Eviction Threatens Historical Black Settlement in Tacoma
A US Marshal is ordered to collect rent from 450 squatters living on a 163-acre tract established by early Black settlers.
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.
Tacoma, Feb. 6. United States Marshal Brown has been instructed by the United States circuit court to collect rent from the squatters on the property one mile west of the center of the city, containing 163 acres and known as the 'Nigger Tract,' from the fact that it was first settled by a colony of Negroes. The squatters number fully 450, who have built 80 houses and made improvements, till now secluded from the payment of rents. Marshal Brown, acting as receiver of the property for the benefit of the legal owners of the tract, will act as landlord. W. E. File, one of the interested land owners, says squatters will be evicted if they refuse to pay rent.
This story documents the displacement of one of Tacoma's earliest Black communities. It reflects a common pattern in Puget Sound history where the land value of marginalized, self-settled neighborhoods eventually attracted developers who used the courts to clear the residents for profit.
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