Cities of color: The new racial frontier in California's minority-majority cities

Pacific Historical Review

Volumn 76, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 1-28

  Camarillo, Albert M ^a,b  

^a STANFORD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b Pacific Coast Branch   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEMOGRAPHIC TREND; ETHNIC MINORITY; RACIAL SEGREGATION; SOCIAL HISTORY; SUBURBAN AREA;

CALIFORNIA; NORTH AMERICA; UNITED STATES;

EID: 33846920068     PISSN: 00308684     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/phr.2007.76.1.1     Document Type: Article

References (72)

1. Newsweek, July 10, 2006, pp. 44-45. Contiguous to Compton's city limits to the north, the City of Lynwood is another community in southeastern Los Angeles County that was transformed after the 1960s from a white- to a black- to a Latino-majority population. Unlike Compton, however, the city is governed by a Latino-majority city council and mayor.
2. Time, Dec. 1, 1997.
3. Alan Berube, "Racial and Ethnic Change in the Nation's Largest Cities," in Bruce Katz and Robert E. Lang, eds., Redefining Urban & Suburban America: Evidence from Census 2000 (Washington, D.C., 2003), 139-140
4. William H. Frey, "Melting Pot Suburbs - A Study of Suburban Diversity," in Katz and Lang, eds., Redefining Urban & Suburban America, 155, 163
5. Washington Post, Aug. 21, 2006, A-3.
6. See also William H. Frey, "Diversity Spreads Out: Metropolitan Shifts in Hispanic, Asian, and Black Populations Since 2000," Brookings Institution Living Cities Census Series (Washington, D.C., 2006).
7. Analysis of the U.S. Census population figures for the twenty largest cities for 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000. See U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1970 Census of Population, Characteristics of the Population, Vol. 1, Pts. 1-52 (Washington, D.C., 1973);
8. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 2000 Census of Population and Housing, Summary Population and Housing Characteristics, Pt. 1, PHC-11, Table 10 (Washington, D.C., 2002).
9. See also U.S. Census Bureau website (http://factfinder.census.gov), American FactFinder, 2000.
10. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1970 Census of Population, Characteristics of the Population, California, Vol. 1, Pt. 6, Tables 24 and 27 (Washington, D.C., 1973);
11. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1970 Census of Population, Subject Reports: Persons of Spanish Origin, PC(2)-IC, Table 13 (Washington, D.C., 1973);
12. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 2000 Census of Population and Housing, Summary Population and Housing Characteristics, California: 2000, PHC-1-6, Tables 3-5 (Washington, D.C., 2002).
13. See also U.S. Census Bureau website (http://factfinder.census.gov), America FactFinder 2000, "California Cities: Race and Hispanic or Latino Origin" and "California Bigger Cities," both at website (www.city-data.com/city/California.html).
14. The Hispanic population in 2005 in Los Angeles County was 47.3 percent. See U.S. Census Bureau website, American Community Survey, Los Angeles County, California.
15. Albert M. Camarillo, "Black and Brown in Compton: Demographic Change, Suburban Decline, and Intergroup Relations in a South Central Los Angeles Community, 1950-2000," in Nancy Foner and George Fredrickson, eds., Not Just Black and White: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States (New York, 2004), 364-366. The U.S. Census Bureau enumerations of Hispanics in Compton in 2000 and in earlier censuses were, most likely, substantial undercounts, primarily because of a large percentage of undocumented immigrants in the city. The percentage of Hispanics in 2000 was probably closer to 60 to 62 percent of Compton's total population.
16. For the U.S. Census population figures for 1970 and 2000 for East Palo Alto, see note 5. For 1980 and 1990 population figures,
17. see U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1980 Census of Population, General Population Characteristics, California, PC 80-1-B6, Vol. 1, Table 32 (Washington, D.C., 1982)
18. and U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1990 Census of Population, General Population Characteristics, California, PC-1-6, Table 5 (Washington, D.C., 1992).
19. Michael Berman, "Race, Ethnicity, and Inter-Minority Suburban Politics: East Palo Alto, 1950-2002" (unpublished paper, Stanford University, 2002);
20. San Jose Mercury News, April 25, 2004, A1-A17. The census figures are difficult to ascertain with precision for many reasons in addition to the undercount of undocumented immigrants who form a sizable proportion of East Palo Alto's Latino population. The Latino population before 1980 was variably enumerated as "Spanish-surname," "Spanish-origin," or "Spanish-Mother Tongue," all of which were imprecise in counting the actual number of people in any designated census tract or other locality. East Palo Alto's census counts were complicated further since before 1983 the area was an unincorporated area of Santa Clara County and thus not a continuously designated "place" over time.
21. Carol McKibben, "Diversity, Community, and Race: Seaside, California, 1908-2006," paper presented at the annual meeting of the Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association (Stanford Unversity, 2006).
