An Online Reference Guide to African American History
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Preserving Martin Luther King County’s African American History
Thanks to a generous grant from 4Culture, the BlackPast.org staff has created a special section on the history of the black residents of Martin Luther King County, Washington. Included below are brief profiles of the individuals, organizations, institutions and events which have shaped that history and impacted the history of all the residents of King County. Also included are primary documents, speeches, bibliographies, and a photo gallery related to that history.
Profiles: Individuals
John H. Adams
William McDonald Austin
Powell S. Barnett
Roberta Byrd Barr
Lodie Biggs
Robert ”Bumps” Blackwell
Keve Bray
Leon Bridges
Odessa Brown
Dr. Samuel Burdett
Philip Burton
Octavia Butler
Bertha Pitts Campbell
Horace R. Cayton, Sr.
Horace R. Cayton, Jr.
Susie Revels Cayton
Vivian Leona Caver
Harrison L. Caldwell
Paul Chiles
John A. Coleman
Seaborn J. Collins
Thelma Dewitty
Aaron Dixon
Zoe Dusanne
Paul Dusenbury
Trish Millines Dziko
Evelyn Bundy Band
Isaiah Edwards
Green Fields
George T. Fleming
Syvilla Fort
John T. Gayton
Larry Gossett
Letitia Graves
William Grose
John Henry Hamilton "Doc"
Homer Harris
Charles Henry Harvey
Ralph Hayes
Inez Pitter Haynes
Jimi Hendrix
Wanda J. Herndon
George W. Hickman
Oscar Holden
Dorothy Hollingsworth
Cliff Hooper
Lembhard Howell
Walter Hubbard, Jr.
Walter R. Hundley
Hutchen R. Hutchins
James Lloyd Jackson
Profiles: Organizations and Institutions
Black Arts West
Central Area Civil Rights Committee
Central Area Committee for Peace and Improvement
Central Area School Council
Central Contractors Association
Christian Friends for Racial Equality
Colored Marine Employees Benevolent Association
Congress of Racial Equality, Seattle Chapter
Earl Whaley Band
Edythe Turnham Orchestra
First A.M.E. Church (Seattle)
Frances Ellen Harper Branch of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union
Jackson Street Community Council
King County Colored Republican Club
Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute
Meredith Matthews East Madison YMCA
Mt. Zion Baptist Church
Negro Musicians Union
Negro Repertory Theater
Northwest Enterprise
Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic
Operation Equity
Parents Involved
Seattle Civic Unity Committee
Seattle School Boycott
Ubangi Blackhawks
United Black Front
United Construction Workers Association
Profiles: Places
Camp George Jordan
Profiles: Events
Berry Lawson Case
Booker T. Washington in Seattle
Drive for Equal Employment in Downtown Seattle (DEEDS)
Fort Lawton Riot
Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007)
O'Meara v. The Washington State Board Against Discrimination (1961)
Seattle School Boycott (1966)
Perspectives Articles:
The Tie Breaker in Perspective
Garveyism Looks Toward the Pacific: The UNIA and Black Workers in the American West
Gentrification, Integration or Displacement?: The Seattle Story
Race, Gender, Jazz & Local 493: Black Women Musicians in Seattle: 1920-1955
History of the Seattle Open Housing Campaign
The Blood of Entertainers: The Life and Times of Jimi Hendrix's Paternal Grandparents
Primary Documents:
Hazel Dixon Manuscript (1937)
Washington (State) Omnibus Civil Rights Act of 1957
O'Meara v. The Washington State Board Against Discrimination (1961)
Washington State Initiative 200 (1998)
Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle Central School District No. 1 (2007)
Bibliography:
DeBarros, Paul, Jackson Street After Hours: The Roots of Jazz in Seattle (1993)
Hanawalt, Frank and Robert L. Williams, The History of Desegregation in Seattle Public Schools, 1954-1981 (1981)
Lowe, Turkiya L., The History of the Greater Seattle Chapter of the Links Incorporated, 1955-2005 (2005)
Mumford, Esther Hall, Seattle's Black Victorians, 1852-1901 (1980)
Mumford, Esther Hall, Seven Stars and Orion: Reflections of the Past [Oral history of black Seattleites] (1986)
Reed, Wilson E., The Politics of Community Policing: The Case of Seattle (1999)
Joan Singler, Jean Durning, BettyLou Valentine, Seattle in Black and White: The Congress of Racial Equality and the Fight for Equal Opportunity (2011)
Siqueland, Anne LaGrelius, Without a Court Order: The Desegregation of Seattle Schools (1981)
Taylor, Quintard, The Forging of A Black Community: Seattle's Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era (1994)
Williams, DeCharlene, A History of Seattle's Central Area, (1990)
Wilson, Lyle Kenai, Sunday Afternoons at Garfield Park: Seattle's Black Baseball Teams, 1911-1951 (1997)
Photo Gallery:
The photographic history of African Americans in Martin Luther King County, Washington is vast. In fact there are hundreds of images housed in the collections of the Black Heritage Society of Washington and the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). The Society and the Museum have given permission for twelve of their images to appear below. These images represent a small portion of the holdings of the two institutions.
Other King County Historical institutions such as the Renton Historical Society, the Ballard Historical Society, the Wing Luke Museum, and the University of Washington Manuscripts and Archives also have images. The basements and attics of county residents, however, are the greatest repository of photographs of African American History in King County. If you have images connected to African American history over the past 160 years in Seattle and King County, we at BlackPast.org urge you to contact one of these (or other) organizations to donate those images to an institution with a trained staff and state of the art technology so that your images will be preserved for future generations.
Here are images from the Black Heritage Society and the Museum of History and Industry. Please visit their respective websites for access to the full collection of images on African American history in their holdings.
Black Heritage Society Website (http://www.blackheritagewa.org/)
Museum of History & Industry Website (http://www.mohai.org/)
BlackPast.org is an independent non-profit corporation 501(c)(3). It has no affiliation with the University of Washington. BlackPast.org is supported in part by a grant from Humanities Washington, a state-wide non-profit organization supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the state of Washington, and contributions from individuals and foundations.