This is a story I’ve held onto for a while because I never knew what to do with it. Now I do.
When I started to research my picture book, A Ticket to the Pennant, I visited many local museums to get to know the feel of 1955 south Seattle. I went to the Wing Luke Museum, MOHAI, and the Northwest African American Museum to name a few. At NAAM I saw an excellent exhibit entitled Pitch Black, which showed the many black players and teams that played around Seattle, but never got many headlines and aren’t in many history books. One player I was drawn to was Powell Barnett. He was an eastern Washington coal miner’s son, and community leader, as well as a baseball player and youth coach. All the info I gathered was fascinating, and I did my best to present the various ethnicities and businesses to represent the neighborhood. Fast forward to post-publication.
I received a letter from Doug Barnett, Powell Barnett’s son. He asked why I had included who were obviously his parents when I represented them like “stick figures,” when they had actually done so much for their community. (He was right). He invited a conversation, so I called him and went to his apartment and we had a lovely talk about his upbringing, his dad, his neighborhood, and baseball. I learned a lot from his stories that day.
If you’re a white person looking to do something, seek out stories—stories different from your own experience. Once the pandemic restrictions soften, go visit or financially support an African American museum, browse the library, order books from your local indie bookstore about Black history. Better still, a Black-owned bookstore. For our northwest region visit historylink.org for articles on Black accomplishments (a reader suggested Black Past). Sculptors, athletes, community members who did and still do amazing work. Do the work to discover them. The stories are out there and always have been. Don’t be satisfied with a caricature of people of color. Give them the understanding their rich lives deserve. Then find ways to lift them up.
If I could do it again, I’d work harder to find Doug Barnett and his stories. It would have lent depth and nuance to his dad as a character on my fictional porch—a nod to the countless community councils on which Powell Barnett sat, or the Royal Colored Giants baseball team that he founded, or a hint that he made it a point to welcome Japanese American citizens back into the community after World War II.
You will make mistakes. That’s okay. I did and I will again. But own up to them. Talk about them. Ask questions. Most importantly, listen. Find the narratives you haven’t heard. There’s a rich history out there waiting for you. Seek them out. They deserve our attention.