Racism and slavery are two of the main ideas in chapter 9. While trying to find articles and sources that speak about racism and slavery in Washington State, I found an blog by Peter Webster from Oregon that dicusses this issue dated in 2006. The blog is entitled "Disturbing the Comfortable: Racism Remains in Washington State."
Peter talks about being involved with the "situation of American Indians in northwest Washington." He talks about the Indians being given a fair share of the salmon catch, which angered white people who live around them. Makah Indians were also given a treaty right to harvest gray whales, which also angered the whites. One anti-Indian sign reads: "Save a whale: spear a Makah."
He also talks about the time when the citizens of Port Angeles discovered a great location to build a graving dock that had the possibility of offering some jobs to the local population. There was one problem: it was a village site for Indians. This then resulted in more name-calling and violence against those Indians.
Another source I found features an interview with Arline and Letcher Yarbrough, a black couple who lived through the racism present during World War II. I will include excerpts of the interview that struck me the most:
Arline Yarbrough: "Before the war, it seems to me that most of the smaller restaurants in Seattle -- the soda fountains in drugstores and places like that -- did not practice any discrimination. Because of that, an experience I had during the war was very bitter. I was looking for a job, and I had to wait a while for the time of my appointment. I stopped in a little -- oh, I think it probably would be called a sandwich shop. They served sandwiches and soft drinks and that sort of thing. It was a very warm day, and I stopped in there for something cool to drink. I sat at the counter and waited, and eventually was told, We don’t serve you here. I said, What do you mean, you don't serve me? A man came forward and said, 'we don't serve Negroes.' It came quite as a shock to me because I had not experienced that in Seattle. We knew some of the bigger places were [sic] you were not going to be welcome in the first place, and we avoided them. But to stop in a little place like that -- well, that had never happened to me here."
Question: Would you say that Seattle became more racist during World War II?
Arline Yarbrough: Yes, and I think that these people who came up during the influx from the South brought their patterns with them.
Letcher Yarbrough: Both white and black.
Arline Yarbrough: They had set up their little restaurant, and they were discriminating.
Letcher Yarbrough: But by and large, the black community was very home-oriented. We invited neighbors and acquaintances into our own homes for dinner, rather than to go restaurants. And the same way with our parties. None of the dance halls would allow Negroes in the downtown dance halls, so we just didn’t go to them.
Letcher also talked about their belief of why Seattle became more racist during WWII: "...As my wife said, yes, discrimination did get worse during World War II because at that time both the blacks and the whites were coming from the South and other parts of the country where discrimination was practiced very blatantly. Blacks "knew their place," so to speak, and the whites enforced it ..."
Letcher had a specific experience with discrimination when he joined the army: "One evening, two or three of us wanted to go over to the base theater at Fort Lewis, and we went in. I sat down, along with another fellow that was with me, and pretty soon the usher came down with his little flashlight like most ushers carry in a theater. He said, I’m sorry, you can’t sit here. I said, Why? Is this reserved? He said, No, but it says blacks have to sit at the back of the theater. Well, he actually said, Negroes have to sit at the back of the theater -- we were Negroes in those days. He said, Negroes have to sit at the back of the theatre. I said, This IS the U.S. Army theater, isn’t it? He said yes and I said, well I'm not moving. And he said 'well, then we'll have to call an M.P. to put you out."
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| Arline and Letcher Yarbrough, 1985 |
Sources:
"Racism in Seattle and Fort Lewis During World War II: An Oral History of Arline and Letcher Yarbrough." HistoryLink.org- the Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History. Ed. Lorraine McConaghy. 03 Feb. 2007. Web. 13 Mar. 2011. <http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=8090>.
Webster, Peter. "Racism Remains in Washington State." Disturbing the Comfortable. 15 Mar. 2006. Web. 13 Mar. 2011. http://disturbingthecomfortable.blogspot.com/2006/03/racism-remains-in-washington-state.html.
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