University of Oregon founder was a racist who never disavowed slavery

University of Oregon founding father Matthew Deady was a hard-bitten racist who never disavowed slavery but who shielded innocent and vulnerable Chinese immigrants from violent mobs, UO-commissioned experts have found in a report released Tuesday.

The three historians commissioned by the UO combed through historic documents to assess the racial views of Deady.

"He had a very complicated intellect that defies a simple summary," University of Washington historian Quintard Taylor, Portland State University historian David Alan Johnson and UO historian Marsha Weisiger wrote in their collective review of the lives of Deady and UO Professor Frederick Dunn, a one-time Eugene Ku Klux Klan leader.

UO President Michael Schill commissioned the report to serve as a foundation for his decision about whether to strip the names of Deady and Dunn from campus buildings. The UO Board of Trustees has the authority to make the final call.