Seattle's Own Wing Luke
Luke was a rare individual. He made history practically every time he did anything.
Besides playing a leading role in changing local conditions, particularly the rights of minorities, he established many precedents. He was the first Chinese to hold a high appointed state position, the first Chinese to run for a major political office in the state, the first Asian public officeholder in the state, and the first minority to sit on the Seattle City Council.
Earliest Immigrants
The Luke family was one of the earliest Chinese immigrant families to settle in Seattle. “My family has its roots here,” he once said. “We have been here more than 80 years. My paternal grandfather operated a laundry here in the early days. Henry Yesler was one of his customers.” Luke's family operated a laundry in the University District.
Wing Luke, however, was born in China. He came here at the age of five. “The first words I learned were 'yes,' 'no,' and 'he hit me first,'” Luke once told the press. “Not being able to speak English, there were lots of misunderstandings and boyhood fights,” he explained.
Luke attended northend schools and quickly adapted to his new environment. Always an outstanding student, he showed signs of leadership in politics at an early age. He first ran for office at John Marshall Junior High School, where he was elected Boy's Club president. At Roosevelt High School, he was elected Boy's Club president.
Served in Military
Midway through his senior year of high school, Luke was inducted into the Army to serve in WWII. He won a bronze medal and received six combat stars during the war. Yet eventually Luke graduated with honors, earning a degree in political science and going on to American University in Washington D.C. to do graduate work in the same field. He returned to the University of Washington to obtain a law degree and entered private practice for two years before being appointed State Assistant Attorney General, serving as chief legal counsel for the Board Against Discrimination and Real Estate Division in 1957.
After five years with the Attorney General's Office, Luke decided to run for public office. At 36, he took a leave of absence from his job and filed for City Council Position 5, which had a field of nine other candidates.
A Tough City Council Race
Despite his heavy involvement with the Democratic Party since his college days, Luke knew that winning the council seat would not be easy. “The novelty of being Oriental does not help,” Luke said in an interview after he won the election. “Being an Oriental does single one out, and one therefore has to work harder. The political Oriental image is not here as yet like in Hawaii, although it is getting that way.”
What Luke did not expect during his campaign were slanderous smear tactics. “During the primary, fraternities at the University of Washington were asked to help doorbell [go door-to-door] for Wing,” said Luke's sister Bettie. Some did. But one fraternity doorbelled against him and went out of its way to suggest that Luke was a communist, she said.
Luke won the primary and faced Dr. J.G. (Joe) Aiken, a West Seattle physician and surgeon, for the council seat. All the candidates who were eliminated in the primary gave their support to Aiken in the general election. Their endorsement, however, could not stop the growing support for Luke. In a desperate attempt to defeat Luke, another smear campaign was initiated against him. “An anonymous group printed and passed out flyers insinuating that Wing was associated with communists,” recalled Bettie. “The flyer alluded to a news item in the Peoples World about Wing's candidacy and alleged that he was supported by communist sympathizers.”
But there was no stopping Luke. Labor, educators, leaders of the major racial groups, Democrats, and Republicans endorsed him. “I had the written endorsement of prominent Seattle citizens who represented an extremely broad cross-section of the community,” remarked Luke.
Luke ran a well-organized campaign with some 800 to 1,000 volunteers, mostly young people. But his biggest supporter and worker was himself. He spent some $10,000 of his own money on the election and spent many hours attending “coffee hours” and doorbelling.
Luke's campaign signs flooded the District. Chinese restaurants distributed factory-made fortune cookies that contained a message to vote for Luke.
When the election was over, Luke was an overwhelming victor. Despite the smear campaigns, Luke produced the greatest margin of victory in that year's election, some 30,000 more votes than his opponent.
On March 13, 1962, Wing Luke began his term on the Seattle City Council. “As the first person of Chinese ancestry ever to run for public office in Washington state, I have a great obligation to serve well,” said Luke when he took office. “I accept that challenge of the job, in the spirit of my family, of which I am very proud.”
Luke never forgot his family, with whom he kept close ties. Since grade school and as a council member, the industrious Luke worked at his family business. “When he was on the council, he would stack groceries and talk to the customers,” said Bettie.
Fought for Civil Rights
As a council member Luke fought particularly hard for civil rights, urban renewal, historic preservation, and a plan to ease the downtown parking problem. A liberal member of a very conservative council, he often stood alone on issues.
Perhaps no other issue meant more to Luke than civil rights. A staunch advocate for equal opportunity for all races, Luke took the entire council on almost single-handedly concerning the issue of open housing. Shortly after he took office, at a tense, packed council meeting, he maneuvered the conservative council to commit themselves to pass an open housing ordinance. (Seattle's Open Housing Ordinance, however, was not passed until 1968.)
Despite a busy schedule, Luke served on the Board of Directors for the Urban League, Chinese Community Service Organization, and Jackson Street Community Council.
Politician and Intellectual with Promise
Emmett Watson, a reporter, pointed Luke out at the time as being “the only Seattle politician that can be described as an intellectual.” Another journalist said of Luke that he “is better informed on more local, national, and international issues than almost anyone I know.”
Wing Luke was a confident and ambitious person who had aspirations for higher political office. “If a man has no more ambition than to stay where he is, he'll soon burn himself out,” Luke observed. “I feel I'm capable of filling any elective job in the state. I have no set design on any office, but I'm young enough to think that opportunities will manifest themselves.”
In a poll taken among Seattle voters just before his death, Luke drew the highest rating of any council person. He was “best known” by a wide margin and topped the list on all five categories- “good, active, powerful, brave, and wise.” With his popularity, Luke had a bright future. He might easily have been the mayor of Seattle or Governor of Washington.
By Doug Chin
Wing Luke was serving his first term on the Seattle City Council when, in 1965, he died in an airplane crash. In his honor, the Wing Luke Asian Museum in the International District and Wing Luke Elementary School on Beacon Hill were named after him.
© 2005 Doug Chin, OCA-Greater Seattle
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