The largest and earliest Black immigration to the Pacific Northwest began in Roslyn in 1888. The impetus was a coal mine strike initiated by the Knights of Labor against the Northwest Improvement Company (NWI) in Roslyn and Ronald. In response, the NWI recruited black coal miners who who began arriving in August of that year. Greeted by armed mobs in Roslyn, the miners continued on to Ronald before getting off the train. By December, increasing tensions inspired the above telegram sent to George Kangley in Tacoma:
 
"In taking the new drivers to Roslyn this afternoon Ronald and Williamson were knocked senseless by strikers and disarmed[,] afterwards run out of town[. S]everal of new men badly used up and mob rule reigns in Roslyn tonight[. D]eputy sheriffs and guards also run out[. I] have wired territorial governor and asked his immediate assistance..."

By 1890 when this photo was taken, an estimated 350 blacks had moved from Ronald and settled in Roslyn. Racial tensions had calmed, but many blacks still felt compelled to carry weapons for their defense as pictured above. Overtime, however, the common dangers shared working underground erased tensions and created a spirit of cooperation.



 

Twenty years after the coal mine strike brought 600 black miners to Upper Kittitas County, black population in Roslyn had dwindled to 111 people. Frustrated by limited opportunities, many had moved to the Seattle area or took up homesteads in Eastern Washington. In this photo dated Aug. 6, 1909, blacks gathered at a Roslyn picnic celebrating Emancipation Day, an annual tradition that carried through the 1930s. The tradition was revived in 1978 by members of the Craven family, the only black family remaining in Roslyn.

Education was a high priority amongst Roslyn's founding fathers and by the early 1900s, Roslyn had three school buildings and a high school constructed in 1910. At its peak, Roslyn School District had 1,000 students, many of them from black families.

Pictured: Jimmy Claxton pitching in the old Roslyn Grandstand after he was bounced from the Oakland Oaks in the early 1920s. Claxton had played under the name Chief Yellow Horse until officials discovered he was black, not Native American. Claxton was the first black Pacific Coast League baseball player and the first black featured on a baseball card. Although he was born in Ravensdale, WA., his family moved to Roslyn and his father William became a union representative.

Wesley Craven, one of Samuel and Ethel Craven's 13 children, boxed professionally during the 1960s (including winning a match against the future heavyweight champion, Ken Norton). Wesley's brother, William, was elected mayor of Roslyn in 1975 - the first black mayor in the state of Washington.

Ethel Craven and her daughters were instrumental in compiling Roslyn's black history,  "Through Open Eyes: Ninety-Five Years of Black History in Roslyn, Washington." Ethel was also named Upper Kittitas County Mother of the Year in the 1970s and the 1983 Pioneer Days Queen.

"Through Open Eyes: Ninety-Five Years of Black History in Roslyn, Washington"
Sponsored by the Ellensburg Public Library, Supported by a grant from the Washington Commission for Humanties. Photographs and text by Charles Lovell.

"The Impact of the Roslyn Coal Miners Strike on African American Migration into the State of Washington: 1888 Through 1910"
Masters Thesis by Frederick O. Jackson, April 1995

"Early Black History in Roslyn Washington"
Photos and captions of black history in Roslyn.

"Jesse Donaldson and His Descendants, from Alabama to Roslyn, Wash. from 1846 to 1913"
Information about Jesse Donaldson who was born into slavery and later immigrated to Roslyn.

"Black Historys (sic) and news clippings"
Collection of newspaper articles about the Craven family, 1980s to present.