Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Urban Studies and Planning
Black And Blue: Police-Community Relations In Portland's Albina District, 1964-1985, Leanne Claire Serbulo, Karen J. Gibson
Black And Blue: Police-Community Relations In Portland's Albina District, 1964-1985, Leanne Claire Serbulo, Karen J. Gibson
Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations
As in many cities across America, the relationship between African Americans in Portland, Oregon, and the city police force was fraught with tension through the late twentieth century. Scholars Leanne Serbulo and Karen Gibson argue that Portland's African Americans, who collectively made up less than ten percent of Portland residents and were segregated into neighborhoods including the Albina district, experienced police as figures of colonial oppression. The authors chronicle how, over two decades bordered by African Americans' deaths at the hands of police, neighborhood activists attempted to reform the police department and met resistance. The authors conclude that transformation of …
Bleeding Albina: A History Of Community Disinvestment, 1940‐2000, Karen J. Gibson
Bleeding Albina: A History Of Community Disinvestment, 1940‐2000, Karen J. Gibson
Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations
Portland, Oregon, is celebrated in the planning literature as one of the nation’s most livable cities, yet there is very little scholarship on its small Black community. Using census data, oral histories, archival documents, and newspaper accounts, this study analyzes residential segregation and neighborhood disinvestment over a 60-year period. Without access to capital, housing conditions worsened to the point that abandonment became a major problem. By 1980, many of the conditions typically associated with large cities were present: high unemployment, poor schooling, and an underground economy that evolved into crack cocaine, gangs, and crime. Yet some neighborhood activists argued that …