Black History Month
photo challenge
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First challenge of the
year results
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Help us recognize Black History Month with a tribute to three Black former Washington legislators. It's a three-part challenge, but if you know the answer to only one or two parts, feel free to send us your guess.
- Tell us the names (as many as you can) of the people shown in this Seattle Times article.
- Which district did they represent?
- Explain how the trio was a first in the Washington State Legislature.
Click the image to view a larger version. Some information has been removed so this challenge isn't too easy.
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Readers from all over Washington, not just Thurston County, were able to identify this Tumwater intersection.
This 1946 DOT photograph is a nice aerial view of the triangle formed by Custer Way, Capitol Boulevard, and Cleveland Avenue.
The buildings on the far left are still there. They currently house a few local businesses including a baseball-card shop and a running-shoes store.
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In 1975 and 1976, the Washington State Archives conducted the Black Project, a series of interviews that brought oral histories to life. Local historian and civil rights activist Esther Mumford (above, far left) conducted all 69 interviews, which focused on the Black community in King County.
The collection is now available on the Washington State Archives' Digital Archives. It includes audio, transcripts, and negatives. The transcripts were created shortly after the interviews. The negatives include portraits of interviewees, as well as images taken of photographs, clippings, and other items that belonged to or related to the interviewees.
Interviewees discuss events as early as the 1880s, regarding homesteaders, farmers, and strikebreakers. The majority highlight the years between 1900 and 1945, and relate to early housing, employment, education, recreation, and the changing Black community in greater Seattle.
The Washington State Archives’ Bicentennial Oral History Program included six projects, each involving several interviews. These include the Black Project, the Filipino Project, the Kittitas Project, the Pacific Project, the Wahkiakum Project, and the Whatcom Project. Each project was an investigation of a particular way of life, based on interviews of people with a number of things in common such as geographic location, occupation, race, timeframe, etc. The results are snapshots of life as it was experienced by a number of people within a given context.
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RootsTech Connect: "Enrich your family stories with state archives" |
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The Washington State Archives will be featured at RootsTech Connect when Southwest Regional Archivist Tracy Rebstock's webinar, "Enrich your family stories with state archives," is made available to conference registrants.
For the first time in the event's history, RootsTech will be completely virtual and completely free. The three-day family history celebration begins Feb. 25.
Rebstock's workshop will discuss a variety of archival records that might reveal information about your family history in places you never thought to look.
Register here to make sure you have access to the presentation once it's available.
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New exhibit in Olympia Building |
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The State Archives' building in Olympia has a new lobby exhibit called "Black History in WA." It arrived in time for Black History Month and will be on through most of this year.
The exhibit includes fascinating photographs that capture celebrated moments in our state’s rich Black history. The collection includes highlights from the Black Project oral histories, and features the answers to this month's photo challenge.
Contact us for an appointment to visit the building.
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With consideration for the safety of the public and our staff, and to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Olympia and Ellensburg branches of the State Archives are accessible in person by appointment only.
All other branches remain closed, but still allow state and local government agency staff to research records on an emergency basis.
The Tumwater Records Center continues to operate at its usual capacity.
Go here for more information.
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"We're not in Heaven yet."
Who said that?
Hint: The person in the photo above has nothing to do with this quote.
Last month's quote was from legendary journalist Hunter S. Thompson who wrote in a letter that he and Raoul Duke delivered a Pontiac from the Bronx to Seattle in 1960, then hitchhiked from Seattle to San Francisco — a journey he says “politicized” him. This story is told in Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist.
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