Seattle, WA
Seattle library’s ‘Black Activism in Print’ exhibit puts city’s history on display
The Douglass-Truth Branch of the Seattle Public Library has been a staple of Seattle’s Central District and a decades-long meeting hub for Seattle’s Black community.
It’s also home to the West Coast’s largest African American collection.
Among its treasures: works by Elizabeth Catlett and Charles White, who were prominent artists and activists in the mid to late 1900s.
Many of these pieces have been tucked away — until now.
The “Black Activism in Print” exhibit at the Central Library proudly displays artifacts, photos, and striking prints from Catlett and White’s portfolios. The exhibit will be available at the Central Library until Sept. 15. Seattle Public Library’s African American Collection is housed at the Douglass-Truth Branch, which is in the Central District (not to be confused with the Central Branch, mind you).
The prints are simply framed, drawing the eye to the figures depicted in the images.
The print of a Black man holding a baby in the crook of his arm — Charles White’s “Ye Shall Inherit the Earth” — drew in Catherine Carr for a closer look one recent summer day.
“The humanity of this man and his baby and their lives just shines through so strongly,” she said, admiring the print and reflecting on the Hellen J. Collier poem printed beside it. Collier is an author with the African-American Writers’ Alliance, which produced written pieces to accompany the prints.
My hope is that his seeds will spread and lay claim to my manhood and the ancestors of my life as a human on this earth.
Hellen J. Collier
It’s a touching rendering that, through its black and white strokes, also speaks to the stark racial divides of the time. For Carr, a white woman, the print and the exhibit broadly are about more than Black history.
“It’s very much the history of white America as well as Black America,” said Carr, who stumbled upon the exhibit while visiting Seattle from Philadelphia. “I have ancestors who owned slaves in the southern part of America. I’m sure I have relatives who are the descendants of slaves as well. And it’s something that all of us need to think about and try to figure out how we reach a point where there’s justice for all.”
The “Black Activism in Print” exhibit spoke to that need in her eyes. She said it counters some Americans’ belief that we should ignore that part of our country’s history.
It’s reflections like this that Taylor Brooks wanted to inspire when she curated the collection.
Brooks is the African American Collection and community engagement librarian at the Douglass-Truth Branch.
She worked with artists Esther Ervin — who has her own legacy in the arts community — to have the prints freshly, simply framed.
“These prints were kept in a portfolio, not in great condition,” Brooks said. “And she was really able to breathe new life into these art pieces.”
The prints are just a sampling of the Douglass-Truth Branch’s extensive African American Collection, which consists of more than 10,000 items, from art to artifacts and periodicals. It’s the culmination of the work done by the Delta Epsilon Omega Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the nation’s first Black sorority, to preserve these pieces of Black art and history in Seattle.
Crystal Tolbert Bell has been the historian for the Delta Epsilon Omega Chapter for 31 years now. She said the African American Collection was started in the 1960s as part of an effort to save the Douglass-Truth Branch, and is now a “pivotal” part of the library system.
“The exhibit allows us to share with the community the beginnings of our collection, how members of our sisterhood inspire the community, its artists, businesses and political leaders, to unite as a collective and to work together,” Tolbert Bell said. “I want everyone who visits to feel proud to live or visit a place like the Douglass-Truth library, right here in Seattle, Washington.”
Some of the items, like photos from a Black women’s writing exhibition in the 1980s, speak to the influential people who have come through the Douglass-Truth Branch: Maya Angelou, Audrey Wright, 0and Esther Hall Mumford are among them.
“We still have some of those relics, some of those gems from that time to really kind of inform you of how important and how crucial this branch was to the community,” Brooks said, referring to photos included in the exhibit.
Titans like Angelou are pictured beside Seattle’s own giants, like Dr. Millie Russell, who was integral in the creation of the African American Collection at Douglass-Truth.
“These women were determined,” Brooks said about the Alpha Kappa Alpha members who donated the items on display. “They had a vision, and they were able to accomplish amazing things. And it’s so important that we continue to tell that story to younger people who may not know the story of Douglass-Truth.”
Younger people, as well as people coming to Seattle for the first time, may not know about the rich Black history of the Central District.
