A case in Oregon highlights the demolition of Black neighborhoods.

The two-story, shingle-sided house that was a feature of Bobby Fouther's boyhood is now a parking lot, having been demolished in the 1970s along with numerous other buildings in a predominately Black neighborhood of Portland, Oregon.

"There, growing up was all about love," Fouther recalled.

Fouther and his sister, Elizabeth Fouther-Branch, are among 26 Black residents of the neighborhood or descendants of former residents who are suing Portland, the city's economic and urban development agency, and Legacy Emanuel Hospital for the "racist" destruction of their homes and forced displacement.

The complaint, which was filed Thursday in federal court in Portland, sheds light on how urban improvement initiatives and the construction of the nation's roadways frequently harmed largely non-white areas.

According to a report published in 2020 by Pew Charitable Trusts, a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit public policy firm, local and state planners "intentionally constructed through Black neighborhoods to eliminate so-called slums and derelict areas"

People who belonged to racial minorities were frequently compelled to reside in all-white communities as a result of "redlining" (banks discriminating against applicants for house loans based on race) and regulations that maintained all-white areas.

According to the lawsuit, Fouther's great-aunt and her husband purchased a home in Portland's Albina neighborhood in 1934, which he and his sister visited nearly every day.

Despite purchasing homes and establishing lives in Albina, many were compelled to relocate due to so-called urban regeneration and motorway construction.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the construction of Interstate 5 and Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the original home of the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers, substantially demolished and fragmented Albina. A hospital expansion was then announced.

The Portland Development Commission razed an estimated 188 houses between 1971 and 1973, 158 of which were residential and home to 88 families and 83 individuals. According to the claim, 32 businesses and four religious or community organizations were also destroyed. 74% of the forcefully evicted households were African-American.