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Nettie J. Asberry of the Washington State Federation of Colored Women's Organizations letter to Harry Ault, January 23, 1928
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| Title | Nettie J. Asberry of the Washington State Federation of Colored Women's Organizations letter to Harry Ault, January 23, 1928 |
| Author | Asberry, Nettie J. |
| Date of Publication | 1928 |
| Notes | This letter was sent on January 23, 1928 from Nettie J. Asberry, President of the State Federation of Colored Women's Organizations, Washington and Jurisdiction, to Harry Ault, editor of the Seattle Union Record. Asberry asks Ault if he will write an editorial on "Negro History in observation of Negro History Week February, 5-12". She references a letter from Josephine Corliss Preston, the state superintendent of public instruction, which gives Preston's support to the observance of Negro History Week in conjunction with Abraham Lincoln's birthday, and includes a brief appeal to the importance of promoting "a greater growth of morale of Negro youth". The letter is written on the organization's letterhead, which lists the names and addresses of 21 additional officers in the federation. |
| Contextual Notes | E. B. "Harry" Ault (1883-1961) was a journalist and a prominent member of the socialist and labor movements in Washington state. In 1898, when Ault was in his teens, his family relocated from Kentucky to Washington state, where they joined the Equality Colony, a socialist commune located near Edison in Skagit County. Ault became editor of the colony's newspaper, "Industrial Freedom", later that year. Ault lived at Equality Colony for two years, after which he left for Seattle in 1900 to found a newspaper called "The Young Socialist". Ault had become involved in Eugene Debs' Social Democratic Party, and would join the new Socialist Party in 1901.
After a decade of prominent involvement in the Socialist Party, particularly working for the newspaper "The Socialist" and its publisher, Hermon Titus, Ault left the socialists for the more "mainstream" labor movement, working as the secretary of the Central Labor Council of Seattle from 1909 to 1913. In 1912, he took over the editorship of the council's newspaper, the Seattle Union Record, which he edited until the paper's termination in 1928. In connection with his work as editor, he collected and saved many documents relating to the growth and activism of the labor movement in the Pacific Northwest. He then worked as a commercial printer, until re-entering active involvement in politics in 1936, when he ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Congress from the 1st Congressional District -- a race he lost to Warren G. Magnuson. Ault was appointed a deputy U.S. Marshal for Tacoma, Washington in 1938, a position he held until his retirement 15 years later. |
| Subjects (LCSH) | Asberry, Nettie J., 1865-1968--Correspondence; Ault, Harry E. B. (Harry Erwin Bratton), 1883-1961--Correspondence; Colored Women's Association of Washington and Jurisdiction; Black History Week--Washington (State)--Tacoma; African Americans--History |
| Geographic Coverage | United States--Washington (State)--Tacoma |
| Digital ID Number | PNW00931 |
| Ordering Information | To order a reproduction or inquire about permissions contact: photos@u.washington.edu. |
| Digital Collection | Pacific Northwest Historical Documents
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| Repository | University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division. |
| Repository Collection | Harry E. B. Ault papers, Accession No. 0213-001, Box 3/63 |
| Object Type | Letter (correspondence)
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| Physical Description | 2 leaves; 28 x 21.5 cm. |
| Digital Reproduction Information | Scanned from original text or image at 150 dpi saved in TIFF format, resized and enhanced using Adobe Photoshop, and imported as JPEG2000 using Contentdm software's JPEG2000 Extension. 2011. |
| Restrictions | For information on permissions for use and reproductions please visit UW Libraries Special Collections Reproduction & Use page: http://content.lib.washington.edu/sc-use.html |
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