HSTAA 498

Fall 2008

Prof. Gregory

                                                                       

 

SUGGESTED RESEARCH TOPICS

 

Here is a list of possible topics. Each is described in more detail the next section.

 

 

Farm worker unions and Chicano activism

 

  1. Roberto Maestas and the founding El Centro de la Raza, 1972-3 
  2. Farm worker unions in Washington State:

 

 

Asian American Activism

 

  1. James Y. Sakamoto and the Japanese American Courier
  2. Mineo Katagiri and the Asian Coalition for Equality (ACE), 1968-70
  3. Oriental Student Union (OSU) Protest, SCCC, 1970-1971
  4. Narrating Seattle’s Pan-Asian Youth Movement: Asian Family Affair, 1972-1982

 

Labor Organizations and Campaigns

 

  1. Colored Marine Employment Benevolent Association and Maritime unionism 1921-34
  2. History of the International Fishermen and Allied Workers of America
  3. The International Woodworkers of America’s Formative Years
  4. Newspapers on Strike:  the 1936 Newspaper Guild Strike 
  5. Spying on Labor 1918-1922: Broussais Beck and Roy Kinnear 
  6. Cold War on Campus: UW American Federations of Teachers Local and the Red Scare 
  7. Launching the CIO on the West Coast 1937-1940
  8. Communist Party and the Civil Rights Congress 1946-56

 

 

Mapping Projects

 

  1. The Seattle General Strike: A Walking Tour and Interactive Map
  2. Seattle’s Civil Rights Movements: A Walking Tour and Interactive Map

 

 

 

Segregated Seattle

 

 

  1. Coon Chicken Inn: Beacon of North Seattle Bigotry
  2. Racial Restrictive Covenants
  3. Excluding Natives: The segregation and exclusion of Native Americans
  4. Anti-Defamation League of the B’Nai B’rith—Fighting Anti-Semitism
  5. The Civic Unity Committee and the 1940s campaign against discrimination
  6. Passing the 1949 Fair Employment Practices Act
  7. Sydney Gerber and the campaign for Open Housing

 

Antiwar and radical history project

 

 

  1. Development of Women’s Liberation Movement in Seattle, out of the antiwar, civil rights movements
  2. May 1970 Student strike at the UW
  3. Labor, Radicals, and World War I antiwar activity in Seattle
  4. Northwest Antinuclear movement/Opposition to Navy’s Trident program on Kitsap peninsula, 1970s-1980s
  5. Gay Liberation Movement in Seattle

 

 

 

 

 

HSTAA 498

Fall 2008

Prof. Gregory


 

                                          Descriptions RESEARCH TOPICS

 

 

Farm worker unions and Chicano activism

 

Roberto Maestas and the founding El Centro de la Raza, 1972-3 In the winter of 1972, local activist and teacher Roberto Maestas led a group of Chicano activists, in solidarity with other political radicals, took over an abandoned school in Beacon Hill. Through tense negotiations and a long occupation, Maestas finally secured the building from the Seattle School District and funding from local agencies to create El Centro de La Raza—a “people’s center” to provide the local Chicano population with culturally appropriate social services.  Sources:

1.      Santos, Bob.  Humbows, not Hot Dogs!: Memoirs of a Savvy Asian American Activist.  Seattle: International Examiner Press, 2002. 

2.      Roberto Maestas interview, http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/maestas.htm

3.      NW Periodicals Index, Special Collections.

a.      “Chinos—Wash. (State)—Seattle”, 10/72-12/72 (roughly 25 hits)

4.      Seattle Mayor’s Papers. Special Collections. Acc # 239-3

a.      Box 26, Folder “Chicano Community…”

b.      Box 41, Folder “Chicanos…”

 

Farm worker unions in Washington State: The IWW tried to organize harvest workers in the 1910s and again in 1933. Another wave of organizing began in the 1960s and laid the foundation for the United Farm Workers of Washington state which is active today. Possible paper topics include:        

  •  The IWW and early farm worker unions
  • The UFW Co-op and Yakima hop strikes 1965-1970
  • The Chateau Ste Michelle campaign (1988-1995)
  • The apple workers campaign (1995-2001)

sources

1.      United Farm Workers in Washington State Project website  http://depts.washington.edu/pcls/ufw/

2.      United Farm Workers of America union website http://www.ufw.org/

3.      Database and articles on farm workers in Washington state http://depts.washington.edu/civilr3/ufw/

4.      Jesus Lemos Jr., “A History of the Chicano Political Involvement and the Organizational Efforts of the United Farm Workers Union in Yakima Valley, Washington” (MA thesis, UW, 1974)

