Dr. Maxine Mimms

1928 - 2024

Dr. Maxine Mimms is best known for founding the Tacoma Campus of The Evergreen State College. The mother, educator, and mentor lived long enough to see the college she founded more than 50 years ago educate untold numbers of African-Americans, helping them realize their own dreams.

In 1953, Mimms and her husband relocated to Seattle. Teaching at Leschi Elementary School,  Jimi Hendrix was one of her 4th grade students. Later, she taught in both the Kirkland and Seattle Public school systems. In 1969, Mimms served as special assistant to the director of the Women's Bureau in the United States Department of Labor.

By 1972, Mimms had left government work, returned to Washington state, and began teaching at the newly formed Evergreen State College, but settled in the traditionally Black Hilltop neighborhood of Tacoma. Hilltop faced many of the same patterns of segregation and disinvestment as Seattle's Central District.

She felt conflicted - working daily educating people who did not look like her to only return home to her community where higher education was inaccessible.  One day, she went out to breakfast at Browne's Star Grill in Hilltop and overheard two women nearby talking about how Evergreen's Olympia campus would never meet their needs. So she created a program in Tacoma around the kitchen table in her home.

Although Evergreen was highly experimental  - providing neither tests nor grades, it taught public policy and social theory. Her 1977 doctoral dissertation developed the underlying points from which the Tacoma campus would operate.

By 1982, the Evergreen-Tacoma campus was formally established under Mimms’s leadership. Her mission was to increase the number of African Americans in Washington with degrees and improve the household value on education for the African American community. As enrollment grew, the Tacoma Campus relocated a number of times until a permanent campus opened in 2001. Mimms became a national consultant in curriculum design and instructional methods. Retiring in1990, she became an Evergreen emeritus faculty member and awarded the first annual Sustainable Community Outstanding Leadership Award in 2001.

In 2004, Mimms founded the Maxine Mimms Academy, a non-profit organization in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood to serve youth expelled or suspended from public schools and she served as a consultant for other schools attempting to craft their own approach to addressing disparities in education.

Dr. Mimms passed away October 8, 2024. A pillar of the community, advocate for justice and equity, her legacy lives on through those she taught to 'enter to learn, depart to serve.'  

CAAA Commissioner Recruitment

Interested in serving as a CAAA Commissioner? Apply using this link: https://governor.wa.gov/boards-commissions/apply-serve.

Our role is to advocate for the community to the Governor, state legislature and state agencies. Participation is an effective way to become an active voice in our community.

Appointments are for a two-year term that can be renewed at the Governor's discretion. Questions? Call 360-725-5664

Think voter disenfranchisement, voter interference and voter suppression are things of the past? Think again.

Before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Black people were disenfranchised through the use of poll taxes and literacy tests. They aren't used anymore, but what does voter disenfranchisement look like today?

Misinformation that looks like this:

   'Voting doesn’t do anything for Black people'

    'Black people should stay home because there isn’t any difference in the           parties

     'They already know who is going to win'

These statements are voter suppression and voter interference tactics. Online trolls pretending to be Black people have been spreading this misinformation over several election cycles. Their agenda: limit our ability to shape the decisions being made in this country. This is voter disenfranchisement 2.0 and as election day approaches, expect to see more of it.

In a 2016 Senate Intelligence Committee report, ‘”No single group of Americans was targeted by information operatives more than African Americans. By far, race and related issues were the preferred target of the information warfare campaign designed to divide the country in 2016.’”

Voter interference is still a thing and AI isn’t helping – doctored photos, memes and other misinformation found on social media is aimed at US. Ask yourself: if the Black vote is worthless, why make the effort to suppress it?

Those old poll taxes and literacy tests tells us the Black vote is critical. It’s powerful, can decide an election and more. Black votes matter!

The long hard-fought right to vote was finally secured by the 1965 Voting Rights act. Make sure you are registered to vote. Encourage your friends and family, no matter where they live, to vote. Exercise your power!

Here in Washington state, we vote completely by mail. Voter Pamphlets are arriving in mailboxes now. Ballots for the November 5th election will be mailed  this Friday the 18th.

If you are 18 years old by election day, you can register to vote now. If you have moved, make sure to update your address. Former felons can vote - your right is automatically restored once custody ends. Check your status at www.sos.wa.gov

Students - Consider these unique paid educational opportunities! 

Get your applications ready for the Washington State Legislative Internship Program & House and Senate Page Programs for high school students!

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Additional job opportunities listed at careers.wa.gov and caaa.wa.gov/employmentopportunities.

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View available positions at Washington State Parks jobs, the Department of Fish & Wildlife jobs,  Washington State Department of Ecology

Records and Public Disclosure Coordinator (Forms and Records Analyst 2)  (Lacey). Note: This is a temporary position ending June 30, 2025

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