Elizabeth Peratrovich

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Wilson and I'm Holly Frye.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Over the years, we have gotten some listener requests for
an episode on Elizabeth Paratrovitch, who's most well known for
her work to pass Alaska's Anti Discrimination Act of nineteen
forty five that was passed when Alaska was US territory.
So I've had her on my short list for an
episode for quite a while, and then this year, on
Elizabeth Paratrovitch Day, which is February sixteenth, I felt like

(00:41):
I saw a lot more people talking about her than
in previous years, including people who are not in Alaska,
and she's just she's sort of stayed on my mind
since then. That means that this episode is not timely
at all if you're thinking about it in terms of
Elizabeth Paratrovitch Day. But her story also has more to

(01:01):
it than the Alaska Anti Discrimination Act that she's most
associated with. That act had some similarities to the Civil
Rights Act of nineteen sixty four, which became law almost
twenty years later.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
So to start, we have to set the stage with
some Alaska history, specifically in connection to the rights of
Alaska Native peoples. In eighteen sixty seven, the United States
purchased Alaska from Russia for seven point two million dollars,
or about two cents per acre of land. Article three

(01:34):
of the purchase treaty read quote. The inhabitants of the
ceded territory, according to their choice, reserving their natural allegiance,
may return to Russia within three years. But if they
should prefer to remain in the ceded territory, they, with
the exception of uncivilized Native tribes, shall be admitted to

(01:54):
the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of
citizens of the United States, and shall be maintained and
protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion.
The uncivilized tribes will be subject to such laws and
regulations as the United States may, from time to time
adopt in regard to aboriginal tribes of that country.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
This had some similarities to other earlier treaties, such as
the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican American War.
Under that treaty, Mexico ceded a significant amount of territory
to the United States. The treaty gave Mexicans living in
that territory a year to decide whether to stay there
and become US citizens, or to move to territory that

(02:41):
was still part of Mexico and retain their Mexican citizenship.
Neither the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo nor the Alaska Purchase
Treaty included indigenous people. During these negotiations, neither of them
granted citizenship to indigenous people, although the Alaska Purchase Treaty
did leave some room for interpretation, considering that the United

(03:04):
States was also referring to the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek,
and Seminole nations as civilized.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
When the United States signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
in eighteen forty eight, it was defining its relationships to
indigenous nations by signing treaties with them. But in eighteen
seventy one, four years after the Alaska Purchase, Congress enacted
a law forbidding the United States from entering into new
treaties with indigenous nations. Consequently, no treaties were signed with

(03:36):
the Native peoples of Alaska, so we are not suggesting
that having a treaty meant a good relationship between indigenous
peoples and the United States. A lot of these treaties
followed warfare and other violence, so indigenous nations often signed
them under duress, like at best, their terms were generally

(03:57):
skewed in favor of the United States, and even then,
the US didn't necessarily enforce their provisions, like if non
indigenous people started settling on what was supposed to be
indigenous land, the federal government often did not do much
to stop it. The US government.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Also disregarded or outright broke treaties with indigenous peoples at
numerous points, but by signing a treaty, the United States
was recognizing an indigenous tribe or nation as a sovereign entity.
Having no treaty meant that, under the terms of the
Alaska Purchase, native communities were quote subject to such laws

(04:38):
and regulations as the United States may adopt in regard
to aboriginal tribes of that country, but without the treaty
framework that a lot of those laws rested on, and
without a recognition of Alaska Native peoples or villages as
sovereign nations. The impacts of this could really be a
whole podcast series, And of course, a lot of the

(05:01):
Native peoples of Alaska did not think that Alaska had
been Russia's to sell in the first place. But all
of this meant that Alaska Native communities were often viewed
and treated differently from indigenous peoples in the contiguous United States.
For example, the Indian Reorganization Act of nineteen thirty four,

(05:21):
which was also called the Indian New Deal, was an
effort to address some of the harms of earlier federal
Indian policy and to encourage autonomy and tribal sovereignty for
Native peoples. This act did not fully apply to Alaska
Native communities until Congress passed an additional law in nineteen

(05:42):
thirty six. The combination of the Alaska purchased treaty terms
and the lack of other treaty rights also led to
enormous issues with land rights and access to natural resources.
The US did not really start trying to resolve a
lot of these issues until the Alaska Native Claimed Settlement

