Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Men’s Federated Clubs of the Colored Churches of Spokane launched a campaign to rid Spokane of signs that read “Colored Trade Not Solicited.”

J. Harry Harris, who organized what he called “a friendly crusade” against these signs, said, “From a legal standpoint, the signs are a discrimination, and instead of encouraging better feeling between the races, tends to establish and foster a feeling of resentment among my people.”

He said he did not want to “start a fight” over the signs, but merely to appeal to people to “judge for themselves which is right or wrong.”

The Spokane Daily Chronicle made its own judgment: The paper called the signs “obnoxious.”

From the entertainment file, 50 years ago: The manager of the Spokane Coliseum looked back on the arena’s highlights after five years of operation and came up with these names: Liberace, Lawrence Welk, Harry Belafonte and (the biggest draw of all) the Ice Capades.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1995: Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez, 23, was shot to death in Corpus Christi, Texas, by the founder of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.