University of Washington Protest

Black and Asian laborers and skilled contractors have historically faced exclusion from various industries and opportunities in Seattle. Early West Coast labor unions were notorious for their hostility toward Black and Asian workers, often excluding them outright and, at times, resorting to mob violence. These workers were frequently framed as competition and were exploited as strikebreakers by employers. Until the 1960s, Black, Asian, and Indigenous people in Seattle were systematically barred from many jobs, neighborhoods, businesses, and even hospitals. They faced not only legal restrictions but also social enforcement through harassment and discrimination. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other reforms in the early 1960s formally abolished these legal barriers, but exclusionary practices persisted through the 1970s. By 1970, nearly all of Seattle’s 40,000 Black residents were limited to living in the Central District, where housing discrimination, soaring home prices, and limited job opportunities reinforced economic and social segregation.

Adding to this exclusion, Black civil rights activists frequently encountered hostility and escalated responses from law enforcement. Systemic racial profiling, legally sanctioned at the time, led to mass arrests and political suppression throughout the 1950s and 1960s. These tensions contributed to the mistrust between these communities and law enforcement, particularly during protests at the University of Washington. Efforts to reform the Seattle Police Department had long been met with resistance. In 1965, the American Civil Liberties Union of Seattle, with support from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, petitioned for an independent Police Review Board to address officer misconduct and mistreatment of detainees. However, the initiative was ultimately unsuccessful.

The Central Contractors Association

The Central Contractors Association (CCA) was formed in the late 1960s by a diverse coalition of Seattle area skilled tradesmen and construction workers facing continued discrimination by white contractors and exclusion from white unions. In the early 1960s, Seattle received federal funding for urban renewal through the Model Cities Program, which identified the under-resourced Central Area, Pioneer Square, and the International District as at risk for "urban blight" and social disorder, and in need of financial and structural support. At this time, these three neighborhoods housed only 10% of the city’s population, but a staggering 60% of the nonwhite population.

The CCA emerged as an outgrowth of this program, and focused efforts on enforcing equal opportunity compliance on federal building project contracts through a series of nonviolent direct-action demonstrations. Between 1969 and 1970, the CCA led demonstrations at federally funded construction projects across Seattle, including the King County Courthouse, a fire station at 15th and Pine, Harborview Medical Center, a pool at Garfield High School, Sea-Tac Airport, and at the University of Washington, where the group successfully shut down 25 construction sites.

These efforts paid off in December of 1969, when the U.S. Department of Justice joined a lawsuit initiated by the CCA against five prominent Seattle unions for employment discrimination in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Federal Judge William Lindberg ultimately found four of the five unions guilty, and mandated broad affirmative action programs for the Seattle construction industry. These reforms, termed the "Seattle Plan," were used as an affirmative action model for construction industry reform across the United States.

Seattle Human Rights Commission Hearing

On September 23, 1969, the CCA organized a series of direct-action campaigns at federal building projects across the University of Washington campus to protest the exclusion of black workers from these taxpayer-funded jobs. After the demonstrators successfully shut down the site, a series of confrontations and arrests occurred at the intersection of 15th Avenue NE and NE 41st Street. On October 16, the Seattle Human Rights Commission held a public hearing to investigate allegations of misconduct by members of the Seattle Police Department (SPD) following these demonstrations. At this hearing, the council heard eyewitness testimony from contractors, demonstrators, laborers, and bystanders to discern the extent of force used by officers and to investigate potential misconduct.

Howard Pruzan chaired the meeting, collecting nonsworn statements from eyewitnesses. The hearing investigated only the confrontations between police and demonstrators, not the events occurring on the construction site prior to the arrival of SPD. Fourteen eyewitnesses testified at the hearing, describing various incidents of assault, undue force in arrests, and use of racial epithets. Many CCA board members, including President Tyree Scott, Luene Curry, James Takisaki, Benjamin McAdoo, and Lembhard Howell, were present for the September 23 demonstration and testified at the October 16 hearing. None of the police officers in attendance at the demonstration testified at the meeting and were instead represented by Assistant Chief of Police Anton C. Gaston and SPD legal advisor H. Joseph Coleman.

Testimony

Benjamin McAdoo - CCA board member and demonstration leader (listen to audio)
Well, I was there at the aforenamed intersection. I am a supporter of the Central Contractors Association's demands that Blacks be admitted to the skilled trades unions and that discriminatory bars against their admission be dropped. When I arrived at the intersection, demonstrators had, so far as I know, had left the quadrangle site on university property.

