“Hey Opio,
How are you?
FYI: EDPA2 filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Portland, Emanuel Hospital and Profit Portland this morning–I’ll never forget the live interview you did with us. Thank you, thank you and thank you!!”
This message came from a local leader warmly called Byrd. She is the founder of Emanuel Displaced Persons Association 2 (EDPA2), a community-based group co-founded by Byrd that is made up of descendents of the displaced families. Several years ago, Byrd brought displaced African Americans on a local, live TV show host by Opio Sokoni on the decades old Ghetto Rise show. They were there to talk about the tragedy that many Blacks suffered in the building and expanding of Legacy Emanuel Hospital. Over 70% of the residents that were forcibly displaced were Black.
Graduate students at Portland State University produced a report through Portland State’s Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) program. It documents the impact of Legacy Emanuel’s displacement of Black Portlanders in the 1970s. It looked at Portland’s choice to tear down some 300 homes and businesses in Albina to make way for Legacy Emanuel (previously Emanuel Hospital).
There are now generations that did not receive wealth or a sense of community as a result of the displacement. The report estimated the destroyed homes would have been worth more than $500,000 today, the lawsuit says. The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory damages from defendants in amounts yet to be determined.
The angle the lawsuit has taken deals with received enrichment at the expense of the Black families who had their properties taken away. The lawsuit states that the defendants are benefiting from “unjust enrichment” from “this horribly racist chapter from Portland’s past.” Reports say that homeowners were intimidated by hospital representatives and told that if they didn’t leave, the city would take their homes. The people without proper help and representatives were made to leave and were not fairly compensated. Some families were not compensated at all.
As happened in many cities in the 1950s and ’60s, city officials secretly worked with big business entities agreeing to compensate them (the hospital in this case) for the full cost of the purchases and demolitions. Legacy Health, which owns Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, Prosper Portland, formerly the Portland Development Commission, and city officials have not put out a statement concerning the lawsuit.
Between 1971 and 1973, the Portland Development Commission demolished an estimated 188 properties, 158 of which were residential and inhabited by 88 families and 83 individuals. A total of 32 businesses and four church or community organizations were also destroyed, according to the lawsuit.
“This case is about the intentional destruction of a thriving Black neighborhood in Central Albina under the pretense of facilitating a hospital expansion that never happened,” the lawsuit says, adding that the loss of homes “has meant the deprivation of inheritance, intergenerational wealth, community, and opportunity.”
