Holly Fry (2:55)

Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio foreign.

Tracy V. Wilson (3:05)

Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

Holly Fry (3:09)

And I'm Holly Fry.

Tracy V. Wilson (3:11)

Over the years, we have gotten some listener requests for an episode on Elizabeth Paratrovich, who's most well known for her work to pass Alaska's Anti Discrimination act of 1945 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 Paratrovich day, which is February 16th, I felt like I saw a lot more people talking about her than in previous years, including people who are not in Alaska. And she's just sort of. 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 Paratrovich Day. But her story also has more to it than the Alaska Anti Discrimination act that she's most associated with. That act had some similarities to the Civil Rights act of 1964, which became law almost 20 years later.

Holly Fry (4:07)

So to start, we have to set the stage with some Alaska history, specifically in connection to the rights of Alaska native peoples. In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, or about 2 cents per acre of land. Article 3 of the purchase Treaty read, 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 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.

Tracy V. Wilson (5:12)

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 U.S. citizens or to move to territory that 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 States was also referring to the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole nations as civilized.

Holly Fry (6:06)

When the United States signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, it was defining its relationships to Indigenous nations by signing treaties with them. But in 1871, 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 the Native peoples of Alaska.

Tracy V. Wilson (6:33)

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 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 also disregarded or outright broke treaties with Indigenous peoples at numerous points.

Holly Fry (7:15)

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 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

Tracy V. Wilson (7:50)

of this could really be a whole podcast series. And of course, a lot of the 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. For example, the Indian Reorganization act of 1934, 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 1936. The combination of the Alaska Purchase 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 Claims settlement Act of 1971.

Holly Fry (8:58)

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 no federal Elections. The organic act of 1884, 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 elections were not legally recognized and the delegates who went to Washington were also not recognized.

Tracy V. Wilson (9:47)

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 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 not necessarily being tightly regulated. I would say a lot of things at this point were not being very tightly regulated in Alaska.

Holly Fry (10:32)

A 1904 law gave all adult citizens in Alaska the right to vote in school board elections, regardless of gender. A second organic act was passed in 1912 which created a legislature for Alaska Territory with four districts that each had two senators and four representatives. One of this legislature's first actions was to give women in Alaska the right to vote.

Tracy V. Wilson (10:59)

As was the 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 1904, U.S. district Court Judge James Wickersham ruled the allotment act of 1887, also called the Dawes act, applied to Alaskan Natives. Today, the Dawes act is more associated with breaking up reservation land. But Section 6 of the act specified that an Indigenous person who lived apart from an Indigenous tribe and quote, adopted the habits of civilized life was a US Citizen. So under Wickersham's ruling, this applied to Alaska Natives who assimilated with white society.

Holly Fry (11:53)

In 1915, the territorial government of Alaska codified this idea into law. Any Indigenous person born in Alaska was a US Citizen if they, quote, severed 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 take an oath renouncing their tribal customs and relationships. 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.

Tracy V. Wilson (12:40)

This law passed with the support and advocacy of an intertribal organization called the Alaska Native Brotherhood, or ANB, which had been established in 1912. From today's perspective, it might seem surprising that a Native advocacy organization would have been supporting this law given its focus on assimilation and all of those hurdles. Holly just read involving actually becoming a citizen. This has multiple layers of context.

Holly Fry (13:09)

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 on assimilation and Christianization. The founders of the Alaska Native Brotherhood had been educated in Presbyterian mission schools. Surrounded by this focus on assimilation.

Tracy V. Wilson (13:44)

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 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 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 they actually became citizens.

Holly Fry (14:38)

As an organization, the Alaska Native Brotherhood was influenced by church societies that were part of almost every Presbyterian congregation in Alaska. It had a constitution and bylaws, and it ran its meetings using Robert's Rules of order. Its original 1912 constitution does not seem to have survived, but its purpose, as stated in its 1917 constitution, was 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 of race prejudice and to aid in the development of the territory of Alaska and in making it worthy of a place among the states of North America.

Tracy V. Wilson (15:26)

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 in Sitka. Elizabeth Peratrovich was a leader in the Alaska Native Sisterhood, which we'll get to in just a moment.

Holly Fry (15:48)

But first we will have a quick sponsor break.

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Tracy V. Wilson (16:55)

We're lost. It feels like we're going round in circles. I'm gonna ask that man for directions. Hi there. We're trying to get to the state fairgrounds.

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Tracy V. Wilson (17:11)

How is there signal out here?

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Tracy V. Wilson (19:25)

In the 1920s, 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 playing it. Paul attended Sheldon Jackson Presbyterian Mission School in Sitka, followed by Carlisle Indian Industrial 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.

