Portland Black Panthers: Empowering Albina and Remaking a City

Portland Black Panthers: Empowering Albina and Remaking a City

by Lucas N. N. Burke Author and Judson L. Jeffries Author

In Portland, Oregon, "America's whitest major city," the local Black Panther movement in the 1960s addressed racial inequality through less militant, though no less radical, measures than many other chapters. Based in the Albina neighborhood, a historically African American community, the Panthers successfully advocated to politicians, opened a health clinic and served free breakfast to local kids, programs with a long-lasting impact that reaches into the present day. This thoroughly researched history contains many interviews with former Panthers, community members, and other key players, telling the shameful story of the hospital expansion that razed Albina and was never built, among many lesser-known historical events. Fully footnoted, well-indexed, and with two signatures of photos and news clippings, this is an essential piece of Portland history.