By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Last weekend, The Black Heritage Society of Washington State and The Seattle Public Library at the Douglass-Truth Branch celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Soul Pole at the branch.
The event titled “Preserving Neighborhood Character in the Central District: The Soul Pole at 50 Years” featured speeches from various community members, including Tom Fay, Chief Librarian of the Seattle Public Library, and Elijah Mu’ied, the son of Raqib Mu’ied, who was formerly known as George X and served as the Rotary Club’s Art Director and led the project during its inception. The event also included library staff and provided an opportunity for community members to share their stories.
The Soul Pole is a 21-foot community-created sculpture that represents 400 years of African American history and injustice. It was created in the late 1960s from a telephone pole by young members of the Rotary Boys Club. The Rotary Club donated the Soul Pole to the Seattle Public Library, which installed the art piece on the lawn of the Douglass-Truth Branch on April 24, 1973.
The Black Heritage Society has called the artwork “a symbol of tenacity, legacy, and pride that anchors the history of Black people to Seattle’s Central District.”
“We are excited about this event,” says Fay. “We were so excited about having the pole returned to its site this time last year, and we said you know what, we are going to have a bigger event, and more people, we are out of the pandemic, at least so they say, but we are so excited to see so many more faces here to really celebrate this work and what it means to this community.”
In 2021, after realizing that the Soul Pole’s condition was deteriorating, the library worked with the Black Heritage Society, Landrieu Conservation, and Artech to conserve the historic piece.
The Soul Pole was reinstalled at its historic spot on the Douglass-Truth lawn in April 2022. Later that year, Historic Seattle awarded the Soul Pole its 2022 “Preserving Neighborhood Character” Award.
The 50th anniversary event brought together community members who lent their voices about the Soul Pole’s history, efforts to amplify the African American Collection at the Douglass-Truth Branch, and the role of the community in historic preservation. Some of the attendees included Royal Alley-Barnes, interim director of Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture, Taylor Brooks, the African American Collection librarian at the Douglass-Truth Branch, Stephanie Johnson-Toliver, president at The Black Heritage Society of Washington State, and Taelore Rhoden, director of community engagement at Historic Seattle.
“It is a very beautiful event,” says Mu’ied. “And I am glad the Soul Pole is being recognized.”
“It [the Soul Pole] has been here for a long time,” he added. “And it is about time that it starts to get the recognition that it deserves.”
