​It may come as a surprise to some in progressive Seattle to learn that until the late 1950s there were two musician’s unions in the city - one for white musicians and one for minority musicians.

The American Federation of Musicians Local 76 was founded in 1898 and rebuffed attempts at membership by Black, Latin and Asian musicians for years before the non-white musicians in town formed their own local in 1918. The rejection of minority musicians for membership in unions was common practice across the United States at the time. This, of course, limited the ability of those musicians to land jobs in the more upscale venues in the city, and those were the ones that paid the most. On January 14, 1958 reconciliation began as the two Seattle musician’s unions agreed to merge into one.

Peter Blecha wrote a fascinating piece on the relationship between the musician’s unions in Seattle for historylink.org in 2013 that chronicles the history leading up to the merger of American Federation of Musicians Local 76 and Local 493. Here is a link to that article:

"NEGRO MUSICIANS' UNION"