By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
On Tuesday, Plymouth Housing, a non-profit organization that develops and operates housing for people facing homelessness in Seattle, celebrated the grand opening of a 100-unit housing development to provide permanent supportive housing for single adults exiting long-term homelessness.
The newly erected building, located in the Central Area of Seattle, is named in honor of Bertha Pitts Campbell – one of Seattle’s iconic civil leaders, and co-founder of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, a historically Black sorority dedicated to public service in the Black community.
During the 1930s, Pitts Campbell served as a board member of the Seattle Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). “She firmly made it known to the all-white board of directors that as the representative of the segregated branch in what is now the Central Area, she expected to have the same rights and privileges as the rest of the board, resulting in her becoming the first woman of African descent to vote on a YWCA board in the United States and setting the precedent for ending discrimination on YWCA boards nationwide,” writes local historian and advocate Esther Hall Mumford of Pitts Campbell, who was an active member of the YWCA for 53 years.
As an inaugural board member of the Seattle Urban League in the early 1930s, Pitts Campbell helped lay the foundation for one of our city’s most impactful and recognized institutions for Black people and causes. Today, the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle’s comprehensive housing program helps prevent eviction, establishes financial empowerment and home ownership in the Black community, and provides a variety of affordable housing units in the Central District.
“I am so honored and humbled to see the legacy of my Great Aunt Bertha Pitts Campbell, a founding member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, her legacy revived here in the CD,” says Dr. Jeffrey Holmes, great nephew of Campbell. “As a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. I have always been supportive of any organization that is trying to good by the legacy of Bertha Pitts Campbell.”
“I am just in awe for my family and excited to be here,” Holmes adds.
Pitts Campbell was born on June 30, 1889, in Winfield, Kansas. She spent most of her childhood in Coloradowhere she lived with her grandmother, Eliza Butler, a former slave who worked as a laundress. In 1908, she enrolled in Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she received financial support from the Congregational Church. In 1913, still a student, she co-founded the Delta Sigma Theta sorority and took part in a women’s suffrage march in Washington, D.C.
In 1923, Pitts Campbell and her husband Earl Pitts, Sr. moved to Seattle and planted roots until she passed at the age of 100. Pitts Campbell founded the University of Washington undergraduate and Seattle Alumnae chapters of Delta Sigma Theta. She was also a charter member of the Christian Friends for Racial Equality, an organization which worked to expand housing and other opportunities for the Black community.
“The Seattle Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated was very excited and overjoyed that the next Plymouth Housing project was going to be named after our founder, someone we loved, Ms. Bertha Pitts Campbell,” says Trina Pridgeon, President of the Seattle Alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta. “She [Pitts Campbell] loved giving back to the community.”
Constructed on 12th Avenue between Fir St. and E. Spruce St., Bertha Pitts Campbell Place has 100 studio apartments for single adults who have experienced chronic homelessness. In addition to the studio units, the residential portion of Bertha Pitts Campbell Place will have offices for building staff and housing case management, a nurse’s office, flexible-use common rooms for community-building, a front desk, and an outdoor community space. The 100 residents will have access to 24/7 supportive services to help them recover from years of homelessness and will have all the amenities needed to help them transition from homelessness.
“This is a moment to celebrate the partnerships that got us here and chart our course forward together,” says King County Executive Dow Constantine. “Adding one hundred units of housing is a major contribution and major investment and King County is proud to be participating in this project, helping to bring these units online and getting more and more people into a home.”
Bertha Pitts Campbell exemplified community service and service to her culture. Her legacy here in the Puget Sound area stands as a testament to the civil and communal activism and work she did to better the lives of those in her community, and that legacy will live on through the vision of Plymouth Housing and their community partners at Bertha Pitts Campbell Place.
“Bertha Pitts Campbell is a legacy in this community,” says Michelle Merriweather, President and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. “She helped launched the Urban League, was on the Board of the Urban League as well as the first African American to sit on the board of the YWCA – Seattle.”
“She has just been an inspiration on serving and how to show up for your community and so it is wonderful to see her name up there [on the building], honored in this community and being honored in this way,” added Merriweather. “Bertha Pitts Campbell is widely known throughout this community. Everything that she has done, she’s touched so many people, if there was a class on Seattle history it can’t be taught without her in that history. We are honored to have her as a founder of our sorority, but she has also made a tremendous impact on this community.”
