Fouther and his sister, Elizabeth Fouther-Branch, are now among 26 Black people who either lived in the neighborhood or are descendants of former residents and are suing Portland, the city s economic and urban development agency and Legacy Emanuel Hospital, accusing them of the “racist” destruction of the homes and forced displacement.
A home that was a fixture of Bobby Fouther's childhood is now a parking lot, the two-story, shingle-sided house having been demolished in the 1970s along
A lawsuit says racism motivated Oregon’s largest city to destroy Black residents’ homes and force them out of their neighborhood decades ago. The lawsuit filed Thursday by 26 Black people with ties to the neighborhood targets Portland, the city’s economic and urban development agency and a hospital. The case is another example of urban improvement projects or construction of the nation’s highways often coming at the cost of neighborhoods that aren't predominantly white. Between 1971 and 1973, the Portland Development Commission demolished an estimated 188 properties, purportedly to make way for a hospital expansion that never happened. Of the forcibly displaced households, 74% were Black.
In 2016, after decades of the building falling into disrepair, the Oregon Community Foundation accepted temporary ownership of the one-story structure, at the request of the state of Oregon. Now, OCF is in the process of figuring out how to gift the building back to a Black-led non-profit that is willing to center arts, healing and intergenerational community-building within the space, in perpetuity.