Preserving Martin Luther King County’s African American History

Open Housing Demonstration Spring Methodists for Open Housing 1964

King County, WA, official logo

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.

Individuals & Institutions

Organizations, Events & Places

Perspectives & Resources

Individuals

Institutions

First A.M.E. Church (Seattle)
Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute
Meredith Matthews East Madison YMCA

Mt. Zion Baptist Church
Negro Repertory Theater
Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic

Organizations

Events

Places

Camp George Jordan

Councilman Larry Gossett and King County Chair Dow Constantine Unveiling the New County Flag in January 2009

King County Executive Ron Sims, King County Councilman Larry Gossett, and King County Council Chair Dow Constantine Unveil the New King County Flag, January 2009 (Seattle Times)

Perspectives Articles

Primary Documents

Bibliographies

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)