essentially is a swath of the center of seattle that extends from about twenty third and rainier were rainier runs into twenty for all the way to the north to about thomas street and on the west about fourteenth or you could go to twelve avenue and on the east to like washington boulevard and that area was an area that was red lined and red lining indicates that there is a geographic area around with or within which african americans could live those were the only places that they could live so in ca in seattle the central area was the only place where black people could live and that was a legislated law  essentially if someone rented or so to a black person outside of the central area before in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight they were committing a crime i mean punishable but not necessarily punishable but it was a crime because it was legislated that you could only read or purchase a home within this enjoy so while that was the only place that black people could live it was also populated by italians asians filipinos it was a really diverse community always was a really diverse community the read her mind was from franklin high school really i mean it was like it was shades of red you know where the coasts are in you got to the central area the river the lying that but you knew you could come to the moon on the line and they wouldn't really bother you but  from franklin to all of chinatown all of chinatown so that's close to pioneer square to now in i'm talking demographically now because we were we least republican street down and then east yes the east side all the way down to the lake lake washington and and that was and that was where that red line had a different shades of red because we were just able just beginning to be able to move down by madrone a beach down to lake washington  i would say that opened up and about this and fifty's maybe there would be one or two but i had families that were living down at the lake and then it kind of grew and so i have to add that as a line because that it was cut off before then earlier but then it like if this started getting different shades of red martin luther king which used to be power way yeah before it was martin luther king's in paraguay but it's the center of the central area more or less the main street also twenty third avenue is a key street madison because it's kind the north border and then on the south side i'd say well jackson's an important street yes there at the jackson and yesler yeah those are the key streets to me growing up like i say w the central area was japanese because good friend of my best friend when i was a minimum i was four years old and he lived across the street from me and then my next door neighbor was a jewish man by my  sister's learn to play piano from the jewish lady who lived across the street she taught everybody in the neighborhood but then in the sixty's guess what happened but all over the country there were riots in major cities where black panthers with black people were rioting is where you know where it was described but there was resistance to in equities that were that they knew about right and they were trying to rectify and to housing  different means job programs and so on similar to today but it was really worse in cities like d c los angeles it was terrible the conditions for black people so they started to literally riot and just burn down the neighborhoods in seattle we didn't really have riots but now all of a sudden the people who all live together now there was tension between because of what was happening in other countries and we did have a black panther party and the black panthers  educate our children to feed our children and and to really gain some some strides around jobs and housing and so on and so and they did really they actually accomplished that but the people the jewish people in the all the way both the japanese or anybody else who lived in the community who was not black started to move out and they literally jewish folks because they worship but all those communities left and more black people moved in that's why what you end up with and about by about seventy four it was almost entirely an african american community a place where we can go and be comfortable and share our stories and also with it also allows us to invite the new people to the neighborhood and to hear about lacky stances and black culture so i think it's a very dynamic  the only school in the state of washington that was over fifty percent african american but he said that we have to work on opening up how that all over the city and we should not be confined to the day this is martin luther king jr and one so another symbol of this community has been the great young dynamic black athletes that are coming out of these neighborhoods and just the whole civil rights and black power landmarks or areas they've been named after people there is the quincy jones theater that is over at garfield high school and then for a scene anderson the area three blocks between i think the james and cheney washington their home has been turned into a nonprofit and it's to show in the central area as well and there's hopefully going to be others especially with the work that we're doing in relation to twenty third jackson was one of my favorite record stores the impetus records so those were likely and more places for me at twenty thirty and on one side of the street was a safeway store and on the other side of the street was a tray will store and both of my brothers one worked at one one worked i had a chance to kind of you know go back and for st peter klavier was also a  providence hospital i grew up playing music and my next oldest brother played trumpet and he played with a couple of individuals that i got a chance to see a lot of one was jimmy and the other was jimi hendrix and i will never ever forget and speaking of glamour on never forget jimi hendrix concert everybody relates to quincy jones and the contributions that he's made to the music industry i didn't have the pleasure