For August, we will highlight three individuals as part of the continuing Women of Color in history series.
Firstly, many Alaskans are already aware of Elizabeth Peratrovich, whose image graces a $1 coin.
Peratrovich, a member of the Tlingit nation, was born July 4, 1911 in Petersburg, Alaska. Orphaned at a young age, she was adopted by Andrew and Jean Wanamaker and given the name Elizabeth Jean.
Elizabeth graduated from Ketchikan High School and the Western College of Education in Bellingham, Washington (now part of Western Washington University). In 1931, she married her husband Roy Scott Peratrovich and moved in Klawoch, Alaska. Together, they had three children.
After moving to Juneau, the family faced increased racial discrimination and inequities. Peratrovich involved herself in activism and lobbying to fight against the discrimination that was commonplace in housing and public facilities at the time. As a high-ranking member of the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood, she found herself in a unique position to garner influence among lawmakers.
[Content Warning: Explicit Racism] Famously, in 1945, while Peratrovich was representing the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood in support of an anti-discrimination bill before the Alaska Senate, Juneau territorial senator Allen Shattuck exclaimed, "Who are these people, barely out of savagery, who want to associate with us whites, with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind us?"
Peratrovich responded: “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.”
Racial justice was victorious that day, despite Shattuck’s disgusting remarks. The Senate voted 11–5 for House Resolution 14, effectively outlawing racial discrimination in housing and public facilities in the state of Alaska.
Alaska thus became the first state in the country to ban “Jim Crow”-style racial discrimination laws, nearly two decades prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Peratrovich continued her work to fight against racial discrimination, writing hundreds of letters to senators and legislators throughout the 1940s and 50s. The letters detailed the experiences she and her family had experiencing racist discrimination. (The body of her writings are currently held by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian).
After battling breast cancer, Peratrovich passed away December 1, 1958.
Continuing the fight for justice in the Alaska legislature, Bettye Davis was the first Black Alaska State Senator. She was among Alaska’s top advocates of education, health, and social justice issues.
Born May 17, 1938 in Louisiana, she grew up in the Southeastern region of the country, and obtained her nursing degree after completing high school. She quickly switched career tracks to social work, and moved to San Bernadino, California pursuant of that choice.
After working as Assistant Director at the YWCA, Davis moved to Anchorage to continue her education and begin a political career, which she started by serving on the Anchorage School Board from 1982 to 1990. After a failed political campaign, in 1997 she was appointed to the Alaska State Board of Education, and she served as the president of the National Association of Black School Board Members and the president of the Alaska Black Leadership Conference.
Davis became the first Black Alaska State Senator when she was elected in 2000. She represented the “K district” of Alaska for 12 years, before being defeated in 2012.
Davis was the recipient of countless awards, including: the 2010 Pioneer Woman of the Year, the Alaska Civil Liberties Union of Alaska; the 2010 Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame, the Alaska Women’s Network; the Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation of Alaska Humanitarian Award; the YWCA Woman of Achievement; the Alaska Black Caucus Presidents Award; and the Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska Award.
In 2018, she passed away in her home at the age of 80. Bettye Davis (formerly East Anchorage) High School has been renamed in her honor.
Senator Elvi Gray-Jackson is the second Black woman elected to the Alaska state senate and the first Black woman to become Chair of the Senate in the state.
Born April 8, 1953 in Newark, New Jersey, Senator Gray-Jackson moved to Alaska in 1982 to pursue education, attending University of Alaska-Anchorage in 1988.
Senator Gray-Jackson built a career of public service work and community leadership, rising from an administrative assistant at the Public Transit Department to a Senior Budget Analyst in just over a year.
Following that, she was elected to the Anchorage General Assembly, where she served as Chair of the Municipality’s Cooperative Services Department. From there, she moved to the Alaska State Senate to represent District 1. She won the 2018 general election with 60 percent of the votes, becoming the second Black woman to become an Alaskan state senator.
Senator Gray-Jackson has proposed and sponsored a number of bills and initiatives during her political career, including: Senate Bill 4, establishing February as Black History Month in the state; helping to establish a Climate Change Committee; introducing legislation to declare Juneteenth day a statewide holiday; and establishing an Alaska Native Heritage Month, a Women’s History Month, and an LGBTQ Pride Month. Senator Gray-Jackson serves on various legislative committees including the Community and Regional Affairs Committee, Labor and Commerce Committee, and Alternating Chair for the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics.
Senator Gray-Jackson has received numerous awards, including the Women of Achievement Award.
Planned Parenthood is extremely grateful for the work accomplished by Peratrovich, Davis, and Gray-Jackson.
Thanks to the work done by these three individuals, justice has been advanced for women of color in the state of Alaska, and throughout the United States.