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    Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich
    Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich
    Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich
    Ebook99 pages48 minutes

    Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich

    By Annie Boochever and Roy Peratrovich, Jr.

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    “No Natives or Dogs Allowed,” blared the storefront sign at Elizabeth Peratrovich, then a young Alaska Native Tlingit. The sting of those words would stay with her all her life. Years later, after becoming a seasoned fighter for equality, she would deliver her own powerful message: one that helped change Alaska and the nation forever.
    In 1945, Peratrovich stood before the Alaska Territorial Legislative Session and gave a powerful speech about her childhood and her experiences being treated as a second-class citizen. Her heartfelt testimony led to the passing of the landmark Alaska Anti-Discrimination Act, America’s first civil rights legislation. Today, Alaska celebrates Elizabeth Peratrovich Day every February 16, and she will be honored on the gold one-dollar coin in 2020.
    Annie Boochever worked with Elizabeth’s eldest son, Roy Peratrovich Jr., to bring Elizabeth’s story to life in the first book written for young teens on this remarkable Alaska Native woman.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Alaska Press
    Release dateFeb 16, 2019
    ISBN9781602233713
    Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich
    Author

    Annie Boochever

    Annie Boochever grew up in the days when Alaska was still a territory. People flocked here for a new life and a kind of freedom that wasnt available in the Lower 48. Today Alaska is still a magnet for anyone seeking adventure or just trying to escape, and the characters in Bristol Bay Summer are no exception. The story told in Bristol Bay Summer, seen through the eyes of young teen Zoey Morely, is a fictionalized version of Annie's own experiences in Bristol Bay in 1980. Annie is a retired music teacher, high school English teacher, and school librarian. She has an MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. When not writing, Annie loves to swim, ski, play piano, and garden. She lives in Juneau with her husband and a frightfully intelligent Dutch dog named Zz. Bristol Bay Summer is her first novel.

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      Book preview

      Fighter in Velvet Gloves - Annie Boochever

      Praise

      It’s the kind of book I wish my own children could have read when they were in grade school, a moving story that deserves a place in every school library in this nation. Told in straightforward, readable prose, Fighter in Velvet Gloves is the biography of an Alaska Native woman who, despite adversity, never gave up as she struggled for equality. Both Native and Non-Native young people should be able to identify with Elizabeth Peratrovich, who fought her battles in the far north long before the Civil Rights movement in the American South caught fire.

      Joseph Bruchac

      Abenaki Author and Storyteller, author of Our Stories Remember

      This is a story that deserves to be taught in every school in the country. In a powerfully graceful telling, Annie Boochever, with Roy Peratrovich Jr., paints an indelible portrait of the woman who forged the trail for the civil rights of Alaska’s Native people. The courage of Elizabeth Peratrovich takes its place in the annals of American history as a precursor to the civil rights movement fought in the South decades later.

      Debby Dahl Edwardson

      National Book Award Finalist, author of My Name is Not Easy and Blessing’s Bead

      From its apt title describing Elizabeth Peratrovich to the text outlining Elizabeth’s life and civil rights advocacy, Fighter in Velvet Gloves is a wonderful and much-needed review written especially for young readers. However, young and old will appreciate learning more about Elizabeth beyond her famous and often-quoted testimony supporting the passage of the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945.

      Rosita Worl (Yeidiklasókw and Kaaháni in Tlingit)

      Sealaska Heritage Institute president and assistant professor of Anthropology, University of Alaska Southeast

      We Tlingit people are sensitive about our stories, yet Annie Boochever has delicately managed this conundrum and, with Roy, has achieved a respectful and deeply honest telling of Elizabeth’s life. What I would have given to have had this inspiring book in my hands in my troubled youth.

      Diane Benson

      Assistant professor at the Department of Alaska Native Studies & Rural Development, University of Alaska Fairbanks

      An inspiring book for our times, bringing to life real challenges overcome, and the enduring need to be vigilant to ensure rights gained are not erased.

      Julie Kitka

      President of the Alaska Federation of Natives

      The ability to understand without condemnation, to accept our friends and enemies in the light of their weaknesses, is something we must acquire early in life in order to find happiness in this world.

      — Elizabeth Peratrovich

      January 1957

      FIGHTER IN VELVET GLOVES

      Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich

      University of Alaska Press

      Fairbanks

      Text © 2019 Annie Boochever

      Published by

      University of Alaska Press

      P.O. Box 756240

      Fairbanks, AK 99775-6240

      Cover and interior design by UA Press.

      Cover image: Elizabeth Peratrovich, We Can Do It, acrylic on canvas by Apayo Moore, 2014. www.apayoart.com.

      Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

      Names: Boochever, Annie, author.

      Title: Fighter in velvet gloves : Alaska civil rights hero Elizabeth Peratrovich / by Annie Boochever ; in collaboration with Roy Peratrovich, Jr.

      Description: Fairbanks, AK : University of Alaska Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references. |

      Identifiers: LCCN 2018028794 (print) | LCCN 2018049028 (ebook) | ISBN 9781602233720 (ebook) | ISBN 9781602233706 (pbk. : alk. paper)

      Subjects: LCSH: Peratrovich, Elizabeth, 1911–1958. | Tlingit Indians–Alaska–Biography. | Indians of North America–Civil rights.

      Classification: LCC E99.T6 (ebook) | LCC E99.T6 B66 2019 (print) | DDC 323.1197—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018028794

      Printed in the United States by Sheridan

      ISBN-13: 978-1-60223-371-3 (electronic)

      To TigerLily, Ayla Blue, and Harvey Dean

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Prologue by Roy Peratrovich Jr.

      Elizabeth Peratrovich’s Parents

      Growing Up the Alaska Native Way

      School Days

      Citizenship, a Terrible Sign, and Kayhi

      Marriage and Klawock

      The Capital City

      Separate Schools

      The Native Vote

      Meeting with the Governor

      The Orphanage

      Laying the Groundwork by Airplane

      Grand Presidents

      The Big Day

      Carefully Chosen Words

      What Happened Next

      A Quiet Ending

      Epilogue

      Afterword

      Timeline

      Glossary

      Bibliography

      Acknowledgments

      Introduction

      Native people thrived in Alaska for thousands of years before the first white fur traders arrived about the time of the American Revolution. By the end of World War II, the natural riches of Alaska—its great whales, fur-bearing wildlife, abundant salmon, ancient timber, and precious metals—had attracted wave after wave of newcomers. During that long period, the rights of Alaska Native people—the right to hunt and fish on their lands,

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