Reclaiming stories, health and self

Older Black Portlanders stake their claim through OHSU study

By Raina Croff, Ph.D. November 03, 2020 Portland, Oregon

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(OHSU)

Raina Croff directs participants in her Sharing History through Active Reminiscence and Photo-Imagery (SHARP) study during a January 14, 2020 walk along North Williams Avenue with guest Camara Jones, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., second from left, in town to give the OHSU Hatfield Lecture. (OHSU/ Kristyna Wentz-Graff)

OHSU/Kristyna Wentz-Graff

SHARP

From left, Vickie Naylor, Donna Maxey and Bernadine Clay share childhood experiences in the Albina neighborhoods, reclaiming their history and their place in the present as they take part in Dr. Raina Croff's Sharing History through Active Reminiscence and Photo-Imagery (SHARP) study, September 20, 2017. (OHSU/Kristyna Wentz-Graff)

OHSU/Kristyna Wentz-Graff

NAACP parade

Portlanders march from Dawson Park at North Williams Avenue and Monroe Street to the federal courthouse as part of the NAACP Medgar Evers Memorial March for Democracy in Alabama in 1963. (Oregon Historical Society)

Billy Webb Elks Lodge dance

Formal events were common at the Billy Webb Elks Lodge that still stands at 6 N. Tillamook Street. (Special Collections: Verdell Burdine and Otto G. Rutherford Family Collection, Portland State University)

Paul's Paradise Night Club

Paul's Cocktails was one of many Black-owned businesses along Northeast Russell Street in 1969. (City of Portland Auditor's Office)

Cook Street Apartments

Gleaming new condo and apartment buildings began sprouting up more than a decade ago along North Vancouver and Williams avenues in this once-majority Black Portland neighborhood. (OHSU/Erin Hoover Barnett)

Neighborhood goats

Back-to-the-land whimsy dots the blocks surrounding North Mississippi Street in the Boise neighborhood, including this Nigerian Dwarf Goat hangout. (OHSU/Erin Hoover Barnett)

BEAM house

A Boise neighborhood homeowner tells a counter narrative, chronicling Albina history and the growing Black Educational Achievement Movement, founded by long-time resident Noni Causey. (OHSU/Erin Hoover Barnett)