Career
Returning to Seattle,he became a founder of the Black Student Union on the UW campus [2] and helped to organize nearly a dozen high school and middle school Black Student Unions throughout Seattle. [5] As a student activist,he was instrumental in bringing about the UW's Educational Opportunity Program minority recruitment program. He also played a role in the discrimination of black track athletes from Oregon State University,resulting in their early departure from a track meet. [7] He graduated from the UW in 1970,receiving the university's first-ever degree in African American studies. Before he had even formally received his BA,he became the first supervisor of the Black Student Division in the university's Office of Minority Affairs. The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project describes him as having been,in the late 1960s,"one of Seattle’s best known young black radicals."
A former member of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,he worked as a community organizer in Seattle. While still working for the University of Washington,he was involved in the occupation of a former Seattle public school that ultimately became El Centro de la Raza. His continued involvement in civil disobedience led to a request to "cool it",from the head of the Office of Minority Affairs,Samuel E. Kelly. Eventually,he left his position at the university. After working on the successful 1977 mayoral campaign of Charles Royer,he served briefly in the Royer administration,but felt that was taking him too far from his work as an activist. From April 1979 to December 1993,he was the executive director of Seattle's Central Area Motivation Program ("CAMP"). [2] [5] He eventually worked on Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns. [6]
Black Panthers
Several sources state that Gossett was a member of the Black Panthers. [8] [9] By Gossett's own account,he attended the founding meeting of Seattle's Panther chapter,and also attended Panther leader Bobby Hutton's 1968 funeral; [10] he worked on several political actions with Panther Party members [11] and has said positive things about their legacy. Gossett has admitted in recent years that he was a long time member of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party.
King County Council
Gossett was elected to the Council in 1993. Gossett ran unopposed in 1999,2003,2007,2011 and 2015. [12] [13]
Gossett's office in the King County Courthouse is in the same location that his prison cell was in 1968 when he was arrested for unlawful assembly during a sit-in at Franklin High School on March 29. [14]
In 2017,following discussion by the Metropolitan King County Council committee on government accountability and oversight regarding crime and unsanitary conditions in the vicinity of King County Superior Court,Gossett opposed the proposed power washing of feces and urine from nearby streets,because he considered it brings back the images of police using hoses against civil-rights activists. [15] He was defeated by Girmay Zahilay in the 2019 election after serving six terms. [4]
The University of Washington is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
The Metropolitan King County Council, the legislative body of King County, Washington, consists of nine members elected by district. The Council adopts laws, sets policy, and holds final approval over the budget. Its current name and structure is the result of a merger of King County and the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle, better known as Metro, which was a federated county-city structure responsible for water quality and public transportation.
The Central Area, commonly called the Central District or The CD, is a mostly residential district in Seattle located east of downtown and First Hill ; west of Madrona, Leschi and Mt. Baker; south of Capitol Hill, and north of Rainier Valley. Historically, the Central District has been one of Seattle's most racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods, and was once the center of Seattle's black community and a major hub of African-American businesses.
Franklin High School is a public high school in Seattle, Washington, located in its Mount Baker neighborhood and administered by Seattle Public Schools.
The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, one of the Pacific Northwest Labor and Civil Rights History Projects, is dedicated to social movements and labor history in the Pacific Northwest. It is directed by Professor James N. Gregory of the University of Washington. The project represents a unique collaboration between community organizations and University faculty, as well as undergraduate and graduate students. It has become a model of public history across the US and has been credited with changing the discussion of race and civil rights in the Seattle area.
Aaron L. Dixon is an American activist and a former captain of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party for its initial four years. In 2006, he ran for the United States Senate in Washington state on the Green Party ticket.
Wesley Carl Uhlman is an American attorney and politician who served as the 47th mayor of Seattle, Washington.
In the politics of Seattle, Washington in the United States, "Gang of Four" refers to Bernie Whitebear, Bob Santos, Roberto Maestas, and Larry Gossett, who founded Seattle's Minority Executive Directors's Coalition.
