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Echoes of Exclusion and Resistance

Voices from the Hanford Region

Edited by Robert Bauman and Robert Franklin

$29.95

Mid-Columbia region history mirrors common American West multiracial narratives, but with important nuances. In the third Hanford Histories volume, four scholars draw from oral histories to focus on the experiences of non-white groups such as the Wanapum, Chinese immigrants, World War II Japanese incarcerees, and African American migrant workers from the South, whose lives were deeply impacted by the Hanford Site. Linked in ways they likely could not know, each group resisted the segregation and discrimination they encountered, and in the process, challenged the region’s dominant racial norms.

“The book as a whole presents a compelling mix of material on racial conflict and the perseverance needed to overcome it.”—Pacific Historical Review

Watch a virtual event by the Echoes of Exclusion authors.

Hanford Histories Volume 3

Illustrations / maps / notes / bibliography / index / 6″ x 9″ / 274 pages / 2020

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Description

Like the rest of the American West, the mid-Columbia region has always been diverse. Its history mirrors common multiracial narratives, but with important nuances. In the late 1880s, Chinese railroad workers were segregated to East Pasco, a practice that later extended to all non-whites and continued for decades. Kennewick residents became openly proud of their status as a “lily-white” town. In Echoes of Exclusion and Resistance, four scholars—Laura Arata, Robert Bauman, Robert Franklin, and Thomas E. Marceau—draw from Hanford History Project, Atomic Heritage Foundation, and Afro-American Community Cultural and Educational Society oral histories to focus on the experiences of non-white groups whose lives were deeply impacted by the Hanford Site. Linked in ways they likely could not know, each group resisted the segregation and discrimination they encountered, and in the process, challenged the region’s dominant racial norms.

The Wanapum, evicted by Hanford Nuclear Reservation construction, relate stories of their people, as well as their responses to dislocation and forced evacuation. Unable to interact with the ancient landscapes and utilize the natural resources of their traditional lands, they suffered painful, irretrievable losses. Early arrivals to the town of Pasco, the Yamauchi family built the American dream—including successful businesses and highly educated children—only to have their aspirations crushed by World War II Japanese-American internment. Thousands of African Americans migrated to the area for wartime jobs and discovered rampant segregation. Through negotiations, demonstrations, and protests, they fought the region’s ingrained racial disparity. During the early years of the Cold War, Black women, mostly from East Texas, also relocated to work at Hanford. They offer a unique perspective on employment, discrimination, family, and faith.

The Hanford History Series includes two additional volumes. The first, Nowhere to Remember, utilizes oral histories to describe the towns of Hanford, White Bluffs, and Richland before and after their mandatory 1943 evacuation. The second, Legacies of the Manhattan Project, combines conference essays and new research to provide a timely reevaluation of the Manhattan Project and its complex repercussions.

Watch a virtual event by the Echoes of Exclusion authors.

Hanford Histories Volume 3

Illustrations / maps / notes / bibliography / index / 6″ x 9″ / 274 pages / 2021

ISBN 978-0-87422-382-8 Paperback

Recognition

“The authors make great use of oral histories, and they deserve much credit for amplifying Native American, Japanese American, and African American voices…Each of these chapters has much to offer, especially for students of Washington state history. The book as a whole presents a compelling mix of material on racial conflict and the perseverance needed to overcome it…I eagerly await the fourth volume in the series.”—Pacific Historical Review

“An impressive compendium of meticulous scholarship, Echoes of Exclusion and Resistance: Voices from the Hanford Region is enhanced for academia with the inclusion of an Appendix (Oral History Interviews: Ellenor Moore / Wallace ‘Wally’ Webster); a complete listing of the contributors and their credentials, a nine page Bibliography, and a three page Index—making it especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, college, and university library Discrimination & Racism collections in general, and Cultural Anthropology / U.S. State & Local History supplemental curriculum studies lists in particular.”—Reviewer’s Bookwatch, April 2021

 

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eBook, Paperback