Portland is widely regarded as a liberal bastion, and yet the 2010 census found it to be “America’s whitest major city.” Longstanding racial tensions led to the formation of a local branch of the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s. Based in the city’s Albina District, the Portland branch was quite different from the more famous—and infamous—Oakland headquarters. Instead of parading through the streets wearing black berets and ammunition belts, Portland’s Panthers were more concerned with opening a health clinic and starting free breakfast programs for neighborhood kids.
The Portland Black Panthers: Empowering Albina and Remaking a City by Lucas N. N. Burke and Judson L. Jeffries combines the histories of the city and Albina neighborhood-based African American community with interviews with Kent Ford and other former Portland Panthers.
- KBOO