(06:02):
Act of nineteen seventy one. In terms of voting rights
in the US, only citizens are allowed to vote in
federal elections, although non citizens can vote in other elections
in some places. After the US purchased Alaska, it was
essentially controlled by the military, so at first there were

(06:22):
no federal elections. The Organic Act of eighteen eighty four,
which established a basic civil government for the District of Alaska,
allowed only municipal elections and gave Alaska no representation in Congress.
At various points, people in Alaska arranged their own elections anyway,
choosing delegates to send to Washington, d c. So these

(06:46):
elections were not legally recognized, and the delegates who went
to Washington were also not recognized. Even though only US
citizens can vote in federal elections and Alaska Natives were
generally not being considered citizens, there were Alaska Natives who
voted in these elections. That language about so called uncivilized

(07:07):
tribes had led to questions about whether Native people who
assimilated with white society were citizens and had the right
to vote. A lot of communities in Alaska were also
predominantly or overwhelmingly Native, so anybody who was working the
election was probably Native and might allow other Native people
to vote. And in these earliest elections things were just

(07:30):
not necessarily being tightly regulated. I would say a lot
of things at this point were not being very tightly regulated.
In Alaska.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
A nineteen zero four lag gave all adult citizens in
Alaska the right to vote in school board elections, regardless
of gender. A second organic Act was passed in nineteen twelve,
which created a legislature for Alaska Territory with four districts
that each had two senators and four representatives. One of

(08:00):
this legislature's first actions was to give women in Alaska
the right to vote. As was the.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Case with a lot of other women's suffrage legislation in
the US, this generally applied to white women, not to
anybody else, but there were still Alaska Natives who voted,
and by this point there were also Alaska Natives who
were being recognized definitively as citizens of the United States.
In nineteen oh four, US District Court Judge James Wickersham

(08:28):
ruled the Allotment Act of eighteen eighty seven, also called
the Dawes Act, applied to Alaska Natives. Today, the Dawes
Act is more associated with breaking up reservation land, but
section six of the Act specified that an indigenous person
who lived apart from an indigenous tribe and quote adopted

(08:49):
the habits of civilized life was a US citizen, so
under Wickersham's ruling, this applied to Alaska Natives who assimilated
with white society. By nineteen fifteen, the Territorial government of
Alaska codified this idea into law. Any Indigenous person born
in Alaska was a US citizen if they quote severed

(09:11):
all tribal relationship and adopted the habits of a civilized life.
To claim citizenship, they had to apply pass an examination
be vouched for by five white citizens who had lived
in Alaska for at least a year and knew the
applicant and taken oath renouncing their tribal customs and relationships.

(09:33):
This was during the period in which federal Indian policy
was focused on allotment and assimilation, and this law is
obviously rooted in the idea that Indigenous people should assimilate
with white culture. This law passed with the support and
advocacy of an intertribal organization called the Alaska Native Brotherhood

(09:53):
or ANB, which had been established in nineteen twelve. From
today's perspective, it might it seemed surprising that a native
advocacy organization would have been supporting this law. Given its
focus on assimilation and all of those hurdles Highy just
read involving actually becoming a citizen, this has multiple layers

(10:14):
of context. This was the era of the federal boarding
school program that separated Indigenous children from their cultures and
families to force them to assimilate with white culture. This
was an act of cultural genocide on the part of
the federal government, and even schools that were not officially
connected to this program tended to have a similar focus

(10:37):
on assimilation and Christianization. The founders of the Alaska Native
Brotherhood had been educated in Presbyterian mission schools surrounded by
this focus on assimilation. Some Indigenous leaders and activists fought
back against this system from the beginning, but there were
also those who thought that assimilation was the best way forward,

(11:00):
or that it was something they just really had to
do in order to survive, that they had no choice
in the matter. In terms of the founders of the
A and B, they were also savvy, aware, and politically organized.
They recognized that under the US Constitution, some rights and
protections applied to all people, but others are recognized for

(11:21):
citizens only. The most straightforward way to attain all those
rights was through citizenship. The authors of this bill, and
at least some of its Native supporters, also thought that
all these requirements with getting citizenship under it would be
an incentive for people to improve themselves, whether or not

