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.
In this photo, Grace Grospe, left, Gracela Vasquez, center, and Marco Solis play cards in the corridor of the unheated Beacon Hill School near a sign reading "Chicano clinic open" on the eighth consecutive night of the occupation. A medical clinic had been set up at the school, with two doctors stopping in once a day to provide simple medical treatment, and on call for emergencies.
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 also derived from photo captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff.
