KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Territorial Gov. Ernest Gruening signed the Anti-Discrimination Act on Feb. 16, 1945. The bill had been championed by Elizabeth Peratrovich (left) whose eloquent speech on the floor of the legislature had moved many lawmakers to support it. Amy Lou Blood/Alaska State Library courtesy photo
It was 66 years today that Juneau passed the Anti-Discrimination Act ending Jim Crow in Alaska. This piece of civil rights legislation predated the federal Civil Rights Act by 19 years.Twenty one years ago the state proclaimed February 16th as Elizabeth Peratrovich Day, named in honor of the Native woman who championed its passage.
At yesterday’s Rotary Club meeting, financial planner Craig Johnson gave a speech at the service club’s luncheon where he said he’d been ignorant of the story until taking an Alaska history class at Kodiak College.
— peratrovich 1 :17 "How could I … missed it as well."
Peratrovich was one of many activists who resisted discrimination laws. In Nome, a 16-year-old Native girl named Alberta Schenck became a cause célèbre in 1944 after refusing to vacate her seat in the "white’s only" section of a movie theater. Schenck had been sitting with her date, a U.S. Army sergeant who was white. Her defiance led to her being dragged from the theater by police.
— peratrovich 2 :23 "After Alberta was … in a sense at that time."
Kodiak College history professor Mark Shreiter said in an interview that institutional racism was commonplace throughout Alaska.
— peratrovich 3 :15 "It wasn’t uncommon … Elizabeth Peratrovich."
— peratrovich 4 :14 "Elizabeth Peratrovich … particularly vicious way."
In 1941 Peratrovich began lobbying against the "No Natives Allowed" signs. Earlier efforts by Peratrovich had failed in the legislature but Johnson notes the buzz created by the Nome theater incident helped galvanize the cause.
— peratrovich 5 :17 "She had testified … territorial senate."
Following vigorous debate that exposed many lawmakers’ racism, the law was passed and signed in 1945 by Territorial Governor Ernest Gruening, a New Deal Democrat.
Schreiter says while the law didn’t end discrimination overnight, it was a major turning point in Alaska’s history.
— peratrovich 6 :35 "Of course it would be naïve … to thank for that."
Elizabeth Peratrovich later lived in Nova Scotia, Colorado and Oklahoma before returning to Alaska. She died of cancer in 1958 at the age of 47.
February 16th was officially named Elizabeth Peratrovich Day by the Alaska Legislature in 1988.
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