(11:41):
they actually became citizens. As an organization, the Alaska Native
Brotherhood was influenced by church societies. They were part of
almost every Presbyterian congregation in Alaska. It had a constitution
and by laws, and it ran its meetings using Roberts
Rules of orca or. Its original nineteen twelve constitution does

(12:03):
not seem to have survived, but its purpose, as stated
in its nineteen seventeen constitution, was quote to assist and
encourage the Native in his advancement from his native state
to his place among the cultivated races of the world.
To oppose, discourage, and overcome the narrow injustice of race prejudice,
And to aid in the development of the territory of

(12:26):
Alaska and in making it worthy of a place among
the states of North America. A women's auxiliary, the Alaska
Native Sisterhood, was established in the nineteen teens as well.
Branches or camps of these organizations were established in numerous
other communities across Alaska after the first ones were established

(12:47):
in Sitka. Elizabeth Paratrovitch was a leader in the Alaska
Native Sisterhood, which we'll get to in just a moment.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
The first we will have a quick sponsor break.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
In the nineteen twenties, the Alaska Native Brotherhood turned to
the courts in its efforts to combat race prejudice and racism.
This was in part due to the influence of William
Paul Senior, who was pling it. Paul attended Sheldon Jackson
Presbyterian Mission School in Sitka, followed by Carlisle Indian Industrial

(13:27):
School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Banks Business College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
and Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington. He earned a law
degree from LaSalle University in Pennsylvania and became Alaska's first
Native attorney.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Paul's legal work included the case of his mother, Tilley,
who was arrested after helping a relative to vote. Paul
argued that she and the man that she helped were
both citizens under the provisions of the Dawes Act, which
predated the nineteen fifteen Alaska Native Citizenship Law. Both of
them were acquitted. Paul also represented Irene Jones, who was

(14:06):
barred from attending public school in Ketchikan, Alaska, under a
nineteen oh five segregation law. He filed a discrimination lawsuit
and he won. He also encouraged Alaska Natives to vote
and helped Alaska Natives who were not literate cast their votes,
including by making sample ballots and cardboard cutouts to show

(14:27):
which spaces to mark. I will say that last part
was controversial. In nineteen twenty four, President Calvin Coolidge signed
the Indian Citizenship Act into law. Under this law, all
Indigenous people born in the territorial limits of the United
States were citizens. We've talked about this law on the

(14:48):
show before and some of the controversies around it, including
that some of the Indigenous people who were affected by
it didn't want US citizenship. They wanted the United States
to respect their their tribal citizenship and their tribal sovereignty
in Alaska territory. This law settled that whole question of

(15:08):
whether Alaska Native people were US citizens. That got rid
of all of the requirements to assimilate in order to
be considered citizens. If they were born in Alaska, they
were US citizens. There were non Indigenous people in Alaska,
who found this threatening. Huge numbers of people had moved
to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush, but Native people

(15:31):
still made up about forty percent of the territory's population.
In some communities, Alaska Natives were in the majority. As citizens,
they had the right to vote, which made them potentially
a major political power.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
So in nineteen twenty five, before most of those folks
got to register to vote and exercise and right to vote,
the Alaska Territorial Legislature passed a law requiring that people
had to be able to read and write in English
in order to vote. Debate around the law made it
very clear that its purpose was to try to keep
Alaska Native people from voting since a lot of them

(16:09):
didn't know how to read. This sounds a lot like
the literacy tests that were used to try to prevent
black people from voting after the passage of the Fifteenth
Amendment to the Constitution. Because it was this law remained
in place until the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five.
There were other similarities between discrimination and racism Alaska Natives

(16:31):
were facing and the Jim Crow segregation of other parts
of the United States, and that finally brings us to
Elizabeth Perretrovitch. She was born in Petersburg, Alaska, on July fourth,
nineteen eleven. Her birth parents were not married, and her
birth mother turned to the Salvation Army for help. They

(16:51):
arranged an adoption, and Elizabeth Jean was adopted by Andrew
and Jene Wannamaker. They lived in Sitka, not far away
from where Elizabeth was born. She didn't know she had
been adopted until she was an adult, and a minister
contacted her to let her know that her birth mother
had died. Andrew was a fisherman and a Presbyterian minister.

