The roots of racial discrimination against blacks and other people of color run deep in America. Not only was there segregation and overt racism in the South, but the North, as well. After WWII, my grandparents came as far north as they could to Seattle to escape Jim Crow in the South. Unfortunately, they were in for a shock, because Seattle was nearly as racist and as segregated as some of the worst Southern cities and from what I hear, a lot of other Northern cities were pretty racist as well.
I was shocked Seattle. None of the old folks mentioned anything about the city's segregationist past. They just plopped down in the now gentrified Central District to live their lives. Maybe they wanted to forget. Whites lived North and in the West part of the city, but I didn’t realize until now that this was by design.
According to the Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History project:
For most of its history, Seattle was a segregated city as committed to white supremacy as any location in America. People of color were excluded from most jobs, most neighborhoods and schools, and many stores, restaurants, hotels, and other commercial establishments, even hospitals. As in other western states, the system of severe racial discrimination in Seattle targeted not just African Americans but also Native Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, people of Mexican ancestry, and also, at times, Jews.
In the 1950s there was a restaurant in town called Coon Chicken of all things! And, up until the 1960s, many neighborhoods in Seattle practiced racial exclusion; white-only clauses can still be found on the property deeds in some neighborhoods. On March 15, 2006, Washington’s Governor, Christine Gregoire, signed a law to make it easier for neighborhoods to get rid of these racially restrictive covenants.
I just wanted to post this to inform all of the racism deniers that it does indeed exist It is not some long, forgotten vestige of the old South. It has an influence on the lives of blacks and other people of color into the present day - even in a place as liberal and far north as Seattle, Washington.
To learn more visit the Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project
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