Pushing at the Golden Gate: Race relations and racial politics in San Francisco, 1940--1955

This dissertation is an investigation of race relations and racial politics in San Francisco. It examines the urban experiences of Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and African Americans to show how economic, social, and political marginalization characterized the lives of the city's nonwhite residents. In addition, the project relates changes that occurred in these communities of color during the middle of the twentieth century. The Second World War created labor shortages that enabled African Americans to take better paying jobs and led to a black migration that transformed the racial character of San Francisco. Chinese Americans made similar gains in employment, but their major victory was earning greater acceptance from white Americans. Internment and resettlement, however, forced Japanese Americans to rebuild their lives and their community.;Moreover, this study of race relations conveys how the anti-racist rhetoric from the war against fascism and the anti-communist rhetoric from the ensuing Cold War impacted the three minority groups. Because the Second World War was framed as a battle against intolerance, those who advocated racial egalitarianism gave increased attention to the persistence of discrimination and prejudice. African Americans in particular publicly criticized the racial divide and continually pushed San Francisco to adhere to its image as a tolerant, cosmopolitan city. They not only participated in campaigns for fair employment practices legislation, but also picketed businesses that refused to hire black employees. At the same time, the NAACP exposed racism within the city's justice system and challenged both the enforcement of restrictive covenants and the segregation policies of the local housing authority. Although they made a few contributions to these efforts, Asian San Franciscans often expressed a different set of concerns. Enjoying greater influence than they had in the prewar era, the JACL lobbied for immigration and naturalization rights, partial restitution for wartime losses, and a repeal of laws against alien land ownership. Chinatown's leaders, meanwhile, tried to protect their group's wartime gains by demonstrating its loyalty to America and by embracing anti-communism. They continued the tradition of eschewing political activism, especially since the sentiment against Asian San Franciscans appeared to be on the decline.