July 1, 1963: Seattle’s First Civil Rights Sit-In

The Central District Youth Club in Mayor Clinton's office.
Photo credit: Tom Brownell, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The “Seattle Way” is nothing new. In fact, our city government’s infamous penchant for processing potential legislation towards a slow, agonizing death dates back at least to the early 1960s, the prime of the Civil Rights era. Then, people of color here, inspired by activists in the Deep South, began to pressure Seattle City Hall to outlaw racial discrimination in housing. In response to that grassroots pressure, in July 1962 Seattle Mayor Gordon S. Clinton appointed a Citizen’s Advisory Committee on Minority Housing, which concluded later that year that “a city ordinance prohibiting discrimination in the sale or rental of housing accommodations on the basis of race, creed, color or national origin is an essential tool for the work of a city commission on human relations.” The committee also recommended the creation of a 12-member human rights commission to carry out that mission.

In keeping with the “Seattle Way,” Clinton and the Seattle City Council naturally delayed action on the advisory committee’s recommendations for nearly a year. It was on the date in focus here that, to protest the city’s inaction and to demand “open housing” in Seattle, the Rev. Mance Jackson of the Bethel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and the Rev. Samuel B. McKinney of the Mount Zion Baptist Church organized a march on City Hall, beginning in the Central Area. That morning, roughly 400 marchers descended upon the Fifth Avenue plaza of the Seattle Municipal Building, where a city council meeting on open housing was scheduled for that day. There, a group of high-school and college-age protesters circulated a flyer, which read in part:

“As citizens of Seattle and members of the Central District Youth Club, we feel humiliated by the slow process of the City of Seattle to adopt open housing. We are past the stages of patience, we also are past the stage of committees and subcommittees. We want open housing today.”

Inside the city council chambers, some 300 protesters filled the meeting, in a room with a seating capacity of 175. Mayor Clinton spoke in favor of the human rights commission, while several clergymen involved with the march expressed their own impatience with the lack of progress on the open housing issue.

Meanwhile, before the meeting, at about 1:30 p.m., about 35 members of the Central District Youth Club–which included both African-American and white youth–proceeded to the mayor’s office with the intention of occupying it as a form of protest in support of open housing in Seattle. The sit-in lasted 24 hours and ended peacefully, and it succeeded in convincing the city council to commit to the creation of a human rights commission, with the mandate of drafting an open housing ordinance within 90 days.

Some of the protest leaders, including the Rev. Jackson and the Rev. McKinney, were still critical that the council did not directly move toward the creation of an ordinance. Another local clergyman, the Rev. Dr. John H. Adams, minister of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, said tersely at one point, “You cannot put out the forest fire of racial tension with the hot dry air that comes from committee rooms.”

Seattle voters would defeat the open housing ordinance in March 1964, but, after four more years of “Seattle Way” shenanigans, the ordinance was finally passed directly by the city council in April 1968.

–Jeff Stevens. Sources: “Sit-In Begins In Mayor’s Office Here,” The Seattle Times, July 1, 1963, p. 1; Dan Coughlin, “City Implies OK For Open Housing Law After Sit-In,” The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 2, 1963, p. 1; “Youths End Sit-In At Mayor’s Office,” The Seattle Times, July 2, 1963, p. 1; Lane Smith, “City Council Stalls on Housing, Negroes Charge,” The Seattle Times, July 2, 1963, p. 6; Douglas Willix, “Council Influenced by Spokesmen for Open-Housing Ordinance,” The Seattle Times, July 2, 1963, p. 6; Dan Coughlin, “Protesters To ‘Go Along’ On Seattle Rights Plan,” The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 3, 1963, p. 5; Charles Dunsire, “Open Housing Sleepy Sit-Ins End 24-Hour Visit To Mayor,” The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 3, 1963, p. 5; “King AM-FM Cover City Council Hearings On Minority Housing,” The Facts, July 12, 1963, p. 1; “Mayor Appoints Minister to Commission–Housing Ordinance Top Priority,” The Facts, July 19, 1963, p. 1.

