History

100 Years of Seattle Activism

The surprising history of Seattle’s century-long fight for human rights.

11/21/2017 By Madeline Ostrander and Valerie Schloredt

100 Years of Activism

2015–17: Kayaktivists Confront Big Oil and Washington Confronts Trump

To be continued.

11/21/2017 By Madeline Ostrander and Valerie Schloredt

100 Years of Activism

2012–14: Seattle Pushes for Legal Weed and a $15 Minimum Wage

And paved the way for dozens of other cities and states that have since followed suit.

11/21/2017 By Madeline Ostrander and Valerie Schloredt

100 Years of Activism

1999–2003: Progressives Protest the Global Trade Agenda and the Invasion of Iraq

As the Left formed a united front, street protests in downtown Seattle brought the WTO conference to a standstill.

11/21/2017 By Madeline Ostrander and Valerie Schloredt

100 Years of Activism

1991: PNW Riot Grrrls Stage a Revolution

Northwest bands like Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney and Bratmobile pioneered feminism’s third wave.

11/21/2017 By Madeline Ostrander and Valerie Schloredt

100 Years of Activism

1982–84: The Trident Nuclear Submarine; Grassroots HIV Care

Plus, an occupation at Colman Elementary leads the way for the Northwest African American Museum.

11/21/2017 By Madeline Ostrander and Valerie Schloredt

100 Years of Activism

1972–74: Native Activists Fight for Their Rights to Fish

Plus: Students-turned-protestors occupy a Beacon Hill schoolhouse—known today as the El Centro de la Raza community center.

11/21/2017 By Madeline Ostrander and Valerie Schloredt

100 Years of Activism

1970: Anti-Vietnam Protests Break Out—But the Dude Abides

Plus, protests at Fort Lawton make way for the Day Break Star Indian Cultural Center.

11/21/2017 By Madeline Ostrander and Valerie Schloredt

100 Years of Activism

1968: Birdwatchers and Mountaineers Defend the Wilderness

“They were then the fightingest and scrappiest outfit around.”

11/21/2017 By Madeline Ostrander and Valerie Schloredt

100 Years of Activism

1956–69: Seattleites Stand Up for Racial Justice

The region’s civil rights moment relied not only on African Americans, but activists from many ethnic groups.

11/21/2017 By Madeline Ostrander and Valerie Schloredt

100 Years of Activism

1953: Filipino Cannery Workers Strike

During the McCarthy era, workers stood up to the Red Scare by refusing to bar Communists in union leadership roles.

11/21/2017 By Madeline Ostrander and Valerie Schloredt

100 Years of Activism

1935–42: Locals Protest Anti-Interracial Marriage Laws and Japanese Internment

The only known newspaper to have decried internment policies in the area, maybe even the West Coast, was Bainbridge Island Review.

11/21/2017 By Madeline Ostrander and Valerie Schloredt

100 Years of Activism

1931: Unemployed Citizens Erect Hooverville

Pictured: Seattle’s Hooverville, as seen in March 1933, settled near where the Seahawks and Mariners stadiums stand now.

11/21/2017 By Madeline Ostrander and Valerie Schloredt

100 Years of Activism

1917–24: Seattle’s Anti-WWI Women and the General Strike Make News Worldwide

Plus: Washington voters reject the Ku Klux Klan.

11/21/2017 By Madeline Ostrander and Valerie Schloredt

Big Little Lies

How to Call BS in the Age of Alternative Facts

Two Seattle professors want to forge a path for truth in the so-called post-truth era.

04/17/2017 By Madeline Ostrander

Politics

Seattle Is a Sanctuary City with Big Pockets

Our economic heft means our political resistance sticks.

03/20/2017 By Madeline Ostrander

Hope and Resistance

Our Sanctuary City Status Is More Than Just Talk

A 13-year-old ordinance is the basis for this designation—and it's how we welcome immigrants and refugees to Seattle, officially.

01/19/2017 By Madeline Ostrander

Past in Present

We’ve Seen What Happens When an Ethnic Group Is Seized by Executive Order

It was in 1942, when Japanese citizens in the Seattle area were sent to internment camps.

01/19/2017 By Madeline Ostrander

Feature

Quiet: A Soldier’s Fight for the Most Silent Place in America

The military’s plan to send newer, more disruptive jet planes over the Hoh and Quinault rain forest region has unraveled not only townspeople throughout the Olympic Peninsula, but the veterans who thought they’d found a refuge.

11/16/2016 By Madeline Ostrander