Seattle African-American museum opens

SEATTLE – Gov. Chris Gregoire, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice and King County Councilman Larry Gossett were in the crowd of about 1,000 that showed up Saturday for the opening of the Northwest African American Museum.

The first museum devoted to African-American history in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho and British Columbia opened Saturday at the 19,000-square-foot museum at the former Colman School in Seattle’s Central Area.

The Rev. Samuel McKinney, of the Mount Zion Baptist Church, gave the invocation. He expressed gratitude to the activists who occupied the then-abandoned building, starting in the 1980s, and prevented it from being knocked down.

The Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle bought the property from Seattle Public Schools in 2003.

The museum is part of the Urban League Village, a $22.6 million project, at the school. The upper floors have 36 units of affordable housing.