Labor Archives of Washington: Workers' Occupational Histories

Pre-World War I migrant to Seattle. Migrated to Washington and worked at a variety of jobs including street-paver, hauler and transfer agent, construction worker on the city reservoir system, railroad porter and dockworker. From 1920-1935, Armstrong hauled garbage for the City of Seattle. Later, he purchased and farmed land in eastern King County until the early 1950s. Armstrong discusses life in Western Washington as he found it upon his arrival in Seattle in 1909. Talks about his search for employment and the various jobs he undertook. Through his experience, Armstrong provides an understanding of the limited employment opportunities available to black men in the Northwest, prior to World War I. Identifies World War I as the event which opened up the Seattle waterfront to black employment. Comments on the role of blacks as strikebreakers during the strike which opened the waterfronts of all West Coast cities to black employment. Armstrong also describes a near fatal attack which he survived when he and eight other black strikebreakers were set upon by striking white waterfront workers while riding on a trolley car in downtown Seattle. Armstrong briefly discusses black politics and the reasons why most black people in Seattle switched their loyalty from the Republican to the Democratic Party. He mentions Lawyer Black and Horace Cayton, Sr. in this context. In the remainder of the interview, Armstrong reacts to a series of questions about black/white relations, the message of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the meaning of "Black Power".

Mr. Russell was born in Seattle in 1917 and was one of 4 children. His father was a chef on Great Northern Railroad for 44 years. The only available jobs for black in Seattle were running on the boats, railroad jobs, maintenance jobs and shoeshine jobs. Charles Russell attended Garfield High School and UW, where he was noted as a star football player. He left the UW because of discrimination on the part of his coach, James Falen and other teammembers. He was only allowed on the football team because of pressure, largely on the part of Clarence Dirks, a Seattle Post Intelligencer sportswriter. Russell left Seattle after 2 years at the UW and worked as a waiter in Sacramento, Calif. Finding conditions there even worse, he returned to Seattle and worked as a porter/waiter on the Northern Pacific Railroad. He was treated very fairly by the superintendent, William Swifell. Russell mentions the influx to the Northwest of blacks in the early 40s due to the industrialist [Henry] Kaiser and increased job opportunities with better pay. After working on the railroad for 15 years, he worked on the airlines. He also mentions the role of Stokely Carmichael in creating racial pride in Seattle and the beginnings and development of Seattle's Central area in 1955.