Historically Black Neighborhoods in Spokane
Faculty Mentor
Larry Cebula
Document Type
Poster
Start Date
10-5-2023 11:15 AM
End Date
10-5-2023 1:00 PM
Location
PUB NCR
Department
History
Abstract
In Spokane, there were no formal policies segregating specific races before the 1920s, so this meant that Black residents lived where they could afford. However, that doesn’t mean non-white citizens were not shunned from moving into white areas. From 1890 to 1920, the Black population of Spokane never surpassed 2,000, but they did leave a distinct mark in some neighborhoods. The difficult task of finding historically Black neighborhoods in Spokane narrows down to mapping areas by race. With only one race population map available from 1880-1920, the rest of the information came from 1900s plat maps and directories. This data along with stories of early Black settlers confirmed Hillyard and East Central as significant Black Neighborhoods. Most of the Black settlers that migrated north came as family units and settled in these areas because Hillyard and East Central were affordable for the time and close to public transport that would carry Black workers to and from their daily jobs. Today, there are many references to early Black History in East Central and Hillyard. Some of the oldest Black churches in Washington, Calvary Baptist Church, and Bethel AME Church, still serve their community every Sunday less than a mile away from each other in East Central. Early Black American settlers of Spokane are important reminders of a rarely documented population in our area. They paved the way for course-changing individuals in Spokane like Carl Maxey, Eleanor Barrow Chase, and Frances Scott. Discovering more about early African Americans' area of living in Spokane tells us more about their lives, places of worship, where they worked, and their friendship and close relations.
Recommended Citation
Hedt, Elizabeth, "Historically Black Neighborhoods in Spokane" (2023). 2023 Symposium. 33.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2023/res_2023/p2_2023/33
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Historically Black Neighborhoods in Spokane
PUB NCR
In Spokane, there were no formal policies segregating specific races before the 1920s, so this meant that Black residents lived where they could afford. However, that doesn’t mean non-white citizens were not shunned from moving into white areas. From 1890 to 1920, the Black population of Spokane never surpassed 2,000, but they did leave a distinct mark in some neighborhoods. The difficult task of finding historically Black neighborhoods in Spokane narrows down to mapping areas by race. With only one race population map available from 1880-1920, the rest of the information came from 1900s plat maps and directories. This data along with stories of early Black settlers confirmed Hillyard and East Central as significant Black Neighborhoods. Most of the Black settlers that migrated north came as family units and settled in these areas because Hillyard and East Central were affordable for the time and close to public transport that would carry Black workers to and from their daily jobs. Today, there are many references to early Black History in East Central and Hillyard. Some of the oldest Black churches in Washington, Calvary Baptist Church, and Bethel AME Church, still serve their community every Sunday less than a mile away from each other in East Central. Early Black American settlers of Spokane are important reminders of a rarely documented population in our area. They paved the way for course-changing individuals in Spokane like Carl Maxey, Eleanor Barrow Chase, and Frances Scott. Discovering more about early African Americans' area of living in Spokane tells us more about their lives, places of worship, where they worked, and their friendship and close relations.
