The website http://www.BlackPast.org has created a special section on the history of notable African-American residents of King County. The site includes brief profiles of the individuals, organizations, institutions and events that shaped the history of King County.  Biographies include Edwin T. Pratt, Norm Rice, Jimi Hendrix, Larry Gossett and Wanda Herndon. Also included are primary documents, speeches, bibliographies, and a photo gallery related to that history. See more here. The website was created with the help of a grant from 4Culture, King County’s cultural service agency.

The King County Employee-Based EEO/AA Advisory Committee presents “Bravery in Equity: Are you brave enough to have a conversation about equity?” Beginning in November 2014, this project will bring a selection from the Pacific Science Center’s “RACE: Are WE So Different?” exhibit to King County facilities for one year. Each location will host four educational panels that will be rotated every three months. These panels provide a brief history of equity and social justice facts in King County and surrounding areas. We hope this exhibit challenges King County employees and patrons to… Read More

King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division was recognized as a 2014 diversity leader in engineering and information technology by the magazine Diversity/Careers, joining organizations like IBM, the U.S. Navy and Microsoft. The woman-owned publication is targeted to women and minority groups interested in careers in engineering and information technology. The magazine asked its online readers to look at a list of companies and organizations to identify which ones exemplified workforce and supplier diversity. Participants had an option to add or delete organizations from the list.   WTD was one of the five organizations selected under the Engineering, Construction & Infrastructure category. The other organizations under the category were Baker Hughes, CH2M Hill, HNTB, Turner… Read More

Three attorneys with King County’s Department of Public Defense are partnering with the Public Defender Association’s Racial Disparity Project to prove what they have seen over and over again in their work as felony public defenders: African-Americans are not only vastly under-represented on juries, they’re also under-represented in the jury pool. Ben Goldsmith and Twyla Carter, both felony attorneys in DPD’s The Defender Association Division (TDAD), and Daron Morris, deputy division director, hope to collect enough data to put forward a compelling case to court administrators and others in the criminal justice… Read More

Starting in November, some of the spaces that contain advertisements on King County Metro Rapid Ride buses will display poetry instead. “It’s about local voices and art in your everyday life,” Tamar Benzikry-Stern, Project Manager for 4Culture’s Public Art program and Poetry on Buses, said. 4Culture, King County’s cultural service agency, is a public development authority which works with County departments to bring art into King County buildings, infrastructure and public places – including buses. This year, 4Culture and King County Metro are rebooting “Poetry on Buses,” a program that originally started in 1992. King County residents were asked to submit poems online and invited to… Read More

A group of employees who attended the Governing for Racial Equity (GRE) Conference in Portland, Ore., last month came back with new ideas and renewed energy for challenging racial inequity in our community. “People brought all of their expertise and experience to the conference, and our job now is to bring that back to our work and to grow it,” said Jo Anne Fox, a Budget Analyst in the Office of Performance, Budget and Strategy, at a lunch and learn discussion for employees. More than 550 people from around the United States… Read More