Another visit to the history files (via a remark by webmaster Josh Larios on Facebook) – the occupation of Colman School in Seattle.

The Pacific Northwest African American Museum, located in the old Colman School, at 2300 Massachusetts St. in Seattle, opened on March 8, 2008, with an estimated 3,000 visitors.  The surrounding neighborhood was swarming with cars and hundreds of people on foot converged from all directions.  Elected officials who took part in the opening included Governor Christine Gregoire, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, U. S. Representative Jim McDermott, Mayor Greg Nickels (b. 1955), King County Executive Ron Sims (b. 1948), and King County Councilman Larry Gossett (b. 1945).  It was a happy day for the African American community, which had dreamed of a museum for more than two decades.

It was an occupation that made it happen. The occupation lasted from 1985 to 1993.

In 1981, the Community Exchange, a multi-racial coalition, proposed an African American museum to  Mayor Charles Royer (b. 1939).  Three years later, a task force was formed to establish such a museum and included community members Omari Tahir Garrett, Mona Bailey, Esther Mumford, Ann Gerber, P. Razz Garrison, and Janice Cate.  In November 1985, disillusioned by the tardiness of the task force in finding a museum location, a group of African Americans moved into the vacant Colman School after it was closed when nearby Interstate 90 was expanded.

(Just weeks before, the Black Heritage Society had petitioned Walt Hundley (1929-2002), Superintendent of Parks and Recreation, for use of a room in the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center for a small museum.  He instead offered the small shelter house built by the WPA on the Colman playfield. The society decided against accepting this.)

The core group of activists occupying the building, which included Earl Debman, Omari Tahir-Garrett, Michael Greenwood, and Charlie James, stayed for more than eight years. The Seattle School District, not wanting a confrontation, told them they were trespassing but made no effort to dislodge them.  This has been said to be the longest act of civil disobedience in the country.

During those years the group, known as the Citizens Support Committee for the African American Heritage Museum/Cultural Center, used several rooms in the building for displays of books, artifacts, and art work and sponsored community activities including a forum on Aids and Racism.  The individual members of the group sacrificed much to keep their dream of a museum and cultural center alive. The building was cold and it cost them $500 a month to keep the gas-fired generator running.  A bucket of water was used for bathing or they went to homes of friends for showers.  Neighbors brought in plates of food and a few dollars were collected from black churches.

Notice it wasn’t about demanding the right to exploit public lands for personal profit.

In 1993, the occupation ended when the City of Seattle agreed to fund the museum.  Then came much discussion and disagreement between two groups, the activists and the more traditional leaders, who purported to represent the museum effort.  Robert Flowers, Vice President of  Washington Mutual, and James Fearne, an official with the Seattle Office of the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, both chaired the museum board at different times between 1993 and 2000.  It was fostered under the guidance of Denice Hunt (1948-1997), liaison to Mayor Norm Rice (b. 1943).  By 2000, Fearne said, “It’s been a really difficult thing to work with.  There have been lawsuits, there have been fist fights.  There has been so much difficulty and controversy about a museum at this site.  Maybe it’s better to regroup and look someplace else than keep fighting these battles” ( Ervin).

In 2003, The Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, under the leadership of James Kelly, the executive director, bought the building from the Seattle School District for $800,000 for a museum and 36 units of affordable rental housing to be known as the Urban League Village.

Nothing about giving public lands to ranchers for $0.00, for some reason.

The 19,000-square-foot ground floor houses the museum with three galleries, a genealogy research area, an artist’s work space, a workroom, office space, a gift shop, and a cafe operated by St. Cloud’s Restaurant. There is an acknowledgment, at the entrance, of the sacrifices made by the activists and credit given to their vision that made the museum a reality.

No mention of guns or shoot-out or armed standoffs.