of knowing quincy but i didn't know his mom his mom lived in the central area just a block away from garfield high school i think until close to the time that she passed away but i think it's also important to remember that there were a number of legislators who lived in this enjoy area peggy maxie was the first black woman to serve in the washington state legislature and she lived in the central area sam smith was i think the first african american to serve on the city council and he lived in the central area and we have a park named for him which is really wonderful can't forget the norm rice was and they're our first black mayor and he lived in the central area  and made huge contributions and i'm going to forget his first name but his last name was fleming and he was also an african american legislator who lived in the central area jesse w served state legislator he lived in the central area i think he still owns a house in the central area so politics was a part of our law i mean by the time i was your age i had to be pretty savvy and what was going on in politics because it was important it was important to my family it was important to the community and it played a central  how we became active in our community it was a turbulent time in the nation and i happened to be in the generation of those  it's lived through the civil rights movement and i grew up in the black power movement so there was kind of this clash of generations and we had to find our way i can i should and it reminds me to mention the fact that the seattle chapter of the black panthers was founded right here in the central area and i twenty have been spruce right across the street from the odessa brown clinic is the black panther wall that was painted by my art teacher deone hinder said and one of the first free medical clinics in the city of seattle was founded thirty fourth in union and it was called the sydney miller free medical clinic that then became the carolyn downs clinic and thirty four thing you know i also want to say was where the black where black arts where i was located and found it so art culture community it was all present right here in the central area our culture to open culture especially you know come in they come here to one thousand nine hundred two i know so many african american people here and i met a lot of them also i've been participating in a lot of our choice it's called the matter of color for example the show i showed was jacob lawrence i don't know if you know african american artists and james washington all this amazing artist they're not central district and the central area and what has happened and what has been contributed by african americans homer harris park which is behind the meredith matthews y m c a america's message was an african american and there's plaques along the wall at least thirty of them historically chronological of the contributions of african americans i invite people to go there and see that and then we have the james washington studio stands washington was a very renowned sculptor that sculptors all over seattle and when he died his family formed he left a foundation we have parks named after we have a sam smith park we have the flow where par i just mention the homer harris park you have the martin luther king the city has invested in our history our culture you look along jackson you know that was and we had music i mean if you go up and notice that we're still here i say when i go to central area senior center and it's packed they have lunch up there together so we're still here maybe not in the numbers we were roof and are you different than us and say we don't see your melon native people so the history goes on but if there's a disconnect and you have to dig a trench and start from there the children will never and yahoo is a classical pianist and professor he's from goma now who would think that he would be playing vox so we have all of this we have so much culture so much history and economically african americans work to vote when we built those so now wh we have to pull together we all have sub purpose and something to do and a central district i don't think we'll ever not be that place that has an african american culture because look at chinatown internet for the most asians a living there but that's our sense of place and then we have africa town here we've done so much that we've contributed they even have a japan town a year now and then ballard it's so yes there's a lot of history a lot of culture here and we need to get jimi hendrix was from here quincy jones and then you have maybe artists like sort of mix a lot and then you hear about individuals that traveled here and performed so that every body from duke ellington to billie holiday to what have you that at one time in their lives here in seattle and whore performed here  that's kind of some of the history terms of the kind of music side i think in terms of other aspects of the arts i think about jacob lawrence i think about james washington you know artists  painting or sculpture or what have you and then with literature or even with theater i think of august wilson and his time here in the work that he did as well as octavia butler and the fact that she lived here and so you know now this early in the central area but you know i think a lot of times by virtue of just association in terms of being a part of the black community there is some type of understanding or relationship of their work having some connection to the social area the performers that i was able to perform with is the most number one on the list i mean when you can perform with kitty g major lance there have been many others that i was you know able to work with that is high on the totem pole but when you first asked me that question the time that i remember being i think very very full of joy was when we used to have the scent the signature area black community festival that was when on used to be called empire now it's called martin luther king jr and you know st correct used to call them par with when