In the 1960s they were not only comrades fighting against those who denied equal rights to minorities, but also good friends who partied and got arrested together.

 In 1968, the federal government declared Day Break Star in Fort Lawton a surplus property and planned on giving it back to its original owners - identified as the city of Seattle.

Native Americans in the area were outraged, saying that they were the original owners and the land should go back to them.  Fifty Native Americans, led by Bernie Whitebear, climbed a fence surrounding the fort and occupied it one night in protest of the government's decision. But they were not alone. 

Outside of the fort were protesters of all races-Blacks, Asians, and Latinos-led by Santos, Maestes, and Gossett.

"It showed a solidarity that these communities of color had," said Santos, who is presently Andrew Cuomo's secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

The Native American community received 20 out of the 1000 acres of the fort's property as a result of their united front on a 99 year lease that the city of Seattle granted them.

This was just one of the hundreds of protests that the Gang of Four organized.  Whether it was a city council meeting or a fight for land, they worked together, Santos said.

When the city council would meet to allocate funds to different community groups, the Gang of Four went together to make sure that the city would not pin them against each other for the same funds, said Santos.

In many ways the cohesiveness of the minority community was a function of its small numbers.   "You need to be able to rally enough people so that they meant something so that the mayors office, city council, and decision makers in the region had to look at them and take them seriously," said Santos.

In late 1960's, Santos became the caretaker for the St. Peter Claver Center, a former Maryknoll Mission church acquired by the Archdiocese of Seattle.  He would let various community groups use the building's auditorium free of charge.  It was a time of great activism-during the Civil Rights Movement when the key minority issues such as equal opportunity for jobs were at the top of people's minds.

These activist groups were led by Gossett, Maestes, and Whitebear, who eventually met and attended each other's meetings in the church's auditorium.  Santos, who was in charge of scheduling the meeting times, would let each of the three leaders know when the other meetings were. "We were a bunch of activists. We like to hit the streets and raise hell," said Santos.

Seattle has been seen as a model for other cities on how different ethnicities work together to fight for common problems such as lack of funding and racism.

The Japanese government invited the Gang of Four to Japan to talk about their experiences in a grassroots organization.  They gave a series of presentations to the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and talked about how they raised funds in order to establish services such as health care for their communities.

Despite their struggles and the progress that they have made, Maestes said that the good ol' boy network is coming back.  He points to approval of the Washington State Civil Rights Initiative (I-200) approved Nov. 3 by 58 percent of those who voted.  It abolishes race and gender preferences in state hiring, contracting, and admissions at state universities.