African American Construction workers and activists began to take direct action against the unjust institutional barriers to African American employment. The United Construction Workers Association (UCWA) was founded by Tyree Scott in order to organize a grassroots movement to make historically all-white unions open to marginalized workers in the Seattle area.
Tyree Scott
Tyree Scott
Tyree Scott is the founder of the UCWA. He was born in Texas before moving up to Seattle with his father in 1966. Scott was a Seattle civil rights and labor leader and he was dedicated to his work to improve the conditions and opportunities for workers in the construction industry. He was known as “a quiet, gracious and personable man, totally lacking any capacity for self-inflation” and “more interested in results than rhetoric.”
When and Why Was It Founded?
In the 1960’s, trade unions that controlled jobs in Seattle’s construction industry were off limits to Blacks, and this limited their ability to compete for large contracts.
In 1969, Seattle’s Model Cities Program was attracting large federal construction contracts. Walter Hundley, its director, encouraged Black contractors to organize in order to gain access to the contracts.
By December 1969, debate within the Central Contractors Association (CCA) over how to negotiate with unions, contractors, and government officials divided the organization between those who wanted to advocate for more jobs for black workers and those who wanted more federal contracts to go to black contractors.
In 1970, the Seattle Branch of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) invited Tyree Scott to found the United Construction Workers Association (UCWA). This prompted Scott to leave the CCA despite being a construction worker. With the AFSC’s financial and organizational backing, Scott shifted his attention away from contractors’ issues to make black construction workers’ struggles against union racism his sole focus. The UCWA was put into motion in 1970.
What Was the Purpose of the UCWA?
The UCWA’s original mission was to support black workers through the embodiment of multiple tasks of fused activism, Social work, and political advocacy. It took to negotiate with parties on the behalf of black workers, initiated lawsuits, lead non-violent protests, and facilitated worker support and study groups
A group known as the Court Order Advisory Committee (COAC) was in charge of the implementation of the UCWA. However, Scott believed that the COAC allowed union hiring halls to undermine affirmative action. This led the UCWA to hold protests that closed down I-90 and other areas. Due to the protests, the UCWA gained two representative positions on the COAC, gaining power and leverage over union apprenticeship programs.
UCWA march, 1972
Because the Federal Government did not enforce affirmative action, this newly found power allowed the UCWA to act as both the implementer and the enforcer of a federal court order to desegregate an extremely powerful cluster of labor unions in Seattle. This gave black workers in the UCWA a voice and opened up opportunities for black workers in the UCWA to attain leadership roles in civil rights struggles.
The Scope and Legacy of the UCWA
When he began the United Construction Workers Association, Tyree Scott’s main goal was to aid in the struggles of black construction workers against racism from unions, which caused unemployment for many skilled African Americans, furthering the systematic poverty and oppression of African Americans. Before the Federal Government imposed affirmative action on King County for Construction Trade Unions, the UCWA played a large role in demanding enforcement themselves. After successful protests and admission into the Court Ordered Advisory Committee, Tyree Scott was able to ensure the health and longevity of affirmative action from a place of power and authority.
In 1971, the UCWA expanded its reach to and mobilized black workers in Denver, C.O. With a federal grant, the UCWA was able to further expand into Oakland, C.A. in 1973 and create the Southwest Workers Federation in Little Rock, A.K. Tyree Scott, along with Todd Hawkins, tried to unite minority construction workers in eight more cities in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas with varied results.
In 1973 a group of Filipino youth activists founded the Alaskan Cannery Workers Association (ACWA) after working in solidarity with the UCWA. They also sought to fight racial segregation and inequality within their industry. Seattle’s UCWA provided them with training, seed money, and a model for their organization.
A long-lasting impact of the UCWA is in its partnership with the ACWA and the Northwest chapter of the United Farm Workers (UFW) to create the Northwest Labor and Employment Law Office (LELO) in 1973. This office brought legal resources and support for lawyers working on Title VII lawsuits pro bono. The creation of this office supports grassroots labor movements by people of color like the UCWA. One LELO lawsuit went to the Supreme Court in 1989.
Despite the United Construction Workers Association’s gradual disbandment in the late 1970s, its spirit of improving the lives of workers of color by bringing them together to fight against systemic racism lives on through its numerous other organizations.
