Women in
the Seattle
Civil Rights
Movements
Seattle’s Female
Activists
Seattle’s female civil rights
activists have unique stories. As
people of color, they battled racial
discrimination. As women, they
battled sex discrimination. The
intersection of these two fights
sometimes pitted women of color
against those who should have
been allies.
This slide show explores female
activists’ particular experiences in
Seattle’s civil rights movements.
Activism takes different forms. In 1946, these
women organized the PTA at Bailey Gatzert,
one of Seattle’s only integrated elementary
schools.
A Long History of Protest
African-Americans in Seattle began
protesting discriminatory employment,
housing, and other practices at the turn of
the century. Women were active from the
very beginning in church groups, social
uplift organizations, and other causes.
Susie Cayton helped start the Seattle
chapter of the NAACP (National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People) in 1913.
Susie Cayton was also Associate Editor of The Seattle Republican which served Seattle's
African American community from 1894 to 1913. Her husband Horace Cayton was editor
Christian Friends for
Racial Equality
The Christian Friends for Racial
Equality played an important role in
civil rights campaigns in the 1940s and
1950s. Black churchwomen and white
churchwomen worked together to
highlight segregation practices in
Seattle.
Social activities were important, but
the CFRE also mounted effective
lobbying campaigns, helping to secure
passage of a state Fair Employment
law in 1949.
American Indian
Women’s Service
League
The American Indian Women’s
Service League was the one of
the first civil rights
organizations in the country
fighting for urban Indians. It
was founded in 1958 and
remains active today. Pearl
Warren (second from the right)
served as President from 1958
to 1971.
In 1960 the group opened the Indian Cultural
Center which provided social and health services,
taught Native cultural awareness, and laid the
foundation for the political activism of young
urban Indians in the late 1960s and 1970s
click to play 2 minute video
Women and men
worked together
In addition to these woman-led
organizations, women and men
worked together to fight
discrimination.
In the late 1940s, the Urban League
led a campaign to force downtown
stores to hire African Americans;
Vivian Caver played a key role in
that fight.
Vivian Caver’s more than 50 year record of
civic service in Seattle’s African American
community includes substantial civil rights
advocacy work, including working with the
Urban League, and serving as Vice Chair
and later Chair of the Seattle Human Rights
Department.
click to play 3 minute video
Women in the
movement, 1960s
Men usually assumed leadership roles
in campaigns and organizations, even
while women did much of the actual
work. Joan Singler, Bettylou Valentine,
and Jean Adams were key activists in
the Seattle chapter of CORE
(Congress of Racial Equality).
Founded in 1961, CORE organized
nonviolent campaigns against
employment discrimination, housing
and school segregation, and police
brutality.
Later Civil Rights
Movements
In the late 1960’s, a new generation
of civil rights activists took to the
streets to protest continuing
discrimination in Seattle. Though
women in earlier generations had
proven their leadership potential,
they had usually done so in
organizations like CFRE that
consisted mostly of women.
In the late 1960s female activists
began to challenge sexism and
insist on full gender equality in the
various civil rights movements.
The Black Panther Party was one of the new
movements of the late 1960s. Here BPP
members protest the incarceration of Party
leader Huey Newton.
Confronting inequality
in movements that
stood for equality
Women began to resent the
distribution of responsibilities in the
civil rights movements. All too often,
men claimed the leadership roles
while women were expected to
perform behind-the-scenes tasks such
as making copies of fliers, typing,
cooking and childcare.
Kathy Hallie was one of the few female
leaders in the Black Panther Party.
Sexism in the
student movement
click to play 1 minute video
With earlier experience and
obvious leadership skills, Sharon
Maeda was upset at the treatment
she received by her fellow
activists. Labeling the work she
and other women did as “grunt
work,” Maeda describes her
experiences.
Raised in Portland and Seattle, Sharon Maeda attended UW in the 1960s and became
involved in civil rights activities. A teacher and journalist, she has served on the Board of
Japanese American Citizens League, was a founding member of Seattle Third World
Women, and is currently the president of a consulting firm. (1 min)
click to play 2 minute video
An Uphill Battle
Though some men in the
organization were responsive to
women’s protests, others were not,
and women still faced chauvinism
and discrimination from their fellow
activists. Aaron Dixon describes the
difficulty in integrating women into
the Black Panther Party.