5.      Margaret Miller, “Community Action and Reaction: Chicanos and the War on Poverty in Yakima Valley, Washington” (MA thesis, UW, 1991)

6.      Erasmo Gamboa, “A History of the Chicano People and the Development of Agriculture in the Yakima Valley, Washington” (MA thesis, UW, 1973)

7.      Ramon Chavez, “Emerging media : a history and analysis of Chicano communication efforts in Washington state” (MA thesis, UW, 1979)

8.      Theresa Aragon de Shepro papers, 1962-1979, Special Collections and University Archives, UW Libraries

9.      Tomás Ybarra-Frausto papers, 1943-1988, Special Collections and University Archives, UW Libraries

 

 

 

Asian American Activism

 

James Y. Sakamoto and the Japanese American Courier James Sakamoto was an extremely important second generation leader in Seattle’s Japanese American Community.  Starting at a young age, he fought anti-Japanese politicians, co-founded the Japanese American Citizen’s League, and founded and edited a newspaper—the Japanese American Courier—to combat bigotry and promote Japanese citizenship claims. His paper ceased publication when he was interned during World War II, a loss he never fully recovered from. Sources:

1.      The Japanese-American courier [microform]  Microfilm A3902  Jan. 1, 1928-Apr. 24, 1942 

2.      James Y. Sakamoto papers, 1928-1955

3.      Hosokawa, Bill.  JACL in quest of justice.  New York: W. Morrow, 1982. p. 22

4.      Japanese American Citizens' League. Seattle Chapter.  Records, 1921-1981

5.       Japanese American Citizens' League, Seattle Chapter.  JACL, a history of the Seattle Chapter: 1921-2000.  Seattle: JACL, Seattle Chapter, 2000. Selections

6.      Joseph Koide papers, 1941-1943

7.      Ogawa, Elmer. Papers, 1928-1971

8.      Pacific Citizen Via Summit: Ctr Resrch Lib, CRL NEWSPAPERS, MF-11957 R.1 NOV.1932-DEC.25,1943

9.      Takami, David A. Divided destiny : a history of Japanese Americans in Seattle.”  Seattle: University of Washington Press : Wing Luke Asian Museum, c1998

10.  Spickard, Paul R.  “THE NISEI ASSUME POWER: THE JAPANESE AMERICAN CITIZENS LEAGUE, 1941-1942.”  Pacific Historical Review 1983 52(2): 147-174

 

Mineo Katagiri and the Asian Coalition for Equality (ACE), 1968-70 Rev. Mineo Katagiri was an outspoken civil rights activist who, during his brief time in Seattle, founded and led the Asian Coalition for Equality.  ACE successfully fought to have Asian Americans included in the University of Washington’s affirmative action programs in 1969, promoted pan Asian identity, challenged stereotypes about Asian passivity, and helped channel Asian activists into direct action struggles for civil rights. Sources:

1.      NW Periodicals Index, Special Collections

a.      “Katagiri, Mineo.” (17 hits)

b.      “Asian Coalition for Equality” (5 hits)

2.      Central Seattle Community Council papers

a.      Box 4, Folder “Asian Coalition for Equality”

3.      Donald Kazama papers. Special Collections. Acc # 1356

a.      Box 33, Folder “Asian Coalition for Equality”

4.      Charles A. Evans Papers, Acc # 2598-2-81-14 (no box #)

a.      UW Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) Folders (about 8 or 10)

5.      Santos, Bob.  Humbows, not Hot Dogs!: Memoirs of a Savvy Asian American Activist.  Seattle: International Examiner Press, 2002.  P. 71

6.      WU President Papers (Odegaard). Special Collections Acc# 71-34

a.      Box 63, Folder “Special Educational Programs Committee” might be useful

 

Oriental Student Union (OSU) Protest, SCCC, 1970-1971 Co-founded by Mike Tagawa, a former Black Panther, and Alan Sugiyama, a former ACE activist, and modeled after the Black Student Union, the Oriental Student Union at Seattle Central Community College fought for Asian studies courses and the hiring of Asian administrators and professors.  In 1971, OSU activists occupied SCCC buildings to dramatize their concerns.  It was the first pan- Asian (non-labor union) direct action in Seattle, and one of the first in the nation. Alan Sugiyama oral history, http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/sugiyama.htm. Sources:

