Harold Moss, the first African American mayor of Tacoma and the man who guided the sometimes troubled city through turbulent times, died Monday night. He was 90.

Moss died at his Tacoma home from long-term health complications, according to his family.

Moss became Tacoma’s first Black City Council member in 1970, first Black mayor in 1994 and first Black Pierce County Council member in 1996.

“Harold Moss was a lion, and he blazed trails that allowed many of us who came after him to assume positions of leadership,” said Marilyn Strickland, who became Tacoma’s second Black mayor in 2009.

Harold Gene Moss was born Oct. 1, 1929 in Gilmer, Texas, to John Harris Moss and Ida Bell Wright, according to History Link. His family later relocated to Michigan.

He settled in Tacoma after serving in the National Guard in the Korean War and stationing at Fort Lewis, now Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

In Tacoma, Moss and his then wife, Bil, fought against the discriminatory postwar real-estate tactic known as redlining.

“When you called a real estate office, you used what I call your ‘white voice,’ ” Harold Moss said in 2018, sharing his strategy for roping a white real estate agent into showing a home.

It wasn’t the only place they faced discrimination. Moss tried to skate at a Tacoma rink while still in the National Guard. He was stopped by the manager.

“He told me he was terribly sorry, but coloreds skated at the rink on Wednesdays,” Moss recalled in 1994.

That his government would train him to shoot at Koreans, who had never discriminated against him, yet his own countrymen would bar him from restaurants or, in this case, a roller rink, “really galled me,” Moss said.

Fighting racism

“I wanted to push for a change in the racial climate,” Moss said in 1994.

He wanted to change the system from the inside out, but protesting in the community just wasn’t enough, he said.

“I wanted to do all I can from behind the dais,” he said. “Otherwise, you’re just screaming into the wind.”

In 1969, he helped calm seething tempers and contain violence to a single night during the Mother’s Day Disturbance on the city’s Hilltop when racial tensions broke out into violence and property destruction. It is considered a turning point in Tacoma’s civil rights movement.

Jim Walton, who became Tacoma’s first Black city manager in 2003, recalled the Mother’s Day Disturbance as the start of what became a decades-long friendship and partnership with Moss.

Amid the turmoil, Walton said, Moss displayed the will and political tenacity that would go on to define him.

“He was a tough piece of leather, even though he was thought to be small and short,” Walton said. “He was able to maintain his focus. You couldn’t take him off his point.”

In the years that followed the Mother’s Day Disturbance, Moss won jobs for black contractors, helped found the Tacoma Urban League, built a long record of activism with the NAACP and continued to serve long into his retirement.

Lyle Quasim, co-chair of the Tacoma-Pierce County Black Collective, also described Moss as one of the “founding elements” of the Black Collective, which has now been active in the area for more than 50 years.

Quasim remembered Moss as a tireless advocate for the Black community who led by example.

According to Quasim, Moss was active in the Black Collective until COVID-19 forced meetings to be held remotely earlier this year. Moss was in attendance the last time the Black Collective met in person, Quasim said.

“Harold’s legacy is that he was fearless, he was persistent and he always kept the Black community in the forefront of everything he did,” Quasim said.

While Moss was never the officially the Black Collective’s chairperson, Quasim noted that “the power curve always flowed through” him.

“Harold has always been the guiding force around issues of politics and social justice,” Quasim said. “The work of the Black Collective for almost every day of the 51 years that we’ve been in existence was the work of Harold Moss.”

In 2019, the Tacoma City Council renamed the 34th Street Bridge, spanning state Route 7 between East B Street and East D Street, as the Harold G. Moss Bridge.

Current Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards called Moss “a shining bridge builder” on Tuesday.

“When people look at that bridge, they should see two things: A connection from one side to another, and the light that shines on it,” Woodards said. “I think that is how we should remember Harold.”

Both Woodards and Strickland said their political careers in Tacoma were inspired in large part by Moss.

The same is true for younger Black elected officials like Tacoma Deputy Mayor Keith Blocker, Metro Parks Commissioner Jessie Baines and University Place School Board member T’wina Nobles, Strickland said.

“The influence that he’s had on so many generations is understated,” Strickland told The News Tribune on Tuesday. “Harold always said, ‘It’s an honor to be first, but you never want to be the last.’”

On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer said Moss was a trailblazer and called his death “an enormous loss for our community.”

“In so many ways, his is a story of fighting for dreams that mattered for so many,” Kilmer said. “Last week, I had the opportunity to tell him that I loved him and appreciated him. And like so many others, I will miss him dearly.”

Ground-breaking mayor

Moss, then 64, was appointed to the mayor’s position in 1994, following the death of then-mayor Jack Hyde.

Moss had been serving on the City Council since 1987. He couldn’t run for the mayor’s position due to term limits. He had been re-elected to the council in 1988 and 1992.

Moss was sworn in at Tacoma City Council chambers on Jan. 26, 1994. U.S. District Court Judge Jack Tanner — who became the Northwest’s first Black district court judge in 1978 — gave Moss his oath of office.

Moss noted that at one time the thought of an African American becoming mayor of Tacoma “was not even a dream.”

“I’ve lived long enough I remember when coming into a building like this was a problem,” he said. “This is absolutely a glorious day.”

At the time, Moss worked as a civil rights manager for the state Department of Transportation.

Moss is survived by his wife, Genie Jefferson, and sons Mike and Dean Moss.

He is also survived by sisters Dorothy Toliver and Martha Brown, brother Frank Frison and numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and other family members.

He was preceded in death by daughter Cathy Tibbs Moss.

Services have yet to be arranged.

Craig Sailor

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Craig Sailor has worked for The News Tribune since 1998 as a writer, editor and photographer. He previously worked at The Olympian and at other newspapers in Nevada and California. He has a degree in journalism from San Jose State University.