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April 18, 2007
Page B3
Parallel
New Orleans
Vanport's housing was built to be
temporary. And in both eases, com
where blacks and whites lived in munities were left asking the gov
close proximity. He describes how ernment why better preparations
“for that period of time, that was a weren't made for disaster, why more
remarkable experiment in the social permanent housing was never se
structure of the United States, and cured.
we didn’t have nearly the problems
Even as the water lapped at the
of the segregated South.”
top of the embankment, the V anport
Harlem and Detroit also experi Housing Authority distributed a
enced significant strife in 1943, so flyer telling residents, "Dikes are
it was particularly impressive that safe at present; You will be warned
integration at Vanport "proceeded if necessary; You will have time to
with little incident,” according to leave; D on’t get excited." By sheer
historian Manly Maben.
lack of preparedness, at least 15
“The racial tensions were less people lost their lives on that Me
ened at Vanport because everyone morial Day, and Skovgaard recog
was tired from working in the Kaiser nized history repeating itself in New
shipyards,” muses Skovgaard.
Orleans.
But the real reason for the peace
"There was definitely sort of a
between races, Skovgaard insists. management decision to pacify
continued
from Metro
The rescue o f flood victims from Vanport in 1948. The city was one o f the nation's first multicultural communi
ties. (Courtesy: Oregon Historical Society)
There was definitely sort of a
management decision to pacify
people when they started
worrying about the water coming
through. The bureaucrats were
trying desperately not to look
back, to try to be in control.
j* d
— Dale Skovgaard
was V anport's version of state-
sponsored socialism.
“ People had their p ersonal
items," he says, “but by and large
everyone had the same things, so
there wasn’t any judgment."
The local government’s role in
bringing about theend of Vanport's
experiment started even before the
floodwaters and remains in ques
tion.
“They were taking out buildings
as people moved out,” Skovgaard
says, "but there was no active con
spiracy; it was just that the railroad
fill (the city was built on a landfill)
wasn’t really built to last.”
Like the Ninth Ward in New O r
leans that was destroyed by Katrina,
people when they started worrying
about the water coming through,”
Skovgaard says. "The bureaucrats
were trying desperately not to look
back, to try to be in control. After
wards, all they could say was it was
not my fault, it was that office’s
fault.”
Vanport is still quite important in
terms of how the community thinks
about itself. SasUa Q uintana of-
Portland Community ^College's,
B lack S tu d ent O nion says,
“ V anport started the creed o f
Jefferson being a black school.”
As a symbol of both good and i 11,
the unique housing project that
was Vanport looms large in our
history.
n
In Loving Memory
James Ray
Mitchell
Ja m e s
Ray
“ M itc h ”
Mitchell. 59 died April 9,2007.
As a youngster and as a
young man he sang with G os
pel groups and traveled far
and wide. He worked in secu
rity positions at the airport and
Fred Meyer. He was a won
d e rfu l c o o k and e n jo y e d
barbequing ribs and chicken
for his friends and neighbors.
He was well loved and will be
sorely missed by friends, fam
ily and his companion o f 18
years, M arcia Cufton.
He had nine children but
lost two early on. His daugh
ters Mina and Nieci reside in
the Portland area with his 4
grandchildren. Other survivors
include at least tw o o ther
b e c a u se
G od
n e e d ed him at
home. In lieu of
flo w e rs , p lea se
help the family de
fray expenses, as
Mitch will be re
turned to his na
tive home in O kla
hom a for burial.
Donations can be
made in care of
any US Bank un
d e r the Jam es
M itchell Funeral
Donation Fund.
A Bonneville Power
Administration photo
graph shows white
and black residents
working together to
save lives when the
Columbia River
flooded Vanport in
1948. Many o f those
lucky to survive were
put up in barracks and
condemned trailers on
Swan Island.
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