Category Archives: Pacific Northwest
The 2016 Democratic National Convention
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Living in the Inland Empire of the Pacific Northwest we hear President Obama talk about hope and we see glimpses through the national media and online communications that a change is coming but it has not yet hit our corner of the northwest. The Democratic Party, progressives, the Socialist Alternative and churches have little to show in the way of diversity other than tokenism. Seeing the Republican Party’s convention and their choice of Donald Trump as presidential candidate makes one lose hope in the future of America.
The 2016 Democratic Convention showed what democracy can be when color is added. Taking these pictures inspired this visual communicator and I hope looking at them will inspire you too.
Follow How I See It: the 2016 Presidential Election. Visit the page to view more pictures and share your responses.
I dedicate these images to Anderson Stoakley Lloyd, my 8 year old grandson. I want to thank Diane Lloyd, my wife, my support and technical assistant; Sandy Williams and the Black Lens News; Pastor Percy Happy Watkins and New Hope Baptist Church; and Philadelphia cousins Ramona Rousseau-Reid and Joseph Reid.
Spokane Vigil Had Three Parts
How I See It by Bob Lloyd
July 9, 2016 Spokane County Court House
Part one was Black Lives Matter / All Lives Matter.
Part two was Police Lives Matter.
Part three was Spokane showed how to handle a person when he tries to disrupt your non-violent protest/vigil/rally.
Don’t let anyone hijack your non-violent protest.
Frank Ponikvar Passes
Artists Communication Pallet members will miss the daily posts of artist Frank Ponikvar of Spokane, Seattle, Hawaii and Montana, one of the founding members of 123 Arts, publisher of the Art Paper, who just passed away. He will be missed by family, friends, and many on Facebook. There will be a memorial service in Spokane in a month or so.
When we met for coffee each week we would discuss what we could do with our time in retirement besides creating more art and filling up our studios. We would put our ideas on the table. These ideas ranged from starting an art school with a different curriculum to developing a place where artists could hang out and drink coffee and maybe play cards. I was always pushing to get started trying one of the ideas and he would return to sipping coffee and say “What will be will be.” One of his dreams was returning to living on his boat.
Shiosaki Family Arrives in Spokane
By Patricia Bayonne-Johnson
Railroad and mine companies in the West had a severe shortage of laborers in the 1880s and 1890s so they reached across the Pacific to Japan to solve their problem. Thousands of healthy, strong, young Japanese laborers were recruited. Kisaburo Shiosaki was of the laborers who came to America and eventually ended up in Spokane.
Clinton School Team Takes 2nd in National Policy Competition
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Angela Bukenya Spokane WA
A team of Clinton School students won second place Saturday in the finals of Policy Solutions Challenge USA, a national competition among U.S. schools of public policy, public affairs and public administration.
Clinton School students Mara D’Amico , Angela Bukenya , Christine Sumner and Jillian Underwood finished second among eight finalists for their presentation on “Responses to Childhood Obesity in the U.S.” which was the topic of this year’s challenge. A team from the University of Wisconsin finished first while Brown University finished third.
Other schools in the competition were American University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, University of Southern California and University of Washington.
The Clinton School team won the South Region competition in February and competed at the finals Friday and Saturday at the American University School of Public Policy in Washington, D.C.
For more information on Policy Solutions Challenge USA, visit policychallenge-usa.org .
Spokane NAACP
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Northwest Black Pioneer: Peter Barnabas Barrow
By Patricia Bayonne-Johnson
Peter Barnabas Barrow was one of many African Americans who migrated to the Pacific Northwest and made a tremendous contribution to the development of the Spokane area.
Born a slave near Petersburg, Virginia in 1840, Peter was taken to a plantation near Cosita, Alabama. He ran away when the Union Army came through the area early in 1864 and enlisted in Company A, 66th U.S. Colored Infantry on March 11, 1864 when they reached Vicksburg, Mississippi. Peter was appointed Sergeant on November 1, 1865. He served in Louisiana and Arkansas during the remainder of the war. He remained in the Union Army until March, 1866.
After the war, Peter married Julia, settled in Vicksburg and became active in politics. Peter served as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives and afterwards as a senator from the district of Vicksburg during reconstruction. Sensing that life was not going to get better in Mississippi, Peter moved his family to Deer Park, Washington, in 1889. Expressing his fondness for the Northwest at a black voters’ meeting in 1890, Peter announced, “I jumped out of hell and landed in heaven on both feet.” Peter Barrow’s political activities included founding the John Logan Colored Republican Club and being nominated for office by the Populist Party.
Peter became one of the first black landowners in Stevens County, cultivating a huge irrigated apple orchard and was a leader in the Farmers Alliance movement. Under his direction, the Deer Lake Irrigated Orchards Co. was formed. It was the largest operation of its kind in the Inland Empire and employed about 100 black men. Winter apples were grown and were exported all over the country.
In 1890 Peter Barrow became one of the founders and pastors of Calvary Baptist Church, Spokane’s first black church. He served as pastor from 1895 to 1906. The church is currently located at 213 E. Third Ave.
In 1892 Rev. Barrow moved his family to a house he built at E 2417 Second in Spokane. He and his wife, Julia, had six sons and one daughter.
The Barrow family gave the black community The Citizen, a newspaper published by Charles Barrow, which chronicled the history of Spokane’s black community. Charles and Olive Barrow are the parents of Eleanor Barrow Chase, wife of James Chase, Spokane’s first and only African American mayor.
Reverend Peter Barnabas Barrow was killed in a streetcar accident on July 28, 1906 while attending a church convention in Tacoma. He is one of the 12 bronze busts honoring early business and community leaders on the east side of the Spokesman-Review printing building at 1 North Monroe Street in Spokane, Washington. On the installation, “Builders and Leaders” also known as The Spokesman-Review Bronzes, Rev. Barrow is identified as a Pastor, Entrepreneur and a Publisher. I would add Politician and Civil War Veteran.
Note: This story was re-enacted at the 3rd Annual Walking with Ancestors at the Greenwood Memorial Terrace in Spokane on September 22, 2012. Walking with Ancestors is a program presented by the members of the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society who tell the stories of the people buried in the cemetery. This year’s theme was “Remembering Our Civil War Ancestors.” I requested an African American man for my presentation and my “ancestor” was Peter Barnabas Barrow. I told Peter’s story as Eleanor, Peter’s granddaughter. Eleanor did not know her grandfather because he died in a tragic accident before she was born.
Sources:
Franklin, Joseph, All Through the Night: The History of Spokane Black Americans, 1860-1940 (Fairfield, Washington: Ye Galleon Press, 1989)
Taylor, Quintard, Barrow, Rev. Peter (1840-1906) The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. Black Past.org (an online Reference Guide to African American History)
Peter B. Barrow, Deposition A, April 22, 1895, Civil War Pension File, NARA, Washington, D. C. , Fold 3.
HistoryLink.org; Jim Kershner