Northwest African American Museum: A History of Preserving Black Heritage in Seattle

Nov 07, 2025 0

The Northwest African American Museum (NAAM) serves to present and preserve the connections between the Pacific Northwest and people of African descent and investigate and celebrate Black experiences in America through exhibitions, programs and events.

Nestled within the historic Colman School building in Seattle's Central District is the Northwest African American Museum (NAAM), a unique institution dedicated solely to preserving the legacy of African Americans in the Pacific Northwest. As the region's sole museum of its kind, NAAM is a beacon of cultural heritage and historical significance.

With a mission to "use Black heritage to cultivate healing and hope for all," NAAM employs the arts and history to illuminate the diverse experiences and impactful contributions of African Americans across our region. The museum is filled with beautiful interactive exhibits. Visitors engage with and learn from displays that feature videos, photographs, images, artifacts, and artwork.

The historic Colman School building at 23rd and Massachusetts in Seattle’s Central District has lived many lives. And since 2008, it has been home to 36 housing units and the Northwest African American Museum. Today, the Colman Building is owned and operated by the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, with the Northwest African American Museum as a first-floor tenant. And, since it was decades of activism and passion in the making, the museum holds many hopes.

For this episode of the Black Arts Legacies podcast, host Brooklyn Jamerson-Flowers examines some of NAAM’s controversial history, while also talking with some of those involved in bringing the museum to life, as well as artists with ties to it. NAAM is a site of dreams fulfilled and dreams deferred. A lot of that comes from so many people wanting this space to be the very best it can be.

The legacies of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., arts institutions celebrate the work of educator Thelma Dewitty, poet Langston Hughes, painter Jacob Lawrence, sculptor James Washington, and playwright August Wilson. The Pacific Northwest African American Museum, located in the old Colman School, at 2300 Massachusetts St. Senator Maria Cantwell, U. S. Representative Jim McDermott, Mayor Greg Nickels (b. 1955), King County Executive Ron Sims (b. 1948), and King County Councilman Larry Gossett (b. 1945). It was a happy day for the African American community, which had dreamed of a museum for more than two decades.

Today, NAAM is situated within two city parks: Sam Smith Park and Jimi Hendrix Park. Sam Smith served in the state House of Representatives and was Seattle’s first African American city council member. Jimi Hendrix was one of Seattle’s greatest musicians, with humble beginnings in the Central Area.

The museum reopened on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - January 16, 2023. While the physical buildings were closed to the public, the museum remained active throughout that time. The museum reopened after being closed for about three years due to the challenges the COVID19 pandemic.

School Beat: American History Traveling Museum

The Genesis of NAAM: From Community Exchange to Reality

In 1981, the Community Exchange, a multi-racial coalition, proposed an African American museum to Mayor Charles Royer (b. 1939). Three years later, a task force was formed to establish such a museum and included community members Omari Tahir Garrett, Mona Bailey, Esther Mumford, Ann Gerber, P. (Just weeks before, the Black Heritage Society had petitioned Walt Hundley (1929-2002), Superintendent of Parks and Recreation, for use of a room in the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center for a small museum. He instead offered the small shelter house built by the WPA on the Colman playfield.

Below are documented facts regarding the on-going occupation/protest for proper acknowledgment of the African-American Heritage Museum and Cultural Center as the TRUE AND RIGHTFUL owner of the Colman school building and subsequent release of the building to the African-American Heritage Museum and Cultural Center. It is past time that the African American Heritage Museum and Cultural Center is returned to its rightful owners so that it may function in the capacity the founders envisioned.

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The service of a cultural center is needed now more than ever to help reconnect, rehabilitate, and transform the Seattle Black Community so that we may face and overcome current and future challenges. BRING BACK THE AAHM&CC! Forward Ever! Backward Never!

