'Always smiling.' Wing Luke's influence on Seattle and Washington

At 90 years old, Ruby Luke can still picture her older brother, Wing Luke, smiling in Seattle.

“He was very welcoming and friendly and always smiling,” she said.

Luke brought that smile with him through a range of challenges, a legal career, and, ultimately, to Seattle City Hall. He would have turned 100 years old in 2025, something that the Wing Luke Museum is commemorating this year. The museum that bears his name, in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District, not only exhibits an array of AAPI culture and history, it honors Luke and the work he did to make a better Seattle. The museum is celebrating Luke’s birthday at its annual dinner and auction on March 22.

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Ruby Luke recalls her brother was fun, especially in grade school, despite being bullied for being Chinese. He won over his bullies by drawing comics that made them laugh. In 1943, he became student body president at Seattle’s Roosevelt High School. When the United States entered World War II, Luke joined the Army. He earned a Bronze Star medal while serving overseas.

But back home in Seattle, his family faced a different battle. His mother, father, and siblings were evicted from their home after their landlord suddenly tripled the rent. As Chinese Americans, they were likely caught up in anti-Japanese sentiment of the time.

Cynthia del Rosario, Luke’s niece, said the eviction spurred her uncle to return from overseas.

“My uncle had to come back,” del Rosario said. “He took a furlough and came back home to move them.”

The whole ordeal had a lasting impact on Luke. It set the tone for the rest of this life.

“That really stuck with him,” del Rosario said. “He had already been a leader through high school and very charismatic, and had already developed deep leadership skills and a passion for people.”

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Service became the theme of Luke’s career from then on. After the war, he became a lawyer. Eventually, he was appointed assistant attorney general for Washington state, in the office’s civil rights department, between 1957 and 1962. At 37, he ran for Seattle City Council. At the time, the makeup of the Council was all white and male. His campaign leaned heavily into networking and humorous campaign posters. Luke unexpectedly won the 1962 election by 30,000 votes, and he became one of the first Asian Americans to be elected to office in the state and the first person of color on the Seattle Council.

“It was a huge deal for Wing to be on the City Council,” journalist Ron Chew said. “He broke the color barrier. He was an immigrant, and that was an unusual thing at the time.”

It was his sense of humor, Chew said, that became one of Luke’s greatest tools as a politician. He was able to cross the aisle and communicated with people from different backgrounds.

“I'm sure that a lot of the folks who were on the City Council really had not had a whole lot of encounters with immigrants and seeing the world from their perspective,” Chew said.

As a Council member, Luke leaned on his life experiences to inform his decisions. He pushed for an anti-discrimination policy known as “open housing.” Up until this point, it was legal to have racist housing policies. The effort is a good example of how Luke often operated, easily referencing history or literature to make a point.

During one exchange at a hearing for the open housing proposal in 1963, Luke listened to a Presbyterian minister voice opposition to the bill.

“I hope that you will not allow this ordinance to be adopted when it is so patently clear that it is designed to meet something other than the harmful effects mentioned here today,” the minister said at Seattle City Hall.

To get to the heart of the issue, Luke responded with a single question.

“You are, of course, a minister,” Luke said. “And I don't have it available, but what chapter and verse is it in the Bible, in the New Testament, ‘Love thy neighbors as thyself’?”

“I don't know the exact verse, right off hand,” the minister said.

“Thank you,” Luke responded.

Luke was known for being diplomatic and a good listener, even to people with opinions different from his own. del Rosario said Luke’s focus was more about problem solving and challenging injustice.

“In a time when he was the only person of color in the room working towards justice for people of color, being brave enough to do that and to do it in a way that didn't harm people,” del Rosario said. “He's like, ‘I'm not here to harm you. I'm here to help you. This will help everyone.’”

During his brief time on the City Council, Luke not only championed Seattle’s open housing law — which passed in 1968 — he also helped preserve places like Seattle’s Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market.

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When the open housing law was passed, Luke was not there to see it. On May 16, 1965, Luke was on a small plane, returning from a fishing trip in Okanogan County. The plane crashed in the Cascade Mountains. Luke died in the crash. He was 40 years old.

In their grief, Luke's family and friends built the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District, honoring his life and his passion to preserve and celebrate history. Ron Chew was the museum’s director for 17 years.

Luke’s name also lives on through Wing Luke Elementary School in South Beacon Hill and the Wing Luke Civil Rights Unit at the state Attorney General’s Office. Former Washington Gov. Gary Locke, the first Asian American governor in the continental U.S., told The Seattle Times in 2005 that he was “in constant awe “ of Luke after he visited Locke’s junior high school.

“So many people I’ve met since have talked about how he was destined for greater accomplishments,” Locke told The Times in 2005. “He had so much more ahead of him.”