Holly Fry (20:02)

Paul's legal work included the case of his mother, Tilly, 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 1915 Alaska Native citizenship Law. Both of them were acquitted. Paul also represented Irene Jones, who was barred from attending public school in Ketchikan, Alaska under a 1905 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 which spaces to mark.

Tracy V. Wilson (20:49)

I will say that last part was controversial. In 1924, 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 show before and some of the controversies around it, including that some of the Indigenous people who were affected by it didn't want U.S. citizenship. They wanted the United States to respect their tribal citizenship and their tribal sovereignty in Alaska Territory. This law says, settled that whole question of whether Alaska Native people were U.S. citizens. It 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.

Holly Fry (21:40)

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 still made up about 40% 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.

Tracy V. Wilson (22:06)

So in 1925, before most of those folks got to register to vote and exercise their 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 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 15th Amendment to the Constitution. Because it was, this law remained in place until the Voting Rights act of 1965.

Holly Fry (22:46)

There were other similarities between discrimination and racism Alaska Natives were facing and the Jim Crow segregation of other parts of the United States. And that finally brings us to Elizabeth Peratrovich. She was born in Petersburg, Alaska, on July 4, 1911. Her birth parents were not married, and her birth mother turned to the Salvation army for help. They arranged an adoption and Elizabeth Jean was adopted by Andrew and Jean Wanamaker. 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.

Tracy V. Wilson (23:28)

Andrew was a fisherman and a Presbyterian minister. 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 Tlingit and English, and Elizabeth grew up speaking both languages and was raised in a largely traditional Tlingit way of life. Elizabeth also learned to speak and tell stories, both of which are culturally very important to the Tlingit.

Holly Fry (23:57)

When she was 10, the family moved to the town of Kluaque. Like Petersburg and Sitka this is in southeastern Alaska, south of Juneau, 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 face discrimination and racism, both through her own experiences and the examples her parents set for her. Andrew Wanamaker was one of the earliest members of the Alaska Native Brotherhood, and he was named an honorary founder.

Tracy V. Wilson (24:30)

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 Peratrovich, whose mother was Tlingit and whose father was Yugoslavian.

Holly Fry (24:48)

Elizabeth and Roy both wanted to become teachers. So after they graduated from high school in 1931, 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 years into the Great Depression. They returned to Alaska, and they got married on December 15, 1931. They would go on to have three children together, Roy Jr. Frank and Loretta Marie, who was known as Lori.

Tracy V. Wilson (25:18)

After getting married, Elizabeth and Roy moved back to Kluoc and Kluac. Coincidentally, maybe not really coincidentally, it became national news in 1932 after a local election in which six people, who all had the last name Paratrovich, were all elected to public office. One of those was Roy, who was elected mayor and served for four terms. He also became president of his local Alaska Native Brotherhood camp, and Elizabeth was active in the Alaska Native Sisterhood.

Holly Fry (25:50)

For 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 Kluac also had a population of about 400 people. So there were a lot of people that were juggling multiple roles in a similar way. Over the years. They both became leaders in the A and B and Ans. They did a variety of advocacy and community work, including delivering food to needy families at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Tracy V. Wilson (26:28)

By about 1940, the Paratroviches decided they could have a bigger impact if they moved to Jun, which had a population of about 6,000 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 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.

Holly Fry (27:05)

They also had to fight to get their children enrolled at a public school in Juneau. 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 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 Jr. Was the first Native child to be enrolled in Juno's public schools.

Tracy V. Wilson (27:45)

Japan bombed the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, leading the United States to become directly involved in World War II. 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 of the Alaska territorial guard in 1942, and more than 6,300 Alaska natives from 107 different communities volunteered to serve.

Holly Fry (28:22)

We aren't really getting into World War II's impact on Alaska, including the forced evacuation of Native people from the Aleutian Islands after a 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 Peratrovich's equal rights advocacy. On December 30, 1941, Roy, who was grand president of the Anbury, and Elizabeth, 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 allowed. The Peratroviches asked Greening if he thought that was unamerican, especially considering 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 Juneau or in Douglas, but in the whole territory.

Tracy V. Wilson (29:39)

This focus on ending discrimination would be a big part of Elizabeth Paratrovic's advocacy over the next few years, which we'll talk about after a sponsor break.

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Tracy V. Wilson (31:22)

We're lost. It feels like we're going round in circles. I'm gonna ask that man for directions. Hi there. We're trying to get to the state fairgrounds.

T-Mobile/US Cellular Advertiser (31:32)

Well you're going to take a left at the old oak tree at this here road. Nah, I'm just kidding. Let me get my phone out.

Tracy V. Wilson (31:39)

How is there signal out here?

