T He L osT H isTory
of Bikes and race
thanks our sponsors
for the 2011 Black
History Special Edition
Energy Trust
Housing Authority of
Portland
Legacy Health Systems
Lincoln City
Morgan Distributors
Nordstroms
Northwest Carpenters
Port of Portland
Portland Bureau of
Purchases
Portland Trail Blazers
TriMet
Turner
Wells Fargo Bank
O
ur staff has long looked
for ways to cover our
city’s famous bike cul-
ture, because when we look
outside our offices in the heart
of North Portland we see Black
bicyclists all the time – but the
community is almost never
reflected in the “bike move-
ment.”
Why? Opinions on race and
bikes in Portland are all over
the map.
One person we interviewed
for this edition, Dellores Jones,
who with her husband Chuck
Crews ran a bike shop in North
Portland for 11 years, says the
cost of bikes is too high for
some families to afford.
Pferron Doss, who recreated
the 1,900-mile ride of the 25th
Infantry, says, “The only opin-
ion I have is you either are a
bicycle enthusiast or you’re
not, and I don’t see it as a race
issue as much as kids nowa-
days don’t use bicycles.”
Still another source we found
was a short film produced by
Emmy-winning
“Primetime”
anchor John Quinones in his
“What Would You Do?” series,
in which two actors – one
White, one Black — pretended
to steal bikes in a public park.
As cameras rolled, the White
actor
successfully
broke
through the bike lock while
dozens of passersby largely
ignored him.
But when the Black actor
succeeded in cutting through
the lock, a crowd of angry peo-
ple confronted him immediate-
ly, even seemed ready to
threaten violence – until
Quinones’
camera
crew
revealed itself.
It’s a fact that the Portland
Police collect racial profiling
statistics on bicycle riders and
pedestrians (the numbers are
lumped together, unfortunate-
ly). But it raises the question:
Are Black cyclists singled out
for confrontations?
From Brother Alonzo on his
canary yellow three wheeler to
the three youths who gleefully
participated in the Naked Bike
Ride last year, it’s for sure that
African Americans are riding
through our city’s streets
alongside everyone else.
We at The Skanner News
hope that this History Month
Special Edition sparks some
conversations about these
issues and changes minds
about race and bikes.
The Skanner News Staff
Page 2 The Portland Skanner Black History edition February 23, 2011
african american inventor J.m. Certain patented the
first bike basket in 1899.