Another Black Wall Street: The 1803 Fund Wants To Invest Over $1 Billion To Revive A Black Portland Community

Photo of the old town of Portland Oregon

ESSENCE | RAYNA REID RAYFORD

Albina is a neighborhood in North Portland, Oregon that was once home to a flourishing Black community. A new organization, the 1803 Fund, and their inaugural project, Rebuild Albina, is aiming to ensure that the Black town thrives again.

Earlier this year, Nike founder Phil Knight pledged a $400 million investment in the “Albina neighborhood, specifically to help Black Portlanders.” This gift was the inception of the 1803 Fund, so named for the year that York, an enslaved African American “was directed to join the Lewis and Clark Expedition.”