Unforgettable History

By the last night this quarter, I reviewed my assignments done which are really meaningful for me to see how I get closed to Native American culture. This is the work of the Reflection on Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project website. I'd love to share with you guys.

 

As I view this website, I got a lot of information about the unique civil rights history, which is the particular part of time of Civil Rights movements in Seattle I didn't know before. This multi-media website provides the important history of Seattle's civil rights movements with videos, slideshows, photographs, documents, movement histories, personal biographies and other resources that explore various issues, incidents and people.

            The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project is dedicated to social movements and labor history in the Pacific Northwest. It is directed by Professor James N. Gregory and Trevor Griffey of the University of Washington. This project represents the collaboration between the social community organizations and UW faculty and students.

            I followed "Tour the Project" sign to know the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project step by step. There are hundreds Veterans of Seattle's civil rights campaigns' activist oral histories told by streaming videos. Everyone of them was participating the Civil Rights struggle. I watched few of them, those stories are really impressed. I can feel what they've been though from their experiences.

            Research reports are the part to get deeper understanding of the Seattle Civil Rights event. Those essays are not just including the civil rights' process, also work with special incidents and people. The pictures are helped to illustrate the stories more vividly and specific.

            About the "Segregated Seattle", I knew about from the 1910s through the 1960s, Seattle was  a segregated city. The "white supremacy" covered all over the America. People of color which almost everyone besides white people are all excluded from most jobs, schools, stores or other commercial establishments, even hospitals. Although the fact is really hard to believe, but the "UNFAIR" signs on the pictures proved the truth. People who were not white must be fight for their rights for about half century.

            In Seattle's Ethnic Press, those newspapers which published in different languages. All of these are now collected by University of Washington. The topic is almost about helping their particular community. These newspapers were the evidences for the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History in the last century and a half.

            There's one sentence in the "Seattle's Civil Rights Organizations" page is my personal favorite in the website, which is "Others came and went, making contributions that can be too easily forgotten if we are careless with our past". Thank you for Trevor Griffey who is the man researched and written the list of the organizations of civil rights activism in Washington State. From 1910s, there were already some organizations get started to struggle for their civil rights. During the process of the event, which through 1970s, more and more organizations were coming out. All of these organizations have contributed to the struggle for civil rights in the Seattle region. To my surprise, some of these organizations still work until today. The civil rights built them, and time turns them to timeless. Because of the work from all the people who were working in these organizations, the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor Activism is unforgettable.

            In the special sections, there are about fourteen little history stories are recorded since the Seattle Civil Rights struggle started. As long as I read and see, people's endeavors  are the things we'll never forget. From the event, we can see their works, and especially their spirits. Like the Seattle's Asian American movement from 1969 to 1973, CORE and the Central Area Rights Campaigns from 1960 to 1968 and other event including the strikes and riots. Those Americans were trying to get their rights.

            As an international student, I didn't have get enough information about this event which cost people over half century. From this time viewing the website, I deeply get the idea of the spirits from the people who have working for the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor Activism. This project helped to change the state law. From my standpoint, the project really did an excellent work on helping people fight for the civil rights.

            Lastly, thanks for all the people who have been participated into the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor Activism and especially the people who created this website for people to view all these multi-media information. Hopefully I'll get more history knowledge from some other researches. The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project will be engraved in people's hearts.