June 15, 1963: Seattle’s First Civil Rights March

Rev. Mance Jackson (center, next to police sergeant) leading demonstrators in downtown Seattle

In the summer of 1963, Seattle may have still been a small, sleepy city in some respects, but in its response to the civil rights movement then reaching full bloom in the Deep South, Seattle’s black community showed exceptional civic leadership among the cities west of the Mississippi. On the date in focus here, Seattle witnessed the first of many bold actions that would echo the events then unfolding in Alabama and elsewhere.

On that Saturday morning, several of Seattle’s leading black clergymen, including the Rev. Mance Jackson, led a march of some 1,000 persons, both black and white, from the Central Area to Westlake Mall. The march, which began at Mt. Zion Baptist Church at 19th Avenue and Madison Street, was organized by local officers of the Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), partly in response to the murder of Medgar Evers, Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP. Evers was shot to death in front of his house in Jackson, Mississippi earlier that week, and several protests along the East Coast had already ensued as the Seattle marchers assembled at Mt. Zion.

At the church, a spirited rally preceded the march, and a collection of $634.02 was taken for Evers’s family; a minute of silent prayer was also offered for Evers. The march then proceeded through the Central Area, converging down Pine Street towards downtown for a scheduled noon rally at Westlake Mall.

While partly instigated by the murder of Evers, the demonstration mainly concerned the discrimination in housing, education, and employment then rampant in Seattle, as well as the city government’s failure to adequately address that discrimination. At the time, local civil rights activists had been pursuing the creation and passage of an open housing ordinance in Seattle, so far to no avail. At Westlake, Rev. Jackson, pastor of Seattle’s Bethel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, gave a rousing speech lamenting the state of race relations in Seattle:

“We are trying to point out that Seattle is no different from any other American city…. Some believe Seattle is different … that Negroes are better treated … We have been complacent and satisfied in the great Northwest. We came to what we thought was a land of promise and we have been content to accept discrimination. The hour is upon us when we must realize [that] freedom from oppression is reserved for those who are willing to fight for it. The time is now–or never.”

Concluding his speech, Mance called upon the demonstrators to continue demonstrating in the coming weeks. He called upon men to stage protests on Mondays, women on Tuesdays, and young people on Wednesdays and Fridays.

“Saturday,” he concluded, “is everybody’s day.”

Other black leaders from Seattle also spoke at the rally, including the Rev. John Adams, pastor of the First African Methodist Church. Rev. Adams referred to a timetable recently proposed by Seattle Mayor Gordon S. Clinton for creating a human rights commission and a real estate listing service to address racial discrimination in the city. Many black leaders felt the timetable was not urgent enough, and the Rev. Adams declared:

“We will let the mayor know we don’t approve his timetable…. We don’t want any more study groups–we want some action, now!”

Reginald Alleyne, local president of CORE, vowed that CORE would “picket, boycott, and sit-in real estate offices that discriminate in this city.” He also said that CORE was prepared to pursue economic sanctions against any local businesses found guilty of job discrimination.

Mayor Clinton, while not speaking at the rally, announced to the press during the rally that he would recommend the following Monday that the city council establish a city human rights commission and housing listing service during his annual State of the City address at that week’s council meeting. On that day, a rally of some 400 persons in support of the proposed open housing ordinance was held outside the Seattle Municipal Building one hour before the council meeting. Clinton spoke at that rally to light applause, outlining his proposal for the creation of a 12-member human rights commission with an annual budget of $30,000. Stronger applause was reserved for the Rev. Jackson, who declared:

“We think we have heard you, Mr. Mayor, and we think there is no intention of our city government to do anything.”

The following year, an open housing ordinance was presented to Seattle voters as a referendum; it was defeated, mainly due to opposition from property owners who framed it as an attack on property rights. It was not until April 1968 that a Seattle open housing ordinance was finally adopted, this time by a vote of the Seattle City Council.

–Jeff Stevens. Sources: “700 March in Racial-Equality Protest,” The Seattle Times, June 15, 1963, p. 1; Charles Dunsire, “Negro Leaders Here Launch Fight For Equality,” The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 16, 1963, p. 12; “400 Negroes, Whites Rally at City Hall,” The Seattle Times, June 17, 1963, p. A; Dan Coughlin, “Clinton Asks $30,000 To Start Rights Commission,” The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 18, 1963, p. 1.