Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Taylor, Quintard

Title The forging of a black community : Seattle's Central District, from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era / Quintard Taylor ; foreword by Norm Rice
Published Seattle : University of Washington Press, c1994

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xiii, 330 p., [32] p. of plates )
Series The Emil and Kathleen Sick lecture-book series in western history and biography
The Emil and Kathleen Sick lecture-book series in western history and biography
Contents Foreword / Norm Rice -- Introduction. Seattle: The Urban Frontier -- pt. 1. African Americans in a Frontier City, 1860-1899. 1. Origins and Foundations, 1860-1899 -- pt. 2. The Black Community Emerges, 1900-1940. 2. Employment and Economics, 1900-1940. 3. Housing, Civil Rights, and Politics, 1900-1940. 4. Blacks and Asians in a White City, 1870-1942. 5. The Forging of a Black Community Ethos, 1900-1940 -- pt. 3. Black Seattle in the Modern Era, 1941-1970. 6. The Transformation of the Central District, 1941-1960. 7. From "Freedom Now" to "Black Power," 1961-1970 -- Conclusion: Black Seattle, Past, Present, and Future -- App. 1. Founding Members of the Seattle NAACP -- App. 2. Black Seattle: The Social Nexus -- App. 3. Growth of Seattle's Black Population, 1860-1990 -- App. 4. Seattle's Minority Population, 1900-1990
Summary Through much of the twentieth century, black Seattle was synonymous with the Central District - a four-square-mile section near the geographic center of the city. Quintard Taylor explores the evolution of this community from its first few residents in the 1870s to a population of nearly forty thousand in 1970. With events such as the massive influx of rural African Americans beginning with World War II and the transformation of African American community leadership in the 1960s from an integrationist to a "black power" stance, Seattle both anticipates and mirrors national trends. Thus, the book addresses not only a particular city in the Pacific Northwest but also the process of political change in black America. This book places black urban history in a broader framework than most urban case studies by analyzing racial perceptions, attitudes, and expectations in light of the presence of another people of color, Asian Americans. Asians rather than blacks were Seattle's largest racial minority until World War II. Their presence limited African American employment and housing opportunities by drawing blacks into intense competition with the city's Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino populations. Yet the virulent racism of the 1890-1940 era, usually directed against blacks in urban communities, was diffused among Seattle's four nonwhite groups. Consequently, Asians and blacks, admittedly uneasy neighbors, became partners in coalitions challenging racial restrictions while remaining competitors for housing and jobs. Taylor explores the intersection of race and class in a city with a decidedly liberal and at times radical political culture. He finds that while local blacks operated in a racial environment that allowed relatively open social interaction, at the same time they were subject to restricted employment opportunities, preventing rapid growth of the African American population. Taylor argues that black Seattle was poised between two worlds, attempting to meld the values and traditions of its rural past with the requisites of modern urban-industrial society. Thus the community ethos was forged by the process in which the values of the rural, predominantly southern migrants - kinship networks, religious and folk beliefs, and sense of shared community - were transformed in the urban environment. This volume will be of special interest to those studying African American history, urban history and social relations, regional history, and ethnic group relations as well as to scholars of Pacific Northwest and western history
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (p. 298-315) and index
Notes Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed
Subject African Americans -- Washington (State) -- Seattle -- History
HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- General.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Ethnic Studies -- African American Studies.
African Americans
Race relations
Bürgerrecht
Schwarze
Etnische betrekkingen.
Noirs-américains -- Etats-Unis -- Seattle (Wash.) -- Histoire.
SUBJECT Central District (Seattle, Wash.) -- Race relations
Seattle (Wash.) -- Race relations
Subject Washington (State) -- Seattle
Washington (State) -- Seattle -- Central District
Seattle, Wash.
Schwärze
Seattle -- Relations interethniques.
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2021700655
ISBN 9780295802237
0295802235