Portland used to lay claim to being the whitest big in the country. That has changed but not due to an influx of Black people. The Black population in North and Northeast Portland declined by 13.5%, numbers from the 2020 census show. While Portland’s Black population has remained relatively unchanged from 2010 to 2020, many close-in neighborhoods continued to see more Black residents leaving.
Over the last two decades, however, Hispanic and Asian populations have been moving to more affordable areas adjacent to higher-priced coastal metro areas. In 2020, 66.4% of city residents identified as non-Hispanic white, according to census data, down from 72.2% a decade earlier and 75.5% two decades before that. So, the jury might be in that the city of Portland may no longer be labeled America’s whitest by 2030.
Why so few Blacks? Oregon once had laws that excluded Blacks from moving to the state. It prohibited African Americans from entering the territory and required all former slaves who had settled in Oregon to leave. Those who failed to follow the order would be publicly whipped. It has a history as being the only free state admitted to the union that had laws specifically prohibiting certain races from legally living, working or owning property within its borders. Black residents who decided to stay were restricted to live in North and Northeast Portland due to discriminatory housing.
Black historian Dr. Darrell Milner said in an interview that the state’s exclusion laws had a deterrent effect on potential Black immigrants, as the laws made it clear that Oregon had a hostile climate for Blacks contemplating a move west. Historically, Portland’s demographic portrait has never varied much, despite the occasional boasting by community and city leaders of the city’s diversity.
Many have heard of the place where Blacks first flourished – the city Vanport. At its peak, some 40,000 people lived in Vanport, including much of the city’s Black population. But a catastrophic flood wiped out the development along the Columbia River in May 1948, displacing residents. Many Blacks moved from there to the close by Northeast Portland.
Portland has taken the general position that the city’s growing diversity can help better connect residents with people, ideas and issues beyond their own life experiences.
