The Forging of a Black Community
This is good for a book review, I think. I just finished reading “The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era” by Quintard Taylor. Got it from the Seattle Public Library on a recommendation from John Jeannot. Actually, he had recommended it to a group of us at the Pratt Park “Tree Bench” celebration a few weeks back, and I finally got it from reserve at the library a few days back.
Anywho, back to my thoughts. As a person who very much appreciates the “history of the local area, as written by a distinguished university professor” sort of book (for instance, I also read Walter Edgar’s South Carolina: A History shortly after moving there) I found this book on my new area to be a great read! The original impetus to reading the book was to try to find out a bit more about Pratt Park — a goal I didn’t really get from the book. All I found out was that he was involved in the Seattle Urban League and that he was assassinated in 1969. But that’s a minor bit of the book. In fact, the book covered lots and LOTS of interesting happenings and goings-on, particularly during the post-WW2 to 1970 tumultuous period. I found it very interesting to read familiar names like Larry Gossett and Aaron Dixon in the context of the 1960s “Black Power” movement…
If there’s one complaint about the book it would have to be that it ends pretty abruptly after 1970 (with only a few commentaries about the 1980s). I guess that’s Dr. Taylor’s time period of interest, but I’d really like to read a book that covers the 1970s-1990s and helps to better explain the changes and social climate that led to the decline and “revival” (or “gentrification” if that’s your perspective) of the central district during that period. He alluded to the economic underpinnings of this change as early as the 1970s, and of course we can fill in some of the blanks with regards to the 1980s crack epidemic… but I still wonder if there was more to it. Why did the Wonder-bread plant close? Why are we seeing such “pock-mark” gentrification throughout the CD (ie – shiny new townhouse next to falling down shack) vs a more uniform wave of rebuilding through the neighborhood?
Oh well. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for more to read about. 
Evan Dodds - Non-work-related blog » Northwest African American Museum said,
July 9, 2006 at 6:51 pm
[...] So, here we are… 7 years later, give or take…. and 21 years after the intial stand-off at the Coleman school. From the sentiments expressed in these postings, it is very clear that there were quite a few strong opinions about what the museum space should be and how it should be handled. It proves, too, that my thoughts the other day in my post on Dr. Quintard Taylor’s book about the 80s and 90s were by no means unfounded. My wonderful neighborhood clearly had a tumultuous time through both the 80s and the 90s… maybe even right up to today, from some people’s perspectives! [...]