[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 2576]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          BLACK HISTORY MONTH

  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, each year I come to the floor during the 
month of February to celebrate Black History Month and to discuss many 
of the contributions made by Black Americans to my home State of 
Oregon. Today, at the beginning of this year's celebration of Black 
History Month, I would like to begin another series of floor statements 
with a short discussion of a significant event in Oregon's history, the 
Vanport flood.
  In 1929, Dr. DeNorval Unthank moved to Portland, OR from 
Pennsylvania, becoming one of the city's first black physicians. When 
he moved into a segregated, nearly all-White neighborhood, he and his 
family were greeted by rocks thrown through the windows of his home. 
When he replaced those windows, more rocks were thrown. Phone calls 
threatening his family were also common. Ultimately, Dr. Unthank was 
forced to move to another part of town.
  The city of Portland was highly segregated in its early history, and, 
although experiences like Dr. Unthank's were not uncommon, there were 
very few Black Portlanders. World War II changed all that. Between 1941 
and 1943, the African-American population in Portland increased 
tenfold, from roughly 2,000 to over 20,000. People came from all over 
the country to work in Portland's shipyards, and to accommodate this 
influx of labor, the city of Vanport--a combination of the names 
Vancouver and Portland--was built. At the time, it was the largest 
public housing project in the Nation, and it became home to thousands 
of Black Oregonians.
  Due to the housing shortage in Portland after the war, the temporary 
housing at Vanport was allowed to linger on long past its original 
intended purpose. Restrictive policies of the local real estate 
industry, as well the hostility to be found in Portland's White 
neighborhoods, kept Black residents largely confined to Vanport. On 
Memorial Day 1948, the Columbia River overflowed its banks and washed 
away Vanport City, leaving behind a large lake and thousands of 
homeless people. White residents of Vanport could be fairly easily 
absorbed into the larger fabric of the White community with minimal 
disruption; however, the response to the plight of Vanport's Black 
residents presented a dramatic challenge to the previous patterns of 
racial thought and action in the city.
  According to Dr. Darrell Millner, professor at Portland State 
University, Portland generally rose to meet the challenge of the flood 
in a display of admirable humanitarianism. While some distinctions 
related to color were made in the aftermath of the disaster, other new 
interracial dynamics emerged from the event that, in the long term, 
helped change the course of Portland race relations.
  H.J. Belton Hamilton, a former chair of the Urban League of 
Portland's board, recalls, ``A lot of people got to know each other 
then.'' Many White families took displaced Vanport Blacks into their 
homes after the flood, and the old artificial boundaries of the 
African-American community were stretched to accommodate the relocation 
of residents. ``The Vanport flood had a major impact on Portland,'' 
said Bobbie Nunn, and early activist in the NAACP and Urban League. The 
city of Portland had to accommodate its Black citizens, and the 
movement for positive racial change was on the rise.
  We can see the changes in Portland by looking back again on the life 
of Dr. Unthank. Not only did Dr. Unthank cofound the Urban League of 
Portland, but by 1958, the Oregon State Medical Society named him 
Doctor of the Year. Four years later, he was named Citizen of the Year 
by the Portland Chapter of the National Conference of Christians and 
Jews. In 1969, DeNorval Unthank Park was dedicated in Portland. Forty 
years before, rocks had been thrown through the windows of his Portland 
home.
  Portland and the entire State of Oregon went through as many changes 
in the middle part of the 20th century as did most other parts of our 
country. In the case of Portland, it was a major catastrophe, the 
Vanport flood, that served as one of the major catalysts for positive 
change. During Black History Month, I think it is important that we 
remember the people and events, like Dr. Unthank and the Vanport flood, 
that helped shape the history of Oregon. I will come back to the floor 
each week this month to talk more about why Black History Month is 
important to Oregonians.

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