Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs: the forging of a black community

the forging of a black community

Date: December 24, 2003 | 28 Shawwal 1424 Hijriah

Subjects: books

This week, I've been reading The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle's Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era, by Quintard Taylor. If you'd like a brief overview of what the book covers, you can check out this feature on the history of African-Americans in Seattle from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which is largely based on Taylor's book.

The book is very well-written and is easily accessible, whether or not you're familiar with Seattle history in general. It's a great resource for those who are interested in Seattle history. But perhaps the most valuable aspect of the book is the comparison and contrast of the black experience in Seattle to that in other cities.

In Seattle, blacks always had the vote and never faced openly segregationist laws. Yet they were barred from the area's largest employers and trades in some cases until the 1970s by the exclusionary racist policies of labor unions and limited to living in the Central District by restrictive housing covenants. Thus, Seattle illustrates the continuing struggle against economic marginalization.

Another factor is Seattle's large Asian population. In many Northern cities, race relations are a story of white and black until recently, but Seattle was multiracial and multicultural from the beginning. Again, Seattle illustrates trends that are becoming important today.

At times, the struggle for racial justice in Seattle was hindered by the perception among both whites and blacks that Seattle was much better than other parts of the country and did not have any racial problems. Again, this is an issue that African-Americans and their allies are facing today.

I highly recommend this book.

~ Posted by Al-Muhajabah, a member of the reality-based community, at 07:51 AM

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Lauraj said:

Total comments: 17 gold star

Subject: Re: the forging of a black community

Yeah, sounds just like all of California, although we were here about a generation earlier. I have spent a lifetime trying to explain to cousins and friends from Detroit, NY, Atlanta, etc., that the "Black experience" here, unlike those places, do not necessarily define the "minority experience". For instance, in San Fran, segregation was aimed at Asians, not us. Until we got here in large numbers, that is, around WWII.

Then, people showed their true colors, to coin a phrase. San Francisco is still dealing with that very legacy, right this minute, in the Western Addition and Hunters Point/Bayview (aka the Black parts of town).

~ Posted at December 24, 2003 10:11 PM | Comment Permalink

Al-Munaqabah said:

Total comments: 996 gold star

Subject: Re: the forging of a black community

Yes, that sounds very similar to Seattle. The worst violence is still that which was aimed at Asians, for instance, the anti-Chinese riots in 1886 that expelled all Chinese-Americans from Seattle, or the internment camps for Japanese-Americans in WWII. Seattle's black population is still relatively small, about 50,000 I think, but it was much tinier before WWII, I mean as a proportion of the total population. The author, Taylor, specifically mentions that he would like to see studies of African-Americans in other western cities, particularly Los Angeles and San Francisco so as to compare Seattle to them.

~ Posted at December 25, 2003 04:41 AM | Comment Permalink

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