The Oak Lodge Governance Project (OLGP) is pleased to host local historian Kenneth R. Coleman for our next community information session, Racial Exclusion in Pre-Statehood Oregon. The presentation will take place Saturday March 12 at noon. You can register to attend here.

Kenneth R. Coleman is a writer, musician, and historian with an emphasis on class and racial formation in the nineteenth century Pacific Northwest. He currently teaches U.S. history at Portland Community College. His first book, Dangerous Subjects: James D. Saules and the Rise of Black Exclusion won the Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction at the 2019 Oregon Book Awards.

According to his book, Mr. Coleman, “moved to Oregon’s Willamette Valley as a child, in the back of his family’s Buick rather than a covered wagon. He left a career in marketing and advertising with the intention of studying the philosophy of history, but instead became fascinated by the complicated colonial and racial history of the Pacific Northwest. He received a Master of Arts in history from Portland State University.”

This is the tenth in the OLGP series of regular information sessions that provide historical context, background, and cultural perspective on the current governmental structure of Clackamas County and Oak Lodge. It is designed with the residents of Oak Grove and Jennings Lodge in mind, but all are welcome to attend. Please pass this information along to others you think might be interested. OLGP will open the waiting room at 11:45 a.m. and welcome early attendees who would like to meet members of the steering committee and chat with their neighbors. The presentation will begin at noon.