Black Workers Organize for Fair Employment
After facing widespread discrimination from employers and fellow workers, Tacoma’s Black community gathers to demand equal opportunity.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
By request of Rev. F. J. Davidson, pastor of Olivet Baptist church, a number of colored men met at the church last night to consider the conditions surrounding the colored men with reference to getting employment in Tacoma. Addresses were delivered by Rev. J. A. Nelson, Lewis Chase, John Green, H. C. Rice, J. R. Hawkins, George L. Hackley, and Rev. Davidson. It was noted, among other things, that many employers of labor refuse to employ negro men, while in many instances white men will not work along with negroes, thus forcing employers to discriminate against the colored men. Resolutions were passed asking contractors and other employers of labor to give the negro a chance to earn a living the same as the white man. An appeal is also made to white laboring men to aid the negroes by not refusing to work with them.
“Resolutions were passed asking contractors and other employers of labor to give the negro a chance to earn a living the same as the white man.”
This meeting highlights the persistent structural exclusion of Black laborers in early 20th-century Tacoma. The tension described—where white workers leveraged their presence to enforce segregation in hiring—remains a stark reminder of how labor solidarity was frequently fractured by racial prejudice.
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