The UCWA’s support of black workers and families was one of the first visible acts of affirmative action in America’s workplace. This looked like the intentional hiring of black workers, who had previously been excluded from construction sites and federally funded projects in Seattle.
The purposeful inclusion and selection of black construction workers became the top goal of the UCWA, after the 1969 lawsuit filed against unions in Seattle. This lawsuit found that Seattle’s building trade unions hiring strategies and practices were unlawful and discriminatory against black workers. Because of this, Tyree Scott and the UCWA were put in a position to desegregate Seattle’s largest collection of labor unions.
Separate Peace
No Separate Peace was a left-wing monthly publication created by the UCWA for, “the third world poor.” The publications encouraged its readers to actively build up their diverse communities. It unified marginalized communities in the struggle against racism, sexism, and imperialism.
The Tacoma Urban League was created in 1968 to support and assist African Americans and other marginalized people to obtain equality and economic independence. It was modeled after the Seattle Urban League by Thomas Dixon and a board of members who decided Tacoma was ready for an Urban League.
History of the Tacoma Urban League
This Urban League currently has six programs to aid African Americans in closing the gap between African Americans and white people.
Male Involvement Program: Run by John Levi and Joseph Womack, MIP helps and mentors middle school boys with anger and conflict management, and learning how to understand emotions and feelings in a safe space.
Girls with Purpose: GWP works with middle-school girls to empower them to succeed educationally and socially through mentoring.
Career Empowerment Academy: This academy holds evening classes to formulate career paths and create connections with businesses and industries.
Budget and Finance Workshops: These workshops provide meaningful education about finances such as credit card debt, household budgets, savings, and checking accounts.
Home Ownership Program: Owning a home is the simplest way to grow wealth, and so the Home Ownership program works with people to begin the process of owning a home.
Black Empowerment Center: An independent organization that works with the Tacoma Urban League with the goal of closing the wealth gap between African Americans and white people.
“Overall, it’s been discovered that it will take African Americans 242 years to catch up to white wealth if white wealth stopped accumulating today” (Adriane, Black Empowerment Center Coordinator).
Double-Consciousness: Dr. W.E.B DuBois coined the concept of Double Consciousness as the ability, only possessed by a black person, to see America, and its relationship to yourself, through the eyes of others. This Double Consciousness must be constantly utilized by black people in order for them to interact with and be prepared for the world as a white person can without Double Consciousness.
“It’s not because black people don’t have an education, it’s not because we don’t have motivation, it’s not because our priorities are jacked up. It’s because of the systemic barriers that we face, such as gentrification, redlining, and the constant displacement of African Americans in Tacoma.”
– Adriane Wilson, Black Empowerment Center Coordinator
Tacoma Urban League was created to, “Help achieve social equality and economic independence…” for the African American community in Tacoma (https://thetacomaurbanleague.org). Currently sharing a building with the Black Empowerment Center, the League prides itself on offering cultural reinforcement and development to the community. In relation to W.E.B. DuBois’ concept of double consciousness or, “two-ness of thought” wherein black people live in struggle to balance the stereotypes and beliefs created and maintained by white America against their individual sense of self. The Tacoma Urban League is a place wherein black people can be without the often harmful expectations of American culture present throughout our society, specifically in Tacoma. Through their current Male Involvement and Girls With Purpose Program, the League provides safe spaces for black youth to foster discussion on identity and offers mentorship opportunities to reinforce the cultural pride and confidence in being African American, rather than having to weigh one’s identity against the standards set by another group. Besides their youth initiatives, the League also offers programs assisting with finance, credit card debt, home ownership, and employment. By providing opportunities centered around supporting and educating the black community in Tacoma, the League counters the debilitating stereotypes and systems holding African Americans back from living in social, economic, and cultural equality with the rest of America.
