he P ortland O bserver by and I saiah Portland’s history has al­ ways been marked with cor­ relating race and housing concerns. From the early days of the Oregon Territory to the city’s evolving char­ acter of the 1990s and Uxlay, Portland has persevered, and in m any cases suffered, through legal and illegal real estate practices that have served to separate and stifle home ownership for people of color. Additional stories on Mack History am i the American Experience. inside Coretta Scott King Funeral A m ourner holds the program for the Coretta S c o tt King funeral cerem ony a t the New Birth M ission­ ary B aptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. Tuesday. Four p resid en ts, hundreds o f dignities and th o u sa n d s o f m ourners attended. S e e s to r ie s a n d a d d itio n a l p h o to s in sid e . Transcending the ‘Bookstore’ Labels Grass roots storefronts open on Killingsworth, Mississippi by S arah B lount T he P ortland O bserver Two new book shops, the Black Rose Collective and In Other W ords, transcend the “book­ store” label, since both double as d riv in g fo rces in the local grassroots and activism commu­ nities. In Other Words, the latest credit to north and northeast Portland, spikes Killingsworth Street's bud­ ding literary scene with the femi­ nist ideal. The shop moved earlier this month from its former home in the high-rent district o f Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard. Store man­ ager and program director Sue Bums describes In Other Words as foremost by, for and about photo by I saiah B oi ie /T he P ortland O bserver Sadie Byington browses the shelves o f “In Other Words, ” a popular feminist bookstore that just relocated this month from Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard to the intersection o f North­ east Killingsworth Street and Williams Avenue. women. They carry btxiks on race, gender, transgender, size, inter­ sex (a person born with ambigu­ ous genitalia, chromosomes or hormones) and environmental and political current events. The shop is located at the cor­ ner of Killingsworth and North Williams Avenue, in the center of Their new space is larger by a burgeoning set of neighbor­ nearly 2,(MX) extra square feet, hoods quickly gaining the city's which they used to expand their eye. Burns said staff and volun­ health and midwifery section and teers are eager to join the existing a potential computer resource cen­ g ra ssro o ts co m m u n ity that ter. The extra rnt also serves as stretches from Alberta Street to continued on page 45 North Mississippi Avenue. Laws excluding blacks from living in Oregon Terri­ to ry and c o n s titu tio n a l laws after statehood were in practice until 1926. Even after their eradication, ra­ cial discrim ination made it difficult for African A m eri­ ph < rro by L saiaii B ouie /T he P orti and O bserve * cans to find housing. A sign points out historic boundaries Nearly acentury ago, Port­ of a redline district that once excluded land realtors held to a code of people of color from buying homes in “ethics” excluding “Negroes certain neighborhoods. and Orientals” from many neighborhoods. The real es­ hoods for different racial groups, tate industry began to define the and certain areas of cities were not meaning of a white segregated neigh­ eligible to receive loans at all. This borhood as one that did not have a meant that ethnic minorities could black-occupied residence within only secure mortgages in certain four blocks. In the 1930’s the Albina areas, and it resulted in a large in­ neighborhood of inner north and crease in the residential racial seg­ northeast Portland, traditionally regation in the United States. white and working class, was one of During the 1950s and 1960s, the few where blacks were permitted Portland was affected by urban to live. revitalization. Entire neighbor­ In 1947, the formal practice of hoods were leveled to allow for re d lin in g in P o rtla n d began. industrial growth, adding to an Redlining is the practice of denying existing housing shortage. The or increasing the cost of services, Albina neighborhood was dealt a such as banking or insurance, to major blow , due to the construc­ residents of certain areas. In the tion of the Rose Q uarter’s M em o­ United States, the practice is illegal rial Coliseum and Interstate 5. when the criteria are based on race, The Home Mortgage Disclosure religion, gender,children in a family, Act of 1976 and the Community disability or ethnic origin. Reinvestment Act of 1977 outlawed Redlining began in the 1930s in the practice of redlining. The U.S. Philadelphia under the Housing Act government imposed regulations of 19.34. The law gave the Federal that required all banks to provide a Housing Authority (FHA) the abil­ map to anyone who asked showing ity to improve housing conditions the locations of home loans they and standards, and later led to the had made so that individuals could formation of the Department of ensure that redlining was no, tak­ Housing and Urban Development ing place. (HUD). However, racial discrimination While it was designed to develop continued to play a significant role housing for p*xir residents of urban in real estate. In 1990, The Orego- areas, (hat act also required cities to continued on page A 7 target specific areas and neighbor- — Sharp Jabs on Bush Budget T. Week ¡n hc Review Hill Enters Governor’s Race J r CM c o S O © ä Oft u >> r~- 2* Os o 7^ fe 2 < u u CA >».’£ . > O • C — Z5 1 f c . tí c > ofc o\ o on '£ '5 x¡ 3 L> £ 2J UJ Ö X Former Oregon Treasurer Jim Hill an­ nounced Tuesday that he will challenge Gov. Ted Kulongoski for the Demo­ cratic nomination in the May 16 pri­ mary. “Let's be hones, about it. Ted has not been a good Democrat,” said Hill, who made history in 1992 when he became the first African-American to win statewide office in Oregon. Tobacco Judgment Upheld The Oregon Supreme Court upheld a $79.5 million punitive damages award Ted Kulongoski Jim Hill Thursday to the family of Jessie D. W illiams, a Portland African Am eri­ can sm oker who died of lung cancer in 1997, saying the amount isn 't ex­ cessive given the “reprehensible” con­ duct of tobacco giant Phil Morris in marking cigarettes. Republicans joined Democrats with sharp jabs of President Bush's proposed federal bud­ get Tuesday, Sen. Arlen Spec­ ter, R-Pa., called cuts in educa­ tion and health “scandalous” while Sen. Olympia Snowe, R- Maine, said she was “disap­ pointed and even surprised” at theextent of the administration's proposed cuts in Medicaid and Medicare. Man Killed on Sidewalk Police said they have no motive or suspect in the shooting death of a man walking on the sidewalk about 5:24 p.m. Saturday at Northeast Garfield and Failing Street. Police said the i victim , Robert Seeger, 24 had no crim inal history or gang affiliations. Iraqis, U.S. Marines Killed Two bombs exploded minutes apart near a central Baghdad square on Tues­ day, killing a, least seven people and wounding 20. Elsewhere, the U.S. mili­ tary said four Marines died in separate explosions in western Iraq and masked gunmen killed a Sunni Arab cleric. Oregon Troops Deployed O regon’s 4 1 ” Brigade Combat Team, comprised of 900 men and women from all over the state, were m obi­ lized for deploym ent to Afghanistan Saturday. Gov. Kulongowski saluted the troops’ courage and their w illing­ ness to serve.