we used to have festival at the empire or add garfield as it was also at garfield high school the festivals were the rides would come and we'd have you know big roller coasters and various wares and cotton candy and that was when i had the most fun growing up anyway was it you're looking forward to what they call called then and was it's july late july august so much so that i got married in that week but that is what we would do is we go to the black community first of all why because we see everybody we hear music we could just hang out and every the black community was there i produce first of all that seattle center and just yesterday we had our black community f know what i remember most is what you know being an artist is what you do for people you won't necessarily remember the performers or even what you ate but i can always remember felt so back in the day i was in the black community seattle the demographic shift is what i'm really referring to where you go from a population of over seventy percent of black people in the central area to down to seven percent of the population of of black people and that indicates a huge demographic shift you know seattle happens to be a place that never had a huge black population i mean i think  it's our highest it was probably less than fifteen percent of the total population in the state so it's not like well i think it is like black people have moved outside of state for a number of reasons they've moved outside of the city of seattle because of affordability primarily it's expensive now to live in this area but there what wes allman proposed what was called the thompson expressway and the thompson expressway was a expressway that would have cut a huge swath of twenty third avenue from probably about harrison or further north all the way down to i ninety so it would have connected with i ninety and the intention was that i ninety would be above ground at that connection right where the african american museum is now because you know that i ninety just goes right by the museum but it's under under the grade at that point and at that particular point in time the state of washington and the department of transportation specifically to do the i ninety expansion bought a lot of property that just north of coleman school so those homes were owned by black people and they were purchased to make way for the i ninety expansion as well so when all of this was happening people started to move out of the central area and that's when the suburb of can it started to become very popular you could purchase three times the size of a house and for about a third of the cost of what it would cost you in the city of seattle and i know this because three of my moved by nine hundred seventy two from twenty for twenty second and marion to can't so we started to lose our family to the suburbs and that continued to grow people continued to move south by the by that same time i think i would only be fair that i would also mention big gang violence was becoming quite horrific in the central area in the demographics because the change i would say would be treated as human beings that this was the source of the place in this chinatown at one time was predominantly african american on business we've seen a lot of changes so one of the things that we're going to see is you're just going to see a demographic change you're going to see a lot less brown faces and a lot more brown faces and that's only in issue if everyone is able it's only an issue if no one's able to coexist and coexisting is really the zetas economic coexistence are they able to meet everyone's in either they're still going to have reasonable income  reasonable housing in a reasonable reasonably affordable place to live or do the rent skyrocket and force people out because that even forces out a lot of the middle mid range people of color i think we all know just looking at other cities it drives people that can afford it out of the area it's going to drive drive out a lot of grassroots organizations and businesses i think originally a lot of the businesses intend to help and keep grassroots organizations such as this organization m m r t and that's why the panel the small businesses they intend to help them out but the reality is when they drive up rents they take the profit so whatever small profit organizations and businesses are making right now as soon as your rent increases by thirty percent there's a profit margin and now people are no longer able to operate their businesses and non profits and any other things so district i went on a little vacation one day up north seattle near my wife went up here and we stopped off at a little town called  was sunday so the town like shut down is daytime but everything was closed up as well as a little town and i looked at her wall and there was a big mural and it told the story of how i live with the swedish people found founded the town of linden and they have all these images and all this art that is telling that story and i thought why is it so important well it's important to the people who live there for the descendants to know that all my descendants sounded this city so i have some ownership in it i get it i was here i am seen where young people say see me or for another thing you will see is you've got to be woken woke of being conscious being aware well if you take the central area and someday there's no indication that black people lived here then the black people who are currently living here and around they won't be identity no connection to the past and everyone i'm a student of the bible and what do you have in the bible more of it is history than anything actually the old testament write the history and some of the chapters where they say all the peoples names history is important it's important because it gives us our identity you know i like to know just the history well i'm just proud to say my dad had a master's degree in  college probably the only black man in most of his classes we pursued that it was important so that tells me education