Early in 1890, in Spokane, Washington, a small group of African American citizens gathered “to consider the propriety of organizing a church.” The name Calvary Baptist Church was adopted, and thus was founded the city’s first historically black church. Its founding transcended race and gender, … Read MoreCalvary Baptist Church, Spokane, Washington (1890- )
An unusual incidence of interracial solidarity between blacks and Asian Americans occurred during Booker T. Washington’s visit to Seattle. In March 1913, Washington embarked on a national speaking tour in order to raise money for Tuskegee Institute, the chronically underfunded “Normal and Industrial School” in … Read MoreBooker Washington in Seattle, 1913
Dr. Blanche Sellers Lavizzo was the first African American woman pediatrician in the state of Washington. She arrived in Seattle in 1956, with her husband Dr. Philip Lavizzo, a general surgeon. They had left medical practices in New Orleans, Louisiana to pursue a better future … Read MoreBlanche Sellers Lavizzo (1925-1984)
Black Arts/West was Seattle’s first black theatre, eventually became a nationally known entity across the United States. Evolving out of the Civil Rights-Black Power movements of the 1960s, it was founded by Douglas Q. Barnett in 1969. Black Arts/West functioned as a three component program: … Read MoreBlack Arts/West (1969-1980)
Bertha Pitts Campbell was an early Seattle civil rights worker, a founder of the Christian Friends for Racial Equality, and an early board member of the Seattle Urban League. She was also one of 22 young women at Howard University in 1913, who founded the … Read MoreBertha Pitts Campbell (1889-1990)
Bernard Squires was the president of the Omaha, Nebraska chapter of the Urban League from 1935 to 1939 and the Seattle chapter of the Urban League from 1939 to 1943. Squires was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1904. He graduated from high school in Toledo, … Read MoreBernard Squires (1904-1947)
Spanish Civil War veteran and militant poet Ramón Durem was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1915 of mixed heritage. Leaving home at fourteen, he briefly served in the U.S. Navy before suffering a leg injury that forced his discharge. He then worked as a laborer … Read MoreRamón Durem (1915-1963)
Adolphus D. Griffin used his self-attained literacy to emerge as a newspaper editor/publisher in the West at the turn of the twentieth century. Born near Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1868, A.D. Griffin moved to Spokane, Washington where he edited one of his first newspapers, The Northwest … Read MoreAdolphus D. Griffin (1868-1916)
Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. was born in Chicago’s South Side on March 14, 1933, but grew up in Bremerton and Seattle, Washington. While in elementary school Jones picked up the trumpet, and his skill with the instrument led him to receive a scholarship to Berklee … Read MoreQuincy Jones Jr. (1933- )
