Invisible Son

Content Warning: This section discusses racism.

Invisible Son takes place in the Albina neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. There, the protagonist’s father owns a bookshop with a mural that commemorates the city’s Black history, most notably the Vanport Flood of 1948.

The city of Vanport was located on a floodplain of the Columbia River, where Black workers had been forced to settle because of redlining in the city that did not allow African Americans to live in certain parts of the city. At its most populous, 40,000 people lived in the small city, many of whom were workers on defense contracts to make ships for the military in World War II. Due to the crucial need for these manufacturing plants, the housing in Vanport was constructed quickly and wasn’t built with strong materials. About 18,500 people stayed in Vanport after the conflict ended (Gelling, Natasha. “How Oregon’s Second Largest City Vanished in a Day.” Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Feb. 2015).

In May of 1948, rising water levels brought both the Columbia and Willamette Rivers above the flood stage. This worried the residents of Vanport, who would be most affected if the dikes holding back the water broke. On May 30, 1948, the Housing Authority of Portland distributed a flyer in Vanport that said, “REMEMBER. DIKES ARE SAFE AT PRESENT. YOU WILL BE WARNED IF NECESSARY. YOU WILL HAVE TIME TO LEAVE” (Gelling). However, in the late afternoon, the dikes gave way, and water began flowing in. Vanport was destroyed, leaving 18,500 people without homes, 6,300 of whom were African American. Since discriminatory housing practices were still in effect, the Albina neighborhood became overpopulated since it was the only place where Black refugees from Vanport could settle.