The Ethnic Cultural Center (ECC) at the University of Washington (UW) was founded after years of demands from nonwhite students, who made up a very small percentage of UW’s student body at the time. In 1968, the Black Student Union began to protest for the expansion of educational programs for minority students and for greater racial and ethnic diversity in UW’s student body and faculty. The UW administration responded by forming the Office of Minority Affairs in 1970 and constructing the ECC, which opened in 1972.

This image shows the first ECC building, which was designed by Benjamin McAdoo, the first Black architect to be licensed and establish a practice in Washington state. McAdoo graduated from UW in 1946 and began practicing architecture the following year, with his early projects including renovations, community churches, and private homes. He was also a civic leader, working against race discrimination, police brutality, and racist housing practices. The ECC building seen here was originally intended to last only ten years, but stood until 2011, when it was demolished and replaced by a larger facility, renamed the Samuel E. Kelly Ethic Cultural Center in honor of the late leader of minority affairs at the UW.

Caption information source: “UW celebrates 50 years of the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center,” by Jackson Holtz, retrieved from https://www.washington.edu/news/2022/03/01/uw-celebrates-50-years-of-the-samuel-e-kelly-ethnic-cultural-center/
Caption information source: McAdoo, Benjamin (1920-1981) by Heather M. McIntosh, HistoryLink.org Essay 1161.