Aaron Dixon helped start the Black Student
Union at the University of Washington
before going on to found the Seattle chapter
of the Black Panther Party. He served as
Captain from 1968 to 1972.
click to play 2 minute video
Challenging sexism
in the American
Indian movement
Sometimes women leaders who
were supported by their local
communities faced discrimination
at a national level. Ramona
Bennett, elected Chairwoman by
her Puyallup tribe, talks about
having to fight her way into the
National Tribal Chairman’s
Association Meeting in the
1970s.
A Puyallup, Ramona Bennett has been a
pioneering activist on behalf of Indian rights
since the 1950s. In 1971, she was elected
Puyallup Tribal Chairwoman, becoming one of
the first women to lead a tribe. She was one
of the principal authors of the Indian Child
Welfare Act passed by Congress in 1978.
click to play 2 minute video
Filipina Cannery
Workers in the
1970s
Working in the Alaska fish
canneries in the 1970s, Lynne
Domingo experienced this dual
discrimination first hand. Because
the canneries were segregated by
race and sex, women of color were
essential to the movement for fair
treatment of Filipinos in the
industry. Here she explains the
difference between white and
Filipina women’s work in the
cannery.
Lynn Domingo became involved in the Union of
Democratic Filipinos (KDP) while still in high
school. She attended the University of
Washington where she played a leadership role in
the Asian Student Association. She remains an
active member of the Legacy of Equality,
Leadership and Organizing (LELO).
Women of color had
two battles to fight
At the same time that people of color
were struggling against employment
discrimination, women of all races and
ethnicities were as well; they wanted
to be allowed into industries that had
traditionally been reserved for men.
Often times these careers paid better
than ones that had been traditionally
labeled “women’s” careers.
Beverly Sims and her husband Tyree Scott
picket with members of the United
Construction Workers Association, a multi
ethnic organization for workers in the
construction industry.
Women in “male”
industries
click to play 2 minute video
Beverly Sims describes the
experience of being a person of color
in a traditionally white industry, and
being a woman in a traditionally male
industry: the electrical workers trade.
One of the first women members of IBEW
Local 46, Beverly Sims was involved in
pioneering court decisions mandating
affirmative action in the construction
industry.
click to play 2 minute video
First Filipina
American in state
legislature
In a very different setting, Velma
Veloria also felt the difficulty of
being a woman of color in a
primarily white, male setting: the
state legislature. Here she
describes how she tried to cope
during her first term in office in
1992.
Velma Veloria came to Seattle in the late
1970s to organize cannery workers under the
auspices of the KDP. After a decade of labor
activism, she turned to electoral politics and
served in the legislature for 13 years.
click to play 1 minute video
The fight is not over
The struggle for equality between
men and women did not end in the
1970s, nor did civil rights
movements. Even in more recent
struggles women have needed to
establish themselves as capable
leaders who deserve respect.
Rosalinda Guillen discusses
women’s work in the 1990s
campaign to unionize workers at
Chateau Ste. Michelle winery.
Rosalinda Guillen helped lead the United Farm
Workers campaign that resulted in a contract
with Chateau Ste. Michelle winery in 1995. A
native of Skagit County, she had worked in the
fields when she was young, then built a
successful career as a bank officer. She gave
that up to devote herself to farm worker
organizing.
Though women of color had long been
essential to civil rights struggles, they still
needed to fight for equal recognition among
their male peers. They also battled sexism
and racism outside of their organizations, at
work and in other locations. Today, women
continue to be a vital part of community
activism all over the city.
Credits
This slide show was created by Teresa Frizell
Photo Credits:
Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies: Chicano Power
LELO United Construction Workers Association: Tyree Scott and Beverly Sims
Seattle Times: Black Panthers with posters
Museum of History and Industry: 1946 PTA; American Indian Women’s Service League; Free Huey
University of Washington library, Manuscripts and Archives: Christian Friends of Racial Equality
pamphlet
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www.civilrights.washington.edu
Seattle Civil Rights and Labor
History Project
www.civilrights.washington.edu