With pendants and earrings the shape of Africa and African print shirts and dresses abound, University of Oregon students, administrators and alumni welcomed what University President Michael Schill called a “new era for the University of Oregon.” UO held a grand opening ceremony for the new Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center on Oct. 12. The event was not just a celebration of the new center, but of Blackness on campus.
In 1968, the UO’s Black Student Union issued a list of grievances and demands to the university’s administration. One of those demands was for a dedicated space on campus for Black and other minority students. Their demands were not fulfilled, but nearly 30 year later another group of students took up the cause.
In 2015, the Black Student Task Force held meetings with UO administration which resulted in the BSTF issuing their own list of demands. Among them, a renewed call for a Black space on campus. President Schill announced plans to develop the Black Cultural Center in January 2017, and after a donation of $1 million by David and Nancy Patrone, the university held a ground-breaking ceremony for the new center last October. This past Saturday, the Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center opened its doors to the public for the first time.
Born in 1946, Lyllye Reynolds-Parker said she was the first Black person born at Eugene’s Sacred Heart Hospital. Years later, she was among the first three Black students to graduate from Sheldon High School. Now, she is the namesake of the first building on UO’s campus to bear the name of a Black woman, an honor she earned through long-time service to UO and Eugene at large.
During a speech at Saturday’s grand opening, President Schill asked audience members to raise their hands if Reynolds-Parker had touched them — hands shot up across the crowd. Beyond Reynolds-Parker’s 17-year career as an advisor at UO from 1995-2012, she continues to enrich Eugene as a civil rights activist. According to the UO Division of Student Life, she currently serves on the board of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a local nonprofit.
Saturday’s event included speeches by VP of Equity and Inclusion Professor Alex-Assensoh, who called the BCC a place where Black students could be authentically themselves; founding members of the BSTF, who reminded the audience of the sacrifices task force members had to endure to gain the BCC, and encouraged current students not to balk at the challenges they would have to face to continue to progress; as well as Reynolds-Parker herself.
During an emotional speech about the journey from living in a house with no indoor plumbing to having a campus building named after her, Reynolds-Parker quoted her father, “[He] said, ‘Give people their flowers while they’re alive.’ Well, I’m smelling my roses today!”
The 3,200 square-foot facility is home to a resource library, stocked with Black media from children’s books to history volumes to DVD copies of Family Matters. There is also an art gallery, currently housing an exhibit called “Don’t Touch My Hair.” The exhibit, which was previously displayed at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art contains the photos and words of students who participated in forums about the politics of hair, freedom of beauty and racialized beauty standards. Elsewhere in the center are office space and conference rooms for student organizations and a multipurpose room large enough to house panel discussions.
Dr. Aris Hall, the BCC’s inaugural coordinator, said her new role at UO is “a great opportunity to come here and help cultivate the academic and cultural success of the students.”
The BCC is now open to all students and will soon begin hosting programming. In President Schill’s speech, he said that work in the pursuit of equality on campus doesn’t stop here. Dayja Curry, one of the BSTF’s founding members agreed by quoting iconic civil rights activist and Black Panther Angela Davis, “Freedom is a constant struggle.”