Multi-Racial but not Multicultural  By early 1900 the city's population became increasingly diversified. Scandinavians came for fishing and lumbering, African Americans as railroad porters and waiters, Japanese for trucking, gardening and hotels.; and communities of Italians, Chinese, Jews, and Filipinos. The International District, home to several Asian ethnic groups, was largely developed during this period.

Segregated Seattle

What's In Your Deed?  The language of segregation still haunts Seattle. It lurks in the deeds of tens of thousands of homeowners living in neighborhoods outside of the Central Area and the International District. Look deep in the fine print. Many Queen Anne residents, have this clause in their deeds :  "No person or persons of Asiatic, African or Negro blood, lineage, or extraction shall be permitted to occupy a portion of said property.“  4/2014docs/covenants_print.pdf

Racial Restrictions Grew With the City  World War II sparked an economic rebound - The Boeing Company, a modestly successful airplane manufacturer founded in 1916, increased its workforce more than 1,200 percent and its sales from $10 million to $600 million annually. The war's end,, brought an economic slump -When Boeing successfully introduced the 707 commercial jet airliner in the late 1950s, it heralded another burst of optimism.

Between 1935 and 1944,  Bill Boeing and his wife Bertha set aside a massive tract of land north of Seattle city limits for subdivision, including the future communities of Richmond Beach, Richmond Heights, Innis Arden, Blue Ridge and Shoreview. As they plotted those developments, Bill and Bertha added racial restrictive covenants to property deeds.

W.E. Boeing Neighborhood Developments  “No property in said addition shall at any time be sold, conveyed, rented, or leased in whole or in part to any person or persons not of the White or Caucasian race. No person other than one of the White or Caucasian race shall be permitted to occupy any property in said addition or portion thereof or building thereon except a domestic servant actually employed by a person of the White or Caucasian race where the latter is an occupant of such property.”

Restrictive Covenants: Boeing Development 1940 

Trust Companies Restricting Shoreline and Lake Forest Park  The Seattle Trust Company, another large developer which developed large areas of Shoreline, parts of Lake Forest Park, and the Bryant and Haller Lake areas, likewise allowed only members of the White or Caucasian race to purchase or rent their restricted properties.  A set of 1946 restrictive covenants established by the Puget Mill Company for the Lake Forest Park area listed Hawaiians as a restricted race. The Puget Mill Company also named specific Asian countries in covenants applied to Sheridan Park, prohibiting Chinese and Japanese individuals from moving to that neighborhood.

Greenwood  “That neither the said premises or any house building or improvement thereon erected shall at any time be occupied by persons of the Ethiopian race or by Japanese or Chinese or any other Malay or Asiatic race save and except as domestic servants in the employ of person not coming within that restriction”

South Seattle Land Company  Developers like the South Seattle Land Company often listed the specific races restricted from purchasing their properties. For example, covenants established by the South Seattle Land Company frequently maintained that  no “part of said property hereby conveyed shall ever be used or occupied by any person of the Ethiopian, Malay, or any Asiatic race.”[[ Madronna  “The parties hereto signing and executing this instrument... hereby mutually covenant, promise and agree each with the others, and for their respective heirs and assigns, that no part of said lands owned by them as described following their signatures to this instrument, shall never be used, occupied by or sold, conveyed, leased, rented or given to Negroes, or any person or persons of the Negro blood. “

Sandpoint (Westhaven)  “No part of said property hereby conveyed shall ever be used or occupied by any person of the Ethiopian, Malay, or any Asiatic race.”  Richard Ornstein, a Jewish refugee from Austria, contracted to purchase a home in the Sand Point Country Club area of Seattle in late The property’s deed contained a restrictive covenant barring the sale or rental of the home to non- Whites and people of Jewish descent. In spite of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that deemed racial restrictive covenants unenforceable in 1948,

(Laurelhurst, Victory Heights, Green Lake Circle) October 31, No person of other than the Caucasian race shall use or occupy any building or lot except as servants domesticated with any owner or tenant. In 1960 only 27 African Americans lived in Wallingford or Fremont, along with 21,823 Whites and 335 persons identified in the census as “other races.” This can be seen on the residential distribution maps on the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project’s website.

Financial Incentive for Restrictive Covenants The National Housing Act of 1934 passed during the Great Depression to protect affordable housing, introduced the practice of “redlining,” or drawing lines on city maps delineating the ideal geographic areas for bank investment and the sale of mortgages - to ensure that banks would not over-extend themselves financially - it encouraged land developers, realtors and community residents to write racial restrictive covenants to keep neighborhoods from being redlined. ”

The Seattle Civic Unity Committee In February 1948, the Seattle Civic Unity Committee denounces restrictive covenants which deny housing to minorities, principally African Americans. These restrictions effectively confine African Americans to the Central Area and a corridor along South Jackson Street, and prevent them from moving to neighborhoods such as Mount Baker, Capitol Hill and Broadmoor

(Capitol Hill Homeowners Organize) November 1927 – “The parties... agree each with the others that no part of the lands owned by them shall ever be used or occupied by or sold, conveyed, leased, rented or given to Negroes or any person of Negro blood.”  Capitol Hill Community Club. In a letter written 20 years later, Martha B. Cook, a club leader, stated that “a small group of interested people worked and kept 90 blocks [of Capitol Hill] safe through racial restrictions.”

Matthews Beach “No lot or portion of a lot shall be sold to, leased to or occupied by any person other than of the Caucasian race, but this restriction does not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of a different race or nationality actually employed in good faith by the owners or tenants.”

Racial Restrictive Covenants Followed non-Whites to the Grave Several Seattle cemeteries enforced “White Only” policies, with the racial restrictive covenants written into the deeds for individual grave-sites. According to a 1948 investigation by the Christian Friends for Racial Equality (CFRE), this practice “made it difficult or impossible for non-Caucasians to purchase burial plots.” … Acacia Memorial Park in the Shoreline neighborhood of Seattle was one of the cemeteries preventing two Japanese- Americans from purchasing burial plots, having made use of a restrictive covenant from 1929 through The Acacia Memorial Park covenant stated: “the grantee agrees that no transfer of said (lot) or portion thereof shall be valid unless conveyed to a member of the Caucasian race”

In 1948, the Supreme Court held that restrictive covenants were illegal and that government could not help to enforce them (Shelley v. Kraemer). This left open the possibility of voluntary agreements between realtors and homeowners which allowed housing discrimination to continue. In 1964, Seattle voters rejected a referendum that prohibited housing discrimination. In April 1968, the city council passed an open housing ordinance, making restrictive covenants illegal. 7&context=sulr

Segregation Through the Civil Rights Era and Beyond