DR. Nettie Asburry: wife, mother, educator, and founder of the Tacoma NAACP
Tacoma artist exposes Washington’s rich African American history
By Matt Nagle
Tacoma Weekly
mattnagle@tacomaweekly.com
Published on: August 14, 2008

Early Washington state history includes a wealth of important contributions from African Americans, yet the legacy of many of these pioneering men and women continues to remain virtually hidden in the annals of time. How many of us learned in school about such notable figures as William Owen Bush, the first and only African American in the 1889 Washington state legislative assembly and a founder of Washington State University; or his father, George Washington Bush, the first black settler in Washington and a founding father of the state?