The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era (Emil and Kathleen Sick Book Series in Western History and Biography) - Softcover

Taylor, Quintard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0295750413 ISBN 13: 9780295750415

Publisher: University of Washington Press, 2022

Synopsis

Seattle's first black resident was a sailor named Manuel Lopes who arrived in 1858 and became the small community's first barber. He left in the early 1870s to seek economic prosperity elsewhere, but as Seattle transformed from a stopover town to a full-fledged city, African Americans began to stay and build a community. By the early twentieth century, black life in Seattle coalesced in the Central District, a four-square-mile section east of downtown. Black Seattle, however, was never a monolith. Through world wars, economic booms and busts, and the civil rights movement, black residents and leaders negotiated intragroup conflicts and had varied approaches to challenging racial inequity. Despite these differences, they nurtured a distinct African American culture and black urban community ethos. With a new foreword and afterword, this second edition of The Forging of a Black Community is essential to understanding the history and present of the largest black community in the Pacific Northwest.

About this title

About the Authors

Quintard Taylor is the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Emeritus Professor of American History at the University of Washington and founder of BlackPast.org. Among his many publications, he is the author of In Search of The Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528-1990 (Norton, 1999) and The Forging of A Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era (UWP, 1994) and co-editor of Seeking El Dorado: African Americans in California (UWP, 2001) and African American Women Confront the West, 1600-2000 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2003). He is the series editor for the University of Oklahoma Press's series Race and Culture in the American West.

Quin'Nita Cobbins-Modica is visiting assistant professor of history at the University of Oregon and executive director of BlackPast.org. She is the coauthor of Seattle on the Spot: The Photographs of Al Smith (MOHAI/UWP, 2018). Quin'Nita Cobbins-Modica received her PhD from the University of Washington in 2018. This is her first book.

Norm Rice was mayor of Seattle from 1990 to 1997. A Seattle resident for more than 50 years, he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Washington and was the first elected African American mayor of Seattle.

Albert S. Broussard is professor of history at Texas A&M University. He is the author of several books, including African American Odyssey: The Stewarts, 1853-1963 (University Press of Kansas, 1998) and Black San Francisco: The Struggle for Racial Equality in the West, 1900-1954 (University Press of Kansas, 1993).

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0295750413
• ISBN 13: 9780295750415
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 426