Next stop in my new series on Seattle’s great walking and running neighborhoods, we visit a place very dear to me, site of where I became a homeowner: the Central District. I was drawn to the CD because of its strong African American history and cultural influence. Having grown up in Memphis and lived in New Orleans, I missed the Black cultural influence Seattle seemed to be mostly lacking. But in the CD, grocery stores carried Zatarain’s Jambalaya. You could hear R&B and zydeco coming out of houses, and gospel from street corner churches. I was curious about how the CD became Seattle’s Black neighborhood, so I looked into the history, which is rich, and you might imagine, also problematic. Read more