Parallel communities: African-Americans in California's East Bay, 1850-1963

California's nineteenth-century African-Americans in Alameda, Berkeley, Oakland, and Richmond (San Francisco's East Bay cities) developed institutions working towards ending de facto discrimination. These African-Americans believed the promise of the California Dream would afford both the state's white and black residents a common ground where social dignity and economic ability for all people would be respected. This dream proved elusive during California's first century of statehood, and African-Americans began to develop their own communities, parallel to the West's egalitarian creed but rarely sharing common ground with white Californians.;Nineteenth century African-Americans in California's East Bay fought strongly for political freedom. Statewide colored conventions and the black press helped to petition the California legislature to extend the political rights of California's African-Americans during the 1850s and 1860s. Programs of African-American organizations and black churches sought political and social legitimacy for their East Bay communities. During the period from 1900 to 1930 these African-American programs became increasingly aware of the need to establish economic legitimacy for their members as well. Unemployment in the Great Depression triggered economic campaigns protesting labor discrimination. World War II and heavy wartime migration to California's defense industries served as catalysts encouraging opposition to segregation. Political and social organizations already in place by 1940 helped direct African-American communities lobbying for fair employment and housing practices after the Second World War. As postwar civil rights mobilization grew, African-Americans in the East Bay realized legislative victories. Ironically this proved an important juncture as blacks found the California Dream slipping from their grasp. Although California's courts upheld Rumford's Fair Housing Act of 1963, California's voters had opposed it by a two to one ratio. Legislative campaigns opened many avenues for African-American advancement but failed to achieve the realization of a California Dream wherein black and white communities became one.