1.      Mike Tagawa oral history, http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/tagawa.htm

2.      Santos, Bob.  Humbows, not Hot Dogs!: Memoirs of a Savvy Asian American Activist.  Seattle: International Examiner Press, 2002.  Pp71-72

3.      Pacific Northwest Periodicals Index, Special Collections.

4.      “Seattle Community College—Oriental Student Union” (7 hits)

5.      Zane, Jeffrey Gregory.  “America, Only Less So?: Seattle’s Central Area, 1968-1996.” Unpublished History Ph.D Dissertation, Notre Dame, 2001. Chapter 5, pp. 129-183

 

 

Narrating Seattle’s Pan-Asian Youth Movement: Asian Family Affair, 1972-82 Asian Family Affair was a movement newspaper that was published monthly for roughly 10 years. It was founded by the Asian Student Coalition at the University of Washington to promote pan-Asian solidarity, advocate for International District preservation, and challenge negative Asian stereotypes and a lack of Asian presence in the major media.  The paper faded as the International Examiner began to supplant it around 1975, but its pages document the evolution of local Asian youth movement activism in its heyday perhaps better than any other source.  Sources:

1.      Asian Family Affair, microfilm

2.      Alan Sugiyama interview, http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/sugiyama.htm

3.      Frankie Irigon interview, http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/irigon.htm

4.      Santos, Bob.  Humbows, not Hot Dogs!: Memoirs of a Savvy Asian American Activist.  Seattle: International Examiner Press, 2002.  P. 72

 

 

Labor Organizations and Campaigns

 

Colored Marine Employment Benevolent Association and Maritime unionism 1921-34:Excluded from white unions, black and Asian workers sometimes formed their own labor organizations. The CMEBA represented black cooks and stewards on passenger ships that operated on the West Coast.  Sources:

1)      James A. Roston Sr. Papers, 1897-1924

2)      Jackson, Joseph Sylvester.  The Colored Marine Employees Benevolent Association of the Pacific, 1921-1934; or, Implications of vertical mobility for Negro stewards in Seattle.  Unpublished Sociology MA Thesis, University of Washington, 1939.

3)      Taylor, Quintard.  Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era.  Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994. pp. 59, 69, 70

4)      Dembo, Jonathan.  Maritime labor in the Pacific Northwest : newspaper and periodical index.  1984

5)      Fox, John M., 1902-1978 papers

6)      Pitts, Robert.  Organized Labor and the Negro in Seattle.  Seattle: Unpublished Economics MA Thesis, UW, 1941. Chap 3, “The Negro Seaman.”  pp 19-37

7)      Stevedore play: http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/dec95/stevedore.html, http://www.historylink.org/_output.CFM?file_ID=3976

8)      Markholt, Ottilie.  Maritime solidarity : Pacific Coast unionism, 1929-1938.  Tacoma, Wash. : Pacific Coast Maritime History Committee, 1998.

9)      The Seamen's journal / official paper of the International Seamen's Union of America (Apr.1918-1937)

10)  Coast seamen's journal, (Sept. 1915-Apr. 3, 1918) Incomplete; Lacks v.28 no.51

11)  Taylor, Paul Schuster.  The Sailors' union of the Pacific. New York: The Ronald press company, 1923

 

 

History of the International Fishermen and Allied Workers of America: The International Fishermen and Allied Workers of America (IFAWA) represented fishermen, crabbers, and purse seiners along the Pacific Coast.  The union had locals in Northern California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska. The predecessor of the IFAWA, the United Fishermen’s Union of the Pacific, was affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL).  But like many unions composed of unskilled workers in the late-1930s, the Fishermen bemoaned the conservative policies of the AFL and in 1939 voted to align with the recently formed, and more radical, Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).  In 1950, the IFAWA merged with International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU). Students writing a history of the IFAWA might focus on the reasons why the Fishermen abandoned the AFL and aligned with the CIO, and later why the union chose to affiliate with the ILWU. Because of the seasonal nature of the fishing industry, the union often had difficulty recruiting and retaining members.  Students may also want to focus on how this facet of the industry influenced the development of the union.  Special attention should be paid to convention proceedings and newsletters in the archives. Sources:

 

  1. Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s, International.  Fishermen and Allied Workers Division.  Local #3.  University of Washington Special Collections.  Accession No. #3466.

                                                               i.      Especially:       Boxes 4-5        “Conferences and Conventions”

  1. Box 11                         “Newsletters”
  2. Box 11                         “Conferences and Conventions”
  3. Box 11                         “Strike Files”
  4. Boxes 16-17    “Newsletters”
  5. Box 17                         “Conferences and Conventions”
  6. The International Fisherman and Allied Worker, Seattle, 1944-51.