(17:12):
He's described as both a lay minister and as a missionary.
Jean was a basket weaver and was also part of
Andrew's religious work. They spoke both cling It and English,
and Elizabeth grew up speaking both languages and was raised
in a largely traditional cling It way of life. Elizabeth
also learned to speak and tell stories, both of which

(17:34):
are culturally very important to the ling It.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
When she was ten, the family moved to the town
of klook like Petersburg and Sitka. This is in southeastern Alaska,
south of Juno in the Archipelago, to the west of
British Columbia, Canada. As she got older, Elizabeth became increasingly
aware of the ways in which Alaska Natives faced discrimination
and racism, both through her own experiences and the examples

(18:01):
her parents set for her. Andrew Wannamaker was one of
the earliest members of the Alaska Native Brotherhood, and he
was named an honorary founder.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Elizabeth attended a boarding school for Native children, and eventually
the family moved to Ketchikan, where she attended Ketchikan High
School because it had been integrated through that earlier lawsuit.
That is where she met Roy Paratrovitch, whose mother was
Klinge and whose father was Yugoslavian.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
Elizabeth and Roy both wanted to become teachers, so after
they graduated from high school in nineteen thirty one, they
went to Bellingham Normal School in Washington, but they weren't
able to finish their teaching program because of money. This
was just a couple of years into the Great Depression.
They returned to Alaska and they got married on December fifteenth,

(18:49):
nineteen thirty one. They would go on to have three
children together, Roy Junior, Frank, and Loretta Marie, who was
known as Lori.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
After getting married, married, Elizabeth and Roy moved back to
Kluwok and Kluok coincidentally, maybe not really coincidentally, it became
national news in nineteen thirty two after a local election
in which six people who all had the last name Peratrovich,
were all elected to public office. One of those was Roy,
who was elected mayor and served for four terms. He

(19:22):
also became president of his local Alaska Native Brotherhood camp,
and Elizabeth was active in the Alaska Native Sisterhood For.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
About the next decade. Elizabeth and Roy raised their children
and worked to help their community. In addition to serving
as mayor, Roy was also a police officer, chief clerk,
and postmaster. He did some of these jobs simultaneously, which
is a lot, but Klok also had a population of
about four hundred people, so there were a lot of

(19:51):
people that were juggling multiple roles in a similar way.
Over the years, they both became leaders in the anb
and Ans. They did a variety of advocacy and community work,
including delivering food to needy families at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
By about nineteen forty, the Paratrovitches decided they could have
a bigger impact if they moved to Juneo, which had
a population of about six thousand people and was the
capital of Alaska Territory, but they had trouble finding a
place to live there. There were landlords who wouldn't rent
to anybody who wasn't white. Properties that were for sale

(20:30):
often had racially restrictive covenants that had the same effect.
This mostly applied to Alaska Natives, but there were also
black Alaskans and Filipinos who were facing similar circumstances, especially
in Alaska's larger cities and towns.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
They also had to fight to get their children enrolled
at a public school in Juneo. The details of this
are not clear, but according to family accounts, there was
a public school for white children only about a block
from the home that they finally found. The nearest school
for Native children was farther away, and Elizabeth thought they

(21:06):
would get a better education at the school that was
closer to their home. She convinced the superintendent to allow
her children to enroll, and the chair of the school
board resigned in protest. Roy Junior was the first Native
child to be enrolled in Juno's public schools. Japan bombed

(21:26):
the US naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December seventh,
nineteen forty one, leading the United States to become directly
involved in World War Two. At first, the US military
didn't pay a lot of increased attention to Alaska, but
a lot of Alaska Natives expressed interest in enlisting or
tried to enlist. This would eventually lead to the establishment

(21:50):
of the Alaska Territorial Guard in nineteen forty two, and
more than sixty three hundred Alaska Natives from one hundred
and seven different communitiesolunteered to serve. We aren't really getting
into World War two's impact on Alaska, including the forced
evacuation of Native people from the Aleutian Islands after a

(22:10):
Japanese attack and the horrifying conditions that they faced afterward,
but the willingness of Alaska Natives to serve in the
US military became part of Elizabeth and Roy Paratrovitch's equal
rights advocacy. On December thirtieth, nineteen forty one, Roy, who
was Grand President of the A and B, and Elizabeth,

