As late as the mid 1960s,
Seattle police enforced informal “sundown” rules. In the evenings,
after work, African Americans were not supposed to be in
“white neighborhoods.” Black men in particular would
be stopped and questioned.
Anywhere north of the ship canal
was considered a sundown zone, also Queen Anne,
Magnolia, and West Seattle.
Police in the suburbs on the
eastside and north of Seattle were even more aggressive.
The Congress of Racial Equality
(CORE) monitored and publicized police harassment in 1964 and
1965.