“In that early generation of the Black community here…you could find the very powerful strains of what you might call pursuit of the American dream. In some ways it was an atypical, a unique Black community. After all, those Blacks who came to Oregon made a conscious choice to travel a significant distance and to participate in a community that had a tradition of racial hostility.
They tended to be especially committed to home ownership. They were certainly a very talented population. Many were college graduates although they could not the hold the kind of jobs that would be appropriate for a college graduate. They might have to become janitors or work at the hotel, but they were a well educated, a cultivated and cultured community.”
Darrell Millner
Professor of Black Studies, Portland State University
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"Those Portland Blacks who worked for the Portland Hotel or for the railroads represented the highest occupations in the Black community here. Now, that being said, those occupations were not comparable to a middle class status or an upper class status in the white community. They were at the top of the Black employment pyramid but the color line separated them from the class structure on the Caucasian side of the line."
- Darrell Millner
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"After church, certain numbers of us used to drift up to the Golden West Hotel…in order to have our dinner. Often they were swamped with customers all of a sudden every Sunday. So we utilized that time by visiting more with other people who had come out of other churches. There was a great swapping of laughter, exchanges, plans for the coming week – just a general get-together, socializing."
- Kathryn Hall Bogle
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