The Colored Independents Demand Recognition: A Fight for Political Dignity in 1886 Seattle
As the city prepares to elect Frank Black as mayor, a newly formed club of Black voters secures a rare agreement from Republican leaders for political recognition, rejecting bribes and demanding respect in a segregated era.
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The Colored Independent Club will hold a very important meeting Thursday evening at the Red Men's hall, and every member of the club is expected to be present. The club has had a committee interceding before the campaign committees of the various parties asking recognition for the colored voters, and this committee made its report Thursday evening.
"When the president, John W. Riggs, was seen this morning at his place of business he said to a reporter of this paper: 'Let it be understood that this club, so far as the president has got power to control it, is not looking for a few paltry boodling dollars. What I hope to do is to get recognition for the colored voters. Should you hear of any of the members that is trying to sell the votes of the members of this club for a few lousy dollars, contrary to the instructions of this club, you should expose him in the fullest and you will do me a favor... The colored voters have been sold out by blood-suckers too much, and if I have any influence with the club and its members, and I think I have, this kind of business has got to stop.'
The committee consisting of Messrs. Walker and Dixon waited upon the central committee last night in their committee rooms, and after laying their grievances before the committee, the points were informally discussed by all present. The central committee said that it was unable to say what places would be given to colored men, but it assured them that certain positions would be given to them, and that the committee as well as other colored men in the city would be consulted before any appointments were made. Or, in other words, substantial recognition would be granted the colored voters, but the responsibility of such appointments would fall on the shoulders of the colored men themselves; that is, if good men were not selected the colored voters themselves would have to bear the blame for such unworthy officials.
This was satisfactory to the colored gentlemen, and they assured the central committee that they and the most of the other colored men in the city would do all they could, as they have in the past, to see that the present municipal ticket would be elected.
In 1886, Seattle’s Black community was actively organizing to combat political disenfranchisement and corruption, a struggle that mirrors modern fights for voting rights and equitable representation. The explicit rejection of "boodling" (bribery) by the Colored Independent Club highlights an early, principled stand for integrity in local politics, long before such coalitions became common in the Pacific Northwest.
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