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 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.
John Randolph, of Seattle, is a Negro. He was elected by the Democratic county convention of King County to be a delegate to the state convention that met in this city Monday last. When this was made known, a roar of indignation went up from the members of the convention. Delegate John Randolph was represented in the state convention by proxy, and the insulted Democracy were appeased and their 'honor' sustained. In the delegates there were many 'Southern gentlemen,' and to sit in convention with a 'd---d nigger' was too much, 'by gad, sah.' Thus have we another example of the life-long friendship of the Democracy for the Negro.
This 1889 account highlights the deep-seated racial tensions within Washington's early political parties. It serves as a stark reminder of the exclusion Black residents faced in Pacific Northwest civic life, echoing ongoing modern conversations about representation and systemic bias in regional politics.
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