In February of 1994, the City and the AAHM&CC jointly agreed to fully develop the entire Colman School building at 23rd Ave and Massachusetts St into a state-of-the-art world class museum and cultural center.
The Seattle School District entered into an agreement to sell the Colman building at 23rd Ave and Massachusetts St to the AAHM&CC in January of 1998.
Bob Flowers, former AAHM&CC Board Chair and Urban League Board Member (a conflict of interest), refused to deliver the AAHM&CC’s downpayment on the Colman School building, thus violating his fiduciary responsibility to the AAHM&CC organization.
On June 4th, 1998, the Paul Schell mayoral administration used the temporary confusion created by Mr. Flowers as an opportunity to breach the City’s agreements with the AAHM&CC, and sent a violent SWAT Team to illegally eject the AAHM&CC from the Colman School as well as from two portable buildings in its parking lot.
In spite of Bob Flowers’ efforts of sabotage, the AAHM&CC Board successfully secured an approved line of credit for the entire purchase price specified in the agreement. Also in spite of Flowers, the AAHM&CC successfully presented the Seattle School District a valid check for $50,000 for the agreed down-payment on the building.
The Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle conspired with the City of Seattle to “double-purchase” the building from SPS, in violation of the existing contracts with the AAHM&CC.
In 2004, Urban League chose a proud former Boeing executive and FBI agent to be the official leader of the “NAAM”. In December of 2006, the Urban League and the City of Seattle’s Greg Nickels administration signed an illegal covenant with one another to operate the building as an apartment complex instead of a museum.

The museum's inaugural exhibit featured the work of Jacob Lawrence and James W. Washington, Jr., two prominent, internationally acclaimed African American artists who made their homes in Seattle.

Among the works in the show were Lawrence's series of five panels on the life of George Washington Bush, Washington State's first African American settler, and Washington's work from 1956 entitled "The Young Queen of Ethiopia," carved from Mexican volcanic stone. Though the artists came from different backgrounds and their art entreated different topics and mediums, "one thing they held in common was a firm belief in their own direction as artists.

Their work moves us because they were clearly compelled to do it, to communicate deep social or inner truths. Both Lawrence and Washington did the painful work of finding their authentic voice as artists, a hard journey that few accomplish and which in itself sets them apart. That task was multiplied hugely by the fact that they were black men in a country with deep racial divides and prejudices. They were trailblazers, creating opportunities and helping others along the path.

The first efforts at creating the museum began in 1981, by a multi-racial coalition called Community Exchange. In 1984 a formal task force was established. In 1993, a not-for-profit organization called the African American Heritage Museum and Cultural Center was formed and a Board of Directors was selected to oversee the project with Mayor Norman Rice's office.

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Colman School: A Historic Landmark

Colman School was built in 1909, and named in 1918, for James Murray Colman (1832-1906), a native of Scotland who came to Seattle in 1869. He was a Seattle engineer who helped develop the waterfront and built Colman Dock terminal for Washington State Ferries. The three-story red brick building sitting on 2.2 acres was designed in the Jacobean style and contained 17 classrooms. Anna B.

In the 1960s Colman School became one of the seven Central Area schools designated by the Seattle Urban League as having a disproportionate number of minority students. Colman closed as an elementary school in 1979. From 1979 to 1985, Summit K-12 alternative school was located in the building.

In 2003, the building was designated as a historic landmark because it’s connected to the cultural heritage of the community, because it’s architecturally distinctive and because it’s a known and visible feature of the neighborhood.

The historic Colman School building at 23rd and Massachusetts in Seattle’s Central District has lived many lives.

The Urban League's Acquisition and the Vision for NAAM

In 2003, The Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, under the leadership of James Kelly, the executive director, bought the building from the Seattle School District for $800,000 for a museum and 36 units of affordable rental housing to be known as the Urban League Village.

The overall cost of this project was $22.6 million, which includes $8.1 million for the museum construction. The two upper floors of the renovated building are the Urban League Village, 36 units for families of moderate means where rents are 50 percent to 60 percent of the area median income. There are studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $635 for a studio and $965 for a two bedroom unit. The 19,000-square-foot ground floor houses the museum with three galleries, a genealogy research area, an artist's work space, a workroom, office space, a gift shop, and a cafe operated by St. Cloud's Restaurant.

Inside the Museum: Exhibits and Artifacts

The first exhibit encountered is in the Journey Gallery, which runs the length of a long corridor and traces the history of African Americans in the Northwest from 1790 to the present. The exhibit was professionally designed by the Portland firm, Formations. Life-sized cutouts of former Mayor Norm Rice (b.