Pam Brown certainly didn’t know the extent of it when she first moved to Seattle from Chicago in 1982.
“I come from a strong civil rights background in Chicago and New York. And so, Seattle is a little bit different, I’ll say,” Brown said. “But I found my place when the Central District had a lot more people of color in it. That became my community.”
Brown is an artist in her own right. She was inspired to sketch the Central Library as she admired the prints.
“I know some of those artists,” she said, smiling. “It’s one place where, you know, you’re going to get a Black collection. Because when you go to other libraries, you can’t find who you’re looking for.”
To Brown, the exhibit and the Douglass-Truth Branch itself are simple “priceless” for the role they play in representing the Black community.
“It’s essential,” she said. “It’s an essential structure and collection because it’s the only place you’re going go in Seattle to find blackness in one place.”
It holds its place in Seattle history now, front and center, at the Seattle Central Library through Sept. 15 — and always at the Douglass-Truth Branch in the Central District.
The Cowboys have requested an interview with Seahawks assistant head coach Leslie Frazier, Todd Archer of ESPN reports.
They have an interview scheduled with former Jets head coach Robert Saleh for later this week, per Archer.
If both interviews are in person, that would satisfy the Rooney Rule and allow the Cowboys to make a hire at any point thereafter.
Frazier was the head coach of the Vikings from 2011-13 after taking over as interim coach for the final six games of 2010. He went 21-32-1. This is his first interview request in this hiring cycle.
Frazier, who began his NFL coaching career in 1999, was the Bucs’ defensive coordinator (2014-15), the Ravens’ secondary coach (2016) and the Bills’ defensive coordinator (2017-22) after his stint with the Vikings. He was out of the league in 2023 before Mike Macdonald hired him in Seattle before this season.
Jerry Jones’ eight previous hires for the Cowboys have been either former head coaches and/or have a tie with Jones. Frazier and Saleh both have previous head coaching experience.
A bill introduced by Seattle Council President Sara Nelson this week is set to reignite a debate over allowing housing on Seattle’s industrial lands and the future of the SoDo neighborhood. The industrial zone in question is immediately west and south of T-Mobile and Lumen stadiums, abutting the Port of Seattle. That debate had been seemingly put to rest with the adoption of a citywide maritime and industrial strategy in 2023 that didn’t add housing in industrial SoDo, following years of debate over the long-term future of Seattle’s industrial areas. This bill is likely going to divide advocates into familiar old camps during a critical year of much bigger citywide housing discussions.
The idea of allowing residential uses around the south downtown stadiums, creating a “Maker’s District” with capacity for around 1,000 new homes, was considered by the City in its original analysis of the environmental impact of changes to its industrial zones in 2022. But including zoning changes needed to permit residential uses within the “stadium transition overlay district,” centered around First Avenue S and Occidental Avenue S, was poised to disrupt the coalition of groups supporting the broader package.
Strongly opposed to the idea is the Port of Seattle, concerned about direct impacts of more development close to its container terminals, but also about encroachment of residential development onto industrial lands more broadly.
While the zoning change didn’t move forward then, the constituency in favor of it — advocates for the sport stadiums themselves, South Downtown neighborhood groups, and the building trades — haven’t given up on the idea, and seem to have found in Sara Nelson their champion, as the citywide councilmember heads toward a re-election fight.
“There’s an exciting opportunity to create a mixed-use district around the public stadiums, T-Mobile Park and Lumen Field, that prioritizes the development of light industrial “Makers’ Spaces” (think breweries and artisans), one that eases the transition between neighborhoods like Pioneer Square and the Chinatown-International District and the industrial areas to the south,” read a letter sent Monday signed by groups with ties to the Seattle Mariners and the Seattle Seahawks, labor unions including SEIU and IBEW, and housing providers including Plymouth Housing and the Chief Seattle Club. And while Nelson only announced that she was introducing this bill this week, a draft of that letter had been circulating for at least a month, according to meeting materials from T-Mobile Park’s public stadium district.
