Rick Rice papers, approximately 1960-1999

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Rice, Rick, 1940-
Title
Rick Rice papers
Dates
approximately 1960-1999 (inclusive)
Quantity
2.28 cubic feet (2 cartons, 1 oversize folder)
Collection Number
5827 (Accession No. 5827-001)
Summary
Materials relating to Rick Rice's activism and career in various industries.
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Open to all users.

Languages
English

Biographical NoteReturn to Top

Richard "Rick" Rice was born in 1940 and grew up in Huntington Beach, California. Rice attended the University of California at Berkeley before moving to New York City and then to Seattle in the early 1970s. Rice was active in the student, anti-war, and civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

Rice worked as a bus driver for Metro Transit for four years, where he was an active union member and a member of a rank-and-file caucus committe. Rice participated in a Metro Transit strike in 1974. During the 70s and 80s, Rice was an activist in several local organizations such as Committee for Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), the Venceremos Brigade, and the Anti-Apartheid movement. Rice participated in weekly protests in front of the South African consulate in Seattle during this period.

His wife, Roselynn Harrell (also known as Rose Woodward) was also a Seattle metro driver and a social and labor activist. Harrell was involved in South Seattle Community College's Women's Employment Network and was a welder. Rice and Harrell worked for two years at a Uniroyal and Firestone tire plant in Long Beach California in an effort to organize it politically as an outgrowth of their activism as members of the socialist organization Line of March. Line of March was a Marxist-Leninist organization that inspired many New Left student activists to become "proletarianized" workers who would find work in industry and radicalize other workers.

During the 1990s, Rice was active in the Seattle area efforts to create a Labor Party and attended conferences on behalf of the effort. Rice's second wife, Kate Thompson is an artist and an activist. Thompson was a co-founder and co-owner of Storefront Press in Seattle. As of 2014, Rice lives in Mexico.

Content DescriptionReturn to Top

Materials relating to Rick Rice's activism and career in various industries. Formats include posters, flyers, photographs, pamphlets, booklets, and ephemera that document his activism and worklife. Rice was active in the student, anti-war, and civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Materials include records from his participation as a striking bus driver in the Seattle Metro Transit Strike of 1974. The collection includes materials from Rice's activism from the 1960s-1990s, including organizations such as the Committee for Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), the Venceremos Brigade (a Cuban solidarity organization), the Anti-Apartheid movement, Teamsters for a Democratic Union, various labor rank-and-file committees, and a variety of socialist organizations. Materials also reflect Rice's involvement with Jobs with Justice. Other materials relate to solidarity work for the 1989 Puget Sound Grocery Workers Strike. Solidarity with Nicaragua, Canto, and Line of March. Also contains prints by Kate Thompson.

Use of the CollectionReturn to Top

Restrictions on Use

Creator's literary rights transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Acquisition Information

Rick Rice via Carolyn Aamot, UW Libraries Gifts, 2012-09-01.

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Civil rights workers--United States
  • Civil rights workers--Washington (State)
  • Labor movement--Washington (State)
  • Labor unions--Washington (State)
  • Labor--Washington (State)
  • Pacifists--United States
  • Personal Papers/Corporate Records (University of Washington)

Personal Names

  • Rice, Rick, 1940- --Archives

Corporate Names

  • Anti-Apartheid Movement
  • Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (U.S.)
  • Jobs with Justice
  • King County (Wash.). Transit Division
  • King County (Wash.). Transit Division--Employees
  • Teamsters for a Democratic Union
  • Venceremos Brigade

Other Creators

  • Corporate Names
    • Labor Archives of Washington (University of Washington) (creator)