The founder and executive director of Eugene’s Black Cultural Initiative will explore how the history of Black exclusion in Oregon has shaped the present-day community at the Friday, Feb. 6, meeting of the City Club of Eugene.

Talicia Brown will also update club members about efforts to create a monument to mark the 1949 forced removal of Black residents from a neighborhood known as Ferry Street Village in order to build the Ferry Street Bridge in Eugene.

The City Club meeting begins at noon Friday at WOW Hall, 291 W. Eighth Ave. Attendance at club meetings is free.

Brown, the owner of Harmony Massage, founded the Black Cultural Initiative in 2023 as Lane County’s first Black-owned and led community center, business incubator and cultural hub.

Oregon’s history includes three Black exclusion laws that were largely successful at discouraging Black people from settling in the state. Eugene at one time was considered a “sundown town,” where Black people were required to leave the city limits by sundown or otherwise face harassment, or worse.

Friday’s program will be livestreamed on the club’s YouTube channel and will be rebroadcast 7 p.m. Monday on KLCC, 89.7 FM, and later as an episode of the club’s podcast. 

The City Club of Eugene explores local state and national issues and seeks to solve problems. Membership is open to all.

Mike McInally is a Pacific Northwest journalist with four decades of experience in Oregon and Montana, including stints as editor of the Corvallis Gazette-Times and the Albany Democrat-Herald.