Kathryn Hall Bogle

Kathryn Hall Bogle (December 24, 1906 – August 2003) was an American social worker, activist, and freelance journalist in Portland, Oregon. She was the first African American journalist to be paid for an article in The Oregonian of Portland. She was presented a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Portland Association of Black Journalists in 1993.

Biography Born December 24, 1906, in the Oklahoma Territory, she lived in Kansas City before coming to the Pacific Northwest with her mother, Lillian Finley Hall. She faced discrimination in academia and was refused admissions to all the business schools in Portland, Oregon; She wrote articles for many black newspapers including the Pittsburgh Courier, the Northwest Enterprise in Seattle, the Portland Observer, the Portland Skanner, "An American Negro Speaks of Color," Bogle's best-known article, was sold to The Oregonian in 1937. Kathryn's article described her personal experiences growing up in Portland, Oregon including the difficulties of being black in Oregon with a focus on education and employment. Along with her career as a journalist, Bogle also worked as a social worker for seventeen years with the Boys and Girls Aid Society. For seven years she worked as a caseworker at Good Samaritan Hospital & Medical Center, and in 1948, she assisted victims who were displaced by the Vanport flood.