Seattle: 1900-1920 -From Boomtown, Through Urban Turbulence ...

44 Part Onenewspaper in the state. His spouse and associate was Susie Revels, the daughter of HiramRevels, the first African American U.S. senator and later the president of Alcorn Collegein Mississippi. Cayton was active in the Republican Party: he served as secretary of theKing County Republican Club and, as a delegate to state nominating conventions, on theState Central Committee as well. Besides printing biographical sketches of party leaders,Cayton proudly published accounts of the region’s black pioneers and stories about thecareers of successful contemporaries to provide black role models for the young. Whenhe began publishing news of rampant lynching in the South, his circulation declined andhe lost patronage. After ceasing publication in 1913 and selling his beautiful home nearVolunteer Park, he purchased an apartment house at Twenty-second Avenue and JacksonStreet, calling it Caytonian Court and renting out “2 and 3 room apartments at $10 and$15 a month.” In 1917 Cayton was refused service in a restaurant that he had regularlypatronized. His legal suit was promptly dismissed. Such discrimination against AfricanAmericans became more common during the war years.Italian immigrants usually came from rural regions and were mostly poor anduneducated. Most had worked as common laborers in their homeland, often in Italy’s mines.Those who could not find mining work settled in semirural enclaves of Seattle, wherethey and their families could grow crops for the household. Some found Rainier Valleycongenial; others preferred Georgetown, South Park, and Youngstown, where employmentwas more readily available. Ellen Roe, a graduate student in sociology at the University ofWashington, estimated that in 1915 about eighty-five percent of the men worked as commonlaborers in unsteady employment. Between 200 and 300 men leased farmland, and of thosemen, about eighty sold produce at thePike Place Public Market, competing withJapanese farmers and the commissionproduce merchants. They also peddledtheir produce in the neighborhoods, goinghouse to house. In addition to commonlaborers and farmers, Roe found onelawyer, two medical doctors, and a fewwholesalers and importers among theItalian immigrant males.It is six blocks north on Western Avenue fromthe old Commission District, shown on the left,to the Pike Place Public Market. In 1907, the yearthat the public market was founded, the grocerybrokers down near the docks and along Marion(here) and Madison streets regularly chargedretail grocers in the afternoon twice the amountthey paid farmers for their produce in the morning.The Public Market was a progressive venture tocreate a friendly place where families and farmerscould buy and sell freely, reasonably, and directlywithout the commissioner’s mark up. Many ofthe farmers benefited by this successful venturewere from the Japanese and Italian Americancommunities. This is perhaps the earliest view ofthe market—from its first year.