Interesting artifacts include the window and door from the old Mount Zion Baptist Church built in the early 1920s; the flight jacket worn by Tuskeegee airman and Seattleite William Holloman, the first African American helicopter pilot in the air force; the hat worn by Jimi Hendrix in a 1968 concert. There are videos and interactive displays that enhance the exhibit experience.

The first exhibition in the Northwest Gallery, entitled Making a Life/Creating a World, features the work of Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) and James Washington Jr. (1911-2000), both outstanding Seattle artists. The exhibit attempts not only to show their art but also to help us understand their lives. This larger room in the museum has a stunning 108 x 216 inch panel by Lawrence entitled Games on loan from the 4Culture and King County Arts Collection and which had been installed in the Kingdome stadium.

The other half of the gallery exhibit contains the paintings and sculpture of James Washington Jr., including, among a dozen other sculptures, Tribute to Mark Tobey loaned from the Becky and Jack Benaroya Collection. Several of his paintings are of local scenes. This temporary exhibit will be followed by changing exhibits that amplify the experiences in the Journey Gallery. In the near future, East by Northwest, stories and experiences of recent African immigrants in the Northwest, will be featured. The Legacy Gallery is 2,340 square feet in area and will host meetings, special events, and traveling exhibitions. The artist's workspace is presently being used by artist in residence Daniel Minter, a sculptor from Maine who is residing in James Washington's home and will give public talks at the museum.

The People Behind the Museum

Carver Gayton, 69, executive director of the museum, was a former Boeing executive, FBI agent, a state employment security commissioner and a UW football star. He is a member of a prominent African American family and whose grandfather, John Thomas Gayton (1868-1954), arrived in Seattle in 1889. He was hired by James Kelly shortly after the building was purchased. Through Gayton's efforts contributions for the museum have come from such sources as Microsoft, Safeco, Boeing, Key Bank, Washington Mutual, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Paul G. Allen Foundation.

Barbara Earl Thomas, 59, is the deputy director/curator whose vision has shaped the museum's contents. She is a Seattle native, an artist and writer with advanced degrees from the University of Washington. She has been program director for the Seattle Arts Commission and director of Seattle's Bumbershoot festival as well as marketing manager for the Elliot Bay Book Co.

Brian Carter, 28, is the education director and a native of Yakima. With a degree from Stanford he went on to earn a master's degree in museum studies from the University of Washington. He traveled throughout the Northwest gathering material about African Americans to be used in the museum exhibits. His efforts are evident in the items gleaned from historical societies and museums from the Northwest states and from British Columbia.

Milestones in NAAM's History

A Task Force is formed to establish an African American museum. The previous Colman School was selected to be the home of the museum. A not-for-profit organization called the African American Heritage Museum and Cultural Center is formed. A Board of Directors is selected to oversee the project with Mayor Norman Rice’s office.

Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, under the leadership of the Board of Directors and CEO James Kelly, takes on the project and purchases the Colman School building purchased in 2003 from the Seattle School District.

Dr. Carver Gayton is appointed Executive Director and Barbara Earl Thomas is appointed Deputy Director of the Northwest African American Museum. The Museum gains independence from the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle and obtains its own 501(c)3 status.

The Museum opens its doors to the public on March 8, 2008-the realization of a dream 25 years in the making. The Museum completes a 5-Year Strategic Plan and adopts a new mission statement: “NAAM’s mission is to spread knowledge, understanding, and enjoyment of the histories, arts, and cultures of people of African descent for the enrichment of all.

The Northwest African American Museum experiences a rebirth as it celebrates its 10th Anniversary upon the arrival of new Executive Director LaNesha DeBardelaben. NAAM is selected for the first cohort of the Standards and Excellence Program (StEPs) by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and the American Association for State and Local History, one of only seven institutions in the country selected for the first cohort.

NAAM is one of 15 museums across the country named a finalist for the National Medal for Museum Service Award given by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. This is the highest award bestowed upon a museum.

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, NAAM reopened its building operations for the first time in nearly three years. Activist and acclaimed actor Jesse Williams was the King Day keynote speaker. The MLK Organizing Coalition March landed the march at NAAM for the first time in history. NAAM’s programming wins 2023 Program of the Year by the Association of King County History Organizations for its immense impact.

