We Will Not Be Removed: The People of King School Park

“This is the story of a Portland park and a community that refuses to be “removed.” In spite of being displaced, this community survives. Birthdays are celebrated, tragedy is commemorated, and, most important, people who grew up in the neighborhood, as well as their offspring, connect in the park each day. I’ve been privileged to try to capture their spirit through pictures for almost five years. Individuals have welcomed me into their lives.” —Alan Wieder, from the Introduction

During the latter half of the twentieth century, sections of North and Northeast Portland experienced significant gentrification. Many people—predominantly the Black population, whose families had lived there for generations—were pushed out of their neighborhoods to distant corners of the city. Despite such dislocations, some refused to give up their connection to what had historically been their neighborhood park. They travel back to the neighborhood daily to spend time at a park that has come to represent family and community.

From 2020 to 2024 Alan Wieder visited the King School Park almost every day, photographing and interviewing the individuals who regularly frequent the park. We Will Not Be Removed documents this community, which, against all odds, continues to persevere. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Mitchell Jackson, who grew up in the King Park neighborhood, pens the foreword, providing a sense of how these blocks in North Portland mattered to those who lived there. With poignant quotations captured from the interviews and Wieder’s seventy black-and-white photographs, We Will Not Be Removed is a powerful testimony to the lasting bonds of community.