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Tracy V. Wilson (31:54)

way to a T Mobile store?

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Holly Fry (33:17)

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Tracy V. Wilson (33:58)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt had appointed Ernest Greening as territorial governor of Alaska in 1939. 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 and for Native peoples in U.S. territories. Among other things, in 1940 he was advocating for the passage of an anti discrimination bill in Alaska.

Holly Fry (34:27)

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 1934, 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 1936, as well as redesignating land that Alaska Native communities were occupying as reservations.

Tracy V. Wilson (35:09)

The passage 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 Senior. This did not obviously have unanimous support among Alaska Natives by any means. There are at least 11 distinct cultures among Alaska's Indigenous peoples, 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 other approach that should be followed regarding 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 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.

Holly Fry (36:29)

To return to the non discrimination bill, Greening submitted a draft to the Alaska territorial legislature in 1943 and the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood started organizing support for it. This included Elizabeth Peratrovich, who was unanimously elected Grand President of the ANS that same year.

Tracy V. Wilson (36:53)

That summer she started traveling around Alaska, including by boat and by plane and to talk to people about the bill and to encourage Alaska Natives to vote. At this point, her sons Roy Jr and Frank were 9 and 6. Her daughter Lori was 4 and small enough to ride on Elizabeth's lap while she traveled. But Baratrovich had to find somebody else to look after Roy Jr. And Frank. She knew a woman named Minnie Field who ran a small orphanage in Juneau, and the boys stayed there for the summer.

Holly Fry (37:26)

Peratrovich said she knew Field as a kind woman and in his adult life, Roy Jr. 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, the family reunited and moved in with her father, Andrew Wanamaker. Her mother Jean had died in 1941.

Tracy V. Wilson (37:55)

In 1943, the Equal Rights bill was defeated in the Alaska House with a vote of 8 to 8 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 the legislature doubled. Greening sent a letter to the Alaska Native Brotherhood encouraging Alaska Natives to run for these newly expanded seats. And two Tlingit men were elected. Andrew Hope of Sitka and Frank Peratrovich, who was Roy's brother.

Holly Fry (38:33)

As all of this was happening, 16 year old Alberta Schenck started publicly pushing back against segregation in Nome, almost on the other side of Alaska from Juneau. 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 boss about this discrimination. She wrote an essay about it, which she sent to the editor of the Gnome Nugget, where it was published on March 4, 1944.

Tracy V. Wilson (39:07)

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 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.

Holly Fry (39:38)

The Peratroviches heard about this, and it became part of their advocacy for the Equal Rights Bill, which was reintroduced in the Alaska legislature in 1945. 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. 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.

Tracy V. Wilson (40:19)

The non discrimination bill easily passed the Alaska house in early 1945, but there was resistance in the Senate, where it was debated on February 5th. Senator Frank Whaley called it, quote, a lawyer's dream and a natural in creating hard feelings between whites and natives. Senator 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 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind us?

Holly Fry (40:54)

Roy Peratrovich 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 discrimination or you are against it. Accordingly, as you vote on this bill,

Tracy V. Wilson (41:23)

Elizabeth Paratrovich, who was 34 at the time, was in the gallery with Lori knitting, and she was the last speaker of the day. Her exact words aren't actually recorded anywhere. She didn'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 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.

Holly Fry (41:54)

According to Greening's account, when she addressed the Assembly, Peratrovich referred to what Senator Shattuck had said, saying, quote, I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind the gentlemen with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind them of our Bill of Rights.

Tracy V. Wilson (42:13)

When Shattuck asked her if she thought this bill would stop discrimination, she answered, quote, 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 to your intent to help us overcome discrimination.

Holly Fry (42:39)

Multiple newspapers reported that the end of Peratrovic's speech was met with great applause in the chamber. The anti discrimination bill passed the Alaska Senate with a vote of 11 to 5, and the governor signed it into law on February 16, 1945. Elizabeth and Roy Peratrovich were both there, and Groening gave Elizabeth the pen that he signed it with, saying it never would have passed without her.

Tracy V. Wilson (43:06)

Section one of this bill read, quote, all citizens shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges of public inns, restaurants, eating houses, hotels, soda fountains, soft drink parlors, taverns, roadhouses, barber shops, beauty parlors, bathroom rest houses, theaters, skating rinks, cafes, ice cream parlors, transportation companies and all other conveyances and amusements subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law and applicable alike to all citizens.

Holly Fry (43:45)

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 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 30 days or fined not more than $250 or both.

Tracy V. Wilson (44:21)

After the bill was signed into law, Elizabeth and Roy went to the Baranoff Hotel to celebrate. According to Roy Jr's account, this was a hotel they had previously been barred from because they were native.

