Roberta Byrd Barr (1919-1993) was a civil rights leader, educator, and journalist. Born in Tacoma, Barr returned to Seattle in 1959, attending University of Washington and working as a teacher at Jefferson Elementary School, and then as librarian at John Muir Elementary. When Seattle teachers and parents boycotted the city’s public schools and demanded desegregation in 1966, Barr headed the alternative Freedom School, a temporary free school for African American students, at the YMCA. Barr was appointed vice-principal at Franklin High School in 1968, and principal at Lincoln High School in 1973, the first woman to serve as principal of a Seattle Public School.
From 1965 to 1972, Barr moderated the Channel 9 television show “Face to Face,” featuring discussions with guest speakers and the audience on race, desegregation, education, equity, and other topics often overlooked in the media. Here, Roberta Byrd Barr stands at center, in the Channel 9 studio, with a panel of ten guests for an episode of "Face to Face."
Caption information source: "Barr, Roberta Barr (1919-1993)" by Mary T. Henry, HistoryLink.org Essay 306. Caption information source: "Byrd watchers marvel at Roberta's varied plumage" by Charles Russell, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 5, 1967, p. 14.
