Maybe this is not news to you. But I did not know that Frances had a younger brother in Aberdeen. In her interview she talks about how she ended up in the area as her father had a bread route there. It’s unclear if her brother followed her but…
I was reading The Red Coast by Aaron Goings (A history prof from Aberdeen also). It is a history of the unionization fight of the lumber industry in Western Washington. It is not nice to most of the “founding fathers” who were mostly all Western European. They came to the area early & were running the mills and businesses at a nice profit. They did not appreciate people who wanted wage increases and shorter hours. They used whatever they could to prevent changes – police, vigilantes, KKK…. I I never realized the KKK was for White power – I mean really “white” so they fought pretty much anything but Western European in their early days.) Those workers that fought back often joined the Communist or Socialist parties, which pre-union victories, were the groups fighting for the little guy.
I got to Chapter 15 (It’s a long struggle.) when in 1937 three men from Aberdeen decide to join others fighting Franco’s fascism in Spain. One of them is Ernest Kozlowski. The war against Franco was lost and set the stage for WWII. In one letter home Ernest writes “There is one thing that the Timber Workers of the harbor can rest assured of, when these Spanish people smash fascism and its union busting, labor-exploiting, educational race-hatred program the cause of the workers of not only Spain [but also] right in Grays Harbor and the entire world will be tremendously affected, and will take a gigantic stride forward to progress, peace and security.”—that war was lost. Ernest came home but later entered WWII and lost his life in Leyto, Philippines.
The more I read history, the more it becomes clear that racism in the early years of our country was not just against Native Americans, and Africans but anyone who was “different”. That meant the Polish/Lithuanian, Italian, Finnish, Jewish, Mormon, or even “lower class” who came over as indentured servants….Our immigrant society had many challenges in blending. Each generation takes us farther in that direction as our children and grandchildren meet and blend — but we still have a ways to go.
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