Some police had entered but were leaving the university property and following the protesters across the street to the intersection of 15th Northeast and Northeast 41st Street. I stood, I suppose, almost parallel with the curb on 15th Northeast, uh, somewhat out from the sidewalk. So just south of the sidewalk, I would say maybe 25 or 10 feet.

And at that time, Mr. Tyree Scott was addressing the protesters with a, uh, a bullhorn. I don't recall all that he said. I do recall that he did ask the supporters of the CCA to step back on the sidewalk. It was immediately following this, that sort of policeman, I would say, possibly as many as four or not less than two, grabbed Mr. Scott rather roughly, placed a nightstick under his chin, and then proceeded to drag him to a police van that was parked near the southwest corner of the intersection of 15th Northeast and Northeast 41st.

I was upset by this action, and I immediately began to protest to the officers that were there. And I said, “What, what has he done? Why are you arresting him?” And I got no reply, of course. Or I got no reply. They placed Mr. Scott in the police van, and I went to the door to try to inquire about his condition. And I walked away from the van, and it was immediately following the arrest of Mr. Scott that a number of officers seemed to, well, not seemed to, it was in my opinion a charge.

Now, this, all the officers that were there did not engage in this charge. I would possibly say less than 50% of those there charged the crowd. I could then see nightsticks, flailing. When I say flailing, I mean, they were being raised above the officers’ heads and being brought down. I saw people being pulled out of the subway and, um, being dragged, some being dragged. Others walking, to some degree, and being assisted, if that's the proper word by the police, to, to the police van.

I did not see any action on the part of the of the people there that would warrant what I consider to be the excessive force used by the police. I did not see any of the white workmen who were on the project site at the university, in the area, making any identifications.

Nathaniel Brooks - student and demonstrator (listen to audio)
Yes, sir. I was with Mr. Sanford on the chart where it says Northeast 41st and at, just above the "E," on Northeast 41st. Mr. Sanford took the conversation of when we were together, but now I’ll relate to you what happened that put us together.

Just above the "E" in Northeast 41st, where I was at the time, that Mr. Sanford was about in the middle of the street. There was a police officer over next to the building. This police officer did something. He threw a gun down toward the demonstrator, myself, and I started to make a motion toward it in which somebody screamed, "It's bait!"

This police officer ran behind the other police officers there. I headed toward Mr. Sanford. When they screamed it was bait I was given a push and I headed toward Mr. Sanford, at which time we spotted, uh, it will be brought out in the record it was not Mr. Curry, it was a gentleman by the name of Willie, Willie Roberts, who I understood later had arrived in Seattle about 24 hours before from New York.

And when this just happened, I saw that, I started to ask him something and that's when we headed toward Willie, who was up against the truck. And being up against the truck, Mr. Sanford was a little bit behind me, because of the police officers there, so I got there first. They had, they were hitting him in the manner Mr. Jones described, quite bad, he was hurt pretty bad.

He did get, there's an area between the truck and the, uh, the, moving [sic], there's a kind of little cavity there, in which he either was thrown or he wound up under there. And by this time, I was almost next to the truck itself. And one of the police officers involved in hitting Willie, told a construction worker to move the truck.

He knew he was under there, and he told him to move it. And being closest, by this time, Larry Sanford had arrived at, with me, next to the truck. And the word, "so-and-so" that nobody has mentioned, has mentioned, I’ll translate it for you, the word was, "Dump the load of dirt on that nigger." And by this time, in an effort to get Willy out from under this truck, not knowing whether it's going to move or whether or not -  
 
[break in audio]

...That's what they're exactly what they're going to do. This police officer ordered this construction worker to do that. And not knowing whether or not it was actually going, but I assuming that something was going to happen we tried to get him out.

And at that time, Larry was thrown, grabbed and thrown. And at the same time, I was struck down. I got hit in the shoulder, in the back, and this is the collarbone, as I mentioned earlier, that was myself. And I told Larry that I couldn't feel anything on my left side. I was losing sense of feel over here.

And they asked me, did I think something was broken? Said, I don't know, things are just getting a little numb. And we had attempted to get Willie up out from under there. By this time, I was just about in position, straight down. Willie was still under there, and we were trying to - by this time they had struck us and kind of move back.

And I had one arm, my right arm, I was struck on my left side. And attempting to bring Willie out from underneath the truck, and by attempting to bring him out, if you take a look at him that, the gentleman who was previously mentioned was Mr. Curry.

