Oregon African American Railroad Porters Oral History Collection
This collection is made up of thirty individual, multi-part, and group oral history interviews between film maker Michael Grice and African American railroad porters employed in the Portland area. Grice is an educator, a co-founder of the World Arts Foundation, Inc. and an advocate for the preservation of African American culture. These recordings form much of the background research used for Grice's 1985 film, "Black Families and the Railroad in Oregon and the Northwest."
About the Project
The Oregon African American Railroad Porters Oral History Collection is a part of the Oregon Multicultural Archives (OMA). In 2015, the OMA received a grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust to digitize, transcribe, and make accessible the collection’s oral history interviews. This website includes brief interviewee biographies and interview summaries, access to the interview audio files, and transcripts of all the interviews.