Friday, September 25- Friday, October 2

FREE// If you can, please support our memory activism collective by a tax-deductible donation to >> vanportmosaic.org/donate

REMEMBER. REPAIR. RECLAIM. This is what memory activism is, and this is our call to you: Join the Vanport Mosaic for a week of digital memory activism to explore and amplify this complex history, and to honor the experience of those who lived it.

In this time of collective amnesia and ideas of “patriotic education” mired in nationalistic rhetoric, remembering is an act of resistance. On Saturday, September 26th, hate groups came to Portland to rally. They gathered in Delta Park, which rests on traditional village sites of the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Chinook, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla and many other Tribes who made their homes along the Columbia River. For the past 50 years the annual Delta Park Powwow and Encampment has been drawing native people from throughout the Pacific Northwest, as well as other parts of the country to this site.

On this land once stood Vanport, the largest WWII federal housing project in the USA, possibly of the world. At its peak it became the second largest city in Oregon, home to over 40,000 people who migrated from the rest of the country to work in the shipyards and contribute to the war efforts.

In a state founded as a “white utopia,” Vanport was one of the few options where Black and Brown people could live in the Portland area. The Black population grew from 6% in 1942 to 24% in 1948. The first Black policemen and teachers in Oregon were hired in Vanport. Vanport College, now PSU, was started there, and the Vanport Interracial Council established an Urban League office in Portland. ⁠On Memorial Day 1948 a flood destroyed the entire city in a matter of hours, killing at least 17 residents, displacing 18,900, and forcing Portland to absorb this multi-racial and multicultural community.

A “miracle city”; a “sociological experiment”; a “municipal monstrosity”; a “nasty ghetto”: during its short life span Vanport attracted national attention and conflicting opinions, but it was never meant to be a permanent city. After the flood it was never rebuilt. Its name was removed from the map, and its memory intentionally erased by the same racist forces that continue to oppress and threaten to destroy our communities today.

But the Spirit of Vanport lives on, and it is calling us once again to confront our fraught history, and to write a new chapter where we all belong and thrive. Remember. Repair. Reclaim. This is what memory activism is, and this is our call to you.

>>>>>Here’s how you can participate:
LEARN>> from 9/25 to 10/2 we will share a selection of resources our collective of historians, educators, media makers and artists have created and collected in the past 6 years: short oral history documentaries with former Vanport residents, archival photos, presentations, curricula, readings, and artistic tributes. Find them on Vanport Mosaic FB, IG, and Twitter channels.
SHARE>> repost the material wherever you can, and invite your friends and family to participate in this initiative. We want the voice of the Vanport community to overpower any messages of hate and division occurring at Delta Park on Saturday.
CONTRIBUTE>>post your own resources, photos, discoveries, questions - and tag @vanportmosaic. You can also send them to info@vanportmosaic.org
Suggested hashtags: #MemoryActivism #PatrioticEducation #Vanport #DeltaPark #VanportMosaic

(Cover artwork created by @alexchiu for the Vanport Mosaic)