A lawsuit from Oregon highlights the deterioration of Black neighborhoods.

Bobby Fouther grew up in a house that is now a parking lot. The two-story, shingle-sided house was demolished in the 1970s along with many other homes in Portland, Oregon's predominately Black neighborhood.

Growing up there was all about love, according to Fouther.

Fouther and his sister, Elizabeth Fouther-Branch, are among 26 Black people who either lived in the neighborhood or are descended from former residents. They are suing Legacy Emanuel Hospital, the city of Portland, and the city's economic and urban development agency, accusing them of razing the homes and forcibly displacing the residents in a "racist" manner.

The case, which was filed on Thursday in federal court in Portland, sheds light on how national highway development and urban improvement initiatives frequently come at the expense of communities that aren't predominately white.

In many instances, Black neighborhoods were purposefully built through by city and state planners in an effort to eliminate so-called slums and blighted regions, according to a 2020 analysis by the Pennsylvania-based charity Pew Charitable Trusts.

Due to legislation that upheld all-white neighborhoods and "redlining," where banks discriminate against applicants for house loans based on race, people who were members of racial minorities were frequently forced to live in those areas.

According to the lawsuit, Fouther and his sister frequently visited a home that Fouther's great-aunt and her husband purchased in the Albina section of Portland in 1934.

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

The construction of Interstate 5 and Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the initial home of the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers, partially devastated and split up Albina in the 1950s and 1960s. Then, though, a hospital expansion was declared.

The Portland Development Commission destroyed approximately 188 houses between 1971 and 1973, 158 of which were residential and housed 88 families and 83 individuals. The lawsuit claims that a total of 32 businesses as well as four church or community organizations were destroyed. 74% of the households that were forcibly relocated were Black.