Civil Rights Attorney with Social Conscience and Pluck
By Annie Beckmann, Antioch University Seattle
Ken MacDonald is a man of many stories. Be they ground-breaking,
harrowing or colorful, he calls them his "war stories."
The surviving founder of a Seattle law firm known for championing
civil rights and social issues, MacDonald is a long-time member
of the Board of Visitors at Antioch University Seattle. He
is also a recipient of AUS's prestigious first annual Horace
Mann Award, which recognizes those who win a victory for humanity
and who share Antioch's commitment to social justice, community
engagement and lifelong learning.
Every weekday, 86-year-old MacDonald still makes the trek
from his Mercer Island home to the downtown Seattle offices
of MacDonald, Hoague & Bayless, where he has practiced
law since 1952. MacDonald's stories of social conscience are
as mesmerizing as Oscar-winning epics, filmed with a Seattle
backdrop. His co-workers describe him as a man with plenty
of pluck. An artist once depicted him as the Don Quixote of
civil rights lawyers.
As his face brightens when he describes it, you can imagine
a feisty Ken MacDonald 20 years ago being dragged from a Boeing
stockholders' meeting on his back after he protested how Boeing
supervisors were used in Henry Jackson's political campaign.
In the late 1950s, MacDonald was a member of the Washington
State Board Against Discrimination, which in the 60s became
known as the Washington Human Rights Commission.
In 1959, he worked on Washington's first wrongful discrimination
case involving an African American woman named Ola Browning
who was refused service at a Seattle hair salon. Browning
brought a civil case against the salon for damages and won.
The decision handed down by the state supreme court, Browning
v. Slenderella, was groundbreaking for providing a civil remedy
based on a criminal statute.
In 1952, MacDonald represented several witnesses before the
House Committee on Un-American Activities chaired by Harold
Velde of Illinois. The committee spent two tumultuous weeks
in Seattle where it held notoriously controversial proceedings.
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In the 60s, MacDonald and University
of Washington
Professor Arval Morris took part in a fight that went
to the U.S. Supreme Court when the University of Washington
tried to require its faculty to sign a loyalty oath
swearing they were not members of the Communist Party.
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As he recollects the progressive causes he and his partners
represented more than 50 years ago, MacDonald says, "We
didn't have anything to lose when we took those cases."
His last big case was in 2000 when his firm secured a significant
settlement for a disabled public employee who was wrongfully
terminated. She received back pay and pension benefits to
take care of her substantial needs.
MacDonald says he doesn't handle cases anymore, although
he's routinely in the office from 7:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. telling
his "war stories" to staff attorneys and helping
with the transition of clients to other attorneys in his firm.
He and his wife Elinor have been married 63 years. They moved
into their simple bungalow on Lake Washington in 1951, raised
four children there and still call it home.
"When I get up every day, I have two goals. I have to
be needed by somebody and I have to have something to do.
If you drop either one of those things, you'll be in a nursing
home soon."
The way he swiftly climbs a couple flights of stairs without
catching his breath, it's easy to visualize an athletic, young
MacDonald serving as a combat rifleman in Italy during World
War II.
He returned from World War II a hero. Today, he has a modern-day
name for the many losses of war he experienced - post-traumatic
stress. It's very real, he says kindly, acknowledging that
his shrapnel injuries are a token disability in the face of
all the dead and wounded he saw in 1945.
After the war, MacDonald enjoyed returning to a prominent
Boston law firm, yet he grew restless over stratification
and moved his family to Seattle.
It was former Seattle School Superintendent Forbes Bottomly,
known for his desegregation efforts, who persuaded MacDonald
to consider joining the AUS Advisory Board about 20 years
ago. In that time, MacDonald, who also spent six years on
the University's Board of Trustees, watched AUS go through
big changes. Ask him for the high points and he speaks of
Antioch's ability to diversify over the years.
"Way back when, Antioch Seattle turned out a lot of
psychology graduates. Now there are many other master's degrees.
Today, Antioch University Seattle works with many different
Native American tribes to create early college high schools.
There is a BA program, successful programs for educators and
the Center for Creative Change. Coming to the new building
in Belltown was a good move for Antioch, because it's remarkably
centrally located.
"It is sometimes a struggle," he says, "but
part of the Antioch spirit, aided by an energetic, knowledgeable
faculty, administrators and gifted, forward-looking students."
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