Madison Park Times 08-01-20

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August 2020 facebook.com/MadisonParkTimes

Serving East-Central Seattle since 1983

@MadisonParkTime

Madison Park Times www .M adison P ark T imes . com

Seattle’s Past Steeped With Racism

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Discriminatory practices helped neighborhood demographics Health, Fitness And Longevity Page 2

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Photo by Garrett Morrow By Jessica Keller Madison Park Times editor

S

eattle resident, longtime activist and former King County Councilman Larry Gossett is familiar with racial covenants, although at the time, nobody in his family was familiar with the term. All he knew was when his father, Nelmon Gossett, saved up enough money from working as a mailman to purchase a home in 1956, he logically looked in West Seattle, where he worked. The first realtor Gossett’s father spoke to said showing him a house in that neighborhood would not be an option, and she would be “run out” if she helped him. Gossett said his father then went to a second realtor and told him what he wanted, and the realtor said he could help. When they crossed the West Seattle bridge and drove into the city to the central district, Gossett’s father soon realized buying a house in West Seattle wasn’t going to happen. “My daddy didn’t know about the word covenant,” Gossett said.

At the time Gossett’s father bought a house in the central district, Seattle was one of the most segregated cities in the country, with 88 percent of Black Americans living in the central district, Gossett said. At the time, Seattle’s neighborhoods

were still impacted by racially restricted covenants, which According to the University of Washington’s Seattle Civil Rights & Labor His-

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USELESS BAY WATERFRONT

 Racism, Page 3

MADISON PARK MID CENTURY

SOLD $1,728,000

Representing extraordinary homes in Seattle and beyond. TOBY LUMPKIN

Racially restricted covenants

Seattle has a long and complicated history with racial housing disparity in its neighborhoods, where segregation has been subtly and outwardly reenforced through the years.

Seattle Kraken.

206. 7 86.20 35

SPAFFORD ROBBINS 206.963.7770

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Toby.Lumpkin@RSIR.com

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SEATTLE, WA PERMIT 1271 Each office is Independently owned and operated.


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