Larry Gossett (b. February 21, 1945[1]) is an American politician. He is a member of the King County Council, representing District 2 (portions of Seattle, Washington). He was first elected in 1993,[2] and served as chair of the Council in 2007.[3]
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A native of Seattle, Gossett is a 1963 graduate of Franklin High School; he then attended and graduated from the University of Washington (U.W.). In 1966-1967, he was a VISTA volunteer in Harlem.[2][4] He initially joined VISTA for the draft deferment; his time in Harlem politicized and radicalized him.[1] Returning to Seattle, he became a founder of the Black Student Union on the U.W. campus[2] and helped to organize nearly a dozen high school and middle school Black Student Unions throughout Seattle.[4] As a student activist, he was instrumental in bringing about the U.W.'s Educational Opportunity Program minority recruitment program. He graduated from the U.W. in 1970, receiving the university's first-ever degree in African American studies. Before he had even formally received his B.A.,[1] he became the first supervisor of the Black Student Division in the university's Office of Minority Affairs.[2] The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project describes him as having been, in the late 1960s, "one of Seattle’s best known young black radicals."[4]
A former member of SNCC,[4] he has a long history of community organizing in Seattle.[2][4] While still working for the U.W., he was involved in the occupation of a former Seattle public school that ultimately became El Centro de la Raza. His continued involvement in civil disobedience led to a request from Office Minority Affairs head Samuel E. Kelly that Gossett to "cool it." Eventually, he left his position at the university. After working on the successful 1977 mayoral campaign of Charles Royer, he served briefly in the Royer administration, but felt that was taking him too far from his activist roots.[1] From April 1979 until December 1993, he was the executive director of Seattle's Central Area Motivation Program (CAMP).[2][4] He eventually found his way back into electoral politics by way of involvement in Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns.[1]
Gossett is married and has three children.[2]
Several sources state that Gossett was a member of the Black Panthers.[5] By Gossett's own account, he attended the founding meeting of Seattle's Panther chapter, and also attended Panther leader Bobby Hutton's 1968 funeral;[6] he worked on several political actions with Panther Party members[1][7] and has said positive things about their legacy,[8] but Gossett says that while he "was closely associated with the party" he never actually joined.[6][9]
In 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011, Gossett ran unopposed.
Larry Gossett's office in the King County Courthouse is in the same location that his jail cell was back in 1968[1] when he was arrested for unlawful assembly during a March 29 sit-in at Franklin High School.[10]