C.A. Bryant - purchasing agent and Equal Employment Opportunity officer for Peter Kiewit Sons Construction Company (listen to audio)
Yes. I was at the construction site on the south side of North 41st Street. That is a building that we are constructing for the university. That's right. Throughout that morning and the rest of the day, practically, during the time that the demonstrators marched north on 15th Street into the construction site on the campus, then after the demonstration over there back out of the construction site on campus across 15th to the corner of, the northwest corner of 15th and 41st and then spilling on down 41st Street to the west.

Uh, my purpose in being there was to represent our company, because we had been advised the day before that the demonstrators would be there and would shut the project site down. I might say we were advised by Tyree Scott, who visited the job the day before. As has been stated here, the police arrived at that corner, about as the demonstrators were marching out of the construction site on the campus. Uh, part of the police force marched into the construction site on the campus and, I suppose, later on, back around to 15th. The demonstrators massed pretty much around the corner to the northwest corner of 15th and 41st, and, as I say, spilled west on 41st.

Within about ten minutes after the demonstrators were pretty much massed on the west side of 15th and along on 41st. The police officer in charge of the policemen announced over the bullhorn to clear the street or there would be arrests made. He made that announcement several times and it was perfectly audible, I’m sure, to everyone there.

My primary purpose was to do whatever I could to stop any damage to our construction. There's perhaps $30,000 worth of plate glass in that building, and we didn't want that down around our ears. Probably 20 minutes after the demonstrators had crossed 15th, Jim Takisaki - not Toby Scott - Jim Takisaki, Ben McAdoo, and a third man who I don't know, came over to me.

I was standing just inside the fence on the northeast corner of the construction site on the south side of 41st. Those three came over to me and asked me to announce that the construction site was shut down. We talked very, very briefly, and I believe that either Jim Takisaki or Ben McAdoo, I talked to both of them, said they were afraid that there would be more violence, property damage, perhaps personal injury if we did not shut the job now.

So, as Mr. Jones testified, well, we tucked our tails between our legs, and we shut the job down. I stayed at that corner throughout most of it, so I could see only things that were happening right in that close vicinity. I saw perhaps four of the demonstrators taken into custody and put in the, uh, police wagon that was standing there, just a few feet from where I was standing.

I saw no, at least what I thought, was undue force used. In fact, I saw no force used except, um, two or three of the people who were taken into custody who resisted and were struggling. And in order to make the arrest, I presume it was necessary to use some force. I did not see the instrument - incident that was related around the corner, that was not in my field of vision.

After perhaps another, or I suppose the milling around continued for 30 minutes or so altogether, uh, the demonstrators then dispersed and went on to, I presume, to other construction jobs.

And I’ll say that before we shut the job done, I heard several comments by demonstrators pointing into our project saying, "Let's get that glass." There were several rocks thrown to the upper floors of our project where some of our workmen were standing watching the proceedings. Uh, we thought that it was necessary to shut the job down to stop any further violence there, that’s about all I can say.

Anton C. Gaston - Assistant Chief of Police (listen to audio)
I'm here to answer to your question to Chief Ramon and the other requested persons who had actual  knowledge or presence on the scene at this time. Let me say this, that there are a large amount of criminal charges pending. Or, not a large amount, but there are criminal charges pending at present. And to discuss these right now would be to prejudice, or perhaps prejudice, the rights of the defendant.

So, I feel it's unfair for me to comment on this aspect. Number two, the internal investigations unit is conducting, right now, an extensive investigation into the allegations of misconduct. And it will be this investigation is not yet complete, and it would be unfair for me to make statements when they are in the process of these allegations. That is [mumbled speaking] investigation starts from here and the committee will receive a full report on our final investigations once completed.

On the uniform, I think there's one thing that I should answer. On the uniform situation, one of the things that was talked about was the different uniforms. We are going through a uniform transition period. The one with three quarters sleeve that was mentioned was taken up by the department several months ago. I mean, January 1st, 1970. All patrolmen, sergeants, and I believe up to the rank of captain will have the short arms. It’s a uniform change.

They also are a slightly, a very slightly different color. There's also another facet of this, in that members of the police department, of course, are being issued other types of gear, jumpsuits and so forth. One of the problems we face, and I can speak with some experience, and this is having at various times your uniform torn and ripped. Somebody grabbing your badge or name tag. Efforts are being done right, and I’m sure we’ll get this done as quickly as possible, to show our identification numbers, and numbers on helmets so that they would be easily identifiable.

Listen to the entire event in Digital Collections. Citation: Human Rights Commission Public Hearing, October 16, 1969. Event ID 121, Seattle City Council Legislative Department Audio Recordings, 4601-03.

Resources

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