African American Studies 101 | Livi, Kalina, Jakhai, & Alex
FOUNDING
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was first established in New York in 1909. Created to fight for civil rights, all branches operate under its vision statement asserting its purpose of “ensuring a society in which all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race.” The Seattle branch of the NAACP was founded in 1913 and is one of the earliest branches West of the Mississippi River. It was founded by a prominent list of middle-class residents in Seattle:
Dr. E. A Johnson – Presbyterian Minister
Rev. J. L. Williams – Methodist Minister
Horace Cayton, Vice President – Apartment House Owner
Samuel H. Stone – Caterer
G. W. Jones – Merchant-Tailor
J. I. Reams – Clothing Store Proprietor
Zoe Young (Zoe Dusanne) – Milliner
Bonita Wright – Property Owner
Mrs. R. J. Allen – Property Owner
Andrew Black – Attorney
Mrs. S. H. Stone – Property Owner
Rev. W. D. Carter – Baptist Minister
Samuel P. DeBow – Editor, Seattle Searchlight
William Chandler – Mover (Moving Express Company)
Benjamin F. Tutt – Barber
Letitia Graves, President – Hairdresser
Alma Glass – Dressmaker
J. H. (Henry) Graves – Chiropodist
Etta Hawkins – Property Owner
Beatrice Ball – Property Owner
G. W. Thompson – Grocer
L. Austin – Occupation Not Listed
Many of the founders were women, and a multitude of white members were admitted to the organization as the national office was convinced this would facilitate fundraising, “counteract prevailing white southern attitudes on segregation and promote interracial understanding” (Taylor 88-89). Although composed of white and Black members, the Seattle NAACP was established in the Central Area on Dearborn St. and 23rd Ave. The Central Area remains part of a “reverse L-shaped section stretching from the East Madison neighborhood south along 23rd Avenue,” which today is comprised of more African Americans than surrounding areas. This is largely due to a history of White apartment owners refusing to rent to African Americans outside this specific region who were bound to covenants facilitating the segregation of neighborhoods (Taylor 82-84).
GOALS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
To escape the horrors of the South, African Americans migrated to the Northeast, West, Midwest, and Northwest. Although it was less likely for there to be large populations of black people, a community slowly developed in this Central Area of Seattle. Spared from the lynch mobs and white rioters of the South, Black people still endured racism and discrimination even in this milder city of which “one local observer recalled as the ‘little nasties’ – behavior and actions serving to remind African Americans of their inferiority in an overwhelmingly white city” (Taylor 80). The Seattle NAACP was instrumental in combatting the racism and discrimination African Americans endured on a daily basis in social, political, and economic areas of society.
One of the first major accomplishments of the Seattle NAACP was removing the showing of Birth of a Nation from theaters within the city in 1915. Beginning with protests, efforts moved to letter-writing campaigns in which the first president of the Seattle NAACP, Letitia Graves, wrote to the national office in New York. Stating how she feared “nothing can be done to stop the showing of the film in Seattle” (Taylor 89), the City Council President Robert B. Hesketh ordered the chief of police to terminate all showings after learning of the NAACP’s concerns.
Before losing popularity due to the rise of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the Seattle NAACP focused its efforts on fighting anti-intermarriage bills. As an organization built for civil rights, the branch believed this to be a vital effort in promoting its purpose of opposing discriminatory legislation. However, due to emphasizing more integrationist ideals, the more Black nationalist UNIA, founded by Marcus Garvey, gained followers. Its platform emphasized, “support for African independence, worldwide black political unity, and local economic self-sufficiency” (Taylor 90). Appealing to Seattle’s small Black population, the promise of returning people to Africa was coupled with an increase in racial pride. The Seattle NAACP was eventually “declared dormant” by the national office in New York (Seattle King County NAACP).
Once the Great Depression hit, the branch began to revitalize itself by focusing on integrating Black society into the job sector for economic healing. It took on many cases of employment discrimination, including one in which attorney Clarence Anderson was attacked by assistant tax collector Edward S. Streeter. With rage and resentment, Streeter asserted, “This is a white man’s office and a white man’s country” (Taylor 93). The NAACP exposed this investigation along with many others, receiving substantial publicity and providing awareness to the population.
More growth for the Seattle NAACP occurred during WWII with the continuation of remaining vocal against injustices toward African Americans in the employment sector. During the 1940s, the branch’s staff expanded, and leaders Bernard Squires and Napoleon P. Dotson assumed top positions. They were advocates for anti-discrimination suits and lobbying efforts for a fair employment practices act. In 1944, the Seattle NAACP, Urban League, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Seattle YWCA, and more organizations formed a coalition to lobby in Olympia for such an act, modeling it after President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802 that “mandated a permanent state agency to prohibit racial discrimination in employment and to monitor compliance” (Taylor 171). Although the Washington Federation of Labor denied the proposal due to it seeming “communist-inspired,” the same coalition with more proponents in 1947 reintroduced the measure, leading to the passing of the Fair Employment Practices Act in 1949. Specifically, this act declared discrimination a “matter of state concern” and prohibited bias “because of race, creed, color or national origin.” Furthermore, the Washington State Board Against Discrimination was established as an overarching monitor of compliance (Taylor 171-172).
