Live, in-person, history programs are back at the Museum of the Oregon Territory with the Look Back Lecture series! See experts recount histories from our region, ranging from culture and community to nature and ecology.
People of African descent have lived and worked in Oregon since before the founding of the earliest English-speaking settlements in the Americas. Despite this, the popular narrative of our state’s history excludes the experiences of African Americans before the mid-20th century. This erasure is the result of historic legal and social marginalization that contributes to the ignorance of Oregon’s Black heritage, as well as influences contemporary disparities in housing access, community investment, and policing. For this presentation, Oregon Black Pioneers speaker Mariah Rocker will attempt to correct the record by highlighting key individuals and events that characterize Oregon’s unique and centuries-old Black history.
Admission to the 2025 Look Back Lecture series has been made free thanks to the Union Pacific Railroad grant.
