The Story Behind the Name of Gaines-Oldham Black Culture Center

Lloyd Lionel Gaines was an African-American student from St. Louis and was refused for admission into the School of Law at the University of Missouri-Columbia. They refused him because he was Black.   He fought the decision – all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Within two years later, the court rendered a landmark decision: The state of Missouri would have to admit Gaines to the MU School of Law, or provide a facility of equal stature within the state’s borders. Unfortunately Gaines never enrolled at the University of Missouri because he supposedly disappeared while visiting Chicago. 

A few years later in the 1940’s, Marian O’Fallon Oldham also was denied admission at MU because she was Black. Interestingly enough, Oldham became the first African-American woman to serve on the UM Board of Curators in 1977. She was an avid supporter of black faculty, staff and student initiatives on the MU campus. In the 1970s, she played a key role in obtaining a better facility for the MU Black Culture Center. Oldham also was an active member of the Congress of Racial Equality and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Through their sacrifice and commitment to equality, Gaines and Oldham opened many doors at MU for African-American students. For this reason, the University is naming the MU Black Culture Center the Lloyd L. Gaines – Marian O’Fallon Oldham Black Culture Center to ensure that these individuals, who once were denied admission at MU, now will have a permanent home at the University.

At the time the Black Culture Center was officially opened, Karsten Cash had been appointed the Director of  the Black Culture Center.  “The Black Culture Center is a symbol of what these two pioneers, Gaines and Oldham, stood for,” said Karsten Cash, director of the Black Culture Center. “MU has turned 180 degrees from ‘Separate But Equal’ to an era that values diversity and inclusion. Because the newly named Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center is indicative of a philosophy that clearly parallels what Gaines and Oldham stood for, it’s appropriate that the center should bear the name of these two altruistic individuals who sacrificed so much for the good of many.”

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