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History
Maker
By Michael Doherty
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When
Bill Tebeau (Tee’bo) stepped up to receive
his diploma at Oregon State College in June 1948,
he had no idea that he was the first male African-American
student to graduate from the university. He earned
his degree in chemical engineering, but it was only
one step in the remarkable life of the native Oregonian
whose grandparents had settled in Baker County in
1885.
Tebeau’s achievements, and those of his family,
are a significant but mostly unrecorded part of
African-American history in Oregon.
A 1943 graduate of Baker High School, Tebeau had
not indicated his race on the application to OSC,
and that created quite a stir on the day he showed
up for his housing assignment. Oregon’s first
fair housing law didn’t appear until 1957,
and deeds for many homes in Corvallis still contained
clauses restricting occupation of houses to Caucasians,
unless employed as servants. Concerned about potential
problems if he were placed in campus housing, an
administrator suggested to Tebeau that he try to
get in at the U of O, but Tebeau was determined
to major in engineering, and Oregon State had to
be his school.
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