By Sentinel Staff
After Gov. Ernest Gruening signed Alaska’s Anti-Discrimation Act on Feb. 16, 1945, civil rights advocate Elizabeth Peratrovich and her husband Roy celebrated that night by dancing at the Baranof Hotel.
Before that day, and before that law was passed, Native people were not allowed in the hotel or many other establishments around the state.
The law gave all citizens full and equal enjoyment of all public places including hotels, restaurants, shops, services, movie theaters and transportation services. Those found guilty of posting signs to restrict people on racial grounds were to be punished by “imprisonment in jail for not more than 30 days or fined no more than $250, or both.”
Elizabeth Wanamaker Peratrovich
To mark the passage of that anti-discrimination bill – two decades ahead of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – Sitka will celebrate Elizabeth Peratrovich Day, Saturday, Feb. 16.
Lineup for the parade will be at 11 a.m. at Crescent Harbor, and the parade starts at 11:30 a.m. It will end at the ANB Founders Hall, where there will be entertainment and food.
Those wishing to walk in the parade or take part in activities at the hall should contact Rachel at 747-7382 or Josephine at 738-0712. All are welcome to participate or attend, organizers said.
Other events will be a free screening of the documentary “For the Rights of All: Ending Jim Crow in Alaska,” 6 p.m. tonight at Sitka Public Library. Popcorn will be served. The Alaska Native Brotherhood Camp 1 and the library are hosting the event. For more information call the library at 747-4025.
At 10 a.m. Saturday, Sheldon Jackson Museum will host a youth event. Children of all ages can look at images, including prints of paintings and photographs of Elizabeth Peratrovich and make their own Elizabeth Peratrovich portraits using colored pencils and crayons. Handouts will be available with information about the civil rights leader. The free event will be in the lobby area of the museum. To register a child, call 747-8981.
The first Elizabeth Peratrovich Day was proclaimed by Gov. Steve Cooper in 1988. He set April 21, 1988, as a day to recognize the contributions that Peratrovich made toward winning civil rights for Alaska Native people. Since then, the date was moved to Feb. 16, the date in 1945 when the Anti-Discrimination Act was signed.
The 1988 proclamation states that “Elizabeth Peratrovich worked tirelessly to overcome the prejudice and discrimination toward Alaska Natives. Her work and testimony were instrumental in the passage of the anti-discrimination law.”
A booklet titled “A Recollection of Civil Rights Leader Elizabeth Peratrovich, 1911-1958” provides information about her life, and the fight for the passage of the civil rights law. The booklet was produced by the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska and the state Employment and Training Division in 1991.
Born on July 4, 1911, in Petersburg, Elizabeth Jean Wanamaker was adopted by Presbyterian Church missionaries Andrew and Mary Wanamaker and lived in several Southeast communities. She graduated from Ketchikan High School and attended Sheldon Jackson Junior College in Sitka before heading to Bellingham to earn teaching credentials at Western College of Education.
On Dec. 15, 1931, she married Roy Peratrovich of Klawock. After college, the pair returned to Klawock. After they had three children, Frank, Loretta and Roy Jr., they moved to Juneau in 1941 to take advantage of the opportunities provided by a larger town. But they also experienced racism in the capital city.
“The Peratroviches found a home in a nice neighborhood where they could envision their children playing and establishing lasting childhood friendships,” relates “A Recollection.” “But when the owners realized they were Indian the lease agreement was not let. As for school, that was another disappointment. To say they were hardly encouraged to feel comfortable was putting it nicely, according to Roy Jr.”
A milestone was reached when the Peratroviches testified before the Alaska Senate in February 1945, in support of an anti-discrimination bill that had been passed by the House but was meeting strong resistance in the Senate. By then Elizabeth was ANS Grand President and Roy was ANB Grand President – both of them installed in Sitka in 1940 – and both were recognized as leaders in the civil rights movement.
“Recollection” gives an account:
Some senators argued against the bill.
Sen. Allen Shattuck said: “Who are these people barely out of savagery who want to associate with us whites with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind us?”
Others said the measure was “a lawyer’s dream” and “would create hard feeling between whites and Natives.”
“Mixed breeds are the source of trouble,” said Sen. Tolber Scott.
Elizabeth Peratrovich addressed the packed legislative chamber:
“I would not have expected,” she said “that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentlemen with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind them of our Bill of Rights.”
In her speech, she cited some of the many instances of discrimination she and her friends had experienced.
Asked by one senator if she thought the proposed bill would eliminate discrimination, she asked, “Do your laws against larceny and even murder prevent those crimes? No law will eliminate crimes but at least you as legislators can assert to the world that you recognize the evil of the present situation and speak your intent to help us overcome discrimination.”
When she finished, applause broke out in the gallery and on the Senate floor and the bill passed 11-5 on Feb. 8, 1945.
The Daily Alaska Empire wrote “It was the neatest performance of any witness yet to appear before this session and there were a few red senatorial ears as she regally left the chambers.”
Gov. Ernest Gruening, who had also pushed anti-discrimination efforts, said, “Had it not been for that beautiful Tlingit woman, Elizabeth Peratrovich, being on hand every day in the hallways it (the anti-discrimination bill) would have never passed.” Gruening signed the bill on Feb. 16, 1945.
Elizabeth Peratrovich continued to promote equal rights until her death from cancer on Dec. 1, 1958, at the age of 47. She is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Juneau.
