Lyllye Reynolds-Parker facts for kids

Lyllye Reynolds-Parker (born May 8, 1946, died August 22, 2024) was an American civil rights leader and teacher. She grew up in Eugene, Oregon, where her family was one of the first Black families to live there. Lyllye became a very important person in the city's fight for fairness and equal rights for all people. She worked as a counselor at the University of Oregon’s Multicultural Center. To honor her, the university opened the Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center in 2019.

Growing Up

Lyllye Reynolds-Parker's parents, Sam and Mattie Reynolds, moved from the southern United States during a time called the Great Migration. This was when many Black families moved north and west to find jobs and a better life. In 1942, her parents moved from Louisiana to Eugene, Oregon. They were among the first Black families to settle there. Lyllye's parents also helped start St. Mark Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, which is Eugene's oldest Black church.

Lyllye Reynolds-Parker was born at Sacred Heart Medical Center. She was the first Black child born in Eugene. Her birth certificate was changed to say she was White. This was done to protect her from harm by groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

At that time, rules called "racially restrictive covenants" stopped Black families from living in certain parts of the city. So, Lyllye's family settled across the Willamette River in a separate area called the Ferry Street Community. This area had simple homes. When Lyllye was three, the city tore down her community to build the Ferry Street Bridge. This was part of a national plan called "urban renewal," which often destroyed Black neighborhoods across the country.

The Reynolds family then moved to a new Black neighborhood on West 11th Avenue. Lyllye spent most of her childhood there. Her house, like others in the area, did not have indoor plumbing, running water, or electricity. But the Black community there offered safety and comfort. Lyllye remembered, “All the outside world was locked out when we were on West 11th; when we went home to our community, we were surrounded by love.”

When Lyllye was in seventh grade, her house on West 11th Avenue burned down. Her family had to move again, this time to downtown Eugene. They moved several more times before she finished high school. This was because new housing projects kept forcing Black families to move from their homes in Eugene.

Lyllye Reynolds-Parker went to elementary and middle schools where most students were White. In 1964, she was one of the first three Black students to graduate from Eugene's Sheldon High School. She faced unfair treatment in school. When she told her middle school counselor she wanted to be like Thurgood Marshall (a famous civil rights lawyer), the counselor told her to be "more realistic" because she was "a negro and a girl." These experiences made her want to become a counselor at the University of Oregon. She wanted to "open the door for every young woman, every woman of color, to be whoever she wants to be.”

Fighting for Change

Lyllye Reynolds-Parker's mother, Mattie, was a big inspiration for her activism. In 1966, Mattie Reynolds became the first Black person to try for a public office in Eugene when she ran for city council. Mattie also started the Eugene chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Lyllye later joined this group.

In high school, Lyllye Reynolds-Parker was the Vice President of the Eugene Chapter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Here, she learned about nonviolent civil disobedience, which means protesting unfair laws peacefully. She continued to work for racial justice throughout her life. She was an honorary chair of the Anti-Racial Profiling Committee with the League of United Latin American Citizens in Eugene.

School and Work

After many years of activism, Reynolds-Parker took a job with the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1969. This was part of a program called affirmative action, started by President Lyndon B. Johnson. It aimed to make sure people of all backgrounds had fair chances at jobs. She worked for the railroad for over eight years.

When her children were older, Lyllye Reynolds-Parker decided to go to college. She started at the University of Oregon in 1986, the same year her daughter finished high school. Lyllye was a "non-traditional student" because she was older than most college students and a single mother. She often helped and guided her younger classmates. Reynolds-Parker earned a bachelor's degree in sociology (the study of human society) in 1991.

Four years later, she returned to the University of Oregon to work as a counselor in the Multicultural Center. She helped students there for seventeen years. Reynolds-Parker became a much-loved employee at the university. Students called her "legendary." She brought her passion for activism into her advising. She worked hard to help Black, Indigenous, Asian American Pacific Islander, and Latinx students feel welcome and succeed at the University. Before she retired in 2012, the University of Oregon Women’s Center started the Lyllye B. Reynolds speaker series. This series brings important women of color to campus to give talks.

Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center

In 2018, the University of Oregon began building a new Black Cultural Center. This happened because the Black Student Task Force strongly asked for it. When the University asked for ideas on what to name the building, many people wanted it named after Reynolds-Parker. So many people supported her that the Board of Trustees made an exception to their rule of only naming buildings after donors who had passed away.

Overall, 84% of people who shared their opinion voted to name the building after her. These votes were supported by letters from the community and a message from University President Michael Schill. He called her "the best example of strength and never giving up." The Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center is the first building at the University named after a Black woman. It provides a special place for Black students and offers educational and cultural programs.