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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