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Still We Rise, by Arvie Smith. The final installation is 18 feet tall by 22 feet wide.

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Portland, Oregon. Growing up in the Portland area, I was always told the city was “progressive” and community-minded. However, looking deeper into Portland’s history has played a huge role in displacing and harming Black communities. As environmental injustice shows up in countless ways, but few examples demonstrate it more clearly than the expansion of major highways through marginalized communities. Portland’s highway planning has disproportionately targeted low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, placing the burden of pollution, noise, and long-term health consequences on the people with the least political power to resist. This issue is more than transportation. It’s about how policy decisions, land use, and environmental regulation intersect with race and class. For my project, I will focus on the environmental justice implications of the I-5 corridor expansion, examining how this infrastructure project reinforces existing inequalities and what it reveals about whose well-being is prioritized in public planning. Using course concepts including environmental racism, cumulative impacts, and procedural justice, I will analyze both the direct harms and the broader systemic patterns that allow these harms to continue.

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In this project, there are two forms of environmental impact to consider when looking at the construction and expansion of I-5: the natural environment and the cultural/social environment of Portland’s Black community. The I-5 project especially highlights what sociologists call environmental racism; the pattern where environmental harms, pollution, and disruptive infrastructure are disproportionately placed in communities of color.

The freeway didn’t just change the landscape; it intensified a long history of cumulative impacts on Black residents. The highway increased noise pollution, air pollution, and traffic congestion.  Research shows these effects can raise asthma rates, cardiovascular issues, and stress-related health conditions. These are layered on top of existing inequities such as redlining, limited housing options, and earlier displacement.

There is also the issue of procedural justice. Their community was treated as an “easy” place to put environmental risks. Today, although the city is trying to involve communities more, many people still feel that decision-making is happening to them, not with them.

At the same time, communities have pushed back to create social change. Portland now has more visible recognition of Black history. Which is seen in murals, cultural districts, community organizing, and groups like the Albina Vision Trust demanding equitable redevelopment. These actions show how cultural environments can become a source of resistance and healing. They also show how communities fight for environmental justice, insisting that future development must protect the people who live there instead of displacing them again.

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I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. This deeply shaped how I grew up and how I view my relationship with nature, my community, and social justice. Before COVID, I was working at a very small business that was founded in the old Albina neighborhood. They were a part of the displaced neighborhood you will read about in this Padlet.

My community is shaped by both the history and the ongoing realities of racial inequality in Portland Public Schools. For this project, I focus on three major social change influences, Education, Social Movements, and Inequality, to show how past decisions, delayed promises, and activism continue to shape the daily experiences of Black students, families, and teachers today

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Portland’s freeway construction completely reshaped the city and its communities. In the 1950s–70s, the state used urban renewal and eminent domain to remove hundreds of Black families from Albina so I-5, Memorial Coliseum, and later the Rose Quarter could be built. These projects were promoted as “improvements,” but they destroyed an entire cultural and economic center.

This explains why Portland still struggles with segregation, unequal opportunity, and displacement today. The choices the city made decades ago created long-term ripple effects, generational poverty, loss of homeownership, health impacts from pollution, and schools that were constantly disrupted by forced relocation.

This history isn’t just the past; it’s part of the social change Portland is still trying to navigate now.

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Global Inequality, Globalization, and Local Displacement

Even though freeway construction seems isolated to Portland but, it fits a global pattern of when countries “developing” while simultaneously pushing the already marginalized communities further aside. Around the world, you can see  a pattern of infrastructure and globalization projects remove poor and minority communities to benefit groups with more power.

Portland followed the same blueprint. The push for suburban commuting, economic growth, and highway expansion . These are all tied to global economic priorities that came at the expense of Black families in Albina. My community is connected to a larger story about whose lives and neighborhoods get protected, and whose are labeled “replaceable.”

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Economic Systems and Who Gets to Stay

The displacement in Albina was driven by economic priorities. Developers and city officials considered the land “underused” because it belonged to Black working-class families. Wealthier, white neighborhoods were protected, while Albina was framed as “blighted” so it could be taken for projects that brought in money and traffic.

This is a clear example of how economic systems shape social change:

Profit mattered more than community stability.

Homeowners lost generational wealth.

The city invested in freeways instead of Black businesses or housing.

These economic decisions created long-term inequality that Portland is still trying to confront.

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Chapter 7 Connection: Health and Safety 

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Chapter 7 Connection: Health and Safety 

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Health, Safety, and the State’s Role in Displacement

The state played a huge role in removing Black families. Through zoning, policing, eminent domain, and labeling entire neighborhoods as “unsafe” or “blighted.” On paper, these decisions were about public health and safety. But the outcome was the opposite.

Families who were displaced faced:

Loss of stable housing

Higher asthma rates from freeway pollution

Reduced access to hospitals and community services

Long-term stress and trauma

Increased policing

Increased barriers for employment

Institutions meant to protect health and safety ended up deepening inequality and harming the very community they targeted.

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How Education Was Impacted by Highway Displacement

Education is often shaped by whatever is happening around a community, and Albina is no exception. When houses were demolished and families were forced to move, kids had to switch schools, lose teachers they trusted, and start over repeatedly.

Schools in displaced neighborhoods also experienced:

Overcrowding

Lower funding

Racial tracking

Less stability in the classroom

Fewer resources and extracurriculars

These disruptions created long-lasting educational inequality. Even today, Portland’s school segregation and achievement gaps can be traced back to the displacement caused by freeway construction and urban renewal.

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Accessibility and Quality

Education system has a major influence on social change because schools shape opportunity, belonging, and lifepaths. In Portland, historic racism in PPS and modern delays in building promised programs continue to create gaps in trust and access. When schools fail to meet student needs, especially in majority-Black communities, it becomes a clear example of how institutions can slow or support social change.

