When Portland’s Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard got its name, and then its ‘Dream’ statue

By Kristian Foden-Vencil (OPB)
Jan. 19, 2026 2 p.m.

Portland renamed Union Avenue after the civil rights leader in 1989, some 20 years after similar events in Chicago and many other cities. In 1998, a statue in his image became a fixture on his namesake street.