Photo courtesy of American Anthropological Association and Science Museum of Minnesota
RACE: Are We So Different?
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“Said lot or
lots shall not be
sold, conveyed,
or rented nor
leased, in whole
or in part, to any
person not of the
White race….”
—Clause from original
property deed in the
Eastlake neighborhood
of Seattle
The Central District:
Seattle’s melting pot
Between 1890 and World War I, this four-square-mile
neighborhood between downtown Seattle and Lake Washington
was predominantly Jewish. African Americans also owned and
operated businesses along Yesler Way during the early 1900s.
The Japanese community spread east from Chinatown into the
Central District during the 1920s. But after World War II and the
internment of Japanese Americans, the area became home to
most of Seattle’s growing black population, thanks to housing
discrimination and restrictive covenants elsewhere in the city.
Seattle’s racially
restrictive covenants
The language of segregation lurks
in the property deeds of tens of
thousands of homeowners.
A legacy of discrimination
here at home
Between 1926 and 1948, racially restrictive covenants excluded
African American, Asian and Jewish residents from buying or
renting property in Queen Anne, Greenwood, Capitol Hill and other
neighborhoods north of downtown and along Lake Washington.
Even after such contracts became illegal, informal discrimination
persisted. In 2006, a new state law finally made it easier for
homeowners’ associations to remove racial covenants from
property deeds.
THE HISTORY OF OUR COMMUNITY