22. The formation of segregated African American neighborhoods in what is commonly referred to as South Central Los Angeles is treated in great detail in two new books: Douglas Flamming, Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America (Berkeley, 2005),
23. and Josh Sides, L.A. City Limits: African Americans in Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present (Berkeley, 2003).
24. For Mexican American residential patterns, see George J. Sánchez, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945 (New York, 1993).
25. Asian American community segregation patterns are described briefly in Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans (New York, 1989).
26. An excellent case study of South-gate, California, describes how municipal leaders and residents in this white working-class suburb near Compton deliberately kept minorities out of the city during the pre-and post-World War II decades. See Becky Nicolaides, My Blue Heaven: Life and Politics in the Working-Class Suburbs of Los Angeles, 1920-1965 (Chicago, 2002).
27. Camarillo, "Black and Brown in Compton," 363-365.
28. Berman, "Race, Ethnicity, and Inter-Minority Suburban Politics."
29. McKibben, "Diversity, Community, and Race: Seaside, California."
30. Ibid.
31. The segregated residential housing patterns, focusing on blacks, are richly described in Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton, American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass (Cambridge, Mass., 1993).
32. Interview with Don Drummond by Carol McKibben, Carmel Valley, June 15, 2006. Use of the oral histories regarding Seaside as cited in this article was granted by Carol McKibben, director of the Seaside City History Project. All oral histories from the project will eventualy be placed in the Seaside Public Library.
33. McKibben, "Diversity, Community, and Race: Seaside, California."
34. David M. Grant, "A Demographic Profile of Los Angeles County, 1970 to 1990," in Lawrence D. Bobo, et al., eds., Prismatic Metropolis: Inequality in Los Angeles (New York, 2000).
35. Jeffrey Benjamín Camarillo, "In and Out of Compton: The Impact of Demographic Change and Urban Decline in a Los Angeles Community, A Case Study of Compton" (senior honors thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 2001).
36. Berman, "Race, Ethnicity, and Inter-Minority Suburban Politics."
37. Interview with Diana Ingersoll, Seaside Public Works Director, Seaside, Calif., by Carol McKibben, Seaside Public Works Department Offices, Jan. 18, 2006 (hereafter Ingersoll interview).
38. U.S. Census, The Foreign Born Population: 2000, U.S. Census Bureau website (www.census.gov.population).
39. Jeffrey S. Passell, "Estimates of the Size and Characteristics of the Undocumented Population," Pew Hispanic Center Report (Washington, D.C., 2005).
40. See Bobo, et. al., eds., Prizmatic Metropolis;
41. Melvin I. Oliver and James H. Johnson, Jr., "Interethnic Conflict in an Urban Ghetto: The Case of Blacks and Latinos in Los Angeles," Research in Social Movements, Conflict, and Change, 6 (1984), 57-94.
42. A recent book by Nicolás C. Vaca, The Presumed Alliance: The unspoken conflict between Latinos and Blacks and what it means for America (New York, 2004), examines African American and Latino relations in various contexts in several cities across the nation.
43. San Jose Mercury News, March 11, 2001, 1A-14A.
44. Ibid.
45. Los Angeles Times, Feb. 13, 2000, D-1.
46. Ibid., May 7, 1990, B-1.
47. Newsweek, July 10, 2006, p. 45.
48. Interview with Mayor Ralph Rubio, by Carol McKibben, Carpenter's Local Union Office, Marina, Calif., Sept. 5, 2005.
49. Ingersoll interview.
50. Interview with Sister Carmelita, by Carol McKibben, St. Francis Xavier Church Office, Seaside, Calif., Nov. 10, 2005.
51. Interview with spokesman for Seaside Police Department, by Carol McKibben, June 15, 2006.
52. Los Angeles Times, July 6, 2005, A-1, May 19, 2005, B-1.
53. San Jose Mercury News, Jan. 20, 2002, B-1, B-9.
54. Fiscal Crisis and Management Assessment Team, "AB52 Assessment and Recovery Plans - Compton Unified School District" (Sacramento, Calif., Feb. 1, 1999), 11.
55. Los Angeles Times, June 8, 2000, B-1.
56. Interview with Helen B. Rucker, by Carol McKibben, Seaside, Calif., Jan. 9, 2006.
57. Los Angeles Times, April 16, 1998, A-8.
58. In ibid., May 7, 1990, B-1.
59. Ibid.
60. Susan Goldsmith, "Blacks Only," New Times Los Angeles, Dec. 12, 1997.
61. Newsweek, July 10, 2006, pp. 44-45.
62. Interview with Omowale Satterwhite, East Palo Alto Project/Dreams of a City Production Team, Harmony House Archives, Stanford University.
63. San Jose Mercury News, June 14, 2004, 1-9A.
64. For One East Palo Alto, see the organization's website: www.epa.net/ oepa. For the East Palo Alto Mural Art Project, see www.epamap.org.
65. Quoted in Regina Freer, "Black Brown City: Black Urban Regimes and the Challenge of Changing Demographics, A Case Study of Compton, California (unpublished paper, 2004; permission to cite this paper was granted by Professor Regina Freer, Occidental College), 12.
66. Ibid., 12.
67. Quoted in ibid., 33.
68. Ibid., 33.
69. Interviews by Carlo McKibben with the following Seaside residents: Al Glover, Feb. 2, 2006
70. Estela MacKenzie, June 1, 2006
71. Antonio Morales, Aug. 25, 2006; group interview with white and Asian American Seaside residents, Sept. 10, 2006.
72. Newsweek 2006 44 July 10