Beverly Sims was born and raised in Seattle. After attending the University of Washington, she worked for Boeing before becoming a secretary at the Northwest Labor and Employment Law Office, which recently changed its name to Legacy of Equality, Leadership, and Organizing (LELO). 

While at LELO, Sims became involved in Seattle’s radical politics through her friendship with, and later marriage to, Tyree Scott, the leader of the United Construction Workers Association (UCWA).  In 1975, Sims entered the apprenticeship program of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 46— the same union that Scott belonged to— through a court-ordered affirmative action plan specifically for black workers.  She was the third black woman to ever enter the program, and the first to complete it.  She left the trades in the early 1980s following the birth of her son, Seth, and currently works for King County’s HIV/ AIDS prevention program.

Beverly Sims shared memories of her activism in the labor and civil rights movements in a videotaped interview conducted by Nicole Grant and Trevor Griffey on May 25, 2005.

Bev Sims with Tyree Scott and their son at a 1977 demonstration supporting King County auto trades strike. Photo: Earl George