The presence and impact of Native Americans in what is today Centre County is a matter of both history and popular imagination. Evidence indicates that the region between the West Branch of the Susquehanna and the Juniata Rivers was primarily an area of hunting and transit for Native Americans.
Calvin H. Waller is considered the first Black graduate of Penn State. The native of Macon, Georgia, graduated in 1905 with a bachelor of science degree in agriculture. At the time, relatively few black students enrolled at state colleges and no official records indicated the racial identities of students during the time Waller was enrolled. […]
Lincoln Hall was a rooming house for Black male students at Penn State that became a center for African-American campus life from the late 1930s to the early 1950s.The circa 1910 home at 119 North Barnard Street in State College was owned and operated by Harry and Rosa Gifford and their children, Bessie and Emanuel.
Hugh Jesse Arnelle was a two-sport star at Penn State, a distinguished corporate lawyer, and the first Black trustee of the university. He served on the board for 45 years, becoming a trustee emeritus in 2014. Arnelle received Penn State’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016.