Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 75 years ago

Spokane hosted 65 delegates of the annual meeting of a “state organization of Negro Baptists,” the General Baptist Association.

Spokane’s Rev. Emmett B. Reed was the host and moderator.

“You will find Spokane a friendly town,” Reed told the assembled delegates.

From the tribal file: Indians on the Yakima Reservation filed more than 100 lawsuits in an attempt to force white farmers, who leased tribal land, to pay their rent.

Many Indians had leased their land to white settlers. Then, when the Great Depression hit, many of the farmers hit hard times and simply stopped paying.

“We try to be fair to the white farmers,” said an attorney for the tribe. “But at the same time, the Indians are entitled to their rent, as in many cases it is all they have to live on.”

From the forest file: An “army” of 1,031 men were in the forests of Eastern Washington, North Idaho and Montana fighting an insidious enemy: blister rust.

Blister rust was a disease devastating the region’s white pine forests. The men in the camps came from the “relief rolls,” meaning men who were unemployed.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1942: U.S. and Allied forces landed at Guadalcanal, marking the start of the first major Allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II.