THE FORGING OF A BLACK COMMUNITY: A History of Seattle's Central District, 1870 through the Civil Rights Era

(Selected for the Emil and Kathleen Sick Lecture-Book Series in Western History and Biography)

Through much of the twentieth century, black Seattle was synonymous with the Central District--a four-square-mile residential section near the center of the city.  Quintard Taylor explores the evolution of this community from its first few residents in the 1870s to a population of nearly forty thousand in 1970.  With events such as the massive influx of Southern African Americans into the city beginning with World War II and the transformation of African American community leadership in the 1960s from an integrationist to a black power stance, Seattle both anticipates and mirrors national trends.  Thus, the book addresses not only a particular city in the Pacific Northwest but also the process of political change sweeping across African America.

About the Author
Quintard Taylor is the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History at the University of Washington.  His other books include In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, Seeking El Dorado: African Americans in California, 1769-1997, and African American Women Confront the West, 1600-2000. He is also the author of over forty articles. His work on African American Western History, African American, African, Afro-Brazilian, and comparative ethnic history has appeared in the Western Historical Quarterly, Pacific Historical Review, Oregon Historical Quarterly, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Journal of Negro History, Arizona and the West, Western Journal of Black Studies, Polish-American Studies, and the Journal of Ethnic Studies, among other journals.

Taylor is the website director of the award-winning portal www.BlackPast.org  Dr. Taylor spearheads this 3,000 page website which is the largest free and ungated reference center on African American history on the Internet.  BlackPast.org is dedicated to providing reference materials to the general public on African American history in the United States and on the history of people of African ancestry around the world.

Product Details
•    Paperback: 330 pages
•    Publisher: University of Washington Press (May 1994)
•    Language: English
•    ISBN-10: 0295973455
•    ISBN-13: 978-0295973456