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The signatures from all non-profits of Portland's community in the formal letter to PPS for movement and updates on the Center for Black Student Excellence 

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Community Coming Together

Social movements push schools and districts to change when internal systems fail to act. In Portland, nonprofit groups, families, and community members publicly challenged PPS for its delays, demanding transparency and accountability. This type of collective pressure continues a long tradition of local civil rights activism and shows how community voices can force institutions to recognize inequity.

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Imagine from Portland.gov from a piece written in 2019 showing the imbedded systemic racism and classism in Portland's history. 

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Classism and Racism

Inequality continues to shape which students receive resources, support, and safe learning environments. Schools serving more students of color often face larger delays, more instability, and heavier impacts from staffing shortages. These unequal conditions are not random. They are a pure reflection of a long history of segregation, displacement, and ignored community needs that still influence opportunity today.

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Picture from Alb!na, community-driven non-profit 501(c)(3) created to buy back land, rebuild community, and reroot Black legacies and Black futures in the heart of Portland’s central city. 

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Why Experiences Differ

Social location affects how people experience education in Portland. Black students and families often face institutional delays, broken promises, and unsafe learning environments. Teachers experience burnout and fear job loss if they speak out. Meanwhile, families with more privilege or resources can switch schools or enroll elsewhere. These different social positions shape how each group understands and feels the impact of inequality."

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From Segregation to Delayed Promises

PPS has a long history of segregation and discrimination that still affects trust today. Even after bans on racist practices, the district continued patterns of avoiding diversity, placing Black students in overcrowded schools, and delaying investments in majority-Black neighborhoods.

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One of the buildings finally purchased December 2025 from OPB

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Center for Black Student Excellence (CBSE)

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Center for Black Student Excellence (CBSE)

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Delayed Project

The Center for Black Student Excellence was promised five years ago, but work has barely begun. Community members argue that PPS quickly builds facilities for other schools while delaying projects for Black students, which reinforces feelings of being ignored by the district.

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Protest led by Harriet Tubman Middle School students, May 13, 2022. Picture from OPB

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Health and Safety Concerns

Students at Harriet Tubman have faced unsafe conditions, unclear district plans, and emotional instability caused by ongoing environmental and administrative issues. These challenges show how inequity continues to shape the daily school experience for Black students.

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Pressure and Accountability

Over 35 nonprofits and community organizations demanded accountability from PPS, stating that delays harm students and contribute to racial inequity. This collective action shows how social movements play a key role in pushing institutions toward equity.

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Coalition demands Portland Public Schools make progress on project to build Black student center

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Albina Vision Trust, albinavision.org/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2025.

Cortright, Joe. “Joe Cortright.” City Observatory, 30 Mar. 2021, cityobservatory.org/how_odot_destroyed_albina_par2/.

“History of Racist Planning in Portland.” Portland.Gov, www.portland.gov/bps/planning/adap/history-racist-planning-portland. Accessed 8 Dec. 2025.

Miller, Elizabeth. “In Portland Middle Schools, Students Are Missing out on Learning as Teachers Call for More Support.” Opb, OPB, 16 May 2022, www.opb.org/article/2022/05/16/portland-middle-schools-teachers-leaving-student-support/#:~:text=They%20asked%20for%20the%20teachers,in%20crisis%2C%E2%80%9D%20they%20wrote.

OHQ Vol. 111, No. 1 Ethan Johnson and Felicia Williams Desegregation And, www.ohs.org/oregon-historical-quarterly/upload/OHQ_111_1-Johnson-and-Williams_PPS.pdf. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.

Oregon State Officials Urge Portland Public Schools, Educators to Reach a Deal to End Strike • Oregon Capital Chronicle, oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2023/11/01/oregon-state-officials-urge-portland-public-schools-educators-to-reach-a-deal-to-end-strike/. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.

Pate, Natalie. “After Years of Delay, Portland Public Schools Pursues Property for Its Center for Black Student Excellence.” Opb, OPB, 10 Sept. 2025, www.opb.org/article/2025/09/09/portland-public-schools-albina-oregon-center-for-black-student-excellence/.

“Portland Public Schools (Oregon).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Nov. 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Public_Schools_%28Oregon%29.

“Three Projects Meant to Benefit PPS’s Black Community Have Stalled.” Willamette Week, www.wweek.com/news/schools/2025/01/29/three-projects-meant-to-benefit-ppss-black-community-have-stalled/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2025.

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The NAACP Portland Branch 1120 is one of the longest running civil rights organizations in this region ensuring the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and eliminating racial hatred and discrimination.

You can join their monthly meetings, on the 4th Sunday at 3-5pm. Zoom link is below, or go onto their website. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85359780823?pwd=SGxLd3VvQzlZMHRCejFZRnB5VTh6Zz09#success

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Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.

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This Padlet explores how social change has shaped Portland, especially for Black communities in Albina, through the connected influences of education, history, social movements, inequality, and environmental justice. The long legacy of racist planning, freeway construction, and displacement continues to impact students, families, and teachers in Portland today. These influences intersect with economic systems, state power, and global development patterns, showing that local issues are part of broader structural inequalities.

At the same time, community resilience is a major source of social change. From Albina Vision Trust and the NAACP to student-led protests and nonprofit coalitions, Portland’s Black community has consistently organized, pushed back, and demanded accountability. Social location plays a major role in how these changes are experienced, privileged families often have more options. While Black families continue feeling the weight of broken promises and delayed investments.

Overall, this project highlights both the harm caused by decades of discriminatory policies and the ongoing fight for equity, representation, and community-driven change. Portland’s story shows that social change is not automatic; it happens when people raise their voices, protect their neighborhoods, and insist on a more just future.