Seattle's first black resident was a sailor named Manuel Lopes who
arrived in 1858 and became the small community's first barber. He left
in the early 1870s to seek economic prosperity elsewhere, but as Seattle
transformed from a stopover town to a full-fledged city, African
Americans began to stay and build a community. By the early twentieth
century, black life in Seattle coalesced in the Central District, a
four-square-mile section east of downtown. Black Seattle, however, was
never a monolith. Through world wars, economic booms and busts, and the
civil rights movement, black residents and leaders negotiated intragroup
conflicts and had varied approaches to challenging racial inequity.
Despite these differences, they nurtured a distinct African American
culture and black urban community ethos. With a new foreword and
afterword, this second edition of The Forging of a Black Community is
essential to understanding the history and present of the largest black
community in the Pacific Northwest.