is important i need to make sure i have an education and i need to make sure my children are educated  but i think it validates who we are as people it helps you to be seen you walk down the street in the central area and you see that all these great artists performing and you have murals and you have buildings that reflect the history of the culture it's going to strengthen your education a school strengthen a sense of identity and belonging in the city to really see the future of young people fees us it helps us know that we can we are stronger than what anybody thinks we are that we can get through some things and still survive and still be strong it helps us as a community black african and however it helps us come together and know that we can build something that we can that we can rely on each other when it comes the time of trouble but we can also come together in this town to celebrate and have a good time in lets us know that we can do whatever we want to do right so having you here as a student right about to graduate high school you see me as an executive director of the organization that makes the hughes no matter what you want to do you know that's an option for you and so that's why it is so important for us to continue to cherish our history here in the central district and a central area in our history as black african where however people identify because it's important for us to know that we can do whatever we want in the future and of the same time it allows us to know that we can be better than that as well right i always tell my nephew and he says i want you to be better than me i don't want you to make the same mistakes i made i don't want you to have the same struggles that i had but i want you to be better that's your goal is to be better then me and i'm say generation because it is good to know your past because it helps you to move forward knowing my past has allowed me to grow as a human being and everyone should have it is the right i would think of everyone to know their past so they can draw strength from it you know that's why i believe african americans are added disadvantage and any other what they call minority but person of color or add a disadvantage here in america because we don't know our past we don't know our greatness and our greatness if you look at it has been for the world it hasn't been a selfish world this is from the pyramids back to now most of what we contribute to man can and the world is something that will aid the world ok when people that are in control want to when we come from different parts of the world it as i told you this is a new experience to the population and our way of eating is totally different and they are through and it's amazing some of the things happen at the restaurants by americans mind not think it happens as and when you think about it as an gives them physical activity and then it gives them a chance to come together and now we are very lucky we have beautiful garden in the in the beach and now we have a kitchen we have a meeting place we have  center where they used to hang with their friends you know so it's very important for even organizations such as yourself we're the hub of where these young people come so once you remove the stability of the lives of young people it hurts so myself and my staff we're all wondering how it's going to affect the kids and unfortunately unfortunately with young people you really don't know how things affect them till six months to eighteen months down the road because originally everyone takes change and they try to adjust and then it's when they're not able to adjust when they don't have a place to go that's when you start seeing the backlash so we as an organization and by you know the purchase especially since it's looking how it is you know they've come in and they say you know the placement purchasing like you ought to stay around a little bit longer which means you know continue to pay some rent until they figure out exactly what they're going to do when the fact is they already know what they're going to do or they want to purchase the place so it's going to be a rough transition for the entire community you know it's going to drive up rents an entire community and a lot of people that you're seeing right now as of today will not be here two years so exactly twenty four months from now when i see the majority of these families are faces running around to  spearhead this movement which can help the community as a platitude so i think it's very important that what i always say is sometimes we have to put the differences aside and work together that it would make us look and wife while the advice i would say is we all need to begin to branch out and figure out where we can be successful in other small markets around the city so we'll have to be a little more adventurous which can be a good thing and makes a step outside of our comfort zone we also need to talk to vulcan and tell them the importance of what they're doing and how this is going to play out down the road you know vulcan you know they also own the seattle seahawks and they also own the portland trailblazers so they make a lot of money and you know so we're not only their potential renters were also the fanbase from the sports teams that they own and you know so they have a lot of skin in the game as far as for the seattle community so it is very possible for them to buy property and not make a huge profit margin which means they don't have to drive right up they have the capital to buy land and not drive the rent up so we just need to advocate for that and we need to have more of a one band one sound approach for all meeting together and we're talking to vulcan about who we are and how long we've been here and the changes that they're bringing to the table versus just kind of accepting in a moving on because there are some things that vulcan might need to have done that they don't know there are some help that vulcan mind that they don't know because the chain commune is going to change drastically