In 2011 the 26 members of the Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) for the Safety Project accepted the charge to address safety and traffic concerns on Williams Avenue between Broadway and Killingsworth and make recommendations to the Portland Bureau of Transportation. They agreed to make decisions with compassion and integrity within a contextual framework, understanding the safety issues while at the same time acknowledging past planning processes and those who have been hurt or damaged by those planning processes.
“The Ave” was once the vibrant heart of Portland’s Black community. How times have changed. Businesses, social groups, nightclubs – all of them were on N Williams. With N Williams’ current growth and viability as a location for creative and art related businesses, our plan is to engage the African American community as contributors and beneficiaries of the recent and future economic development.
Around the turn of the twentieth century, Old Town in Northwest Portland was where most of Portland’s African Americans lived, but with the opening of the Broadway Bridge in 1913 that began to change. Families moved east and bought homes in the Albina district – the only area that was open to them owing to redlining by the Portland Realty Board. By 1920, 62% of Portland’s African Americans residents, and 80% of African American families with children, lived near Williams Avenue, and Black social life began to revolve around businesses on Russell Street and Williams Avenue.
A 1948 flood washed away the WWII housing project Vanport—but its history still informs Portland's diversity. ... At its height, Vanport housed 40,000 residents, making it the second largest city in Oregon, a home to the workers in Portland's shipyards and their families.
During World War II, recruiting in other areas of the country for workers to fuel the rise of the shipbuilding industry in Portland brought an influx of many more African Americans – five times as many as lived in Portland before the war. During this time, Williams Avenue became known as “the Black Broadway,” owing to the many clubs where nationally known African American jazz musicians performed. In the 1950s, Williams Avenue was a thriving main street of African American businesses. But like many African American districts around the country, the Albina district was subjected in the 1960s and 70s to discriminatory urban renewal efforts.
N Williams is changing. A lot. What many now living, working and playing in the area don’t know is that for the majority of the 20th century, N Williams/Albina was Portland’s largest African American community. Our goal is to highlight this history, through a multimedia public art project. Help us by sharing your stories, memories, and histories. We are also seeking pictures, recorded interviews, videos etc. to be included as part of the project.