(22:31):
who was Grand Vice President of the ANS, wrote a
letter to Alaska Territorial Governor Ernest Greening about the Douglas
Inn in Douglas, Alaska. The inn had a sign in
the window that read no Natives Aloud. The paratrovichs asked
Greening if he thought that was un American, especially considering

(22:52):
that Alaska Natives were paying school taxes for schools they
were often not allowed to attend, and that young Native
men were being called to serve their country just as
white men were doing. They compared the discrimination Native people
were facing in Alaska to what Jewish people were facing
in Germany. They asked the governor to use his influence
to eliminate this discrimination, not just in Juneo or in Douglas,

(23:17):
but in the whole territory. Let's focus on ending discrimination
would be a big part of Elizabeth Piatrovitch's advocacy over
the next few years, which we'll talk about after a
sponsor break. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had appointed Ernest Greening

(23:41):
as Territorial Governor of Alaska in nineteen thirty nine. Before that,
he had served as Director of the Division of Territories
and Island Possessions in the Department of the Interior, where
he had tried to advocate for equal rights for Native
peoples in US territories, among other things. Nineteen forty he
was advocating for the passage of an anti discrimination bill

(24:04):
in Alaska. Some of the descriptions of Greening in the
context of this law sound almost glowing, depicting him as
a staunch defender of equal rights and a fighter for
the best interests of Alaska Native people. But as always,
there is a lot more nuance there. For example, earlier
we mentioned the Indian Reorganization Act of nineteen thirty four,

(24:27):
which didn't fully apply to Alaska Natives when it was
first passed. It was supposed to, but there were gaps.
Closing Those gaps involved the passage of the Alaska Reorganization
Act in nineteen thirty six, as well as redesignating land
the Alaska Native communities were occupying as reservations. The passage

(24:49):
of the Alaska Reorganization Act had followed activism by Alaska
Natives who saw land sovereignty as central to both their
autonomy and their citizenship that included William Paul. This did
not obviously have unanimous support among Alaska Natives by any means.
There are at least eleven distinct cultures among Alaska's Indigenous peoples.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
None of those cultures is a monolith. Some of them
have very big differences in terms of way of life
and traditions. The establishment of reservations, for example, was really controversial.
Some Native activists were concerned that reservations would undermine their
work for equal rights or thought that there was some

(25:35):
other approach that should be followed regarding a native land autonomy.
But Greening, who was working for the Department of the
Interior at the time, disagreed with this on the grounds
that it would quote accentuate race prejudice and cleavage, and
he framed it as reverse discrimination against white people. He

(25:57):
was also very focused on the idea of so called
equality for Alaska Natives as ultimately leading to their having
full employment as wage laborers.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
To return to the Non Discrimination Bill, Greening submitted a
draft to the Alaska Territorial legislature in nineteen forty three,
and the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood started
organizing support for it. This included Elizabeth Piatrovitch, who was
unanimously elected Grand President of the ANS that same year.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
That summer, she started traveling around Alaska, including by vote
and by plane, to talk to people about the bill
and to encourage Alaska Natives to vote. At this point,
her sons, Roy Junior and Frank were nine and six.
Her daughter Laurie was four and small enough to ride
on Elizabeth's lap while she traveled, but Baratrovitch had to

(26:54):
find somebody else to look after Roy Junior and Frank.
She knew a woman named Minny Field who ran a
small orphanage in Juno, and the boys stayed there for
the summer.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
Paratrovitch said she knew Field as a kind woman, and
in his adult life. Roy Junior said that at first
he and his brother missed their family, but they knew
their parents were working on something important, and that summer
turned out to be something that he remembered fondly. After
Elizabeth returned from her summer of advocacy and outreach work,

(27:26):
the family reunited and moved in with her father, Andrew Wannamaker.
Her mother, Jean, had died in nineteen forty one.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
In nineteen forty three, the equal rights bill was defeated
in the Alaska House with a vote of eight to eight,
and its supporters vowed to try again. The following year,
Congress authorized a reapportionment of Alaska Territories Legislature, and as
a result of that, the size of both houses of

