Alfred E. Cowles was appointed to the Seattle School Board in May 1969 representing a new district covering the Central Area. Later that year he was elected to keep his seat, becoming the first Black man elected to the Board. He served on the Board until 1973, when he moved to Washington, D.C. to lead the Center for Dispute Settlement, which encouraged arbitration and mediation to resolve debates nonviolently. Cowles was also executive director of the Washington State Human Rights Commission (formerly the State Board Against Discrimination) from 1966 to 1973.

This image shows Alfred E. Cowles in his office in March 1973, several weeks before he left the Seattle School Board. In a board meeting that month, Cowles defended Seattle schools showing a film about racial problems in schools. Cowles said education about race would teach people how to deal with racial differences, and claimed, "This has been the guts of everything I have done as an adult."

Caption information source: "Cowles, Epler named to school board here," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 9, 1969, page 15.
Caption information source: "Cowles speaks mind on human relations," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 15, 1973, page A3.
Caption information source: "Top arbiter offers idea for survival," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 4, 1973, page B8.