Pasco wants to preserve its ‘African American story’; these grants will help

When African Americans migrated to the Tri-Cities in the 1940s for the World War II Manhattan Project, their options for housing were limited.

A sundown sign posted on the old green bridge that crossed the Columbia River made it clear they weren’t welcome in Kennewick city limits at night.

And only full-time workers were allowed to live in Richland, which meant black people who were relegated to temporary positions at the Hanford nuclear reservation had to look elsewhere for family accommodations.

Pasco was the only choice, and even there they were segregated to east of the railroad tracks.

But African Americans put down roots, and soon the east Pasco community flourished with homes, churches, a popular market, a school and a park where children loved to play baseball.

It’s the neighborhood landmarks and the culture that built up around those places that city officials and researchers are hoping to identify and inventory for the first time, before it’s all gone.

Pasco has received two separate grants with a similar initiative — to survey properties associated with the African American heritage in east Pasco.

The Washington state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation has given $10,000, and the National Park Service recently announced $20,000 toward the preservation project.

Pasco’s designation as a certified local government gives the city the ability to apply for grants and to acknowledge landmark properties.

“The point is we need to get these stories and we need to record this history now before we lose it,” said Tanya Bowers, a Pasco newcomer who worked with the city’s Community & Economic Development Department to apply for the grants.

She explained there is an unwritten rule that properties must be 50 years old or older to be designated historic.

“Because of the 50-year rule, we’re able to focus on the African American story,” Bowers said, “but I know in another 20 to 30 years we’ll be able to talk about the Latino history (in Pasco).”

Pasco is one of 13 projects nationwide receiving a total $500,000 in grants to increase the number of listings associated with communities that are underrepresented on the National Register of Historic Places.

The federal money is coming from the Historic Preservation Fund using revenue from federal oil leases on the Outer Continental Shelf.

“The National Park Service is working with states, tribes and local governments to help more people connect with their history and explore America’s diverse stories,” Deputy Director Michael T. Reynolds said in a news release. “These grants will fund projects that recognize and preserve places that will educate and inspire future generations of Americans.”

Last year, the park service awarded Washington State University Tri-Cities a $73,000 grant as part of a national initiative to study civil rights at national parks.

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park, one of the system’s newest parks, includes historic areas of Hanford.

Research on the Hanford History Project includes where African Americans lived before they came to Hanford, what life was like while working at Hanford, and where they settled and what kind of jobs they found after leaving the Tri-Cities.

Bowers, who also is a consultant on that grant project, said she first learned about the migration of African Americans to the Tri-Cities during her previous work as director of diversity at the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington D.C.

She is a member of the Pasco Planning Commission and the African American Community Cultural and Educational Society, or AACCES.

Bowers and Robert Bauman, a WSU Tri-Cities associate history professor who has been recognized for his study of black segregation in the Tri-Cities in the 1940s, are competing for the research contract with Pasco. The city has not yet selected someone to lead the project over the next year.

Jeff Adams, an associate planner with the city, said the focus of these grants fits in well with the Pasco Historic Preservation Commission’s ongoing research project.

The commission — sponsored by the city and run by volunteers — has been working on a series of short videos outlining certain aspects of Pasco’s history.

Topics covered so far include the railroad, Moore Mansion, the schools and the town of Ainsworth, which no longer exists, said Adams, the commission’s secretary.

The purpose is to preserve both oral history and physical artifacts that are of value to the city.

“We haven’t actually looked at any properties that are attached to any unique group, but we’ve considered research on African Americans and the Chinese and the Hispanic populations because they’re all part of our history,” Adams said.

Now, Pasco will get to work with an architectural historian to review each selected property’s integrity with respect to its period of significance. That means determining if it’s still the original structure or landscape, or if there have been too many renovations or modifications so the property no longer meets the criteria.

Then, researched will get histories about final properties and places.

AACCES supports the project because it builds on the volunteer organization’s efforts to fill in the map of the area’s history and the contributions of African Americans, Bowers said.

The organization already has identified seven sites of historical and social significance within the boundaries of east Pasco, including Kurtzman Park and a few churches.

City officials will consider those properties when coming up with the official list for the architectural historian to review.

Bowers noted that the researchers also may want to look at the Lewis Street underpass since it was the dividing line between east Pasco and the rest of the city, and a home near the bus depot because it was owned by one of the first black families allowed to live west of the tracks in central Pasco.

“Hopefully this is going to help broaden the larger picture of the American narrative by talking about the multi-layered history of Americans,” Bowers said. “For folks who live in east Pasco, now they can learn more about that particular period and it will just help the Tri-Cities have a fuller picture of the wonderful things that have gone on here.”

This story was originally published January 6, 2018 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Pasco wants to preserve its ‘African American story’; these grants will help."