Seattle had a growing Latino population in the late 1960s, and activists had been pressing the city for a building in which to establish a Chicano community center. Tired of having their requests ignored, in October 1972 they took over the abandoned Beacon Hill School on 16th Avenue South and renamed it El Centro de la Raza. After a 75-day occupation and ongoing negotiations—including a sit-in-- with the Mayor’s office, the city finally acquiesced in June 1973, subleasing the Seattle School District building to the group for $1 a year. El Centro de la Raza community center is still (as of 2017) in the same building, providing services and advocacy for the Latino community and other residents of the Beacon Hill area.
On the first night of the occupation of the Beacon Hill School, Councilman John Miller visited the group of around sixty people and pledged to "work for a Chicano ethnic center in this city as soon as possible." Miller expressed doubts, however, about whether the abandoned school building, with no heat or plumbing, was the best site, and about how soon funding could be arranged. The group promised to remain at the school until a solution was found.
Caption information source: Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project at University of Washington, page at http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/slides_Chicano.htm Caption information source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 12, 1972 Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.