                                                              i.      Microfilm, A8012

  1. Constitution of the International Fishermen and Allied Workers of America

                                                               i.      Microfilm A5081 pt.1 reel 119

 

  1. Secondary Sources:
  2. CIO, The Fisheries of California: The Industry, the Men, Their Union, 1947 Auxiliary Stacks, 639.29794.C76f

 

 

The International Woodworkers of America’s Formative Years In July of 1937, delegates representing mill workers and loggers from the American Federation of Labor’s Brotherhood of Carpenters met in a special convention.  Upset over the “second-class” status of unskilled workers in the union and the AFL’s unwillingness to supply adequate funds for organizing work, the delegates overwhelmingly voted to break from the Brotherhood and align with the CIO under the name, the International Woodworkers of America. But the AFL did not relinquish its members easily.  Throughout the Northwest, and especially at mills in Portland, Everett, and Tacoma, the AFL set up picket lines and forced the mill owners to shut their doors to the IWA workers.  The lockouts and jurisdictional disputes dragged on for months.  Often, confrontations between Teamsters and IWA members turned to violence.  Eventually, the lockouts came to an end, the AFL relented, and the IWA became the main representative body of mill workers and loggers in the Northwest and Canada.  Students writing a history of the IWA’s formative years will want to pay special attention to the causes and conditions that influenced the union’s secession from the AFL.  Furthermore, recounting the dramatic battles and jurisdictional disputes in the union’s early years will be important.
Primary Sources

 

1.      International Woodworkers of America.  University of Washington Special Collections.  Accession No. 4000

                                                               i.      Especially:       Box 1:              “Historical Features”

a.      Box 1:              “Executive Board Minutes”

 

2.      International Woodworkers of America, Local 3-101, Everett.  University of Washington Special Collections.  Accession No. 3120

                                                             ii.      Especially:       Box 1/3-2/16: “General Correspondence”

a.      Box 9/5-9/12:  “Resolutions”

b.      Box 16:                        “Local 23-93 (Sultan), General Correspondence”

 

3.      Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the IWA, 1937-1944

                                                            iii.      Auxiliary Stacks HD6515.W8.I5

4.      The Timber Worker (pay special attention to the months before and after the 1937 founding convention)

                                                           iv.      Microfilm A7046

5.      Polishuk, Sandy.  Sticking To The Union: An Oral History of the Life and Times of Julia Ruuttila.  New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2003.  (A few great passages about the lockout at Portland)

 

Secondary Sources

 

1.      Rajala, Richard A.  “‘No Camp Large or Small Will Be Missed’: The IWA and the Loggers’ Navy in British Columbia, 1935-1945,” Pacific Northwest Quarterly 97 (Summer 2006): 115-125.

2.      Bergren, Myrtle.  Tough Timber: The Loggers of British Columbia—their story.  Toronto: Progress Books, 1967.

3.      Lembcke, Jerry, and William M. Tattam.  One Union in Wood: A Political History of the International Woodworkers of America.  New York: Harbour Publishing, 1984.

4.      Neufeld, Andrew, and Andrew Parnaby.  The IWA in Canada: The Life and Times of an Industrial Union.  Vancouver: New Star Books, 2000

5.      Robbins, William G.  Hard Times in Paradise: Coos Bay, Oregon, 1850-1986.  Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1988.

6.      Zieger, Robert H.  The CIO: 1935-1955.  Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.

 

 

Newspapers on Strike:  the 1936 Newspaper Guild Strike:  One of the first strikes by newspaper reporters anywhere in the country, the Seattle PI strike helped secure the future of the Newspaper Guild and galvanized the local labor movement. Primary sources include local newspapers. Secondary source: William E. Ames and Roger A. Simpson, Unionism of Hearst: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Strike of 1936.

 

Spying on Labor 1918-1922: Broussais Beck and Roy Kinnear: Employers financed elaborate spy operations to keep track of unions and radicals. Special Collections library has detailed spy reports and employer records that will provide sources for this project. Secondary source: Dana Frank, Purchasing Power: Consumer Organizing, Gender, and the Seattle Labor Movement, 1919-1929; Robert Freidheim, The Seattle General Strike.

