Oregon’s First Black Community: Jackson County, 1850–1900

The earliest sustained community of African Americans in Oregon was not in Salem or Portland, but in Jacksonville. At the time of statehood, Jackson County’s Black population was more than that of Multnomah and Marion counties combined. Zachary Stocks of Oregon Black Pioneers will share information about the rise and fall of this first Black community in Oregon, and discuss some of Southern Oregon’s nineteenth-century Black residents.

This program is offered as the keynote lecture for the 46th annual meeting of the Jefferson Historical Group, which is composed of archeologists, historians, museum and library professionals, students, and other stakeholders from northern California and southern Oregon. The group meets each year to share ideas and information from across the “Mythical State of Jefferson” and is not affiliated with the modern political movement of the same name.

This free event will be held Friday, April 26, 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. at The Backyard Community Food Cart, 812 S. Riverside Ave. in Medford, Oregon.

Zachary Stocks is a public historian, interpreter, and the Executive Director of Oregon Black Pioneers. Stocks previously served as Program Director of Historical Seaport and Visitor Services Manager of Northwest African American Museum. He is a former intern of Colonial Williamsburg and Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and a former seasonal Park Ranger at Lewis & Clark National Historical Park. He holds a BA in History from the College of William & Mary with a certificate in Public History from the National Institute for American History and Democracy and an MA in Museology from the University of Washington. Stocks lives in Astoria.