Katherine Hall Bogle was a journalist and a civil rights advocate for Black Oregonians. Kathryn Hall was born in 1906 on her great-grandparents’ farm in Oklahoma Territory. Her mother Lillian was a domestic worker. Soon after her birth, the two moved to Kansas City, Missouri and then to Portland. Lillian married Herman Baker, and the family moved several times between Oregon and Washington. Kathryn spent much of her youth in Marshfield, Oregon (today the city of Coos Bay).

Photo credit Kathryn Hall Bogle with son Richard, 1937, OHS Research Library

Kathryn later recalled the intense discrimination her family experienced in Marshfield. She changed schools several times because of bullying, and her parents faced racism at work. The Bakers eventually moved to Portland, but their fortunes were not much improved; their white neighbors often refused to speak to them. Katherine graduated from Portland’s Washington High School, but could not find fulfilling work opportunities because of racist employment practices.

In 1927, Kathryn married Richard Bogle, a student at Oregon Agricultural College, today’s Oregon State University. Richard came from a family of Black pioneers who had been among the early Black residents of both Oregon and Washington. He took a job at the Portland Hotel and the couple purchased a home in southeast Portland.

Kathryn was a lifelong activist. In 1937, she protested the poor coverage of Black people in the Oregonian. In response, the newspaper gave her the opportunity to write her own story. Bogle’s essay, “An American Negro Speaks of Color,” described the realities of Black Oregon life and was the paper’s first published submission from a Black author. After her essay’s publication, Bogle became a freelance journalist. She wrote for the Northwest Enterprise, the Portland Observer, and The Skanner, all prominent Black newspapers in the city

Her influence gave her the ability to promote social causes as well. Bogle spent seventeen years with the Boys and Girls Aid Society, was an active member of the Portland Branch of the NAACP, and supported the relocation efforts of Vanport survivors in 1948. Bogle also organized local efforts to support the Black residents of Montgomery, Alabama during their 1955 bus boycott.

Bogle was a co-founder and lifetime member of Portland’s St. Philip the Deacon Episcopal Church, and worked for seven years as a caseworker for Good Samaritan Hospital’s outpatient clinic. In 1993, Bogle was presented a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Portland Association of Black Journalists. Late in her life, Kathryn helped found the Friends of the Golden West, an organization dedicated to the preservation of Portland’s first Black owned hotel building.

Kathryn Bogle, 1989

Kathryn Bogle died in 2003 at the age of 96. She is remembered for her decades-long work to document and support Portland’s Black community.