"Peace Empowers": The Testimony of Aki Kurose, a Woman of Color in the Pacific Northwest

Frontiers, 2001 by M, Gail

Statistics from the 1990 census and other records indicate the socioeconomic differences between the Laurelhurst neighborhood, where Kurose taught, and the Rainier Valley neighborhood, where the proposed Aki Kurose school would be located. Over 28 percent of families in Rainier Valley lived below the poverty level; none lived below poverty level in Laurelhurst. The median income of the Rainier Valley community was one-half of the median income of the Laurelhurst community, and its median house value was one-fourth that of Laurelhurst's. The majority of people living in the Rainier Valley community were nonwhite. Asian/Pacific Islanders made up 37.7 percent of the population; 32.2 percent were black; 1.7 were Native American; and 1.5 percent were of "other" ethnic-racial origins. Only 26.9 percent were white compared to 90 percent in Laurelhurst. A 1997 newspaper reporter characterized the Rainier Valley as Seattle's most racially diverse community. "It also is a neighborhood on the mend after years of economic neglect and white flight," wrote the reporter.(23)

South Shore Middle School had the lowest Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) test scores and the worst behavior and discipline record of all Seattle public middle schools, according to the year 2000 school comparison guide put out by the Seattle Times.(24) South Shore School faculty and staff wanted a fresh start and also desired to disassociate their newly moved school from the Sharples Building name, which had become negatively tied to catchall programs for troubled and previously expelled students. The community wanted a new name that would inspire the kind of changes it hoped to achieve with their new start in a new location. Aki Kurose seemed to be the perfect role model to inspire those changes.

Wilson, who was a Family Center consultant for South Shore Middle School helping primarily disadvantaged students and their families, led a multicultural, community-wide effort to name the Rainier Valley school the Aki Kurose Middle School Academy. There was broad-based community support for the name change. Over one thousand community members, alumni, students, and staff of South Shore School had signed petitions supporting the new name.(25) A letter to the school board from the staff of South Shore Middle School stated that Kurose would "provide an inspirational model for our students."(26) The South Shore PTA supported the proposal to rename the school the Aki Kurose Middle School, stating, "Ms. Kurose's ideals of peace and cooperation provide a valuable vision for the Rainier Valley and our school community."(27) A multicultural elite group of politicians, including Governor Gary Locke, King County Executive Ron Sims, school board member Jan Kumasaka, Representative Sharon Tomiko-Santos, Assistant Democratic Whip of the Washington State House of Representatives and State Representative Kip Tokuda, King County Council member Larry Gossett, and Seattle City Council member Richard McIver were supporters of the name change. But naming a building is not a simple process and often provokes heated debates as to who is most worthy of the honor. School boards across the nation have been challenged to choose school names to recognize and honor multiculturalism and the growing diversity of school districts no longer clearly dominated by a majority racial or ethnic student population. This name change to Aki Kurose Middle School Academy was fraught with much controversy and illustrates lingering issues of what it means to be a woman of color in the Pacific Northwest. Although the name change was requested by the South Shore School community, the renaming of their school also meant changing the name of the Sharples Building they relocated to. Thus, the desired fresh start with the inspirational name of Kurose meant the erasing of the name of Sharples.