By Kai Curry
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Cherished Seattle civil rights champion Wing Luke would have been 100 years old on Feb. 18, 2025. Though Luke’s life was abruptly cut short at age 40, he has had a lasting impact on the city of Seattle and on Washington state. This past weekend, on Feb. 15, the museum bearing his namesake, Wing Luke Museum held a gathering of family and friends to remember Luke and his lasting legacy.
At this celebratory event, some who had known Luke in person and some who hadn’t, but still felt his presence daily, reminisced on Luke’s impact on the lives of so many in our community.
Luke was born in China in 1925. His family immigrated to the United States when he was 6.
During school, Luke was active in student body government at Roosevelt High School in Seattle, where he was voted as president in 1943. Luke joined the Army after high school, where he earned a Bronze Star. He then enrolled at the University of Washington (UW), where he was again elected president, this time of his sophomore college class. He graduated with a law degree, and in 1962, became the first person of color on Seattle’s City Council (SCC) and the first Chinese American elected to public office in King County.
“It was an act of monumental courage for Wing Luke to hold himself out as a candidate for public office…for public service…at a time when he was a rarity,” Washington Representative Sharon Tomiko Santos said at the museum’s celebration. “He was the first, but he is not the last. What is sad is that we still have firsts.”
“It’s not easy,” Santos continued, to serve in public office “during challenging times,” which many present that evening equated to the current times and administration.
Luke “was not somebody who followed the easy path,” Santos said. “He actually did the opposite.”
One of Luke’s key contributions was his support of the passage by the SCC of the Open Housing Ordinance in 1963. This ordinance addressed racial discrimination in selling or renting real estate and led to the creation of the Seattle Human Rights Commission.
Luke’s involvement extended far in the all-too-short time that he was alive. In addition to civil rights activism, Luke was passionate about the environment and historic preservation.
Retired Supreme Court Justice Faith Ireland, whom Luke mentored in her career, recalled a day they were driving together to Tacoma. Ireland pointed out the beautiful red sunset, to which Luke replied, “That sunset is air pollution.”
“That was the beginning of my understanding of what environmentalism is,” Ireland said.
Luke encouraged Ireland to pursue law, a field with few women at that time. Ireland also talked about the part Luke played in the creation of the museum, which at first was centered around Chinese and Chinese Americans, and then extended to encompass the contributions to the city of all Asians and Pacific Islanders.
Ireland pointed out a pair of slippers in the museum’s entrance, which were displayed in the same spot where the museum first opened its doors. Banners and some of Luke’s personal items placed around the museum in honor of his birthday educated visitors on his life and achievements. Even Luke’s own legislative desk, complete with a typewriter and rolodex, and some of his favorite books, were available for visitors to connect with.
Part of the Wing Luke birthday informational display. Courtesy of Wing Luke Museum.
Part of the Wing Luke birthday informational display. Courtesy of Wing Luke Museum.
Luke’s family in attendance on Saturday evening included Luke’s sister, Ruby, Ruby’s daughter, Cynthia del Rosario, and Bettie’s children, Mike and Linda Kan.
Members of the Luke family pose for a picture. Courtesy of Wing Luke Museum.
“Your presence here speaks volumes about the enduring impact my uncle left behind,” said del Rosario in a talk that at times became emotional. “I’m really lucky because I got to know him [in person]…He was the uncle you would all want.”
del Rosario said that Luke always made time to talk and listen, no matter how busy he was.
“He would hear you. He would see you,” del Rosario said. “And he would understand.”
Cynthia del Rosario kisses her mother, Ruby Luke, on the cheek. Courtesy of Wing Luke Museum.
She called this Luke’s “magic” quality. Luke was a man of both passion and purpose, del Rosario said, willing to work for the changes he wanted, the changes that helped shape our city. del Rosario hoped that everyone present would take the opportunity to make a new friend that evening, as a gift to Luke and a “gift to community building.”
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, a former colleague of Luke’s, shared that he has always kept a large photo of Luke in his office “as a reminder” that Luke will be his “role model” when making decisions.
“To me, on this hundredth birthday, Wing Luke is still very much present,” Ferguson said. “He was there in the trenches.”
Gov. Bob Ferguson greets Ruby Luke. Courtesy of Wing Luke Museum.
It was Ferguson, as a former Attorney General, who named the Attorney General Office’s Wing Luke Civil Rights Division.
“He reminds us that we can have pride without putting down other people,” Dr. Connie So, professor of Ethnic Studies at the UW, said in her remarks that evening.
Against the backdrop of the recent, Trump administration-fueled spike in xenophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric, Luke’s contributions remind us of the “importance of immigrants, documented and undocumented, who regardless of fame, work, pay taxes, and contribute to this country.”
Pierce County Council member Bryan Yambe said he remembered coming to the museum starting when he was small and learning about Luke. Yambe was “inspired by the idea of public service, and being able to see myself in positions of leadership.”
The museum highlighted a quote to carry people through trying times: “Don’t do things because of who is right, but because of what is right.”
Even Luke’s legacy is touched by heartache and pain. Luke was just 40 when he died in a plane crash during a fishing trip in the Cascade Mountains. But “I try not to get my head in the space” of “what if he had lived,” del Rosario said of her uncle’s untimely death.
“I try to change it,” she continued, “and say, ‘What if we all did something good like he did?’”
Kai can be reached at newstips@nwasianweekly.com.
Assunta Ng, Wonderful recap of an extraordinary evening at the Wing Luke Museum. Thank you