Donald Anthony White, a young Black man, was sentenced to death after being convicted of murder. Protesters against the death penalty, including folk singer Joan Baez, convened on the steps of the Legislative Building in 1964, seeking clemency for White, who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic. He was granted a new trial and his sentence commuted to life in prison. He later graduated from high school and college while in prison. White’s story galvanized the nationwide anti-death penalty movement.
Unknown photographer, 1964, Susan Parish Collection, Washington State Archives
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2020