Ivan King photographs and log books, 1983-2007

Ivan King was born Winston Ivan King in Wenatchee, Washington in 1934 and moved to Seattle in 1940. As a young adult, King became actively involved in the Pentecostal church. He attended predominantly Black churches in Seattle, and as a result developed an interest in the parallels between class and race discrimination. Identifying as a pacifist and Christian socialist, King began studying race relations at Seattle Pacific University in the mid 1950s before transferring to the University of Washington, where he earned bachelor and master's degrees in sociology. In 1957, at the height of the Cold War, King co-founded and served as Chairman of a socialist student group called The Anvil Club, which sought to sustain social movement activism on the UW campus.

King strove to improve social conditions in Seattle throughout his career, holding positions such as Associate Director of the Seattle Urban League; Director of Action Education Centers (AEC) for the Central Area Motivation Program (CAMP); Planner for the Seattle Model City Program (SMCP); Quality Control Supervisor for the Seattle Income Maintenance Experiment; and Affirmative Action Analyst in the City's Human Rights Department & Office for Women's Rights. King was also involved with the Seattle chapter of the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE).

King's social activism was complemented by his love of photography, which inspired him to start the program Camera Left, through which his photography has been used by schools and other organizations that held events that he documented. King's work has also been displayed in the King County courthouse.