Editorial, by Marianne (Scott) Lincoln

In August 1963, I was only 6 years old and about to enter first grade at Central Avenue Elementary. I do not remember Dr. King giving his famous I Have a Dream speech, but I do remember a conversation my mother had at Mrs. Brown’s house next door. That conversation was likely inspired by events taking place that year.

Pearl Brown was 93 years old. She was born in 1870 in the south, but only lived there until she was 10. She ended up in Tacoma around 1910 and she ran a boarding house that catered to the Pullman Porters from the Northern Pacific Railroad. She was a woman of African-American descent with her own business. She retired in the 1940’s and bought her house in Summit on Canyon Road. She lived to be 101.

Mrs. Brown was in the hospitality business and well-trained to…