Trailblazing Councilmember Gossett to keynote WCCDA gala

One week from tomorrow, the White Center Community Development Association celebrates its 10th annual dinner/auction at South Seattle Community College, with keynote speaker King County Councilmember Larry Gossett. WCCDA shares this update:

Born and raised in Seattle, Larry Gossett has been a dedicated servant of the people for more than 40 years. He is currently serving his seventh term on the Metropolitan King County Council and serves on several committees including Law, Justice, Health and Human Services; Government Accountability, Oversight and Financial Performance; and Growth Management Planning Council.

In 1993 he was elected to the King County Council, representing District Ten (currently District Two), which encompasses most inner-city neighborhoods in Seattle and unincorporated King County in the Skyway neighborhood. He was overwhelmingly reelected in 1995, 1999, 2003, 2005, and 2007. In 2007 Gossett became just the second African American elected to be chair of the King County Council.

In 1999, 13 years after the 1986 change of the County’s name to honor the slain civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Councilmember Gossett spearheaded the campaign to change the King County logo from an imperial crown to an image of Dr. King. In 2007, the King County Council unanimously adopted the change, becoming the only governmental entity in the nation to have as its logo the likeness of Dr. King.

Councilmember Gossett is a highly respected community leader who has advocated for the underrepresented and underprivileged in King County for his entire career. He has long been an advocate for programs that help inner-city youth and reduce racial and class disparities in our local criminal-justice system. He has also led efforts to eliminate black-on-black violence and other manifestations of self-hatred by poor and disenfranchised populations. White Center CDA Executive Director Sili Savusa is excited to welcome Gossett, saying, “We feel it is fitting that Councilmember Gossett is our keynote speaker with our theme of ’10 Years of Action’; his actions over his career are what we as an organization aspire to!”

The mission of the White Center Community Development Association is to promote a vibrant neighborhood and high quality of life for White Center residents and stakeholders through the development of authentic leadership opportunities and community-led, neighborhood initiatives. This is accomplished through three lines of business: neighborhood revitalization, family development, and community building.

Tickets for this event are still available for the price of $65. To learn more, please visit at wccda.org/tickets.


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4 Responses to “Trailblazing Councilmember Gossett to keynote WCCDA gala”

  1. Twocentsworth Says:

    This logo cost King County taxpayers over $500,000 plus royalties paid to the King Family. The reason that other King entities do not change their logo is to apply this wast of money to actually helping their citizens. There was nothing wrong with the crown, but the biased council members wanted to waste our taxpayers money to change a silly logo….I am sure that Dr. King would have want our money actually spent to help the many people in need. How many people in King County could have been helped with the $500.000 plus money used for a LOGO change?

  2. Hi – please only use one name in a comment thread. You can comment multiple times but using different names to try to make it look as if multiple people are commenting is against our rules. Thanks!

  3. Wishing you had a “Like” button for comments right now!

  4. I would like to correct an erroneous statement from twocentsworth earlier in this string. King County has not paid any royalty to the family of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for the use of his image on the King County logo.

    The logo change was approved by the County Council in 2005 and the final logo was authorized in 2006. The figure of $500,000 mentioned in the post was the estimated five-year cost of phasing in the new logo on signs, documents, and in other county functions.

    James Bush
    King County Executive’s Office