ABSTRACT
Even as the Renaissance gained momentum in Harlem, a concurrent movement was taking shape some 2,400 miles to the west. Blacks living in Seattle and Portland welcomed William Pickens, Oscar De Priest, A. Philip Randolph, and other national leaders who toured the country. Citizens debated topical issues such as the Volstead Act and gave lectures and piano recitals. They participated in musical comedies, attended masquerade balls, and greeted the celebrated singers Roland Hayes and Marian Anderson. And they traveled between Seattle and Portland, less than 200 miles apart, to share culture, religion, and politics. While white leaders in those cities worked to dispel the frontiertown images that many easterners still had of Portland and Seattle, black citizens focused on circumventing Jim Crow restrictions and creating a strong community of their own in the Pacific Northwest. In this way, they were able to tap into the Renaissance and participate in a period that has been described as an “intellectual and artistic cross-fertilization.”
