This day in history: Black students at Eastern spoke against ‘harsh discrimination and unfair treatment’

From 1976: Black students at Eastern Washington State College in Cheney told the college’s trustees that they were “sick and tired of being treated this way.”

About 50 students attended a “heated session” of the board. They said they were subject to “harsh discrimination and unfair treatment.”

The most recent moment of strife came the day before, when “two black students were removed from an Associated Student legislative committee – the Services and Activities Fee committee – after refusing to join what they said was a mandated unanimous vote of the body.”

One student pointed out that the Black Education Program at the college had only one full-time person to provide resources for 200 Black students.

The trustees agreed to a further meeting with the students.

From 1926: Two brothers, Roland and Everett Van Blaricom, were arrested in connection with the murder of Deputy Game Warden Edward Jarisch (spelled Jarrish by the Spokane Chronicle).

Jarisch was found dead of a bullet wound on a trail near his Camden, Washington, home, between Elk and Newport. Police found two sets of footprints in the snow, showing that two people had followed Jarisch down the trail. Police then found a rifle, which they believed belonged to the brothers, in the brush along a creek.

“I’ve come to take you boys with me,” said the Pend Oreille County sheriff, when he showed up at the Van Blaricom place alongside the Great Northern tracks just north of Scotia.

“Take good care of my boys,” said their distraught mother.

Police suspected that Roland Van Blaricom fired the fatal shot.