Civil rights advocate Haley dies

TACOMA – Fred Haley, a savvy businessman who helped open international markets to Brown & Haley’s signature Almond Roca candy and became a stalwart champion of civil rights, has died. The Tacoma native was 92 when he died at his home Monday.

After serving in the Navy in World War II, Haley returned home to assume the presidency of Brown & Haley, succeeding his father, J.C. Haley, one of the candy company’s co-founders, in 1954.

Haley quickly immersed himself in local causes. The same year he started running the company, he won a seat on the Tacoma School Board, where he fought for desegregation and the hiring of minority teachers.

In 1985, the ACLU gave Haley its William O. Douglas Award for his work fighting for civil liberties. He took heat for some of his stances. People boycotted his company when Haley and two other school board members voted not to oust a counselor who had been accused of being a communist.

“They hated him for it,” said historian Ronald Magden, who wrote Haley’s biography. “It was remarkable that he was a successful businessman.”

Haley served on local and state boards to improve K-12 and higher education. In Tacoma, he proposed ending school segregation by redrawing territories from which schools drew their students and creating magnet schools in poor areas.

In 1963, Haley rode a bus across the country to take part in the March on Washington.

He later served on the state’s Board Against Discrimination and petitioned to get the first black man admitted to the all-white Seattle College Club.