Marian O’Fallon Oldham

Marian O’Fallon Oldham was rejected from attending the University of Missouri because she was Black.  It did not stop her as she instead attended Harris-Stowe in St. Louis. She later got her master’s from the University of Michigan. She then became a teacher and counselor in St. Louis Public Schools, a civil rights activist and a member of various charitable boards in St. Louis. In 1977, Oldham became the University of Missouri’s first Black female curator, and she served for eight years. The university’s St. Louis campus later gave her an honorary doctorate and set up a scholarship in her name. She died in 1994 at 66.

Today, the University of Missouri has named the Mu’s Black Culture system in her owner and that of Lloyd Gaines who was also denied admission for being Black.  The center is names the Lloyd Gaines-Oldham Black Culture Center.

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