Untold Stories: The Hidden History of the University of Oregon
A project by UO Libraries Special Collections & Archives & the Digital Scholarship CenterUntold Stories: The Hidden History of the University of Oregon, a digital scholarship initiative telling the historical stories of underserved and underrepresented communities on the UO campus. Sponsored by the University of Oregon Libraries and collaboratively built through the UO Libraries Digital Scholarship Center. Read more About Us
Random Stories
Clifford F. Johnson
Clifford F. Johnson was raised in Illinois and decided to join the U.S. Army after graduating from high school. While in the army, Johnson served at Fort Lewis, Washington during World War II. During his time there, he faced racial segregation.…
Bobby Robinson and Charles Williams
In the fall of 1926, the same year that Oregon finally repealed its exclusion law that forbade blacks from entering or owning property in Oregon, 19-year-old Bobby Robinson and 22-year-old Charles Williams, two young high school football stars from…
Wiley Griffon
Wiley Griffon (1867–1913) was the first African American employee at the University of Oregon. In the late 1890s he worked as a janitor at the men’s dormitory, Friendly Hall. Although, he was niether the first nor the only African American in…
Kalapuya Talking Stones
The Kalapuya Talking Stones were installed in December 2002 in the Whilamut Natural Area of Alton Baker Park. The stones were quarried from a basalt deposit in traditional Kalapuya territory and were designed to serve as an education and cultural…
Mabel Byrd
After graduating from Washington High School in Portland in 1914, Mabel Byrd made history as the first African American enrolled at the University of Oregon. Byrd matriculated at the UO in 1917 as a student majoring in economics and spent two years…
William Sherman Savage
After graduating with a bachelor of arts degree from Howard University in Washington, DC in 1917, William Sherman Savage came to Eugene in 1924 to continue graduate work in history. Two years later, he was the first African American to graduate with…