TACOMA, Wash. — Tacoma says farewell to one of its trailblazers, Thomas Dixon.
The civil rights advocate passed away in his home yesterday. He was 92 years old.
Dixon was born in 1931, the grandson of an enslaved person in Georgia.
The military brought Dixon to Tacoma, but he decided to remain after he retired from service at McChord Air Force Base in 1964.
Two years later he became the first executive director of the Hilltop Multi-Service Center and advocated for equal housing, job training, and education.
“He could’ve gone anywhere and stayed anywhere,” said LaTasha Wortham, board president for the Tacoma Urban League. “But he made a conscious decision that Tacoma was going to be the place he stayed and that he was going to make better,”
He eventually emerged as a leading voice for Tacoma’s Black community in the Hilltop, and his leadership was put to the test in 1969, during the event known as the Mother’s Day Disturbance.
The attempted arrest of a Black man on the Hilltop caused racial tensions to boil over, leading to a night of violence.
When city leaders announced a potential curfew, Dixon and others appealed to the city to wait and went into the Hilltop to quell tensions in the neighborhood.
Wortham says that was the start of a new day in Tacoma.
“We ended up having our first African American city councilmembers, and [Harold] Moss was the first and eventually became the first Black Mayor of Tacoma,” she said. “Rosa Franklin became the first State Senator and woman senator, and all of those things followed that event, and it was because of people like Mr. Dixon who said we need to have a different way of doing things and we need representation.”
Dixon will best be remembered as the founding president of the Tacoma Urban League, where he served for more than 30 years.
Under his tenure, the Urban League helped develop generations of Tacoma’s civil servants, such as Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards and State Senator T’wina Nobles.
“Once an Urban Leaguer, always an Urban Leaguer!” she proclaimed.
Nobles became president and CEO of the Urban League in 2017 and is reminded of the history of the position whenever she sits behind Dixon’s desk, which is still in his office.
“Every time I sit here is an opportunity for me to be responsible, and it’s also an opportunity to take care of Mr. Dixon’s legacy,” Nobles said. “But I also know that every other CEO that’s run this organization has also sat behind this desk.”
Now Nobles hopes to pass down the lessons Dixon taught her to the next generation of leaders.
“He lived a good life,” she said. “So I would want people to take away, if you want to see true work get done in your community, if you want to see a difference in your lifetime, you have to show up, you have to work hard, you have to be a visionary, you have to stick with it, you have to be resilient, and you just have to also love your community.”
Woodards released a statement Thursday after hearing of Dixon's death:
“Dr. Thomas Dixon, who served as the founding president when the Tacoma Urban League opened its doors in 1968, was not only a respected member of our community but also my mentor. During his many decades of leadership, he secured millions of dollars towards training and education programs in Tacoma that forever changed the lives of thousands of African-American residents and many others. His passing is a great loss to Tacoma. Throughout his life, he worked tirelessly to make Tacoma a better place. His leadership and vision have shaped Tacoma, and his legacy will continue to inspire us.”
Dixon is survived by his wife, Sylvia, his son Whitney, and extended family members.