Under city code, 50% of residential units built in Urban Industrial zones — which includes this stadium overlay — have to be maintained as affordable for households making a range of incomes from 60% to 90% of the city’s area median income (AMI) for a minimum of 75 years, depending on the number of bedrooms in each unit. And units are required to have additonal soundproofing and air filtration systems to deal with added noise and pollution of industrial areas.
But unlike in other Urban Industrial (UI) zones, under Nelson’s bill, housing within the stadium transition overlay won’t have to be at least 200 feet from a major truck street, which includes Alaskan Way S, First Avenue S, and Fourth Avenue S. Those streets are some of the most dangerous roadways in the city, and business and freight advocates have fought against redesigning them when the City has proposed doing so in the past.
The timing of the bill’s introduction now is notable, given the fact that the council’s Land Use Committee currently has no chair, after District 2 Councilmember Tammy Morales resigned earlier this month, and the council has just started to ramp up work on reviewing Mayor Bruce Harrell’s final growth strategy and housing plan. Nelson’s own Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee is set to review the bill, giving her full control over her own bill’s trajectory, with Councilmembers Strauss and Rinck — the council’s left flank — left out of initial deliberations since they’re not on Nelson’s committee.
As Nelson brought up the bill in the last five minutes of Monday’s Council Briefing, D6 Councilmember Dan Strauss expressed surprise that this was being introduced and directed to Nelson’s own committee. Strauss, as previous chair of the Land Use Committee, shepherded a lot of the work around the maritime strategy forward, and seemed stunned that this was being proposed without a broader discussion.
“Did I hear you say that we’re going to be taking up the industrial and maritime lands discussion in your committee? There is a lot of work left to do around the stadium district, including the Coast Guard [base],” Strauss said. “I’m quite troubled to hear that we’re taking a one-off approach when there was a real comprehensive plan set up last year and to be kind of caught off guard here on the dais like this, without a desire to have additional discussion.”
On Tuesday, Strauss made a motion to instead send the bill to the Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan, chaired by D3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth. After a long discussion of the merits of keeping the bill in Nelson’s committee, the motion was shot down 5-3, with Councilmembers Kettle and Rinck joining Strauss. During public comment, members of the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters specifically asked for the bill to say in Nelson’s committee, a highly unusual move.
Nelson framed her bill Tuesday as being focused on economic development, intended to create more spaces that will allow small industrial-oriented businesses in the city. Nothing prevents those spaces being built now — commercial uses are allowed in the stadium overlay — but Nelson argued that they’ll only come to fruition if builders are allowed to construct housing above that ground-floor retail.
“What is motivating me is the fact that small light industrial businesses need more space in Seattle,” Nelson said. “Two to three makers businesses are leaving Seattle every month or so, simply because commercial spaces are very expensive, and there are some use restrictions for certain businesses. And when we talk about makers businesses, I’m talking about anything from a coffee roaster to a robot manufacturer, places where things are made and sold, and those spaces are hard to find. […] The construction of those businesses is really only feasible if there is something on top, because nobody is going to go out and build a small affordable commercial space for that kind of use”
Opposition from the Port of Seattle doesn’t seem to have let up since 2023.
“Weakening local zoning protections could not come at a worse time for maritime industrial businesses,” Port of Seattle CEO Steve Metruck wrote in a letter to the Seattle Council late last week. “Surrendering maritime industrial zoned land in favor of non-compatible uses like housing invokes a zero-sum game of displacing permanent job centers without creating new ones. Infringing non-compatible uses into maritime industrial lands pushes industry to sprawl outward, making our region more congested, less sustainable, and less globally competitive.”
SoDo is a liquefaction zone constructed on fill over former tideflats and is close to state highways and Port facilities, but not particularly close to amenities like grocery stores and parks. The issue of creating more housing in such a location will likely be a contentious one within Seattle’s housing advocacy world.
Nelson’s move may serve to draw focus away from the larger Comprehensive Plan discussion, a debate about the city’s long-term trajectory on housing. Whether this discussion does ultimately distract from and hinder the push to rezone Seattle’s amenity-rich neighborhoods — places like Montlake, Madrona, and Green Lake — to accommodate more housing remains to be seen.
