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Explore stories in Northwest history through highlights from MOHAI’s collections. Search by keyword below or browse the entire online collection by entering the asterisk symbol (*). Filter your search by type of materials.

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178 results for: Police and Law Enforcement

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Image of Protesters marching against police brutality, Seattle, October 22, 2001
Photograph

Protesters marching against police brutality, Seattle, October 22, 2001

On October 22, 2001 about 100 demonstrators marched through Seattle to protest against police brutality, especially the killing of Black people by police. The march in Seattle was part of the National Day of Protest Against Police Brutality, one of dozens of protests against police violence held across the United States. It came five months after Seattle Police Department (SPD)…
ID Number:2020.42.5.07.03.23
Date:2001
Videorecording

You Have the Right to Know: The Way It Was, Told by Carl Norris, Community Television Agency program, July 7, 1989

Started in 1976 by Virginia Brookbush, CTA produced up to seven half-hour public access television shows a week in the late 1970s and 1980s. Designed to let anyone use public air time to talk about local issues, CTA produced regular shows like "You Have the Right to Know," "Community Bulletin Board," "Visiting Over the Backyard Fence," "This Town's Talent," and…
ID Number:2021.84.19
Date:1989
Image of
Scrapbook

"The Police Force," Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer, February 17, 1886

Seattle's earliest Chinese residents are believed to have arrived in the early 1860s, and while welcomed at first for the role they played in the region's development, Chinese immigrants were not allowed to vote and were subjected to numerous laws that restricted their rights. In the mid-1870s and early 1880s the national economy took a downturn, increasingly leading white workers…
ID Number:2022.3.3.30.2
Date:1886
Image of Police in riot gear during the WTO protests, Seattle, November 30, 1999
Photograph

Police in riot gear during the WTO protests, Seattle, November 30, 1999

The Third Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was held in Seattle from November 30 to December 3, 1999. Trade ministers and other officials from the WTO's 135 member nations met in an unsuccessful attempt to plan negotiations to further deregulate free trade. Tens of thousands of activists for many causes gathered to protest what they saw as…
ID Number:2024.54.16.14
Date:1999
Image of State Police and National Guard during the WTO protests, Seattle, November 30, 1999
Photograph

State Police and National Guard during the WTO protests, Seattle, November 30, 1999

The Third Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was held in Seattle from November 30 to December 3, 1999. Trade ministers and other officials from the WTO's 135 member nations met in an unsuccessful attempt to plan negotiations to further deregulate free trade. Tens of thousands of activists for many causes gathered to protest what they saw as…
ID Number:2024.54.16.21
Date:1999
Image of Seattle Police Department Band, 1915
Photograph

Seattle Police Department Band, 1915

Seattle’s Police Department Band started out by playing Sunday evening concerts at police headquarters. By the 1920s, they marched in city parades, played for city celebrations, played concerts in parks, and participated in funeral ceremonies for fallen comrades. This 1915 image shows the members of the Seattle Police Department Band posed on the sidewalk outside department headquarters. That year, the…
ID Number:Lib1991.21.1
Date:1915
Image of Cheryl Chow in cowboy suit walking with policemen, April 1951
Photograph

Cheryl Chow in cowboy suit walking with policemen, April 1951

In April 1951, a Seattle Post-Intelligencer photographer snapped this picture of a small Chinese American girl in cowboy costume crossing a downtown Seattle street with two tall policemen. Cheryl Chow, the little girl in the photo, grew up to become a Seattle City Council member and a strong advocate for children, low-income housing and parks and recreation programs. She served…
ID Number:PI22413
Date:1951
Image of Policemen and striking longshoremen at Pier 40, Seattle, June 1934
Photograph

Policemen and striking longshoremen at Pier 40, Seattle, June 1934

In the early 1930s, the International Longshoremen's Association, led by San Francisco-based Harry Bridges, tried to unionize all West Coast dockworkers to improve pay and working conditions. In 1934, after employers refused to recognize the union, West Coast longshoremen went out on strike for 98 days, seriously disrupting trade. At Seattle's Smith Cove, picketing strikers blocked access to the piers…
ID Number:PI24001
Date:1934
Image of Seattle Police Department motorcycle corps, Seattle, August 1941
Photograph

Seattle Police Department motorcycle corps, Seattle, August 1941

In early 1910, the Seattle police department invested $1,329 in its first three motorcycles, with seven patrolman selected as the first members of the "motor cops" squad. At the time, speeding fines were paid to King County rather than the city of Seattle, and the city hoped to pass a traffic ordinance which would allow it to keep fines for…
ID Number:PI24808
Date:1941
Image of Japanese Americans surrendering equipment to police, Seattle, December 29, 1941
Photograph

Japanese Americans surrendering equipment to police, Seattle, December 29, 1941

On February 19, 1942, shortly after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and United States entry into WWII, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, calling for the exclusion of all civilians of Japanese descent from "designated military areas." More than 9,000 Japanese and Japanese American people living in the Pacific Northwest were forced into incarceration at camps in Idaho and…
ID Number:PI28030
Date:1941
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MOHAI stands on the historic and contemporary lands and shores of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Muckleshoot, and other Coast Salish Nations. We acknowledge the forced displacement of Native Communities from this land while honoring the endurance of the Duwamish people who still live here.
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