From the late nineteenth century through the beginning of World
War II, the best jobs available to African Americans in
Portland, Oregon were on the dining cars that came through Union
Station and at the hotels around it. Because white-owned
businesses were largely closed to people of color, a community
of black-owned businesses and social organizations grew in the
area surrounding the station. A new exhibit at the Oregon
Historical Society explores work and lives of Portland’s African
American railroad workers and their families just in time for
the 2013 Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and National Black
History Month. "All Aboard: Railroading and Portland’s Black
Community," an exhibit created by Oregon Northwest Black
Pioneers and the Oregon Historical, and funded in part by a
grant from Oregon Humanities, focuses on the African American
railroad workers in Portland in the 1800’s through the 1940’s
and the community that grew around Portland's Union Station over
the years. The interactive exhibit, which wa