In 1943, John E. Prim (1898-1961), a 1927 graduate of the University of Washington School of Law and a former NAACP president, becomes Seattle's first African American deputy criminal prosecutor.
Prim had a private law practice from 1927 until 1943, when he assumed the responsibilities of his first fulltime public office as deputy prosecutor of King County. He returned to private practice in 1951. In 1954, Mayor Allan Pomeroy appointed him judge pro tem of Seattle Municipal Court.
Sources:
Quintard Taylor, The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle's Central District from 1870 Through the Civil Rights Era (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994), 175; HistoryLink.org Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, "Prim, John (1898-1961)" (by Mary T. Henry) http://www.historylink.org/ (accessed June 6, 2006).
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