Elizabeth Peratrovich Day
February 16th
History
Elizabeth Peratrovich was born on July 4, 1911 in Petersburg, Alaska, and was a member of the Lukaax̱.ádi clan, in the Raven moiety of the Tlingit nation. She was adopted when very young by Andrew and Mary Wanamaker, a Tlingit couple, and named Elizabeth Wanamaker. Andrew was a Presbyterian lay minister. Elizabeth grew up with them in Petersburg and Ketchikan, Alaska. She attended Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, and the Western College of Education in Bellingham, Washington (now part of Western Washington University).
Elizabeth married Roy Peratrovich, also a Tlingit, who worked in a cannery. They lived in Klawock, where Roy was elected to four terms as mayor. Looking for greater opportunities for work and their children, they moved to Juneau, where they found more extensive social and racial discrimination against Alaska Natives.
In 1941, while living in Juneau, the Peratroviches found more discrimination, having difficulty finding housing and seeing signs banning Native entry to public facilities. They petitioned the territorial governor, Ernest Gruening, to ban the “No Natives Allowed” signs then common at public accommodations in that city and elsewhere. The Anti-Discrimination Act was defeated by the territorial legislature in 1943. As leaders of the Alaska Native Brotherhood and the Alaska Native Sisterhood, the Peratroviches lobbied the territory’s legislators and represented their organizations in their testimony.
Elizabeth Peratrovich was the last to testify before the territorial Senate voted on the bill in 1945, and her impassioned testimony was considered decisive.
I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentlemen with five thousand years of recorded civilization behind them, of our Bill of Rights.
She was responding to earlier comments by territorial senator Allen Shattuck of Juneau. He had earlier asked, “Who are these people, barely out of savagery, who want to associate with us whites, with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind us?” The Senate voted 11-5 for House Resolution 14, providing “…full and equal accommodations, facilities, and privileges to all citizens in places of public accommodations within the jurisdiction of the Territory of Alaska; to provide penalties for violation.” The bill was signed into law by Governor Gruening, nearly 20 years before the US Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Acts of the territorial legislature required final approval from the U.S. Congress, which affirmed it.
To read more on Wikipedia, please click here.
Recognition
Elizabeth Peratrovich Day, is celebrated on February 16th. This day is designated in recognition of her courage to speak out about issues regarding justice, prejudice and discrimination against native people. In 1988, the Alaska State Legislature established February 16th as the annual Elizabeth Peratrovich Day to commemorate the anniversary of the signing of the Anti-Discrimination Act.
- On February 6, 1988, the Alaska Legislature established February 16 (the day in 1945 on which the Anti-Discrimination Act was signed) as “Elizabeth Peratrovich Day”, in order to honor her contributions: “for her courageous, unceasing efforts to eliminate discrimination and bring about equal rights in Alaska” (Alaska Statutes 44.12.065).
- The Elizabeth Peratrovich Award was established in her honor by the Alaska Native Sisterhood.
- In 1992, Gallery B of the Alaska House of Representatives chamber in the Alaska State Capitol was renamed in her honor. Of the four galleries located in the respective two chambers, the Peratrovich Gallery is the only one named for someone other than a former legislator (the other House gallery was named for Warren A. Taylor; the Senate galleries were named for former Senators Cliff Groh and Robert H. Ziegler).
- In 2009, a documentary about Peratrovich’s groundbreaking civil rights advocacy premiered on October 22 at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage. Entitled For the Rights of All: Ending Jim Crow in Alaska, the film was scheduled to air as a PBS documentary film in November 2009. The film was produced by Blueberry Productions, Inc. and was primarily written by Jeffry Lloyd Silverman of Anchorage.
- A park named for Elizabeth and Roy Peratrovich is located in downtown Anchorage. It encompasses the lawn surrounding Anchorage’s former city hall, with a small amphitheater in which concerts and other performances are held.
- On Jan. 23, 2012 the Anchorage School Board approved a resolution recognizing Feb. 16, 2012, as Elizabeth Peratrovich Day.
Lessons Plans
Please visit these websites for lessons plans (K-12) and Elizabeth Peratrovich videos.
http://www.akhistorycourse.org/articles/article.php?artID=418