The Letitia Carson Legacy Project hosted its 3rd Annual Letitia Carson Symposium on May 15, bringing together community members, partners, historians, educators and storytellers for an evening of celebration and reflection on the life and legacy of Letitia Carson, one of Oregon’s first Black pioneers.
The event began with an optional field trip to the Carson Donation Land Claim at OSU’s Soap Creek Beef Ranch. About 25 participants walked the Memoir Path to the homestead site, following Soap Creek through blooming camas and other native plants on a beautiful spring afternoon.
That evening, the symposium drew a full house at the Benton County Historical Society Corvallis Museum, with 72 attendees — the largest symposium attendance to date. The welcome session included voices from Letitia Carson Legacy Project partners, including Jason J. Dorsette representing Linn-Benton NAACP, and Charlotte Epps, the project’s first coordinator, representing Oregon Black Pioneers.
The program honored the historians and storytellers who helped bring Letitia Carson’s story to light, including Bob Zybach, Janet Meranda, Gwen Carr and Jane Kirkpatrick. It also recognized the Letitia Carson Elementary 4th grade teaching team, whose students have helped bring the Carson Donation Land Claim to life through four annual field trips.
Presentations included Hailey Brink’s research on Letitia’s community role in Douglas County and recent additions to the Letitia Carson Digital Collection, as well as Luhui Whitebear’s talk on Cultivating Relationships through Camas Restoration. Larry Landis and Lauren Gwin also shared updates on a newly approved historical marker from the Oregon Travel Information Council, which is expected to be installed this year, and the recently identified location of the Carsons’ dwelling based on 1850s surveyor notes. The historical marker and other improvements to project interpretation and programs are being funded by a grant from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation with support from the Mellon Foundation.
The evening included dinner catered by Khalo Naser, with a special gift of salmon from the OSU Salmon Bake brought by Luhui Whitebear, and concluded with community feedback and conversation. Together, the field trip and symposium reflected the project’s mission to connect past with present and history with reconciliation by honoring Letitia Carson’s story and its continuing relevance today.
