In the early 1980s, the demographics of Rainier Valley were changing quickly. The area had been mostly white through the 1960s. However, the Boeing bust in the early 1970s, combined with freeway building projects, began pushing Black residents of the Central Area further south into Rainier Valley where housing was more available and rents were cheaper. New construction and condominiums in the Central Area caused rents to rise, which forced lower income residents to move. In the mid 1970s, many people began to flee their home countries in Southeast Asia in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. By 1983, about 18,000 Southeast Asian refugees had resettled in Washington. About 8,000 of these lived in Southeast Seattle because many vacant apartments were available in this area and most of the city’s low-income housing projects were in the southeast. One result of the changes in Rainier Valley was that it turned into one of Seattle’s most racially diverse areas – about one third white, one third Black, and one third Asian.

This image shows a wall of an Asian grocery store on Rainier Avenue. As shown, the Mekong Rainier Supermarket sought to cater to the Asian refugees that lived in Rainier Valley, who came from many different cultures and ethnic groups. The Mekong Rainier Supermarket opened in 1981 and is still operating as of 2022.

Caption information source: “Asians bring new look to the Rainier Valley,” by Don Tewkesbury, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 17, 1983, page A22.