Lillian Walker: Washington State Civil Rights Pioneer

by John C. Hughes

When Lillian Walker arrived in Bremerton Washington in 1941 from Illinois she never expected to encounter racism in the Northwest. A charter member of the Bremerton branch of the NAACP, she has been fighting prejudice ever since and winning. She continues her work at age 97. Her devotion has inspired generations and helped change the face of her old shipyard town.

198 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2010

About the author

A lifelong resident of Grays Harbor on Washington State's Pacific coast, John C. Hughes has written widely about Northwest history. While attending the University of Puget Sound in the 1960's he found a mentor and friend in Northwest historian Murray Morgan. An Air Force veteran, Hughes also attended the University of Maryland, with a major in English Literature. He joined The Daily World in Aberdeen as a reporter and photographer in 1966 and moved through the chairs to managing editor 10 years later. Hughes became the newspaper's editor and publisher in 2003. He received the "Distinguished Service to Journalism" award of the Western Washington Chapter of the Society of Professional Jouranlists in 2004. He also received a C.B. Blethen Memorial Award for distinguished investigative reporting. Hughes is a trustee of the Washington State Historical Society and former president of Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington.

Reviews

[Kally · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe the issue was that I listened to this as an audiobook and it was presented as one thing. Hearing her story was quite interesting. However, the redundancy of hearing the interviews with her as well as the biography put together from those interviews was rough. It could be educational for someone who would like to do something similar, but for me it was boring. I should have just listened to one or the other.

[A. Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, but couldn't get into it enough to finish.