Elmer Dixon (b. 1950) is a longtime Seattle activist for racial justice and was one of the founders of Seattle’s chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP). The Seattle chapter was founded in the spring of 1968, after Elmer and his brother Aaron Dixon, Anthony Ware, Garry Owens, and several other future Panthers attended a memorial service in San Francisco for Bobby Hutton, who had been killed in a shootout with local police. While there they met BPP Chairman Bobby Seale, whose subsequent visit to Seattle marked the beginning of the Seattle chapter, the first authorized chapter outside of California. The BPP held protests and undertook direct action to protect and serve the Black community in Seattle. In addition, the Party established a free community medical clinic and a free breakfast program for schoolchildren in the Central Area, which was coordinated by Elmer Dixon. Elmer took over leadership of the Seattle chapter in 1972 and ran it until 1978, when it disbanded.
This image shows Elmer Dixon speaking at a public hearing about a proposal to establish a Youth Patrol to augment Seattle Police Department (SPD) presence in the Central Area. Youth Patrol recruits would be 17 to 20 years old, be trained by the SPD, and would patrol in uniform to try to maintain order without using violence. Dixon was representing the Seattle chapter of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee at the meeting. Many speakers, including students at several high schools, spoke against the proposal on the grounds that a Youth Patrol would exacerbate distrust and resentment between the SPD and communities in the Central Area.
Caption information source: “Black Panther Party Seattle Chapter (1968-1978),” by Linda Holden Givens, HistoryLink, retrieved from https://www.historylink.org/File/20648 Caption information source: “Teens deride Central Area Youth Patrol,” by Mike Conant, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 2, 1968, page 6.
