Collection is open for research.
RL2019-063, May 2019.
Isaka Shamsud-Din was born in Atlanta, Texas, in 1940, to Isaac Allen and Geneva Allen. He became an artist, educator, and activist, working for much of his career in Portland, Oregon. His work focuses on the experiences and histories of African Americans and peoples of the African diaspora. Shamsud-Din first lived in the Portland area in 1947, when his family moved to Vanport, Oregon. After the flood that destroyed Vanport in 1948, his family briefly moved to Ohio, but then returned to Portland. He began studying art as a teenager, attending the Museum Art School in Portland and the University of Kansas. He also studied art at Portland State University, and during that time, he painted his first murals. During the 1960s, he became involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas. He later returned to education as a teacher, first at San Francisco State University in California, and also at Portland State University. His work during the time period of 1966 to 1976 was done under the name Isaac X. Nommo. He served as artist-in-residence at Reed College, and held the same role at several other educational institutions throughout the 1970s. He also served as director of the Albina Mural Project in Portland. In the 1990s, he returned to PSU as a student, earning a bachelor's degree in 1999 and then a master's degree in 2001.
Oral history interview with Isaka Shamsud-Din, by Milo Reed and P.C. Peri, SR 1759, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
This oral history interview with Isaka Shamsud-Din was conducted by Milo Reed and P.C. Peri from December 7, 2018, to January 25, 2019. Isaka Shamsud-Din was nominated by Oregonians to be interviewed as part of a program by the Oregon Historical Society Research Library to enhance and expand the range of voices in the library's collections. Interviewees are selected from the pool of nominees by a staff committee appointed by the historical society's executive director. The interview was conducted in three sessions.
In this interview, Shamsud-Din discusses his family background and early life on a farm in Atlanta, Texas, and in Vanport and Portland, Oregon; speaks at length about his involvement with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas during the civil rights movement; discusses his work as a teacher at San Francisco State University and Portland State University; and talks about serving as artist-in-residence at several educational institutions during the 1970s, including Reed College. He speaks about his work with the Albina Mural Project; talks about his involvement with the Nation of Islam; and discusses his career as an artist.
Video tour of Isaka Shamsud-Din's art studio, SR 1760, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA,
In the first interview session, conducted on December 7, 2018, Shamsud-Din discusses his family background and early life on a farm in Atlanta, Texas. He talks about his life in Vanport, Oregon, from 1947 until the 1948 flood that destroyed Vanport. He shares his experiences studying art at the University of Kansas and at the Museum Art School in Portland, Oregon, while a teenager; and talks about the reasons he considered dropping out of high school, including racism he experienced and the focus of public school curriculum on white culture and history. He also shares his reasons for changing his name to Isaka Shamsud-Din. He talks about hitchhiking to San Francisco, California, after high school.
In the second interview session, conducted on January 18, 2019, Shamsud-Din discusses studying art at Portland State University and painting his first murals. He speaks at length about his involvement with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas during the civil rights movement. He talks about living in San Francisco from 1966 to 1967 and about his involvement with the Black arts community there; about living in Anchorage, Alaska; and about returning to Portland to teach at PSU. He discusses serving as artist-in-residence at several educational institutions during the 1970s, including Reed College; talks about his work with the Albina Mural Project; and shares his experiences of not being paid adequately for his work. He talks about the status of the Black community in Portland.
In the third and final interview session, conducted on January 25, 2019, Shamsud-Din discusses his role in starting Black studies courses at San Francisco State University and at PSU, and shares his thoughts on the value of such programs. He talks about his involvement with the Nation of Islam, about his reasons for leaving the organization in 1976, and about his identity as a Black Muslim. He also speaks further about his reasons for changing his name. He discusses his painting process and his work as an editorial cartoonist, and talks about vandalism of some of his murals in Portland. He closes the interview by talking about the lives of his siblings, about the patronage of Arlene Schnitzer and Harold Schnitzer for his art, and about the many jobs he worked over his life.