Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project

The Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project is a terrific resource about our local history.

Seattle has a unique civil rights history that challenges the way we think about race, civil rights, and the Pacific Northwest. Civil rights movements in Seattle started well before the celebrated struggles in the South in the 1950s and 1960s, and they relied not just on African American activists but also on Filipino Americans, Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans, Jews, Latinos, and Native Americans. They also depended upon the support of some elements of the region's labor movement. From the 1910s through the 1970s, labor and civil rights were linked in complicated ways, with some unions and radical organizations providing critical support to struggles for racial justice, while others stood in the way.

This multi-media web site brings the vital history of Seattle's civil rights movements to life with dozens of video oral histories, hundreds of rare photographs, documents, movement histories, and personal biographies. Based at the University of Washington, the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project is a collaboration between community groups and UW faculty and students.

The activist oral histories include Law School alumni Guadalupe Gamboa (UFW leader), Ricardo Martinez (federal district judge), Blair Paul (founding member of United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, now a real estate agent), and Charles Z. Smith (professor emeritus and former Justice of the Washington Supreme Court).

There are Films and Powerpoint slide shows include:

• "A Really Nice Place To Live" Film by Shaun Scott
• "The End of Old Days" Film by Shaun Scott
• "A Family Affair" Film by Shaun Scott
• "Seattle's Segregation Story" Powerpoint with video segments
• "Seattle’s Civil Rights History: Movements and Milestones" Powerpoint with video segments
• "Black Panthers Tell Their Stories" Powerpoint with video segments
• "Raza Si! Chicano Activism in Washington State 1965- present" Powerpoint with video segments
• "Youth in the Seattle Civil Rights Movements" Powerpoint with video segments
• "Women in Seattle's Civil Rights Movements" Powerpoint with video segments