This week, I've been reading The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle's Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era, by Quintard Taylor. If you'd like a brief overview of what the book covers, you can check out this feature on the history of African-Americans in Seattle from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which is largely based on Taylor's book.
The book is very well-written and is easily accessible, whether or not you're familiar with Seattle history in general. It's a great resource for those who are interested in Seattle history. But perhaps the most valuable aspect of the book is the comparison and contrast of the black experience in Seattle to that in other cities.
In Seattle, blacks always had the vote and never faced openly segregationist laws. Yet they were barred from the area's largest employers and trades in some cases until the 1970s by the exclusionary racist policies of labor unions and limited to living in the Central District by restrictive housing covenants. Thus, Seattle illustrates the continuing struggle against economic marginalization.
Another factor is Seattle's large Asian population. In many Northern cities, race relations are a story of white and black until recently, but Seattle was multiracial and multicultural from the beginning. Again, Seattle illustrates trends that are becoming important today.
At times, the struggle for racial justice in Seattle was hindered by the perception among both whites and blacks that Seattle was much better than other parts of the country and did not have any racial problems. Again, this is an issue that African-Americans and their allies are facing today.
I highly recommend this book.