Community Invited to Celebrate the Renaming of Letitia Carson Elementary
On Thursday, October 20, from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm, the Corvallis School District is hosting a renaming celebration at Letitia Carson Elementary. The event is to celebrate the school’s renaming, new learning and community spaces on the campus, and gifts of art from Letitia Carson’s descendants, James and Joseph Lavadour.
Schedule of Events
5:00 – 5:30 PM – Community Celebration Event
5:30 – 6:30 PM – Open House Tours for the Community
Special guests include the Letitia Carson Legacy Project with OSU, Linn Benton NAACP, Oregon Black Pioneers, Black Oregon Land Trust, Author Jane Kirkpatrick, Corvallis Public Schools Foundation, and Jan Michael Looking Wolf, who will provide a land acknowledgment.
“This will be a wonderful evening of celebration for our community and school,” said Eric Beasley, Letitia Carson principal. “We are grateful to celebrate the renaming of our school to local pioneer and national hero Letitia Carson and our beautiful new building as a result of a community-funded major bond.”
According to the Letitia Carson Legacy Project, Letitia Carson came to Oregon in 1845 and was one of the first Black woman settlers in Oregon. Because of Oregon’s exclusion laws and the whites-only provision of the 1850 Oregon Donation Land Claim Act, Letitia Carson was forced off her land. She filed two lawsuits in the mid-1850s for compensation for her labor and the land claim. Letitia Carson won both suits. Letitia Carson’s life is inspirational. She was unwilling to accept discrimination and exclusion and found the resources to fight her battle for civil rights and build a heritage for her children.