Activism, Occupation, and the Fight for Recognition

In November 1985, a group of artists and activists broke into the shuttered Charles Colman School building and started an eight-year occupation of the space, demanding that it be turned into an African American heritage museum. The group of about 40 included Charles James, ’75, Omari Tahir-Garrett, Michael Greenwood and Earl Debnam. The four remained, lived in the space without heat or running water, and undertook what would be one of the longest acts of civil disobedience the country has seen.

The building had long been a landmark for the Black community, serving since the 1940s as the school for most of Seattle’s African American children as well as for many of Chinese, Japanese and Filipino ancestry. But the school was closed in 1985 because of the expansion of Interstate 90 nearby.

It wasn’t until 1993 under the leadership of Norman Rice, ’74, Seattle’s first African American mayor, that the city agreed to fund the museum, and the occupation came to an end. An advisory committee was formed, and Royer appointed UW alum Bob Flowers to head the museum board. From there, the story becomes complex with bureaucratic challenges and division among the early activists and Black civic leaders. But through it all, the dream of a museum survived.

NAAM Today: A Center for Learning, Healing, and Community

Today, an inviting 19,000-square-foot space dominates the ground floor of the vintage brick building. It holds galleries for art and history as well as an artist’s studio, offices, a gift shop and a children’s reading corner. At one end of the history area, a display highlights African Americans in Washington’s history.

The Northwest African American Museum first opened its doors in 1998, with the first director Carver Gayton, ’60, ’72, ’76. His tenure was followed in 2008 by artist Barbara Earl Thomas, ’73, ’77. The first exhibit featured the works of world-renowned and Seattle-based artists James W. Washington Jr. and UW Professor Emeritus Jacob Lawrence.

“When I arrived in 2017, the museum was moving into it’s 10-year anniversary looking for new energy, fresh programs and new approaches to community engagement,” says LaNesha DeBardelaben, president and CEO. DeBardelaben came to Seattle with a breadth of experience that included a leadership role at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit and a stint as president of the national Association of African American Museum’s board of directors. She is also pursuing a Ph.D.

From its founding, the museum’s story is interlaced with UW people and influence, she says. One of the musuem’s innovative projects featured a UW-developed program called Interrupting Privilege, which was led by Professor Ralina Joseph. It included UW students and was based out of the museum, where it would be more accessible to its community participants.

“We open up the museum space for empowering conversations regarding dismantling inequities, improving radical listening and tooling up ourselves for activism,” says DeBardelaben. “We are in the Pacific Northwest, where there are not many spaces that center and celebrate Black excellence and Black representation,” she says. “Though this museum is dedicated to telling Black stories, it is for everybody.

The museum’s offerings extend beyond the property. The Knowledge Is Power program sends 20,000 African American children’s books to children across the region. And to her knowledge, “we’re the first museum in the country to create their own African American museum choir,” she says. “We pop up in communities and sing.” The choir, known as the African American Cultural Ensemble, has brought joyful sounds to soccer games, graduations and community events across the state.

The museum shares the old school with the Urban League Village, an affordable housing project that offers 36 units.

Upcoming Events and Programs

Join us on November Freedom Day as we celebrate Benjamin Banneker’s Birthday Bash and honor the legacy of this self-taught mathematician, astronomer, and inventor.

This traveling sacred structure by designer Michael Bennett and Studio Kër reimagines sacred space as mobile, inclusive, and restorative. Centered on healing and connection, it invites all to gather, reflect, and belong.

Interactive Story Time Enjoy an interactive reading of “I Promise” by NBA superstar LeBron James, an inspiring picture book that reminds readers that tomorrow’s success begins with the commitments we make today. Share your story of the everyday heroes who inspire you - mentors, teachers, healers, and community builders.

Interactive story times, movie nights, book talks, lectures, and research and writing workshops are among the programming and events hosted by the Museum. NAAM also hosts virtual exhibits and events, including the Dr.

2023 exhibits include: "Colors of Life- African American Abstract Art and the Regathering of Community", which features the work of four Black Pacific Northwest artists: Showcasing abstract art featuring the works of Northwest artists: Vincent Keele, Shantell Jackson, Lo Mar Metoyer, and Yeggy Michael.