Ryan Packer has been writing for The Urbanist since 2015, and currently reports full-time as Contributing Editor. Their beats are transportation, land use, public space, traffic safety, and obscure community meetings. Packer has also reported for other regional outlets including Capitol Hill Seattle, BikePortland, Seattle Met, and PubliCola. They live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.
Meeting on Seattle Public Schools levies ahead of election
This February, when voters head to the polls, they’ll be deciding on replacing two Seattle Public Schools levies that are expiring this year.
SEATTLE – When voters send back their ballots in February, they’ll be deciding on replacing two Seattle Public Schools levies that are expiring in 2025.
The district relies on local voter-approved levies like those to help pay for operations and to fund building construction and repairs.
What they’re saying:
While the year’s operation’s levy hasn’t had much pushback, critics say the capital levy is causing controversy, including concerns it will lead to school closures.
Some of those affiliated with the Save our Schools group say the capital levy is also prompting concerns that it will lead to “mega schools.”
“Seattle Public Schools has 106 schools. We have facility needs we are going to place before the voters,” said Richard Best, Executive Director of Capital Projects, Planning and Facilities of Seattle Public Schools.
School officials say there could be serious consequences for students if two propositions fail to pass February 11.
“That would be, I won’t say catastrophic, but there will be declining systems that could have consequential implications in that, when we do implement that system repair, it costs more,” said Best.
The operations levy would provide schools with $747 million, replacing the last EP&O levy approved in 2022.
It wouldn’t reduce the deficit, but would continue a current funding source, for things like salaries, school security, special education and multilingual support staff.
This was a breakdown that SPS provided of the operations levy online:
Operations Levy Details 2026-2028
- Proposed Levy Amount: $747 million
- Levy Collected: 2026–2028
- Replaces: Expiring EP&O Levy approved in 2022
- Current tax rate is 63 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value.
The second proposition, the $1.8 billion Building Excellence Capital Levy, would provide money for building projects and technology.
This was a breakdown of that proposition by SPS:
Building Excellence VI Capital Levy Details
- Proposed Amount: $1.8 billion
- Capital Projects Funding: $1,385,022,403
- Technology Funding: $$414,977,597
- Estimated Levy Rates: 93 cents to 79 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value
- Levy Collected: 2026-2031
A parent who didn’t want to share his name for privacy reasons told us he was concerned about the school closure plan that was scrapped last year, and wondered if the situation was “sustainable.”
Critic Chris Jackins belies the capital levy, as written, could result in the closure of schools.
“This is a continuation of an effort to close more schools,” said Jackins.
He wrote the statement in the voter pamphlet arguing against proposition 2. He says it would allow the construction of “mega schools,” which will in turn be used to then close more schools.
“On the capital levy, they have two projects which will create two more mega-sized schools, they are both scheduled at 650 students. They both cost more each, more than $148 million,” he said. “They are continuing their construction to add even more elementary school capacity when they say they have too much. It doesn’t make sense.”
The district’s website reads that major renovations and replacement projects would include replacement of at least one elementary school in northeast Seattle.
“The two schools they are talking about, one they didn’t name, so nobody knows, and one is Lowell, which is an existing school, but they are planning to destroy most of it and make it much larger,” Jackins said.
“I have worked designing schools since 1991 and since that period, I have never designed a school smaller than 500 students,” said Best. “We use a model for 500 students, which is three classrooms per grade level.”
Best explained further.
“The term is not ‘mega schools.’ We design schools to be schools within schools. You have a first-grade cohort, maybe 75 or 100 students. They stay together. Middle schools are 1,000 students. Those are very common throughout the state of Washington.”
Best says school closures aren’t on the table right now, but may be revisited at some point.
“We are going to engage in the conversation about schools, school capacity, looking at elementary schools, our focus right now is getting these two levies passed,” he said.
Meantime, Jackins is asking people to vote down the capital levy, and then to ask that it be resubmitted in a form that uses the funds to fix up existing schools in order to keep them open.
The ballots are expected to go out to voters around January 22. The election is set for February 11.
The Source: Information from this story is from Seattle Public Schools officials and the Save our Schools group.
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