As Seattle gentrifies, Blacks no longer feel welcome
SEATTLE (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Not so long ago, few whites wanted to live in Seattle's diverse Central District, so it housed the people who had no choice.
Synagogues point to the neighborhood's long-gone Jewish past, an immigrant community that was joined by Japanese-Americans. Their internment in World War Two left the way clear for a wave of African Americans, who settled in big numbers and turned the area into the heart of Seattle's black community.
Now things are changing once again and the district's long-term black residents don't much like it.
After a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs, pancakes, sausage and potatoes, Michael Brown reminisced about local life 50 years ago, recalling the tense nature of relations between the city's police and its African-American residents.
“Every time the police came, it would draw groups of people,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Continue reading…
