These in-depth historical essays explore fascinating issues and incidents. Each is fully illustrated with photos and newspaper articles. Graduate and undergraduate students in History and Labor Studies at the University of Washington produced these articles.

The Chicano Movement in Washington State 1967-2006 by Oscar Rosales Castañeda

This two-part essay traces the history of Chicano political and cultural activism in Washington State. The movement emerged in two locales: in the Yakima Valley, home to most of the state's Latinos, and in Seattle where Chicano students launched many new initiatives. Reflecting the split geography, the movement linked together campaigns to organize and support farmworkers with projects that served urban communities and educational agendas.

The Christian Friends for Racial Equality, 1942-70 by Johanna Phillips

As a counterpoint to the male leaders and political campaigns that have dominated both the journalism and history of the civil rights movement, this paper surveys the efforts of the women ativists who organized the Christian Friends for Racial Equality (CFRE) to break down social and cultural barriers to interracial cooperation. Though rarely involved in political or legal campaigns, CFRE pioneered interracial and interreligious cooperation that laid the groundwork for Seattle's more activist movement in the 1960s.

By Right of Discovery: United Indians of All Tribes Retakes Fort Lawton, 1970 by Lossom Allen

In the early morning hours of March 8, 1970, members of the United Indians of All Tribes jumped the barbed wire fences of Fort Lawton and reclaimed the soon-to-be-decommissioned military base as land that belonged to Native peoples. Thus began an 18 month long struggle that resulted in the establishment of Daybreak Star Cultural Center, one of the first urban Indian cultural centers in the United States.

United Indians of All Tribes Meets the Press: News Coverage of the 1970 Occupation of Fort Lawton by Karen Smith

The invasion of Fort Lawton set off a frenzy of media coverage. Intrigued by the militant action, the major newspapers mixed condescension with mild sympathy while reinscribing old stereotypes. Smaller newspapers took stronger positions. American Indian publications were also divided. This essay analyzes the press coverage, finding fascinating differences of perspective, while arguing that the volume of press coverage was an important breakthrough for Native politics.

American Indian Women's Service League: Raising the Cause of Urban Indians, 1958-71 by Karen Smith

Founded in 1958 by Pearl Warren and seven other Native women, The American Indian Women's Service League proved a pivotal institution for Seattle's growing urban Indian population. In 1960, the group opened the Indian Cultural Center which provided social and health services, taught Native cultural awareness, and laid the foundation for the political activism of young urban Indians in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Indian Civil Rights Hearings: U.S. Civil Rights Commission Comes to Seattle, 1977 by Laurie Johnstonbaugh

In October 1977, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission began two days of hearings in Seattle. The hearings were in response to mounting tension between local government and business interests and Native American communities over the issue of tribal sovereignty. This article explores the backlash campaign that followed the 1974 Boldt fishing rights decision and the Civil Rights Commission's effort to sort out the controversy.

Challenging Sexism at City Light: The Electrical Trades Trainee Program by Nicole Grant

On June 24, 1974 ten women began their first day of work at Seattle City Light, the city’s public utility. Tthe women represented the first stab at gender integration of the all-male, unionized, Seattle City Light electricians. They would become the first female linemen, sub-station constructors, cable splicers, the first unionized female utility electricians in Seattle and the first in the nation.

The 1920 Anti-Japanese Crusade and Congressional  Hearings by Doug Blair

Congressman Albert Johnson co-authored the 1924 Immigration Act that effectively closed America’s borders to non-white immigrants for the next forty years.  In 1920 he brought his Congressional committee to Seattle to investigate the "threat" posed by Japanese immigrants. This paper examines the hearings and Washington's anti-Japanese crisis of 1920.   

"Pride and Shame" The Museum Exhibit that Helped Launch the Japanese American Redress Movement by Allison Shephard

In 1970, the Seattle Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League changed course on a museum exhibit that was supposed to merely celebrate their community, and instead decided to also revisit the painful history of internment. The exhibit, "Pride and Shame", ended up traveling around the country, and has been credited with helping launch the internment redress movement.

Battle at Boeing: African Americans and the Campaign for Jobs, 1939-1942 by Sarah Miner

In 1942, Florise Spearman and Dorothy West Williams became the first African Americans ever to be hired at Boeing. Their employment capped a two-year campaign led by the Northwest Enterprise, Seattle's black-owned newspaper, and a coalition of black activists. The Aeronautical Workers union fought the demand for open hiring and it was only when the federal government intervened that the company and the union gave up the white-only employment policy.

1965 Freedom Patrols and the Origins of Seattle's Police Accountability Movement by Jennifer Taylor

What began as a fight between two white police officers and two unarmed black men in Seattle’s predominantly non-white Central District became political when an officer shot and killed one of the African Americans.  African American community leaders demanded justice and set up "freedom patrols" to monitor the police.

After Internment: Seattle's Debate Over Japanese Americans' Right to Return Home by Jennifer Speidel

On December 17th, 1944 U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt announced that the federal government would officially end the exclusion order that prevented Japanese and Japanese-Americans from returning to the West Coast. The announcement set off a fiery debate over "resettlement," with some Seattle residents supporting the right of return, while others, including many public officials, tried to stop it. This essay explores both sides of the resettlement debate in Seattle. 

Electrical Workers Minority Caucus: A History by Nicole Grant

Historically the construction trades have been a bastion of white, male unionism. Since 1986 the Electrical Workers Minority Caucus has carved out a space for workers of color and female workers in IBEW Local 46, the union representing electrical workers in the Pacific Northwest. This essay explores the history of race, gender, and struggle before EWMC and examines the organization's role in Local 46 today.

