Rev. Dr. Samuel B. McKinney, a friend of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. passed away at the age of 91.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WASHINGTON STATE LIBRARY

STAFF REPORT

SEATTLE (AP) – The pre-eminent civil rights leader in Seattle has died. The Seattle Times reports the Rev. Dr. Samuel B. McKinney died Saturday at an assisted-living center in Seattle. He was 91. McKinney took part in civil-rights demonstrations in Seattle, Alabama and Washington, D.C. in the 1960s, and talked his college classmate, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – their fathers were pastors and friends – into coming to Seattle in 1961, which would be King’s only visit to the city.

McKinney, a 40-year pastor of the Central Area’s Mount Zion Baptist Church, helped launch the city’s first black-owned bank after local banks restricted loans to African Americans. He served as an original member of the Seattle Human Rights Commission, which successfully advocated for passage of Seattle’s first fair housing act.