YMCA to honor survivors of group for decades of activism

The Four Amigos, the Gang of Four, they are almost always mentioned together.

Larry Gossett, Bob Santos, Robert Maestas and the late Bernie Whitebear supported each other as young men pushing causes that could have been ignored but for their unity. And together they grew from young rebels four decades ago to fixtures in the structure of the community.

Santos and Maestas have even marched as King Neptune in the Seafair Parade, and next month they are being honored as a group by the YMCA of Greater Seattle.

I visited with the three surviving members and asked about that and the decades of overlapping activism.

Gossett, 64, has gone from student activist to community organizer (he ran the Central Area Motivation Program for 14 years) to six terms on the Metropolitan King County Council. His council office is on the same floor where he was once jailed for a sit-in at Franklin High School.

"March 19, 1968, the Black Student Union at Franklin High School called me," Gossett said. He was a University of Washington student and chairman of the Seattle Alliance of Black Student Unions. The callers "were very upset because two African-American girls had just been kicked out of school for wearing their hair natural, and that became the latest in a series of struggles with the administration at Franklin. Matter of fact, the principal had sent a note home to their parents, saying that until your daughter looks ladylike she can't return to Franklin." That meant straightened hair.

Gossett and two other UW students went, and with 150 of about 180 black students took over the principal's office and demanded the school reinstate the students, recognize the BSU, allow black students to put up posters of their heroes, hire a black administrator and start the first black-history class at any high school in Seattle.

He met Maestas during that protest. "Roberto was a Spanish teacher," Gossett said. "He was the only nonblack student or faculty who stayed on campus" and spoke with the students.

Gossett and Santos had met before that. Santos was assistant manager at the old St. Peter Claver Center in the CD. "I was supposed to rent out space to community groups," Santos, 74, said, but he let groups who were part of the 60s movements meet for free, the Black Panthers, the United Construction Workers and others. Maestas held meetings with farmworkers there.

Santos said he told his higher- ups, "We were doing the Lord's work." He said he would sit in on meetings and started attending demonstrations. Santos became a leader on issues affecting Asian Americans to such an extent that he was often called the unofficial mayor of the Chinatown International District. He is a founder and former executive director of Inter*Im, which advocates for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders around Puget Sound.

Whitebear, who died in 2000, was famous for leading the takeover of land at Ft. Lawton in Magnolia that led to the creation of the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center. He ran the United Tribes of all Indians Foundation for 30 years.

Gossett said that Whitebear knew Indians couldn't win by themselves, so he put out the call for other progressive groups to join them at Ft. Lawton. Gossett went with 18 to 20 young black men.

On Oct. 12, 1972, Maestas made the same invitation for a sit-in at the former Beacon Hill Elementary School building, which would become El Centro de la Raza. Gossett and others responded.

Maestas, 71, who served as executive director of El Centro until he retired this year, said, "We understood the Latino community was invisible. There was no way El Centro would have won that first five-year lease," without the support of others.

That unity of action became a pattern. Santos said that when Asian-American activists staged a series of protests against building the Kingdome, he sought help. "There were not that many of us. I asked Larry and his group and Roberto and his group and Bernie and his group, and they all joined the Asian Americans at a series of protests, and we learned about each other's issues."

That relationship grew and was eventually formalized. "We were all directors," Santos said, "CAMP, El Centro, United Indians. When we went to the city for funding, there was a little pot and we were all competing for it." They decided to cooperate instead, and in 1981 they founded the Minority Directors Coalition of King County.

Santos said that when he looks across the country, he sees no other place where multiracial unity had such a strong role in shaping a community.

"What allowed us to work together? I realized Larry Gossett, Bob Santos and Bernie Whitebear loved people unconditionally, all people," Maestas said.

And they agreed it helped that all of them are outgoing men with a sense of humor. They've wrestled with serious issues, but they've also joked and had fun together.

And they've been part of significant changes that in many cases have brought the rest of the community to their way of thinking. Santos says they used to chase politicians, but now politicians come to them looking for endorsements. They're the insiders now.

"We've maintained our political perspective," Maestas said. "America has changed, not us."

Gossett added, "I have not philosophically changed, but I have matured." He said he's moved from the black or white, good or bad view he had in the 1960s to seeing the complexities of the world.

On Nov. 12, these guys, who can see the gray in life, and now in the mirror, will receive the Y's A.K. Guy Award for their roles in shaping this community.

Guy (1892-1983) was president of G.O. Guy Drugs, served on the YMCA board, and volunteered for numerous civic organizations.

The award is given to people who reflect his commitment to community.

Jerry Large's column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 206-464-3346 or jlarge@seattletimes.com.