Along Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma, the city’s new Black Lives Matter mural unfolds across the 23,000 square-foot Tollefson Plaza in bright colors.
The mural cascades down the steps of the plaza and from different viewpoints, it reveals different faces, messages and meanings. The challenging space makes the viewer work to absorb the mural — something lead artist Read More
Later this summer, Tacoma’s downtown Tollefson Plaza will be transformed into the first Black Lives Matter mural sanctioned by the city and other partners. The project is designed to acknowledge police brutality of Black people and racial inequities that came to nationwide attention after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Read More
After receiving a grant, 20 Washington State artists are using their voices and artistic expression towards social justice efforts. The entire museum is currently filled with art that relates to […]Read More
A new exhibit at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of art at Washington State University is shining a light on racial injustice and the Black Lives Matter movement with the works of 20 artists from around Washington.Read More
By 1950, 20% of Pasco’s approximately 10,000 residents were Black, almost all living in slum conditions. Few lived in the new atomic community of Richland and none in “lily-white” Kennewick -- a fact of which Kennewick city leaders and police at the time were proud. Not only was housing segregated, but Black residents were forced to endure broad discrimination in Read More
When Spokane resident Evelyn Woods was a little girl in World War II Germany, she hid in an attic with her Jewish parents. In today’s StoryCorps Northwest, Evelyn’s step-daughter, Robin, asks her how that confinement compares to today’s COVID-19 restrictions. Evelyn, 82, discusses that and the Black Lives Matter movement in this segment of StoryCorps Northwest recorded Read More
A federal judge said "the court cannot ignore the clear violations" of an injunction limiting the police department's use of the weapons, but added some instances were in compliance.Read More
Washington state lawmakers and activists are setting an ambitious agenda for police reform in the upcoming legislative session, saying they hope to make it easier to decertify officers for misconduct, to bar the use of police dogs to make arrests, and to create an independent statewide agency to investigate police killings.Read More
The thoughtful soprano believes that art is good at questioning, challenging and provoking. But the real question, she says, is: "What happens after the provocation?"Read More
Lewiston resident Lilienne Shore Kilgore-Brown actively takes part in protests now. So did her grandmother Susan Kilgore in the 1970s. On StoryCorps Northwest, Susan tells Lilienne what she was protesting and what she learned from those experiences.Read More
Dominick David Black was charged with illegally providing the gun that prosecutors say Kyle Rittenhouse used to shoot three men, killing two, during a protest this summer in Kenosha, Wis. Read More
Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly says Kenneth Walker committed battery, assault and intentional emotional distress. Walker filed a civil lawsuit against the city and the police department last month.Read More
Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by police in March. Her killing in Louisville, Ky., was part of the fuel for the nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism this spring and summer.Read More
"Portland is a mess, and it has been for many years," the president tweeted Monday. The city's mayor blames Trump for the violence and for creating "the hate and the division."Read More
The mayors of Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Albuquerque, Washington, D.C., and Kansas City, Mo., signed on to the letter that criticized the administration for sending "unidentified federal agents to operate with impunity" in cities where demonstrations against police brutality and racism continue.Read More
The symbols of America's racist past have been under intense scrutiny since the protests against police brutality erupted nationwide. Now, the traditional music community is having its own reckoning.Read More
Regina Boone has been documenting the protests against Confederate statues for the Richmond Free Press. As the daughter of the paper's Black founders, she says, "This is not a new story for us."Read More
With protesters taking to the streets nationwide to demand justice for George Floyd and confront police brutality and systemic racism, Mountain West News Bureau reporters are gathering perspectives of people of color from around the Mountain West region.Read More
Travis Bristol, an assistant professor of education at the University of California at Berkeley, explains how teacher training and the presence of Black teachers can help reshape education.Read More
Seattle police started to dismantle the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone early Wednesday morning after Mayor Jenny Durkan issued an emergency order declaring the blocks-long area an "unlawful assembly" that requires immediate action.Read More
Small, mostly white rural towns across Washington are standing up in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests. Although dwarfed by comparison with the thousands protesting in places like Seattle and Portland, the people standing up against racism in smaller numbers do not think their message should be dismissed or watered down because they aren’t big enough to make Read More
The open-air camp in the Capitol Hill area is more than a week old. Underneath the peace-and-love vibe is an undercurrent of anxiety that it won't end well and that Black people might get the blame.Read More
Stepping up an attack he began on Twitter last week, President Trump on Monday spent more than four minutes at a White House meeting inveighing against Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and the six-block protest area now known as CHOP, for Capitol Hill Organized Protest.Read More
Nearly half of black Americans have very little or no confidence that police officers in their community treat people with different skin colors the same, according to the latest PBS NewsHour-NPR-Marist poll. But overall, only 18 percent of Americans take that view — an illustration in itself that people of different races are living different realities in the United States.Read More
At least one person was injured Sunday as a car drove into a crowd during a peaceful protest in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. The Seattle Fire Department said the victim was a 27-year-old male who was shot and taken to a hospital in stable condition.Read More
Organizers for this Sunday’s rally say they are waiting to announce a location because of threats. Read More
Derek Chauvin now faces an additional charge of second-degree murder, and three other former Minneapolis police officers are accused of aiding and abetting murder.Read More
"He did not pray. He did not offer a word of balm or condolence to those who are grieving," says the bishop who oversees the church. Washington's mayor was more direct: "Shameful!"Read More
President Trump reportedly makes comments during a contentious phone call with state leaders to discuss protests following the death of George Floyd.Read More
Former Vice President Joe Biden visits a predominantly African American church in his hometown, at times taking notes as community leaders offer suggestions for how to address racial inequality.Read More
Spokane joined a list of cities across the Northwest and the nation on Sunday, with thousands of marchers protesting police treatment of black people and other groups, sparked most recently by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.Read More
The screenwriter's new movie is about a black couple who shoot a white police officer in self-defense during a routine traffic stop. Their ensuing flight, she says, is a "meditation on blackness."Read More