(27:54):
the legislature doubled. Greening sent a letter to the Alaska
Native Brotherhood in encouraging Alaska Natives to run for these
newly expanded seats, and two tlangettmen were elected, Andrew Hope
of Sitka and Frank Peratrovit. She was Roy's brother.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
As all of this was happening, sixteen year old Alberta
Shank started publicly pushing back against segregation in Nome, almost
on the other side of Alaska from Juno. Alberta's father
was white and her mother was Native. She worked at
Nome's Dream Theater, where part of her job was enforcing
its segregated seating. She was fired after complaining to her

(28:36):
boss about this discrimination. She wrote an essay about it,
which she sent to the editor of the Nome Nugget,
where it was published on March fourth, nineteen forty four.
Alberta noted how many Native people were serving in the
war and donating to the Red Cross. Her father was
a veteran and she had two brothers who were in
active service. She also pointed out that the theater was

(29:00):
willing to take customers' money while treating them differently based
on whether they were white. A couple of days after
this letter was published, she went to the theater with
a white date who was a sergeant in the army.
They sat in the white section, and Alberta was arrested
and spent a night in jail. The Paratrovitch has heard
about this, and it became part of their advocacy for

(29:21):
the Equal Rights Bill, which was reintroduced in the Alaska
legislature in nineteen forty five. Elizabeth and Roy also advocated
for both major political parties in Alaska to include non
discrimination in their party platforms. They formed alliances with labor unions,
supporting the union's efforts if the union supported equal rights.

(29:44):
Elizabeth also developed a strategy for her conversations with legislators.
She'd make an appointment to speak with one of them,
and then show up with at least three other women
who would all make their case together and back each
other up.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
The Non Discriminate Nation Bill easily passed the Alaska House
in early nineteen forty five, but there was resistance in
the Senate, where it was debated. On February fifth, Senator
Frank Whaley called it quote a lawyer's dream and a
natural in creating hard feelings between whites and natives. Senator

(30:19):
Alan Shattuck said, quote, the races should be kept farther apart.
Who are these people barely out of savagery, who want
to associate with us whites with five thousand years of
recorded civilization behind us.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
Roy Peratrovitch was called to speak. He pointed out that
the governor had recognized the existence of discrimination in Alaska,
and that the Alaska Democratic Party had included anti discrimination
as a platform plank at its convention in Fairbanks. He
concluded by saying, quote, only an Indian can know how
it feels to be discriminated against. Either you are for

(30:57):
discrimination or you are against it. Accordingly as you vote
on this bill.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
Elizabeth Paratrovitch, who was thirty four at the time, was
in the gallery with Lorie Knitting, and she was the
last speaker of the day. Her exact words aren't actually
recorded anywhere. Shouldn't leave a copy of her speech, and
newspapers of the day had some quotes from it, But
most of the quotations that you see today are from

(31:24):
a memoir that Governor Greening wrote that was written decades later,
and he said that he wrote her speech in that
memoir from his memory. According to Greening's account, when she
addressed the Assembly, Paratrovitch referred to what Senator Shattuck had said,
saying quote, I would not have expected that I, who
have barely out of savagery, would have to remind the

(31:46):
gentleman with five thousand years of recorded civilization behind them,
of our bill of rights. When Shaddock asked her if
she thought this bill would stop discrimination, she answered, quote,
do your laws against larsony and even murder prevent those crimes?
No law will eliminate crimes, but at least you, as

(32:07):
legislators can assert to the world that you recognize the
evil of the present situation and speak to your intent
to help us overcome discrimination. Multiple newspapers reported that the
end of Paratrovich's speech was met with great applause in
the chamber. The anti discrimination bill passed the Alaska Senate

(32:28):
with a vote of eleven to five, and the governor
signed it into law on February sixteenth, nineteen forty five.
Elizabeth and Roy Poratrovich were both there, and Greening gave
Elizabeth the pen that he signed it with, saying it
never would have passed without her. Section one of this
bill read quote, All citizens shall be entitled to the

(32:50):
full and equal enjoyment of accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges
of public inns, restaurants, eating houses, hotels, to fountains, soft
drink parlors, taverns, roadhouses, barber shops, beauty parlors, bathroom rest houses, theaters,
skating rinks, cafes, ice cream parlors, transportation companies, and all