 

Cold War on Campus: UW American Federations of Teachers Local and the Red Scare-- AFT Local 401 was founded in 1935 and acquired a reputation for left-wing activism on the UW campus. Some of the members were Communists and the local found itself in the thick of the Red Scare. Four members were fired from faculty positions following the Canwell hearings in 1948. Secondary source: Jane Sanders, Cold War on Campus: Academic Freedom at the University of Washington, 1946-64.

 

Launching the CIO on the West Coast 1937-1940—when the American Federation of Labor expelled the CIO unions in 1937, a west-coast CIO was launched, led by the newly independent Longshore workers union, the ILWU. Timber workers and others soon joined and over the next few years CIO unions fought with AFL unions for jurisdiction in many industries.

 

Communist Party and the Civil Rights Congress 1946-56—The Civil Rights Congress was created by the communist party to fight for civil rights for people of color. Despite the hostile climate of the Cold War era, the organization remained active in Seattle. Primary sources: John S. Daschbach Collection, Special Collections.

 

 

 

Mapping Projects

 

The Seattle General Strike: A Walking Tour and Interactive Map

 

Seattle’s Civil Rights Movements: A Walking Tour and Interactive Map

 

 

 

Segregated Seattle

 

 

Coon Chicken Inn: Beacon of North Seattle Bigotry—located on Lake City Way, the Coon Chicken Inn stood for nearly 20 years as a beacon of bigotry, an icon of white supremacy. This project will piece together the story of this popular restaurant while exploring other examples of popular negrophobic images. See photo on Segregated Seattle page of Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project.

 

Racial Restrictive Covenants—using the database of racial restrictive covenants compiled by the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, this project will narrate the history of their use in Seattle focusing in part on the 1948 campaign against restrictive covenants.

 

Excluding Natives: The segregation and exclusion of Native Americans—Not long after its founding, the  city of Seattle passed a law making it illegal for Native peoples to live in or even spend the night within city limits. After statehood, the law disappeared but the practice of harrassing, excluding, and segregating Natives continued in other ways. Secondary source: Coll Thrush, Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing –Over Place.

 

Anti-Defamation League of the B’Nai B’rith—Fighting Anti-Semitism—Founded in Seattle in 1913, the Anti-Defamation League worked to educate Seattle about the evils of anti-semitism and was often also an ally against other forms of racism. Primary sources: Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith Collection, Accession 2045-001, University of Washington Libraries,

 

The Civic Unity Committee and the 1940s campaign against discrimination—created by Mayor Devin in 1944, the Civic Unity Committee was a quasi-governmental organization charged with educating about race discrimination and civil rights. Not a protest group, its investigations and interventions nevertheless helped build the movement for civil rights.

 

Passing the 1949 Fair Employment Practices Act—!n 1949, Washington passed a law prohibiting discrimination in hiring. Progressive for its time, the law was never very well enforced, but it nevertheless marked an important victory for civil rights activitists and leftwing Democrats. This project will explore the campaign to pass the law using newspapers and archival document collections.

 

Sydney Gerber and the campaign for Open Housing—Sydney Gerber spent decades trying to improve the climate for Civil Rights. A realtor, he played a key role in the open housing campaigns of the early 1960s. He created an open housing listing service to make it possible for African American and Asian American families to buy homes outside of the Central area. His Harmony Homes project helped break segregation in Kirkland and Bellevue. Primary sources: Sydney Gerber collection.

 

 

Antiwar and radical history project

 

Development of Women’s Liberation Movement in Seattle, out of the antiwar, civil rights movements-- The women’s liberation movement developed from activists long involved in civil rights and antiwar struggles. In Seattle, a committee within Students for a Democratic Society developed into Women’s Liberation-Seattle, which spread to a chapter at Seattle Central (who published their own newsletter, “Ain’t I a Woman?” Barbara Winslow, a leading member of SDS, was the first history grad student at UW and helped develop the first introductory course on women’s history. In addition to SDS and WL-Seattle, a class on the “Woman Question,” at the Free University in Seattle, involving old activists from CORE and the Communist Party, published a journal Lilith. There’s much more of a history (including Radical Women), but the moment of development from CORE and antiwar work into specifically women’s movement work in the early 1970s would be a great local study.Sources:

 

 

 

 

 

May 1970 Student strike at the UW-- After Nixon’s announcement of expanding the war in Vietnam into Cambodia on May 1, 1970, a week of national student strikes was called for campuses all over the country. On May 4, four demonstrating students at Kent State University in Ohio were killed by National Guardsmen firing into the crowd, followed by a similar incident on May 15 killing two students at Jackson State University in Mississippi. Antiwar protests begun on May 1 erupted in Seattle and led to a few weeks of protest, involving a student strike at the UW and a mass march from campus, down Interstate-5, to downtown. The student strike set up alternative universities, organized its own strike committees, and involved all sections of the campus left. Sources:

