KNDO/KNDU Tri-Cities, Yakima, WA | Yakima's Population Changes Over 50 Years

Yakima's Population Changes Over 50 Years

YAKIMA--2009 marks 50 years in Yakima for KNDO, and we're profiling issues that have shaped our city over the past half-century.  This week we're looking at Yakima's journey from a mostly white city to a more diverse community.

The earliest U.S. census numbers show that about eight percent of Yakima County residents were Mexican-American in 1965, but numbers from back then didn't differentiate between Anglos and Hispanics.  So those numbers doesn't account for people like Gilberto Alaniz.

His family moved here from Texas in the mid-1950s.

"We were all United States citizens," Alaniz said.  "Now we have people that are migrating from different countries with either a visa or a MICA card, with permission to work in the United States.  And, we have a lot of undocumented workers."

Those immigrants--legal and illegal--are why the latest census numbers have our county as more than 40 percent Hispanic.  That's almost 100,000 people.

Alaniz's family came searching agriculture jobs.  They're beyond that now.

"We've been able to educate ourselves so we move on to a better way of life," he said.

But, the migration hasn't stopped.

"We have individuals that are coming here to do the work that was done in the '50s and '60s by our families," Alaniz said.  "Now, it's done by the newcomers that come in."

Many Hispanics move into southeast Yakima.  Traditionally, it was a mostly black neighborhood.

"So many different nationalities that are able to interact," longtime neighborhood resident Johnnie B. Harvey said.

African-Americans have moved too.  Many, like Harvey's children, moved out of yakima.  She doesn't think it's due to the increasing Hispanic population.

"[There was] no conflict that I can remember, but the people leave to get better jobs and education."

Yakima's doubled in size since KNDO started broadcasting in 1959, but the black population hasn't grown nearly as fast.

One view of a community's population breakdown is school enrollment.  In the Yakima School District, 63 percent of  the students are Hispanic, 3 percent are black, and 30 percent are white.