The following video articulates the Seattle NAACP’s movement to foster respectful and dignified treatment toward African Americans by police officers in Seattle. Former president Charles V. Johnson and member of the NAACP Executive Board speaks on this, known as the Freedom Patrols.
Open housing became a prominent issue during the 1950s-60s as efforts began to move members of the Black community out of the Central District, an area evident of residential segregation. The Seattle NAACP, with other organizations, consistently pushed for fair housing ordinance, but aspirations were diminished when Supreme Court Judge James W. Hodson overruled the Omnibus Civil Rights Act of 1957 making housing discrimination illegal in the case of O’Meara vs. Washington State Board Against Discrimination. He ruled the owner of private property retains control over whom he or she will deal with. The Seattle NAACP, supported by a community of individuals and organizations, began campaigning for a citywide open housing ordinance, leading to protests at City Hall. Eventually, the Seattle City Council agreed to create a Human Rights Commission to draft the ordinance, which was placed on the 1964 ballot following the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington D.C. The landslide rejection of this ordinance resulted from white fears of declining market values in areas housing Black communities, sparking racial violence:
“In the suburb of Kent, for example, shotgun blasts were fired into the homes of two black families” (Taylor 205). Still determined to incite change, president E. June Smith declared, “We are not going to rest until this city becomes in truth an All-American city” (Taylor 205).
As Black communities engaged in sit-ins for direct action and supportive white residents began volunteering in the Fair Housing Listing Service as well as other fair housing organizations, such voluntary action contributed to Black residents’ ability to move out of the Central District by 1965. In addition, programs were initiated to rehabilitate impoverished areas and “condemned houses” on the edge of white neighborhoods.
The Seattle NAACP supported boycotts against segregation in schools, leading to the establishment of a Middle School Desegregation Plan in 1970. Never being finished, the NAACP threatened the Seattle Central Area school district with a lawsuit. The Seattle Plan was adopted for mandatory desegregation of schools in 1977 (Seattle King County NAACP).
More recently, June 27, 2009 marked the 2nd African American Legislative day held by the branch. This event engages the Black community with political officials, incites feelings of positivity and purpose in dealing with political issues, and attempts to increase the participation of African Americans in local politics. People can register to vote, take workshops to learn about the legislative process, and become involved in the most significant issues affecting the African American community (Seattle King County NAACP).
In 2015, following the Charleston church mass shooting, the Seattle branch held a rally in honor of the nine African American victims with the Washington Christian Leadership coalition. This demonstration portrayed solidarity with their deceased brothers and sisters, gathering the surrounding community as one (Seattle King County NAACP).
SIGNIFICANCE
The significance of the NAACP to communities of color and the broader community is to create a system of support for those who need it. It was created in a time when people of color were especially marginalized from society and needed resources to solidify their place in society and build a base to grow from there. Since then, the role of the NAACP has become more of an advocacy group for these same marginalized peoples. Because of the changing ways that Black people have been and continue to be integrated into and marginalized by society, their main roles focus on the enforcement of the laws to protect the rights of people of color.
From the website of the NAACP:
“Objectives
The following statement of objectives is found on the first page of the NAACP Constitution – the principal objectives of the Association shall be:
To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all citizens
To achieve the equality of rights and to eliminate race prejudice among the citizens of the United States
To remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes
To see enactment and enforcement of federal, state, and local laws securing civil rights
To inform the public of the adverse effects of racial discrimination and to seek its elimination
To educate persons as to their constitutional rights and to take all lawful action to ensure this exercise thereof, and to take any other lawful action in furtherance of these objectives, consistent with the NAACP’s Articles of Incorporation and this Constitution”
Through these objectives, the NAACP is able to use their position to the advantage of the people it serves. With this ability, they can address the current concerns of those who need their assistance by adapting their objectives to whatever is most important to them.
COURSE CONNECTIONS
The persistence of the Seattle NAACP throughout the course of its history is attributed to the course concept of the psychohistory and psychological understandings of African Americans. The field of psychohistory analyzes how the historical experiences of Black society during slavery and segregation influence their contemporary methods of liberation (IAAS 186).
