<p>Well, Seattle hasn’t always lived up to (or deserved) its historically ‘liberal’ reputation.</p>
<p>Old timers [African-Americans] told me their personal anecdotes about discrimination in Seattle in the old days. Also, the lynching of Chinese men in downtown Seattle happened more than once. And we all know someone whose Japanese-American parents or grandparents were held in the internment camps after the the Pearl Harbor attack. A lot of Japanese lost everything they owned once they were marched to the camps.</p>
<p>As for Port Chicago and the Houston Race Riot;
Port Chicago was a U.S. Navy arsenal near San Francisco. Black seamen were restricted to menial labor and complained about it mightily. An explosion occurred and several Black sailors were blamed and court martialed. They were finally exonerated and President Bill Clinton pardoned them.</p>
<p>In Houston, Black soldiers at the local fort were constantly harrassed by the local white community. Eventually, one soldier was arrested and severely beaten (or killed, I don’t recall) in town. Some emboldened whites threatened to march on the fort and lynch the soldiers. Thus, the soldiers, who because of Jim Crow bias were usually allowed only to train with broomsticks, armed themselves. A violent confrontation ensued. President Teddy Roosevelt took a hard line in incarcerating the soldiers, despite pleas for leniency from around the nation.</p>