Blocking Racial Intermarriage Laws in 1935 and 1937: Seattle's First Civil Rights Coalition        by Stefanie Johnson

In an era marked by racial segregation, Washington was an anomaly: one of only eight states without laws banning racial intermarriage.  When anti-miscegenation bills were introduced in both the 1935 and 1937 sessions of the Washington State Legislature, an effective and well-organized coalition led by the African American, Filipino, and Labor communities mobilized against the measure.

Susie Revels Cayton: "The Part She Played" by Michelle L. Goshorn

Wife of publisher Horace Cayton Sr., mother of the famous sociologist Horace Cayton Jr. and labor leader Revels Cayton, Susie Revels Cayton was also Associate Editor or the Seattle Republican and an activist in Seattle's African American community. This biographical essay uses her writings to provide a window into her personal life and to help clarify her dual commitments to her family and  her community.

Black Longshoreman: The Frank Jenkins Story by Megan Elston

Frank Jenkins (1902-1973) was a second generation Seattle longshoreman and one of the first African Americans to hold leadership positions in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. A participant in the 1934 strike that created the ILWU, for the next thirty-three years he served Seattle's Local 19 in various leadership capacities and was regularly elected to the Coast Labor Relations committee of the International union. This biography tells the story of a pioneer black union leader.

La Raza Comes to Campus: The new Chicano contingent and the grape boycott at the University of Washington, 1968-69 by Jeremy Simer

Chicano students at the UW mobilized for the first time  in the fall of 1968.  They formed the United Mexican American Students (UMAS), which joined and soon led a campaign to boycott of California table grapes in support of the United Farm Worker Organizing Committee (UFWOC), which had been on strike since 1965. The successful boycott made the UW the first campus in the United States to stop selling grapes and turned a small group of Chicano students into a force to be reckoned with.

Revels Cayton: African American Communist and Labor Activist by Sarah Falconer

On February 19, 1934, a group of Communists decided that discrimination toward African Americans and Filipinos in Seattle must come to an end. Led by a young, African American, Revels Cayton, the group entered a Seattle City Council meeting demanding laws that would make discrimination based on race illegal. This essay examines the activism of Revels Cayton, son of the prominent middle class black leaders Horace and Susie Cayton, brother of the influential sociologist Horace Cayton, Jr.

Victorio Velasco, Pioneer Filipino American Journalist by Erik Luthy

Journalism became very important to Filipino American community development and politics and no one did more to establish the journalistic enterprise than Victorio Velasco, who is best known as the editor of the Seattle-based Filipino Forum (1928-1968). This paper looks at his early career as a student and journalist after coming to the US from the Phillipines in 1924.

Cannery Worker's and Farm Laborer's Union 1933-1939: Their Strength in Unity by Crystal Fresco

Seattle was home to the most important Filipino-American-led labor union, the Cannery Worker's and Farm Laborer's Union. Organized in 1933, the union represented "Alaskeros," the men who shipped out each spring to work in the Salmon canneries of Alaska. This essay narrates the dramatic early years of CWFLU. The union was still in its infancy when two of the founders, President Virgil Duyungan and secretary Aurelio Simon, were murdered, but their deaths only solidified the members determination to make their organization survive and succeed.

The Local 7/Local 37 Story: Filipino American Cannery Unionism in Seattle 1940-1959 by Micah Ellison

Historians have concentrated on the early years of the Cannery Workers Union and on the two sets of assassinations that plagued the Filipino-American-led union, the murder of Duyungan and Simon in 1936 and the second dual assassination of union leaders Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes in 1981. This essay  explores the critical middle period as the union negotiated the 1940s and 1950s, dealing with deportation threats, internal turmoil, but also consolidating and becoming a critical resource for Filipino-American communities on the West Coast.

The Seattle School Boycott of 1966 by Brooke Clark

"What do we want? Integration. When do we want it? Now!" This familiar chant from the civil rights movement reflected the desires of Seattle parents of school age children in 1966.  That year, for two days, K-12 students poured out of Seattle ’s public schools and attended “freedom schools” to protest racial segregation in the Seattle school system. This essay tells the story of that boycott—from its origins to its effect on Seattle’s students and politicians.

Tyree Scott and the United Construction Workers Association by Trevor Griffey

Seattle’s politics of fair employment entered a new phase when African American construction workers and activists began to protest racially exclusionary hiring practices in Seattle’s construction unions in the fall of 1969. Led by electrician Tyree Scott, workers used direct action to challenge institutional barriers to African American employment in Seattle.  In the process, they became pioneers in shaping the early national politics of affirmative action. This unit includes interviews, documents, a short history of the UCWA, and full reproductions of the UCWA newspaper No Separate Peace.

The Black Panther Party in Seattle 1968-1970 by Kurt Schaefer

This essay explores the first three years of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party from its founding by Black Student Union members in 1968 through the 1970 crisis negotiated by Mayor Wes Uhlman. The essay is presented in three parts.

Organized Labor and Seattle's African American Community: 1916-1920 by Jon Wright

"Seattle’s labor community saw many developments in the late teens and early twenties, and one small but important group that played a part in these developments was the African American population. Organized labor in Seattle was very active and was seen by many people as even radical, with the Seattle General Strike of 1919 being given for evidence. In relation to the African American community though, the labor movement was anything but radical. Seattle unions were often racist and excluded Blacks from their ranks. At other times they voiced support for Blacks, but in actuality they did little to erase the color bar in unions.

Race and Civil Rights in the Washington State Communist Party: the 1930s and 1940s      by Shelley Pinckney

The Communist Party of Washington State struggled diligently to fulfill Lenin’s pledge, working to improve conditions for people of color in the Pacific Northwest.  The CP was one of the first left groups to take up the issue of racism and oppression.  During the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, the CP made important strides in the areas of union desegregation, public education about racial injustices, and legal support for civil rights activities.