(33:14):
other conveyances and amusements, subject only to the conditions and
limitations established by law and applicable alike to all citizens.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
And Section two reads quote. Any person who shall violate,
or aid or incite a violation of said full and
equal enjoyment, or any person who shall display any printed
or written sign indicating a discrimination on racial grounds of
said full and equal enjoyment, for each day for which

(33:44):
said sign is displayed, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor,
and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in
jail for not more than thirty days, or fined not
more than two hundred and fifty dollars, or boats.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
After the bill was signed into law, Elizabeth and Roy
went to the Baranoff Hotel to celebrate. According to Roy
Junior's account, this was a hotel they had previously been
barred from because they were Native.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
In nineteen forty six, Roy went to work for the
Alaska Native Service in Juneo, which was part of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs. Elizabeth continued her advocacy for Alaska
Natives and became a field reporter for the National Congress
of American Indians. She served as a representative to the
Congress and a member of its executive committee.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
By nineteen forty eight, the Alaska Native Brotherhood's Constitution reflected
an updated purpose, adding quote to commemorate the fine qualities
of the Native races of North America, to preserve their history, law, art,
and virtues, to cultivate the morality, education, commerce, and civil
government of Alaska. To improve individual and municipal health and

(34:58):
laboring conditions. And to create a true respect in Natives
and in other persons with whom they deal for the
letter and spirit of the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution and Laws of the United States. In nineteen fifty four,
Roy accepted a Bureau of Indian Affairs position in Oklahoma,

(35:18):
and the family moved there, but not long after, Elizabeth
learned that she had breast cancer and they returned to Juneo.
She did not stop her work, though, she attended the
Race Relations Institute at Fisk University in nineteen fifty six,
where she was part of a panel in which she
talked about all the organizational strategies that the anb and

(35:40):
Ans had used while fighting for the anti discrimination bill.
In the spring of nineteen fifty eight, Elizabeth and Roy
went to Washington, d c. To talk to officials about
adult education and rural resource development projects in Alaska. They
also worked with Bureau of Indian Affairs officials on ways
to help Alaska Native people who were struggling in the

(36:02):
wake of a decline in Alaska's fishing industry, and on
issues of land ownership and mineral rights. Eventually, Elizabeth was
admitted to a hospital in Seattle, Washington for cancer treatment.
Roy Junior was living there, so she had family nearby,
but Roy Senior stayed in Juno so that Lori could
finish high school. Elizabeth Paratrovitch died on December one, nineteen

(36:26):
fifty eight, at the age of forty seven. She was
buried in Juno's Evergreen Cemetery. Roy Senior was buried there
with her after his death in nineteen eighty nine at
the age of seventy nine. Although Elizabeth has become well
known for her speech in favor of the Anti Discrimination Bill,
she and Roy Senior were both activists for equal rights

(36:48):
for Alaska Native people, more broadly, for their whole lives. Really,
any news coverage about anything either of them did reference
their outstanding leadership in the Alaska Native Bulk Brotherhood an
Alaska Native sisterhood as adults. Their children also talked about
how the two of them were always a teen. Elizabeth

(37:08):
Paratrovich's story was rediscovered in the nineteen seventies, in part
because of Greening's writing. In nineteen eighty eight, February sixteenth,
the anniversary of the Anti Discrimination Bill being signed into law,
became the Alaska state holiday of Elizabeth Paratrovitch Day. This
was partially a response to the establishment of Martin Luther

(37:29):
King Junior Day as a federal holiday in nineteen eighty three.
There was a backlash against this holiday in Alaska. Some
of that backlash was straightforwardly racist, but some of it
was more related to a perception that King's work wasn't
really as relevant in Alaska, both because the black population

(37:49):
of Alaska was extremely small and because Alaska already had
an anti discrimination law before the civil rights movement. This
discussion became more intense after a proposal to rename an
arts center in Anchorage after him. There is plenty to
discuss around these ideas, including that King also worked for

