Research the archive
Narrow 22,457 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 2 |
| 1876 | 3 |
| 1877 | 5 |
| 1878 | 2 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 9 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1892 | 16 |
| 1893 | 7 |
| 1894 | 10 |
| 1899 | 3 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1903 | 3 |
| 1904 | 3 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 1 |
| 1911 | 1 |
| 1916 | 3 |
| 1917 | 1 |
| 1925 | 1 |
83 stories matching negro
- The Race War in Roslyn: How Seattle’s Coal Mines Became a Battleground for Labor and Lynching
As strikers hold the line, the company imports Black miners from Illinois to break them. The result is not just a labor dispute, but a violent racial confrontation that exposes the dark underbelly of Washington's industrial boom.
- Roslyn Coal Strike: Company Threatens to Import Black Strikebreakers
As the 1894 coal strike drags on, Roslyn miners refuse a 20 percent pay cut. The company’s answer: import Black workers from Chicago to break the union, a move that would reshape the town.
- The Color Line at the Temple: Seattle’s Masonic Order Faces National Backlash
As the Grand Lodge of Washington convenes at the Masonic Temple to debate racial segregation in its ranks, telegrams from across the country reveal a deep national fracture over 'Negro Masonry.'
- The Forgotten Soldiers: A Post-War Reckoning
Decades after the Civil War, Snohomish's local paper draws a bitter parallel between the veterans who fought to 'free the negro' and the rising tide of impoverished, displaced laborers struggling for survival in 1877.
- The Roslyn Race War: How a Strike Turned Seattle into a Fortress
In February 1903, hundreds of armed Black miners from Montana arrived in Seattle bound for the coal mines of Roslyn. The city braced for violence as white workers threatened to close down the town's economy and seize its property.
- Black Workers Organize for Fair Employment
After facing widespread discrimination from employers and fellow workers, Tacoma’s Black community gathers to demand equal opportunity.
- Roslyn Miners End a Three-Month Strike — and Return to the Pits at a 20 Percent Cut
After a bitter walkout against the Northern Pacific Coal Company, the miners of Roslyn vote almost unanimously to accept reduced wages and go back to work — a surrender that some say was hastened when a handful of Black miners from Franklin were brought in to take their places.
- The Brutal Reality of the Black Diamond Ring
A quiet, illicit prize fight in a local hall ended with a forced surrender as seventy-five spectators watched a miner beat a man from Franklin.
- The Great Front Street Fraud: City Council Exposes Fake Petition for Cable Car
In a stunning display of civic integrity, Seattle’s Common Council unmasks a fraudulent petition designed to grant a monopoly cable car franchise, revealing that applicants forged signatures and misrepresented property frontage.
- The Economic Case for Civil Rights
An editorial from 1886 argues that Northern labor interests depend on ending the exploitation of Black workers in the South.
- The Bull Catcher’s Salary
Seattle’s Black Republicans turned out for the city ticket, then were handed the lowest-paid patronage jobs. A Black paper asked whether the party meant to pay them in gratitude or insult.
- Too Late to Surrender: Roslyn's Miners Are Locked Out and Blacklisted
After three months idle, the white miners agreed to the company's brutal 30-percent pay cut — only to learn the Northern Pacific Coal Company had already imported Black strikebreakers from the East and would rehire only the men it chose.
- The Night the Coal Ran: How a Company Outsmarted Strikers with Negro Labor and Winchester Rifles
In a brazen move to break the Koslyn coal strike, company managers smuggled in replacement workers from Illinois under cover of darkness, escorted by armed deputies who fired through the sleeping village of Seattle.
- The Day the River Ran Red: A Tacoma Tragedy
In a brutal dispute over territory and pride, 'Negro Bob' was shot dead by Kennek Joe in Tacoma, highlighting the violent intersections of race, labor, and frontier justice in 1877.
- The Tale of the Mule and the Chain Gang
A tragicomic local account of a man's final, ill-fated encounter with a stubborn mule while attempting to evade the law.
- The Man Who Shook Hands with History
President Roosevelt’s visit to Walla Walla sparked a political firestorm and a rare moment of cross-cultural connection.
- The Delegate the Party Refused to Seat
When King County Democrats elected a Black delegate to their state convention, Southern-leaning party members staged a revolt to avoid sitting with him.
- The Moses of Tacoma
A Tacoma minister initiates an ambitious, secret plan to assist Black families fleeing the Jim Crow South for the Pacific Northwest.
- The Slave Ship That Vanished: An Old Man’s Confession in Seattle
A weathered sailor walks into a Seattle saloon and recounts the night his crew mutinied against a slaver, only to watch the ship sink with 200 souls aboard.
- Everett Saloon Shooting Ends in Acquittal
A jury clears a bartender of murder charges after he killed a former coworker who threatened his life.
- The City Rises Against a Heavyweight Bully
When boxing legend John L. Sullivan publicly spewed racist venom in 1892, Seattle’s Afro-American League turned his own brutal rhetoric against him, demanding dignity from the local press.
- Violence in the Blue Front Saloon
A jealous confrontation over a woman leads to a stabbing in Seattle's historic Whitechapel district, highlighting the dangerous intersections of social life in the 1890s.
- A Rejection of Anti-Black Rhetoric
The Fairhaven Herald takes a rare, strong public stance against a neighboring editor's racist call for colonization.
- Police Raid Opium Den; Suspect Leaps from Hotel Window
Alfred Dupre broke his leg and suffered internal injuries after jumping from a second-story window at the Pacific Hotel during a police raid on an alleged opium joint; two women were also arrested.
- The Second Murder Trial of J.W. Bailey
A miner stands trial for the shooting death of a rival in a domestic dispute that exposed the volatility of camp life.
Also about this, in other words
- The 'Keep Out' Sign Over Snohomish
A local editor warns against the arrival of an agitator, reflecting the volatile labor politics of 1880s Washington Territory.
- Seattle’s 1889 Debates on Race and Rule
A local group of attorneys gathered at a private cottage to debate the explosive question: 'Shall negro majorities rule?'
- The Aristocracy of Skin
An editorial reflection on the prevalence of racial prejudice in the North and the exclusion of Black students and congregants from 'civilized' institutions.
- The Political Allegiance of the Black Voter in 1892
In an era of rising racial violence and disenfranchisement, H.R. Carroll makes an impassioned case for why the Republican Party remained the only viable choice for Black citizens.
- The Sermon that Shook a Seattle Congregation
A Seattle minister caused a sensation by preaching that biblical figures were of the Black race, citing historical and lineage arguments to his congregation.
- A Pastor Rebuts Rumors of Anti-Labor Plots
Rev. F. J. Davidson of the Olivet Baptist church addresses persistent, unfounded fears that a new organization of local Black men was created to undermine unions or facilitate mass migration.
- The Color Line in Trade Unions
A letter to the editor challenges the claim that Seattle trade unions exclude Black members, arguing that class solidarity transcends racial barriers.
- The Color Line at the Oberon: Seattle’s First Civil Rights Test
When a prominent Black minister is ejected from a local music hall for his race, he threatens legal action under state law, sparking a public debate on discrimination in early 20th-century Seattle.