In Oregon, the history of railroading and growth of our Black communities are interconnected and interdependent.
Oregon Rail Heritage Center recognized this when we planned one of our first exhibits upon opening the Enginehouse in 2012. In conjunction with Oregon Black Pioneers, an education-focused nonprofit, we installed their Railroading and Portland’s Black Community exhibit, which engaged visitors for several months. It was so successful that a smaller version of the same exhibit was presented again when ORHC reopened in 2021 following the Covid 19 shutdown.
The exhibit’s designers observed that Black Americans were highly influential in building and operating the nation’s railroads from the beginning. When transcontinental railroad lines reached the west in the 1880s, new opportunities sprung up to attract Black workers and families to Portland and other Oregon cities.
By 1941, a lot of Black Portlanders worked as a waiters, cooks, porters, redcaps or shop laborers in the railroad industry. These workers and their families settled in the heart of Portland near Union Station, later moving across the Willamette River into what became Albina.
Learn more about this fascinating aspect of Oregon’s railroading history by viewing the digital version of Oregon Black Pioneers’ exhibit linked below.