Ivan Bush, leader in education and civil rights who showed Spokane how to embrace Martin Luther King Jr., dies at 73

Ivan Bush, a leader in civil rights and education in Spokane for nearly 40 years, died on Sunday, his family confirmed. He was 73.

Bush was born in East St. Louis, Illinois on Dec. 31, 1949, and received his bachelor’s in social science from Texas College in 1972.

He held a number of influential roles in Spokane. He was director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center and, later, the East Central Community Center, where he was a force for helping young people find productive and fulfilling ways to spend their time and bringing the community’s issues to the attention of the city government.

Bush was a lead organizer in events commemorating King in Spokane and was a long-time advocate for the city to name a street after King, which the city finally did in 2012. He and his friend Rev. Happy Watkins worked together for decades on the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day marches, which still bring thousands of people to downtown Spokane each year, in an effort to get people to take actions to improve society, not just consider it a day off from work.

But while many in the city embraced the King celebrations Bush and Watkins organized, some brought hate. Bush said in 2012 that he dealt with personal attacks for a good part of the first 20 King events he helped organize.

“The worst thing was the hate calls I would get, that threatened me or my family,” Bush said in a 2012 interview.

In 1992, Bush became the equal opportunity officer for Spokane Public Schools and held that position for 20 years.

“He’s the kind of person families would come to if they didn’t feel comfortable going to principals or their teacher. He’s trusted by them,” the then-Spokane Public Schools Superintendent Nancy Stowell said about Bush in 2012. “They know he will help them get resolutions to their problems.”

Bush was known for wading into politically contentious issues around race and discrimination, and looked at conflicts with an open perspective.

“He welcomed us in,” said, former Spokane City Councilwoman Roberta Greene, who appreciated Bush’s help when she and her husband moved to Spokane from South Carolina. “He was one of the pioneers in getting things done at the East Central Community Center.”

City of Spokane Director of Communications Lisa Gardner, for whom Bush had been a close family friend, said there were “not enough words to describe Ivan’s impact.”

In addition to his official work, he was also an activist who refused to let the public forget the cost of equality.

Along with Dan Johnson, Bush held Spokane’s first march honoring Martin Luther King Jr. in 1984, before it became a federal holiday.

“We didn’t ask for permission, we just did it,” he said later. Bush and Watkins stepped down from organizing the annual MLK day celebration in 2014 after being active in it for 25 years.

In 1982, standing in for mayor James Chase at a Black History Month event, Bush said to an audience at Fairchild Air Force Base, “An understanding of minorities and their culture – whether they be Black or Asian or Indian – within this society is to everyone’s advantage. It promotes a better understanding of each other.”

Bush submitted an application to the City of Spokane to name the extension of Riverside Avenue east of Division Street after King. The Spokane City Council approved the idea in 2009 and opened the new street in 2012. After the city rejected other ideas for naming a street after King over the years, Bush was satisfied with the final outcome.

“This street is going to go through the heart of Spokane’s education district,” Bush said in 2011. “That will go well with the principles that Dr. King believed in: Faith, family and education.”

Bush was appointed in 2012 by then-Mayor David Condon to serve on the city’s Use of Force Commission, which examined the Spokane Police Department’s practices in the aftermath of the death of Otto Zehm, who died in police custody in 2006. Many of the commission’s recommendations, including one for all officers to wear body cameras, were adopted by the department.

After retiring, Bush moved to Maryland in 2016 to be closer to his children.

He is survived by his wife, Fannie, and daughters Shayla, Ivy and Oceana, as well as two grandsons Kobe and Kyrie – Ivan’s “pride and joy,” according to his family. They have requested that in lieu of flowers, those who wish to pay their respects send donations to the Martin Luther King Jr. Family Outreach Center.