“[E]ach succeeding generation of African Americans continues to advocate and seek more integration rather than strategic independence from oppressive forces” (IAAS 186).
As told by Quintard Taylor in The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1970 through the Civil Rights Era, the Seattle NAACP lost momentum with the emergence of the Black nationalist UNIA. It was criticized for emphasizing integration over African self-sufficiency and independence. Knowledge of analyses within the field of psychohistory draw connections with the historical fear of slaves when running from slaveowners. Any expression of the desire to be free and independent by slaves during slavery would be met with punishment and in many cases, death. This was because such behaviors threatened the legitimacy and dominant role of White society and slaveowners. Therefore, the NAACP’s reluctance to adopt Black nationalism and fight for African independence is possibly connected to the fears of slaves to fully challenge White authority. Advocating for integration advances the positions of African Americans in society, but also presents a milder approach for equality that pleases more Whites. Many White members were also added to the branch due to believing this posed great benefit in fundraising and the understanding of the broader community, reflective of the “psychohistorical dilemma that reinforces dependency on Whites” (IAAS 186).
However, the role of White folk in the Seattle NAACP does not undermine the persistence of African Americans to mobilize for their integration in society. Constantly faced with struggles such as lawmakers delaying the passing of vital legislation, racist expressions in the community such as the showing of Birth of a Nation, and even the Supreme Court perpetuating residential segregation by overriding previous legislation, The Seattle NAACP refused to become discouraged. Its mere existence and continual advocacy to this day is evident of how “African Americans may also push themselves harder to overcome the stereotypes of being Black and to succeed” (IAAS 189). When analyzed through psychohistory, this unrelenting determination stems from the experiences of slavery. Centuries of toil, stress, and being pushed to the maximum capacity of physical and emotional exertion passes down through generations of African Americans, resulting in their refusal to accept society’s establishment of their inferiority.
Some of the most monumental actions of the Seattle NAACP involved major issues such as housing segregation and employment discrimination. For example, concentrating the Black population in the Central Area and refusing to let this community move outside of this region exemplified redlining, a nationwide issue from segregation to integration resting in institutionalized racism. Furthermore, the branch’s involvement in establishing a Fair Employment Practices Act although faced with rejection before its passing was an effort to combat discriminatory practices contributing to wealth disparities between White and Black folk. Although key concepts in Black Studies, psychohistory underlies the efforts of the Seattle NAACP to deal with such issues and execute policy to solve them over time.
WHY IT STILL MATTERS
The mandate of the NAACP is still “ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of United States and eliminate race prejudice” (NAACP). As long as political, educational, social and economic inequality exists in the US, the NAACP still matters.
Current NAACP campaigns illustrate why the organization remains relevant. The Seattle King County NAACP successfully lobbied for the passage of HB 1453, a bill which enhances protections for rental tenants against evictions. HB 1453 is relevant to the NAACP because black renters face disproportionally high rates of eviction.
The NAACP’s successful aid in passing HB 1453 illustrates the crucial importance of the organization to “help…elected officials…to better understand the issues that disproportionally impact people of color, who are often the most vulnerable in society” (Sakin 1).
Another recent campaign illustrative of the continuing relevancy of the NAACP is the organization’s drive for the Washington Attorney General’s Office, rather than the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, to investigate police-perpetrated shootings
The Seattle King County NAACP claims that the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office “has never exercised its authority to call for a criminal investigation of police-involved shootings in over a decade” (NAACP). The NAACP asserts that Washington State Attorney General’s Office is better able to operate independently of the Seattle Police Department and gain the trust of the community. Therefore, they recommend a change in the norms for prosecution.
Police brutality is an issue of unique significance to the black community. The NAACP is at the forefront of fighting for greater justice through legislative change. Therefore, the Seattle King County NAACP still matters greatly.
Sakin, Sadiqa. “NAACP Calling On Attorney General’s Office To Oversee Investigation In The Shooting Death Of Iosia Faletogo By Seattle Police”. Seattle Medium. 23 January, 2019.
Seattle NAACP. Seattle King County NAACP #1136. NAACP, 2019. Web.
Taylor, Quintard. The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era. Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1994.
What Is the UCWA?
