Bobbi L. Gary

Born in Muskogee and raised in Tulsa, OK, Bobbi Gary traveled alone to Portland shortly after graduating from high school. She joined the NAACP as a teenager and began a seven-decades-long career as a civil rights advocate, focusing especially on challenging discrimination in employment, education, and government. She worked informally behind the scenes, as well as founding significant organizations to represent the interests of the Black community in Portland, including the Black United Front and the Black Women's Health Project. She returned to college as an adult, and while employed completed a bachelor's degree in social work at PSU.