 

 

Labor, Radicals, and World War I antiwar activity in Seattle-- World War I came in the midst of a wave of rising labor radicalism in the United States, and it was labor and radical activists who formed the bulwark of opposition to World War I. The strong distrust among labor militants and radicals of a war to open foreign markets to American capital, combined with a national economic depression, made the war unpopular, particularly among organized labor. This was especially true in the radical labor stronghold of the Pacific Northwest, where the Industrial Workers of the World and the Socialist Party were particularly effective. IWW members and socialists worked to pass antiwar resolutions in their union halls, joined by broader labor forces like the AFL and the Seattle Central Labor Council. Local chapters of the American Union Against Militarism brought together radicals, labor activists, church groups, and liberal organizations to conduct street polls on the war, and 3,500 people protested a pro-war Preparedness Day Parade on May 28, 1916. After the US entered the war, the 1917 Espionage Act was passed, making “disloyal” statements illegal, and leading to the prosecution and trial of prominent Northwest antiwar activists, socialists, and IWW members. Sources:

  • Harvey O’Connor, Revolution in Seattle: A Memoir (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1964), chapter 4: “Radicals and the War”
  • Seattle Daily Call, socialist daily with reporting by Anna Louise Strong on the No Conscription League, held in UW microfilm
  • Anna Louise Strong papers, UW Special Collections
  • Hulet M Wells papers (a socialist and president of Seattle Central Labor Council, and author of the antiwar resolution to the labor council), in Special Collections
  • Carlos A. Schwantes, Radical Heritage: Labor, Socialism, and Reform in Washington and British Columbia, 1885-1917 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1979)

 

 

Northwest Antinuclear movement/Opposition to Navy’s Trident program on Kitsap peninsula, 1970s-1980s-- Many activists from the civil rights and Vietnam antiwar movements—particularly the pacifist, religious, and civil disobedience wings--reinvested their political energies, in the 1970s and 1980s, into anti-nuclear work. The flashpoint in the Northwest was the Navy’s proposed Trident nuclear submarine project, based at Bangor on Hood Canal. When the project was first proposed in 1973, local environmental groups, property owners, and county officials worried about funding the base were opposed, but the protests spread by the mid-1970s to more radical activists opposed to nuclear weapons entirely. A network of groups staged civil disobedience demonstrations, cutting fences, planting “peace gardens” inside the facility, and, in 1977, purchasing a parcel of land near Bangor to serve as a base for protest activities (nicknamed Ground Zero for nonviolence”). The first missile was successfully brought to the base in 1982, despite a small flotilla of activists trying to block the ship’s passage, but the anti-nuclear movement was the center of Seattle’s antiwar and peace activism and continued the rupture between society and the military that had begun during the Vietnam War. Interesting things could be said, too, about the tendentious relationship between activists and local Kitsap residents.Sources:

 

 

Gay Liberation Movement in Seattle-- trace the development of a visible activist gay community in Seattle from the late 1960s through the 1970s, what the debates in the movements were, or how successful some of their various campaigns were.

Briefly: Among gay men, the Dorian Society was founded in 1967 as a way to promote the “respectability” of gays and produce acceptance among the straight community (for example, they featured a member on the cover of Seattle Magazine, with a caption that said: Meet Peter, he’s a businessman, and a homosexual.) The Dorians made a decision not to affiliate with the antiwar or radical groups and turned down an opportunity to write for the counterculture paper Helix. In June 1970, a chapter of the national Gay Liberation Front was founded in Seattle by students at the UW, along with the UW Gay Student Association, based around a more radical critique of gay oppression in society. The umbrella coalition, the Seattle Gay Alliance, was founded in 1971, and picketed establishments that outlawed expressions of gay sexuality. Lesbian activists began a series of women’s resource centers around the U-District and through the YWCA.

Sources:

  • Gary Atkins, Gay Seattle: Stories of Exile and Belonging (Seattle: UW Press, 2003).
  • Three series of oral history interview projects that could potentially be accessed, via Seattle University, UW libraries, and the NW Lesbian and Gay History and Museum project, listed in the sources section of Atkins’ work.
  • Tim Mayhew papers and photo collections(longtime gay rights activist), Special Collections at UW, with well-developed reading guide.
  • Dorian Group records, special collections
  • YWCA records, special collections