Mabel Byrd

Mabel J. Byrd (July 3, 1895 – May 20, 1988) was a civil rights activist and the first African American to enroll at the University of Oregon.

Early life and education Byrd was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, in the United States on July 3, 1895. Her father Robert Byrd was a bricklayer who moved his family to Portland, Oregon when she was a youth. At the time African Americans were not allowed to own homes or even vote in Oregon. Byrd was the only student of her heritage in her Portland high school. When Byrd moved to Eugene for school she was not the first African American to live in the town, as there were a few African Americans living in poverty around Alton Baker Park. Although she was able to attend the University of Oregon, state and school policies still prevented her from being able to live in the campus dormitories due to her race. She was also not allowed to join a sorority. During her time at the university, she worked as a domestic servant in the home of history professor Joseph Schafer, while also living in the home.

Early career After graduating from the University of Washington in 1921, Byrd later moved back to Oregon where she became an English teacher for Portland's segregated Young Women's Christian Association. In her spare time, she served as the vice president of the local NAACP chapter. In 1923 the KKK in Eugene was extremely active, but that did not prevent sociologist and civil rights activist W.E.B Dubois from accepting an invitation from Byrd to speak on the campus of the University of Oregon, which led to Byrd and Dubois forming a close friendship. She did this inspired by another Oregonian woman, Esther Lovejoy, who had earlier directed the Portland Young Women's Christian Association African American branch. Byrd's work led her to speak at the Sixth Congress of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in '29.

Byrd earned praise in 1933 for her work in the Census department, from Secretary of Commerce Daniel C. Roper, who called her "one of the finest and most efficient economists in the government".

Civil rights activism

Byrd was an early activist in the civil rights movement, collaborating with national leaders like W. E. B. Du Bois.

On February 21, 1934, Byrd was barred from the Senate restaurant. Byrd and her associates were attending hearings on the Costigan-Wagner anti-lynching bill. Upon entering the restaurant, the waitress informed them, "If that woman is colored, she can't eat in here." They were later escorted off the premises by the police. Senator Royal S. Copeland stated that she was not barred because of her race, but because there were no tables available. Byrd denied this version of events saying there were plenty of tables available. Accounts from the police recall Byrd acting in a tantrum shouting and cursing when being escorted out, while Byrd's associates say she acted completely reasonably, not cursing, simply stating no crime was committed. After the fact, Copeland declared that there would be a table set aside for African Americans. Over the next few weeks, it became clear that the restaurant was making excuses to not serve African Americans. Copeland admitted that the waitress had in fact barred Byrd and not fulfilled the promise of a separate table for African Americans. He continued to deny that the restaurant publicly barred African Americans.

Byrd was the first African American woman to work for the National Recovery Administration. She was in charge of the application of new rules regarding both pay equality and fair working conditions. While in this job she faced public critique from a few news sources. Both The Washington Herald and the New York Daily News commented on her, but with very differing opinions. The Herald said she was a "shrewd economist" while the Daily News said she was labeled an "efficient, able negro woman". After only a few months, Byrd was asked to leave her position at the NRA because they did not feel it would be safe for an African American woman to do any work or establish any projects in the South. Despite all of the obstacles and hostile environments she had faced, it was decided she could not keep herself safe and do her work. She then joined the Joint Committee for National Recovery (JCNR), investigating possible hate crimes such as lynchings, as well as unsafe working conditions. With what they found through these investigations, the JCNR went before Congress and testified that despite the Roosevelt Administration's promises, all people were not being treated with equality.

Death On May 20, 1988, Mabel Byrd died at the age of 92. Rather than a memorial service, Byrd requested that money be given to a scholarship fund.