Primary Sources: The 1970s: Bicentennial - 1976

"As part of the United States' Bicentennial celebration, the Washington State Archives undertook an oral history project which focused on the Black community in Seattle and King County. These 69 interviews were conducted by Esther Hall Mumford in 1975 and 1976, and include audio, transcripts, and negatives. Transcriptions were created shortly after the interviews took place. Negatives can include portraits of interviewees, as well as images taken of photographs, clippings, and other items belonging to or relating to interviewees.

While these interviews were conducted in the mid-1970s, interviewees discuss events as early as the 1880s regarding homesteaders, farmers, strikebreakers, and race discrimination. The majority highlight the years between 1900 and 1945, and relate to early housing, employment, education, recreation, and the changing Black community in greater Seattle."