Lawrence R. Phillips is an American politician who served as a member of the King County Council in Washington state. Phillips served on the Council from 1992 to 2016, representing the fourth district, which includes the Seattle neighborhoods of Queen Anne, Magnolia, Ballard, Fremont, Belltown, South Lake Union, and Downtown. He served as Chair of the Council from 2004 to 2006 and again in 2014. He was unopposed in his 2011 re-election. Phillips also serves on the Board of Directors of Sound Transit, a regional transit organization serving the Puget Sound area. A hallmark of Phillips's tenure has been his work to preserve forests and farmland by buying land, development rights, or conservation easements. Phillips is a self-identified Democrat, although his position on the King County Council was officially nonpartisan. On April 1, 2015, Phillips announced he would not seek reelection to the King County Council that November.
Bruce Allen Harrell is an American politician and attorney serving as the 57th and current mayor of Seattle, Washington. He served as a member of the Seattle City Council from District 2 from 2016 to 2020. Elected to the council in 2007 and reelected in 2011 and 2015, he did not run in 2019. In 2016, he was chosen as president of the city council. He also served as acting mayor of Seattle from September 13 to 18, 2017. He was elected mayor in his own right in the 2021 Seattle mayoral election, winning with 59 percent of the vote, becoming the second Black mayor since Norm Rice, and the first Asian American mayor of the city.
Timothy L. Burgess is an American journalist and politician from Seattle, Washington. He was a member of the Seattle City Council from 2007 to 2017, and served as Mayor of Seattle for 71 days in late 2017. Prior to his political career, Burgess was a radio journalist and Seattle Police Department (SPD) officer.
The Black Panther Party History and Memory Project is a multimedia effort to chronicle the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party. Founded in 1968, the Seattle Chapter was one of the first to be formed outside Oakland and became one of longest lived bases of the Party. The Project is the largest online collection of materials about any branch of the organization. The materials include detailed video oral histories, historical documents and photographs and the complete transcript of a 1970 Congressional Hearing held on the Seattle Chapter. The Project is an initiative of the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project at the University of Washington.
The Pacific Northwest Labor and Civil Rights History Projects are a series of multimedia public history initiatives. The projects cover a range of themes and subjects in the Northwest and Seattle, with a particular focus on working people and their movements. The effort, particularly the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, has garnered praise for the breadth of primary and secondary resources made available and its joint creation by academics, community members and hundreds of students. It has been recognized as a model of digital and publicly engaged scholarship.
Teresa Carmen Mosqueda is an American politician and labor activist from Seattle, Washington. She was elected to the Seattle City Council in 2017 to represent the at-large position 8.
Claudia M. Balducci is an American politician from the state of Washington. She is the Chair of the King County Council, representing District 6. She previously served as the mayor of Bellevue, Washington.
Girmay Hadish Zahilay is an American politician and lawyer who is a member of the King County Council from District 2 in Seattle, Washington. He was elected in 2019, defeating longtime incumbent Larry Gossett.
The 2021 Seattle mayoral election was held on November 2, 2021, to elect the Mayor of Seattle. It was won by former Seattle City Council President Bruce Harrell, who defeated then-current President Lorena González; both candidates had advanced from a nonpartisan primary election on August 3.
The 2021 Seattle City Council 3rd district recall election was held on December 7, 2021. Kshama Sawant, a member of the Seattle City Council from the 3rd district, defeated an attempt to recall her. This was the first recall election held in Seattle since the one held against Mayor Wesley C. Uhlman in 1975, and the first for a city councilor in the city's history.
The 2021 Seattle City Attorney election was held on November 2, 2021. Incumbent City Attorney Pete Holmes sought reelection to a fourth term in office, but came third place in the officially nonpartisan August 3 primary election and failed to advance to the general election, with both Nicole Thomas-Kennedy and Ann Davison finishing ahead of Holmes in the primary. Davison defeated Thomas-Kennedy in the general election.
