Seattle in Black and White: The Congress of Racial Equality and the Fight for Equal Opportunity

by Joan Singler, Jean C. Durning, Bettylou Valentine

Seattle was a very different city in 1960 than it is today. There were no black bus drivers, sales clerks, or bank tellers. Black children rarely attended the same schools as white children. And few black people lived outside of the Central District. In 1960, Seattle was effectively a segregated town.

Energized by the national civil rights movement, an interracial group of Seattle residents joined together to form the Seattle chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Operational from 1961 through 1968, CORE had a brief but powerful effect on Seattle. The chapter began by challenging one of the more blatant forms of discrimination in the city, local supermarkets. Located within the black community and dependent on black customers, these supermarkets refused to hire black employees. CORE took the supermarkets to task by organizing hundreds of volunteers into shifts of continuous picketers until stores desegregated their staffs. From this initial effort CORE, in partnership with the NAACP and other groups, launched campaigns to increase employment and housing opportunities for black Seattleites, and to address racial inequalities in Seattle public schools. The members of Seattle CORE were committed to transforming Seattle into a more integrated and just society.

Seattle was one of more than one hundred cities to support an active CORE chapter. Seattle in Black and White tells the local, Seattle story about this national movement. Authored by four active members of Seattle CORE, this book not only recounts the actions of Seattle CORE but, through their memories, also captures the emotion and intensity of this pivotal and highly charged time in America’s history.

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Genres: Nonfiction, Book Club, History

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 8, 2011

Reviews

[Alexandria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because I wanted to learn more about the racial history of Seattle. This book is exactly as described and to that effect, can feel a bit narrow in scope. The efforts of CORE are detailed, including who attended which meeting and the like, which is fantastic for archival purposes, but as a 2020 reader, I would've preferred something "bigger picture." That said, I still found this interesting.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inspiring how relatively few people accomplished so much -- desegregating several employers, making a dent in education and housing, lending. It was sad that it fell apart when black empowerment became more important social improvements as the politics changed. My only complaint was that the timelines were rather confused, jumping backwards and forwards in time even within sections. The pictures were great though.