(38:11):
the rights of working people and poor people.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
But there's also just the fact that people wanted to
recognize a civil rights leader who was from Alaska. Dorothy
McKinley of the Alaska Native Sisterhood was a big part
of getting this recognition for Elizabeth Paratrovitch. Today, Elizabeth Paratrovitch
Day is not just about her, It is also a
call to action to continue fighting injustice.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
In nineteen ninety two, Gallery B of the Alaska House
of Representatives Chamber was named for Elizabeth Paratrovitch. In two
thousand and eight, a bronze sculpture was unveiled in Paratrovitch
Park an Anchorage, called Flight of the Raven. This was
sculpted by Roy Paratrovitch Junior in honor of his parents,
and it referenced his mother as being part of the

(38:58):
Raven clan. In two thousand and nine, the story of
Alaska's anti discrimination bill was covered in the documentary for
the Rights of All Ending Jim Crow in Alaska. The
book Fighter in Velvet Gloves, which was written for teen readers,
was published in twenty nineteen. It was written by Annie
Boucheever with Roy Peratrovitch Junior. In twenty twenty, Elizabeth Piratrovitch

(39:24):
was featured on the Native American dollar coin and featured
in a Google doodle and a mural on the courthouse
in Petersburg, Alaska. Amural in juno of her was unveiled
in twenty twenty one. The Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska
Native Sisterhood still exist today. They are two of the
most long standing intertribal organizations in the United States. Of course,

(39:47):
they are very different in their focus from when they
were first established in the nineteen teens. In more recent years,
their mission, per their constitution is quote to better the
lives of Native people and their families. To fight for
civil rights and land rights for all Native people. To
share the cultural knowledge, wisdom, and artistic beauty of native

(40:09):
tribal societies and to strive for a spirit of brotherhood
and sisterhood among all people. And that's Elizabeth Parratrovitch. Do
you also have listener mail to wrap us up with?
I do. It's from Isabelle, and isabel wrote about something
that I meant to include in the Lisbon earthquake episode

(40:29):
and forgot, so Isabelle wrote, Hello, Holly and Tracy. I'd
like to thank you for your thoughtful approach to the
topics you take on, especially from the point of view
that understands ableism is a thing and is pervasive. It's
great to listen to a podcast where I don't have
to gird my loins for the inevitable ableism that many
don't address. That being said, it's not sence what inspired

(40:51):
me to write. I just finished listening to today's episode
on the Lisbon earthquake. As a Canadian who was born
in Portugal but immigrated as a young child, I don't
know a lot of Portuguese history, but this is one
event I'm quite familiar with, especially because my daughter did
a presentation about it in a first year university Portuguese
language class. One thing she learned was that the distinctive

(41:14):
blue and white tiles that cover buildings in Lisbon were
a Pumball initiative for fire proofing or at least fire
limiting in the rebuilding of Lisbon. Science and art combined
my happy place. On a personal note, at the rif
old age of fifty five, I started doing pottery last
year and it has become my hyper focus. Over the

(41:35):
last nine months, I've started decorating my pots with designs
that nod to those very traditional Portuguese tiles. It feels
like a bit of a homecoming for pet Tax. I've
attached a couple of photos of our current standard poodle,
our third cricket. What a great name. He is made
of joy and love, everything our family needs in this moment.

(41:56):
I've also attached a photo of one of my first
Portuguese inspired can dishes. Wishing you both all the best
as well as most moments of joy. Isabel. Thank you
Isabel for writing about those tiles. I did mean to
talk about the tile work that is part of the
rebuilding of Lisbon and is on so many of the
buildings there, and I just I just forgot to put

(42:18):
it in the line. We have a very cute, very
cute standard poodle in one of in one of in
one of these peak pictures, wearing both a harness and
a neckerchief. Incredibly cute. And this little piece of pottery
it's around it has the blue a blue flower floral design,

(42:40):
kind of a little stylized, a little flirty around it.
It looks like very pretty. Thank you so much Isabelle
for sending this and for sending the pictures. I would
give this dog, who's a very happy looking black standard poodle,
some head.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
Scratches two hundred hisses.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
So yes, thank you again for this email. If you
would like to write to us, we're at History Podcasts
at iHeartRadio dot com. If you would like to see
the show notes for the episodes, you can see our
website Missed Inhistory dot com and you can subscribe to
our show on the iHeartRadio app and anywhere else you'd
like to get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History

(43:29):
Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.

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