Black History

In 1888, black men were recruited from the southern states to come to Roslyn, Washington, to work in the mines. What they had not known until their arrival was that they were there to break the strike against the coal company. Upon their arrival on the Northern Pacific Coal Company train, they were met with much violence. When the strike was finally settled, everyone-black and white-went to work. After the mines closed, the blacks migrated across the Pacific Northwest. Arcadia's African Americans in Spokane is about those black families who arrived in Spokane, Washington, in 1899. This collection of historic images reveals the story of their survival, culture, churches, and significance in the Spokane community throughout the decades that followed; this is the story of the journey that began once their final destination was reached, in Spokane.

The prolific journey of African Americans in Portland is rooted in the courageous determination of black pioneers to begin anew in an unfamiliar and often hostile territory. Amazingly, a small population of African Americans settled in Portland against a backdrop of exclusion laws that banned free blacks from settling in Oregon. At the end of the 19th century, new employment opportunities in Portland and growing antiblack sentiments elsewhere spurred the growth of Portland's African American community. Approximately 75 African American men were hired at the Portland Hotel, and the completion of transcontinental rail lines brought African American railroad workers to Portland. By 1890, the majority of Oregon's black population resided in Multnomah County, and Portland became the center of a thriving black middle-class community. Fifty years later, the recruitment of defense workers increased the population of African Americans nearly tenfold. The war boom, coupled with the tragic Vanport flood, forever changed Portland's urban landscape and reshaped the socioeconomic realities of Portland's African American community.

Men of ValorIn the late 1800s, the new state of Washington promised peace and prosperity to new settlers. At least thirty-three African American men who had served during the Civil War answered the call. Paul Barrows, a former legislator from Mississippi, established the Calvary Baptist Church of Spokane. Gideon H. Stump Bailey became the first African American Justice of the Peace in Franklin. Allin Alfred Hawkins, born into slavery, became one of the wealthiest African American farmers in the Yakima Valley.Author Cynthia A. Wilson uncovers the stories of these courageous men.

Breaking glass ceilings, organizing clubs, and making history as the first in their fields, these trailblazing Black women paved the way for new generations.

From Nettie Craig Asberry, founder of the Tacoma NAACP, to Dr. Dolores Silas, now honored by a school bearing her name, these women forged a path amid adversity. Black women were crucial to the war effort, working as Rosies at Boeing during World War II, and in the post-war years, Seattle musicians like Edyth Turnham and Her Knights of Syncopation were in high demand. These teachers, scientists, and politicians served on boards, led protests, and fought for civil rights across the state.

Join author and historian Marilyn Morgan as she chronicles the incredible lives and contributions of Washington's Black women.

It was the spring of 1871. Pioneer entrepreneur Abigail Scott Duniway, on a business trip to purchase stock for her millinery store back in Oregon, waited breathlessly outside the suffrage convention in San Francisco. She hoped to meet Susan B. Anthony, whose career she so admired. And so they met, sparking a relationship that dramatically altered Duniway's life. The duo traveled for months on horseback, carriage, train and boat in their crucial, successful effort to ensure the right to vote for women nationwide. Author Jennifer Chambers revives the inspirational fight for women's rights by examining the dynamic between these two powerful women and how they changed not just the Beaver State but the country as a whole.