Februaiy IS. 2012___________________
Portland O bserver B la c k H iS tO iy M o n t h
PageS
A Microcosm of Portland History
Insight to
Woodlawn
community
shared
by M indy C íxiper
T he P ortland O bserver
In a w orld, w hich is constan tly
shifting, one local historian and au ­
th o r o f th e b o o k P o r t l a n d ’ s
W o o d la w n N e ig h b o rh o o d h a s
w atched both the p eople and trends
o f the n eighborhood change ov er
time.
A uthor A njala Ehelebe m oved to
the W oodlaw n district in northeast
Portland w ith her husband nearly 28
years ago, w hen they settled into
their new hom e in an area know n
decades previous for its street cars,
bakeries and bustling com m erce.
Inside her old, w ell-kept house
that rests on the co m er o f N ortheast
B razee, she said she has w atched an
evolution o f the area, w hich at one
time attracted residents from all walks
o f life from throughout the city.
“ A fter W orld W ar II, the V anport
flood in 1948 displaced m any A fri­
can A m ericans,” she said.
A s individuals and fam ilies re­
settled, redlining practices d irected
the displaced w orkers from the w ar­
tim e s e ttle m e n t to n e ig h b o rin g
A lbina, as well as the W oodlaw n
n eig h b o rh o o d .
“W hen m y husband and I first
m o v e d to th is n e ig h b o rh o o d , I
w anted to help m ake good things
h appen,” she said. “ So I jo in e d the
neighborhood association.”
A lth o u g h m any people d o n ’t
en jo y th e a sso c ia tio n m e etin g s,
w hich she described as “ som etim es
not the m ost exciting,” Ehelebe kept
going y e ar after year, and she b e ­
gan to hang aro u n d w ith o ld e r
neighbors and ask them questions
o f the tim es before she arrived.
“T hey began to share their sto­
ries and old docum ents about how
life had been in the W oodlaw n w hen
they w ere youngins,” she said. “T his
is w hen I began to call m yself the
historian o f the neighborhood.”
O ne year, she said the chair asked
her to w rite a history, originally an
article, o f the neighborhood, and af­
ter her docum entation becam e pub­
lic, a publishing com pany asked if
she w ould be willing to write a book.
P ublishers gave her a form ula to
include 200 photographs and 76
pages, and A njala began her re­
search adventure, once m ore, to
capture the history o f her neighbo r­
hood.
“ R esearching history is a blast,”
she said.
A ccording to Ehelebe, before the
photos by M indy C ooper /T he P ortland O bserver
Anjala Ehelebe outside her home in the Woodlawn neighborhood of northeast Portland, where she
has lived with her husband for more than 28-years.
V anport Flood, the Piedm ont neigh­
borhood w as the bedroom co m m u ­
nity to the W o o d law n ’s m erchant
p ractices.
“ Piedm ont had a convention so
that no business w ould be located
there, so that people w ould com e
over here to shop,” she said.
B a c k in th o s e d a y s , th e d e ­
m o g ra p h ic s o f th e n e ig h b o rh o o d
w e re p re d o m in a n tly w h ite w o rk ­
in g c la s s p e o p le , J a p a n e s e f a m i­
lie s , a n d a fa rm in g c o m m u n ity .
In 1948, Ehelebe said A frican
A m ericans began to m ove into the
area after migrating for work opportu­
nities in the ship yards and rail lines.
“ A fte r the flo o d , p eo p le n eed ed
a n ew p la c e to stay , an d h o u sin g
w a s a ff e c te d h e r e .” sh e s a id .
“T h e re had b een re d -lin in g , w hich
is th e p ra c tic e o f b a n k e rs and
re a lto rs n o t o ffe rin g h o u sin g to
m in o ritie s.”
A lthough she said there is not
m uch docum ented evidence o f ra­
cial tension w ithin the n eig h b o r­
hood at the tim e, E helebe explained
the m igration o f A frican A m ericans
into W oodlaw n cataly zed a lot o f
w hite people to m ove out. She said,
“ In o u r n eig hborhood now , black
people have been hom eow ners for
three g en eratio n s.”
Ehelebe said, however, in addition to
her historical research, she has watched
throughout the years as the neighbor­
hood constantly transitioned as bank­
ing practices changed, and the housing
market shifted.
A lthough law s to end en v iro n ­
m ental racism have been enacted,
she said, the n eighborhood at the
tim e rem ained redlined, and banks
w ould not loan m oney fo r hom e
im provem ents. “T h ere have alw ays
been reasons for banks not to loan
m oney to certain c u sto m ers,” she
said. “Such w as the tim e, for a n u m ­
ber o f y ears.”
E v en tu ally , p red ato ry lending
practices by banks em erged, targ et­
ing those w ho lived in the A lbina
n eig h b o rh o o d w hile the housing
stock declined, and houses, w hile
not all, becam e increasingly “ra t­
tier.”
Ehelebe also rem em bers w hen
violence em erg ed in the 90s as a
result o f gang violence w ithin the
area, w hich she attributes to the
im plem entation o f a park w ithin the
n eig hborhood in the 80s.
“ W oodlaw n Park bloods w ere
actively having gang w arfare w ith
the c rip s,” she said. “ A nd there
w ere m ajor crim inal o perations in
different parts o f the W oodlaw n
b ecau se o f d e lib e rate d is in v e st­
m ent.”
B ullets w ere shot through inno­
cent p e o p le ’s front doors on a d is­
tressing basis, she said.
N eighbors cam e to the N eigh­
borhood asso ciatio n to try to find
continued
on page 9
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