Editorial: City’s racial struggles are finally put in King’s name

In 1982, Empire Way in Seattle was rechristened Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Thirty years later, Spokane finally has a street bearing the name of the civil rights giant, too.

Nearly 800 U.S. cities have established a street in King’s honor, with a heavy concentration in the South, where civil rights battles were played out in an overt manner. Here in the Northwest, where the population of African-Americans is relatively small, racism was perpetuated in a more discreet fashion. In Spokane, black residents knew where they were welcomed and where they weren’t. While violence only occasionally flared, the city’s unwritten – and sometimes written – code effectively kept African-Americans in their place.

Before the civil rights movement, most black residents of Spokane were only allowed to hold down jobs involving unskilled labor, and there were certain parts of the city where they dared not live. According to The Spokesman-Review archives, those looking for housing “would be steered to the ‘area for Negroes,’ which was bounded by Division on the west, Altamont on the east, Ninth on the south and Sprague on the north.”

As of Thursday, there is a Martin Luther King Jr. Way that runs through the heart of the city.

So while the city was late in honoring Dr. King, it can’t be accused of obscuring the location or getting by cheaply. A total of $3.8 million, including some federal funds, was spent on a handsome boulevard, which extends Riverside Avenue east of Division Street and into the Riverpoint Campus. A median of carefully chosen trees, shrubs and grasses will enhance the view.

Several old warehouses had to be knocked down to make way for this connector from downtown to the university district. Eventually, the street will link with Trent Avenue at Perry Street.

It’s a fitting setting, and not just because of its central location. Like the newly christened boulevard, the university district itself was the product of a quarter-century of prodding and persistence. Proponents for both causes had plenty of opportunities to give up, but they stuck with their dreams.

The Riverpoint locale also dovetails nicely with King’s emphasis on education as the key to overcoming oppression and expanding opportunities.

Today, the arguments against a Martin Luther King Jr. Way seem especially small: It will be divisive. Better to fill some potholes. People will have to change the addresses on their business cards. Fortunately, civic leaders with a grander vision finally made it a priority.

So, yes, it took too long to secure this symbolic boulevard, but in the future that tussle will largely be forgotten. What will remain is a pathway to progress that reflects the community’s respect for a more profound struggle.