New way of thinking?
It is not entirely correct to say that George Washington founded the town of Centralia alone (“Black history in the Northwest,” Spring 2024). He filed the plat with his wife, Mary Jane Cooness Washington, whom he married in the 1860s. Together, they platted the town. It is said that it was she who realized the strategic and central location of the homestead when news of the railroad being built reached them.
As mentioned, George was a mixed-race child with a Black father and a White mother. So was Mary Jane, who was of African American and Jewish descent. As often happens in history, the important role of women in historical achievements is left out—as is a person’s lineage on the mother’s side, almost always. I hope you will work in the future to be more inclusive. It’s a relatively new way of thinking, I know. Just as it is with telling and retelling history by going beyond the white and male historical records.
Ann Anderson
Description vs. prescription
When my friend Hannah applied to WSU’s vet school in the early 1970s, she was asked, “Why do you want to become a vet? Why don’t you marry one?”
WSU has come a long way since then. The total student enrollment is 53+ percent female. The faculty is 52 percent female (per College Factual).
Yet, a former Association for Faculty Women president notes that “some departments” have very few women in them (“Celebrating the returns on equity,” Spring 2025). The data suggest that some departments have very few men in them. Is that a concern or should we only care if women are underrepresented?
A definition of “equity” would be useful to include in the article. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has no entry for “equity.” It has no entry for “social justice.”
Richard McGowan
’76 MA Philosophy
Left to right: Lori (Lee) Williams (’82 Clothing & Textiles, ’89 MBA), Glenn Williams (’89 Busi.), Vickie (Cash) Frick (’82 Speech Comm.), Larry Frick (’81 Elec. Eng.).