Notable African-Americans (two)

Tripping Through Time Story:
A Few of Many Notable African-Americans in Milpitas History

Irene Jefferson

From 1966 to 1986, Irene served as our first African-American librarian in Milpitas and its branch manager within the larger Santa Clara County Library System.

In the late 1990s, then-current Milpitas librarian Ed Cavallini convened a meeting with Irene, who was retired at that time, and Community Arts & History Support in an effort that would result in 2002 in the formation of the Milpitas Black History Living Legacy Hall of Fame.

There are many honored inductees, including members now deceased, among whom are Chuck Murray (first president of the Milpitas Black Caucus and founder of the Black Studies Department at San Jose City College), Irene and Albert Augustine Jr., Dorothy Dixon, Oliver Dunbar, Billy Jefferson (one of the first two African-American members of the Santa Clara County Grand Jury), Quincy Jones (pastor, business owner and community leader), and Robert Pecot (civic leader for whom Pecot Park, in Sunnyhills at the start of the Hetch-Hetchy Trail, is named).

Oliver Dunbar

Oliver was yet another of the Milpitas Ford plant workers (as an assembler) who came from the Richmond plant and was an original member of the Sunnyhills integrated housing effort.

Originally from Arkansas like Ben Gross Sr., Oliver served during WW II in the  U. S. Navy from 1942-1945, after which he worked at the Port of Oakland until he joined Ford in 1947. He was an early member of the Black Caucus and former president of PAL football in Milpitas.

Oliver was another of the early parishioners of the Sunnyhills Methodist United Church, and in 1978 he was treasurer of the Sunnyhills Men’s Club that later was renamed the Sunnyhills Breakfast Club.

Early Milpitas police chief Jim Murray knew Oliver Dunbar for four decades, remarking that Oliver ”wasn’t one of those people who would come in yelling when there was trouble.” Murray added, “He was the guy you could talk to and get advice from.”

Lois Hogan

Published in a 1972 article in the Milpitas Post written by co-founder Elaine Levine, Lois Hogan said, “I don’t know which has the most prejudice. It’s a toss up between being a black & being a woman,” although that did not stop her from becoming Milpitas’ first African- American female school administrator.

Educated as an industrial chemist, her company male colleagues did not take her seriously as a scientist. That oppressive work culture changed with the opportunity for her to teach math in the Mount Pleasant School District and later to teach chemistry at Milpitas High School.

She became chairman of the math and science department at Milpitas High, and she was elected president of the Santa Clara Valley Science Teachers Association. Looking for still other ways to help African-American students succeed and to be a role model, Lois became an advisor to the school’s Black Student Union.

After that, her career would advance yet another step when she was promoted to the position of vice principal at Thomas Russell Middle School. Both Thomas Russell Middle School and Milpitas High School today are part of a major education complex in Sunnyhills that includes Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School and San Jose City College extension.

Much of this information about these community leaders was collected by Joseph Ehardt from years of articles published in the Milpitas Post)

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