Elizabeth Peratrovich
Dear Editor: Elizabeth Peratrovich’s legacy is marked each year in Sitka. Though small, compared to the 4th of July parade, or the Alaska Day parade, listening to the open mic session at Sitka’s ANB Founders Hall shows how much these people understand about fighting for basic freedoms.
President of ANB Camp 1, Peter Karras, started proceedings by reading out the text of the law that Elizabeth Peratrovich helped to put in place. It is sobering to listen to the long list of places that it ensured would actually be open to all people. “...public inns, restaurants, eating houses, hotels, soda fountains, soft drink parlors, taverns, roadhouses, barber shops, beauty parlors, bathrooms, resthouses [sic], theaters, skating rinks, cafes, ice cream parlors, transportation companies, and all other conveyances and amusements...” It seems like a weirdly specific list, and some of the places on it seem like peculiar things to fight for ... but it was these social gathering places that posted signs saying that Alaska Native people were not welcome.
The last part of this section shows us what was wrong with these signs and why the Alaska Equal Rights Act is worth celebrating with all the enthusiasm and public support that our other big parade days receive. It reminds us that everyone should be equal before the law, and entitled to equal enjoyment and advantages. The fact that we needed a law to ensure that is kind of sad. The fact that this part of the world was the first to start work on the unfinished project of a democratic society is something worth remembering and celebrating! Although the work continues, perhaps we should set ourselves a goal of making more of this very important day next year?
In the meantime, we have an opportunity to honor the very brave, very dedicated person who fiercely championed the rights and freedoms that we talk so much about. I encourage the Assembly to accept and honor the yellow cedar bench that has been crafted to commemorate her life and work as a seeker of social justice.
Thank you, Elizabeth Peratrovich, and to those who continue to remember her important contribution to human rights.
Leah Mason, Sitka
