Larry Gossett

Lawrence Edward Gossett (born February 21, 1945)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is an American politician and activist who served as a member of the nonpartisan King County Council, representing District 10 from 1994 to 2006 and District 2 from 2006 to 2020.<ref name=council-bio>King County Councilmember Larry Gossett biography, County Council Website. Accessed online 27 April 2008.</ref> Gossett served as chair of the council in 2007 and 2013.<ref>Template:Cite web, official King County site, December 11, 2006. Accessed online 27 April 2008.</ref>

Early life and education

File:Seattle MLK 2006 04.jpg

Gossett addressing a Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally at the Franklin High School gymnasium (2006).

Gossett was born in Seattle to two sharecroppers who had emigrated from Nigton, Texas, to the Central District.<ref name="Times-Legacy">Template:Cite news</ref> He graduated Franklin High School in 1963 and later graduated from the University of Washington. In 1966 and 1967, he was a VISTA volunteer in Harlem.<ref name=council-bio /><ref name=SCRLHP>Larry Gossett, Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, University of Washington. Accessed online 27 April 2008</ref> He initially joined VISTA for the draft deferment; his time in Harlem politicized and radicalized him.<ref name=Merlino-bio>Doug Merlino, Gossett, Larry (b. 1945), HistoryLink, July 23, 2005. Accessed online 27 April 2008.</ref>

Career

Returning to Seattle, he became a founder of the Black Student Union on the UW campus<ref name="council-bio" /> and helped to organize nearly a dozen high school and middle school Black Student Unions throughout Seattle.<ref name="SCRLHP" /> As a student activist, he was instrumental in bringing about the UW's Educational Opportunity Program minority recruitment program. He also played a role in the discrimination of black track athletes from Oregon State University, resulting in their early departure from a track meet.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He graduated from the UW in 1970, receiving the university's first-ever degree in African American studies. Before he had even formally received his BA, he became the first supervisor of the Black Student Division in the university's Office of Minority Affairs. The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project describes him as having been, in the late 1960s, "one of Seattle’s best known young black radicals."

A former member of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he worked as a community organizer in Seattle. While still working for the University of Washington, he was involved in the occupation of a former Seattle public school that ultimately became El Centro de la Raza. His continued involvement in civil disobedience led to a request to "cool it", from the head of the Office of Minority Affairs, Samuel E. Kelly. Eventually, he left his position at the university. After working on the successful 1977 mayoral campaign of Charles Royer, he served briefly in the Royer administration, but felt that was taking him too far from his work as an activist. From April 1979 to December 1993, he was the executive director of Seattle's Central Area Motivation Program ("CAMP").<ref name="council-bio" /><ref name="SCRLHP" /> He eventually worked on Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns.<ref name="Merlino-bio" />

Black Panthers

Several sources state that Gossett was a member of the Black Panthers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>(1) Larry Gossett Biography, The HistoryMakers. Accessed online 27 April 2008.
  (2)Piper Scott, responding to Geov Parrish, Thursday morning roundup: Embers edition, HorsesAss.org, 25 October 2007. Accessed online 27 April 2008.</ref> By Gossett's own account, he attended the founding meeting of Seattle's Panther chapter, and also attended Panther leader Bobby Hutton's 1968 funeral;<ref name="Campbell">Phil Campbell, In Other News... Thanks for Clearing That Up, The Stranger (Seattle), February 2, 2000. Accessed online 27 April 2008.</ref> he worked on several political actions with Panther Party members<ref>Kurt Schaefer, The Black Panther Party in Seattle, 1968-1970, Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, University of Washington. Accessed online 27 April 2008</ref> and has said positive things about their legacy. Gossett has admitted in recent years that he was a long time member of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party.

King County Council

Gossett was elected to the Council in 1993. Gossett ran unopposed in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015.<ref>Seattle Attorney to Challenge Larry Gossett for Seat on King County Council, Seattle Times, 3/4/2019</ref><ref>Larry Gossett Faces His First Serious Challenger in Girmay Zahilay, The Stranger, 6/7/2019</ref>

Gossett's office in the King County Courthouse is in the same location that his prison cell was in 1968 when he was arrested for unlawful assembly during a sit-in at Franklin High School on March 29.<ref>Alan J. Stein, College and high school students sit-in at Seattle's Franklin High on March 29, 1968, HistoryLink, June 14, 1999. Accessed online 27 April 2008.</ref>

He was defeated by Girmay Zahilay in the 2019 election after serving six terms.<ref name="Times-Legacy" />

Personal life

Gossett is Catholic, married, and has three children.<ref name="council-bio" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• Gang of Four (Seattle)

External links

• Larry Gossett, Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, University of Washington. Includes extensive video interview footage, mostly about the period from 1966 to 1974.