Out of the Archives

For now, this is where Out of the Archives episodes will be made available for internal review by the Washington State Archives staff.

Episode 1: An Oral History on Wartime, Civil Rights, and the Great Migration in Early 20th Century Seattle

Ernest A White (1894-1979), was the first Black person to go to Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane. After his discharge from the Army, he moved to Seattle where he built a home and worked 39 years for the U.S. Postal Service.

In this interview, Ernest discusses life during the First World War, the Great Depression, World War II, discrimination in housing and employment, the Great Migration of the 1940s in Seattle, and how the city changed after the second world war.

You can find White’s full interview with transcript, photos, and additional documents related to his life, at digitalarchives.wa.gov.