Counting Black Voters in King County
A Seattle reader challenges a claim that King County had 1,200 to 1,500 Black voters, offering a ward-by-ward count instead.
Seattle, Aug. 25, 1894.
To the Editor: There has been of late much inquiry as to the negro population of King county. This inquiry, no doubt, was started by a statement recently made by the Seattle Republican that there are in this county from 1,200 to 1,500 negro voters. Inasmuch as I am known to be well acquainted with the negroes of this county, the question as to population has been frequently asked me.
As a matter of fact, there are not exceeding 300 negro voters in King county—about 100 in the city and 200 in Franklin and Newcastle—while there are in the county about 1,300 veterans. There are in the First ward thirty-seven adult negroes, in the Second ward three, in the Third ward nine, in the Fourth ward twenty-four, in the Fifth and Sixth wards each eight, in the Seventh ward eleven, in the Eighth ward three, and in the Ninth ward nine, some of whom are not voters. I find these figures to be true on a careful canvass, which will show the great advantage as to population that the veterans have over the negro.
J. A. Coleman.
“As a matter of fact, there are not exceeding 300 negro voters in King county—about 100 in the city and 200 in Franklin and Newcastle.”
This letter captures Black Seattleites arguing over their own political visibility in 1894, when the Seattle Republican's claim of 1,200 to 1,500 Black voters was corrected to about 300. The ward-by-ward count shows how racial population figures were used to measure political power—and to push back against exaggeration. The language is of its era, but the fight over who gets counted, and what those numbers mean, remains live.
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