HistoryLink.Org articles on African Americans and Civil Rights

African American firsts in Seattle/ King County

• Manual Lopes, First African American in Seattle, 1852 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2750
• First African American at UW, 1874 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1606
• William Grose, First African American in CD, 1882 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=393
• First black police officer in Seattle resigns quickly, 1890http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=273
• Boeing hires first African American employee 1942 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2916
• Harborview hires its first black nurse 1943 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2974
• Seattle’s first black bus driver lasts 4 months before he quits due to insults, 1945http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2967
• Seattle hires first black public school teachers, 1947
  • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1163
  • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2976
• First black state legislator from King County 1950 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=674
• Martin Luther King Jr. makes first and only visit to Seattle, 1961http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=673
• Seattle elects its first black City Councilmember, Sam Smith 1967http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1989
• First black UW regent, 1970 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2202
• First black woman on school board, 1975 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=291
• Rainier Club admits first black member, 1977 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2962
• Norm Rice elected Seattle’s first black mayor, 1989 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2234

African American 1960s Civil Rights Leader Profiles

• Philip Burton http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=321
• Walter Hundley http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3173
• Sam Smith http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=63
• Charles Stokes http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=674
• Edwin Pratt
  • Biography http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=62
  • History of murder/ search for justice http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=4142
• Ben McAdoo http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1161
• Rev. McKinney http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=152
• Charles V. Johnson http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=31
• Roberta Byrd Barr http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=306
• Flo Ware http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1145
• Dorothy Hollingsworth http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=291

Civil Rights Organizations

• Christian Friends for Racial Equality (CFRE)
  • History http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3164
  • Oral History http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2427
  • Bertha Pitts Cambell, co-founder http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=28
• Seattle Civic Unity Committee
  • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2119
  • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2114
• NAACP
  • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=695
  • http://www.scn.org/naacp/naacp_page_1.htm
• Jackson Street Community Council http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1142
• El Centro de la Raza http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2588
• ACLU
  • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3597
• Civil Rights Congress http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=603
• American Jewish Committee http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=666

Open Housing

• Renton Hill community club creates whites only covenant, 1929 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3158
• Civic Unity Committee challenges restrictive covenants, 1948 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3153
• Battles in Madrona/ Denny Blaine over housing discrimination, 1956 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1056
• Sit ins at city hall 1963 partly driven by open housing movement
  • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3161
  • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3162
• Seattle rejects open housing, 1964 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3154
• Elliot Coulden and other Seattle-area real estate agents go to Washington, DC to testify against open housing legislation, 1960s http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3500
• Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination prompts Seattle City Council to finally pass open housing, 1968 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1384

Busing in Seattle

• History of busing in Seattle http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3939
• History of anti-busing movement in Seattle http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3943

African Americans and the Seattle police department

• First African American cop in Seattle quickly resigns, 1890http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=273
• Governor pardons cops for killing Seattle African American, 1939http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3477
• Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Police Practices, 1955 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2938
• Walter Lawson, one of Seattle’s few black cops in the 1960shttp://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1165
• “Riots” in the Central District, Summer, 1968
  • July 1 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1515
  • July 29 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1530
  • July 30 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3307
• Seattle Police Liaison Committee starts, August 1968 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1942

Black Panther Party for Self Defense, Seattle Chapter

• Founded April, 1968 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1382
• Peace and Freedom Party, July, 1968 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1520
• Peace and Freedom Party, September , 1968 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1557
• Seattle bans unconcealed weapons used “for intimidation,” September, 1968http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1561
• Rainier Beach High School Confrontation, September, 1968 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2293
• Welton Armstead killed, October, 1968 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3605
• Curtis Harris convicted of threatening officer, October, 1968 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1571
• Sidney Miller killed while shoplifting, November, 1968 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1581
• Aaron Dixon acquitted of stealing typewriter, December, 1968 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1590
• Sydney Miller Free Medical Clinic founded, December, 1968http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1335

UW Black Student Union

• http://students.washington.edu/bsu/
• Franklin High School Sit In, March, 1968 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1378
• University of Washington Sit In, May, 1968
  • Lead up negotiations
    • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1449
    • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1450
    • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1452
  • Sit in, May 20, 1968
    • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1454
  • UW administration endorses black studies program
    • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1455
• Sit in at Franklin High, June, 1968 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1240
• Cleveland High protests , November, 1968 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1582
• Seattle Central Community College Protests, March-April, 1969
  • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1235
  • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1236
  • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2036
• Massive protests against UW affiliation with Brigham Young University (BYU), March, 1970 http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2194

African American Churches

• Mt Zion Baptist Church
  • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2048
  • http://www.mountzion.net/
• First AME Church
  • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1621
  • http://www.fameseattle.org/
• African American Grace Presbyterian merges with Madrona Presbyterian Church, only to have Madrona Presbyterian sell its buildings, leave the Central District, and move to predominantly white Mercer Island, 1953. http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=4248

African Americans in the arts

• Federal Theatre Project, Seattle Negro Unit
  • Negro Unit http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3976
  • Seattle Rep http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3978
  • Seattle Rep founders Burton and Florence James http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=598
• Black Arts/ West 5 Part Historical Essay http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.CFM?file_ID=3921
• Seattle Music and race
  • Dave Holden Oral History http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2562
  • Grace Holden Oral History http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2505
  • Parker’s Ballroom http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3827
  • Seattle Symphony’s first African American http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3885
  • Individual Musicians
    • Powell Barnett http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=307
    • Jimi Hendrix http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2498
  • Jackson Street music scene
    • http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3641