Holly Fry (44:34)

In 1946, Roy went to work for the Alaska Native Service in Juneau, 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.

Tracy V. Wilson (44:56)

By 1948, 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, lore, art, and virtues to cultivate the morality, education, commerce, and civil government of Alaska to improve individual and municipal health and 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.

Holly Fry (45:33)

In 1954, Roy accepted a Bureau of Indian affairs position in Oklahoma and the family moved there. But not long after, Elizabeth learned that she had breast cancer and they returned to Juneau. She did not stop her work, though. She attended the Race Relations Institute at Fisk University in 1956, where she was part of a panel in which she talked about all the organizational strategies that the A and B&ANs had used while fighting for the anti discrimination bill.

Tracy V. Wilson (46:05)

In the spring of 1958, 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 wake of a decline in Alaska's fishing industry and on issues of land ownership and mineral rights.

Holly Fry (46:30)

Eventually, Elizabeth was admitted to a hospital in Seattle, Washington, for cancer treatment. Roy Jr. Was living there, so she had family nearby, but Roy Sr. Stayed in Juneau so that Lori could finish high school.

Tracy V. Wilson (46:44)

Elizabeth Peratrovich died on December 1, 1958, at the age of 47. She was buried in Juneau's Evergreen Cemetery. Roy Sr. Was buried there with her after his death in 1989 at the age of 79.

Holly Fry (47:00)

Although Elizabeth has become well known for her speech in favor of the anti discrimination bill, she and Roy Sr. Were both activists for equal rights for Alaska Native people more broadly for their whole lives, really. Any news coverage about anything either of them did referenced their outstanding leadership in the Alaska Native brotherhood and Alaska Native sisterhood as adults. Their children also talked about how the two of them were always a team.

Tracy V. Wilson (47:28)

Elizabeth Paratrovich's story was rediscovered in the 1970s, in part because of Greening's writing in 1988, February 16th, the anniversary of the anti discrimination bill being signed into law, became the Alaska state holiday of Elizabeth Paratrovich Day. This was partially a response to the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday in 1983. 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 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 art center in Anchorage after him.

Holly Fry (48:27)

There is plenty to discuss around these ideas, including that King also worked for the rights of working people and poor people. 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 Peratrovich. Today, Elizabeth Peratrovich Day is not just about her. It is also a call to action to continue fighting injustice.

Tracy V. Wilson (48:57)

In 1992, Gallery B of the Alaska House of Representatives Chamber was named for Elizabeth Peratrovich. In 2008, a bronze sculpture was unveiled in Peratrovich park in Anchorage called Flight of the Raven. This was sculpted by Roy Peratrovich Jr. In honor of his parents and it referenced his mother as being part of the Raven clan.

Holly Fry (49:21)

In 2009, 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 2019. It was written by Annie Bouchever with Roy Peratrovich Jr. In 2020, Elizabeth Peratrovich was featured on the Native American Dollar coin and featured in a Google Doodle and a mural on the courthouse in Petersburg, Alaska. A mural in Juneau of her was unveiled in 2021.

Tracy V. Wilson (49:57)

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, 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 tribal societies and to strive for a spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood among all people. And that's Elizabeth Peratrovich.

Holly Fry (50:40)

Do you also have listener mail to wrap us up with?

Tracy V. Wilson (50:43)

I do. It's from Isabel and Isabel wrote about something that I meant to include in the Lisbon earthquake episode and forgotten. So Isabel 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 what inspired 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 blue and white tiles that cover buildings in Lisbon were a pombal initiative for fireproofing or at least fire limiting. In the rebuilding of Lisbon, science and art combined My Happy Place On a personal note, at the ripe old age of 55, I started doing pottery last year and it has become my hyper focus over the 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. I've also attached a photo of one of my first Portuguese inspired candy dishes. Wishing you both all the best as well as 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 forgot to put it in the outline. We have a very cute, a very cute standard poodle in one of these pictures wearing both a harness and a neckerchief. Incredibly cute. And this little piece of pottery. It's round, it has the blue, a blue flower, floral design, kind of a little stylized, a little flirtily around it. It looks like very pretty. Thank you so much Isabel for sending this and for sending the pictures. I would give this dog, who's a very happy looking black standard poodle, some head scritches.

Holly Fry (53:19)

200 kisses. 200 kisses to that dog.

Tracy V. Wilson (53:25)

So yes, thank you again for this email. If you would like to write to us, we're at history podcast@iheartradio.com if you would like to see the show notes for the episodes you can see our website missed inhistory.com and you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio app and anywhere else you like to get your Podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you'd listen. Listen to your favorite shows.

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