303 Race Relations - Good and Bad: The Oak Ridge History
History | Registration opens 8/5/25 9:00 AM EDT
The “secret history” of African Americans in the Oak Ridge area, well before and after it was first called the Secret City, will be presented in this course. You will learn compelling stories about enslaved and free Black individuals and a Black Civil War veteran who lived in Robertsville; what life was like for Black adults and later their children who lived under Jim Crow segregation laws for 20 years during and after the Manhattan Project; how Black and white Oak Ridgers collaborated to desegregate the first two public schools in the Southeast and a cafeteria, lunch counter, barbershop, laundromat, and swimming pool; how housing for Black people has improved (from hutments to Scarboro houses to homes in integrated neighborhoods), as well as have job opportunities (from common laborer to engineer, scientist, government executive, business owner, and professional sports athlete or coach). The course will include stories of progress and pushback in Oak Ridge up to the present after civil rights laws were passed in the 1960s.
Carolyn Krause
Carolyn Krause is a volunteer journalist for The Oak Ridger and writer of many articles for the newspaper's Historically Speaking column. A native of Pittsburgh, PA, she is the former editor of the Oak Ridge National Review, a science magazine. She has a MA in journalism from Northwestern University, where she specialized in science writing. She is a member of the Friends of ORNL and ORICL boards of directors. She has previously taught ORICL courses on Peru (Machu Picchu), Ecuador (Galapagos Islands), Australia, and New Zealand, "the cost of racism", and "Unsung Scientific Heroes in 20th Century Oak Ridge History."
Ruby Miller
Ruby Miller is a native of Spartanburg, SC. In 1968, after graduating from Livingstone College in Salisbury, NC, she was recruited by Union Carbide Nuclear Division to work at their Oak Ridge facilities. She held several positions, including associate director of Public Relations and manager of Small Business Programs for Martin Marietta Energy Systems (MMES). In 1990, Ruby left MMES to open a State Farm Insurance agency, which she owned and managed until July 2024. She taught part-time in the College of Communications at the University of Tennessee. She is the past president of the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club and serves on the ORICL board of directors.
Ray Smith
Ray Smith is an Oak Ridge City Historian, Tennessee Historical Commissioner, and retired Y-12 Historian with 48 years’ experience living and working in Oak Ridge. He has authored 18 books of “Historically Speaking” newspaper columns published over the last 13 years. Ray has published ten books of local nature photographs and produced a 40-image photographic show. He has produced 12 documentary films. Ray routinely leads tours of Oak Ridge and presents Oak Ridge history lectures an average of 40 times per year at conferences, schools, senior living centers, technical societies, historical groups, and festivals. Ray has taught several ORICL classes on Oak Ridge history and the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
Katatra Vasquez
Katatra Vasquez is an award-winning author of children's books, environmental scientist, and heritage preservationist passionate about revealing the contributions of the historically unknown or overshadowed people in American history. A Dayton, OH, native and graduate of Tuskegee University, Katatra has lived in Oak Ridge for more than 20 years. She has safeguarded America's historic and cultural resources through her federal work. She is the founder of Atomic Hope, a heritage education and experiential tourism company.