We Are The Dream: Protest Photography of Don't Shoot PDX by Dr. Kathryn Kendall

We Are The Dream:

Protest Photography of Don’t Shoot PDX by Dr. Kathryn Kendall

Feb 6 - Mar 1, 2025

All my life I wanted to be a social justice photographer in the tradition of Gordon Parks, Milton Rogovin, and South African Zanele Muholi, documenting Black lives and Black work. So when I retired from university teaching and moved to Portland in 2008, I was shocked to learn that Portland is one of the whitest major cities in the USA because of its history of exclusion laws, violence, and intimidation. I searched for Black community and ways to contribute to social justice in Portland.

I met Teressa Raiford in 2012, and when she began organizing Don’t Shoot Portland in 2014, I saw an opportunity to document work I am passionate about. Photographing Don’t Shoot

Portland was a way to contribute to racial justice, to honor and remember those who fought for racial justice in Portland, and to attract more people to the movement by creating inspiring portraits of change. I also wanted to create a record of the organization’s work that could be preserved and archived.

Don’t Shoot Portland has been in the streets and in the halls of government as an agent of direct action; it has provided education about Black history and Black art for children of all races; and it has been at the forefront of documenting and archiving Black lives in Portland.

These photographs are some of thousands I have made in collaboration with Don’t Shoot Portland, Teressa Raiford and her daughter Tai Carpenter, and all the people who have built and shaped the organization. On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, I am proud to offer images of a few turning points in the history of Don’t Shoot Portland. Learn more about their work at dontshootpdx.org”

- Dr. Kathryn Kendall

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