Democratic Campaign Rally Turns Into Street Brawl
A political meeting in Seattle dissolved into violence when Democratic attendees attacked a band of Black minstrels who were innocently marching down the street.
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.
Seattle, Sept. 14.—Lew Johnson's colored minstrels arrived here at 10 o'clock. On the same train were Maple and Griffith, Democratic candidates for governor and congressman. The latter went to the opera house to hold a political meeting, and the minstrels donned their uniforms and to the band marched down the street playing, without knowing that there was a political meeting being held at the opera house. They stopped in front to play a tune. Suddenly, several parties rushed down stairs from the opera house and without warning attacked the minstrels, throwing them right and left, and demolished a horn or two. The marshal arrested the parties who committed the assault, and they are held for trial. Lew Wallace made a statement at the performance this evening according to the facts above. Eye witnesses testified to the same. The Democrats give as an excuse that the minstrels were sent to disturb the meeting by the Republicans, but there is not a particle of evidence to that effect. The attack was wholly unjustifiable.
“Suddenly, several parties rushed down stairs from the opera house and without warning attacked the minstrels, throwing them right and left.”
This 1889 incident, occurring in a volatile year for Washington's statehood movement, reflects the deep-seated political and racial tensions of the era. It serves as a reminder that Seattle's public squares have long been sites where political speech and civil order collide, often under the shadow of partisan tribalism.
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