{"id":22657,"date":"2022-06-04T19:58:54","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T02:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=22657"},"modified":"2022-06-04T19:58:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T02:58:56","slug":"a-task-force-made-the-case-for-reparations-it-also-revealed-the-bay-areas-racist-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/06\/04\/a-task-force-made-the-case-for-reparations-it-also-revealed-the-bay-areas-racist-past\/","title":{"rendered":"A task force made the case for reparations. It also revealed the Bay Area\u2019s racist past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/author\/justin-phillips\/\" target=\"_blank\">Justin Phillips<\/a>,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/author\/raheem-hosseini\/\" target=\"_blank\">Raheem Hosseini<\/a> June 3, 2022<font color=\"#007fac\"> (SFChronicle.com)<\/font><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.hdnux.com\/photos\/01\/26\/02\/53\/22555366\/6\/1200x0.jpg\" alt=\"The redevelopment of San Francisco\u2019s Black Fillmore and Western Addition neighborhoods in the 1950s represented one of the country\u2019s largest urban renewal projects. The project forced thousands of residents out of the city and decimated what was then San Francisco\u2019s Black cultural center.\"\/><figcaption>1of3The redevelopment of San Francisco\u2019s Black Fillmore and Western Addition neighborhoods in the 1950s represented one of the country\u2019s largest urban renewal projects. The project forced thousands of residents out of the city and decimated what was then San Francisco\u2019s Black cultural center.Art Frisch\/The Chronicle 1959<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.hdnux.com\/photos\/01\/26\/02\/53\/22555367\/6\/1200x0.jpg\" alt=\"Slaves work in California gold mines in 1852. During the Gold Rush, slave-owning whites from the South migrated to California. Even though California had an anti-slavery Constitution, it did little to interfere with the system of human trafficking created by the slave owners.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.hdnux.com\/photos\/01\/26\/02\/53\/22555368\/6\/1200x0.jpg\" alt=\"Actors costumed in the full regalia of the Ku Klux Klan chase down a white actor in blackface in a still from \u201cThe Birth of a Nation,\u201d the first feature-length film, directed by D.W. Griffith. The film inspired a wave of KKK chapter openings throughout California. While San Francisco is where the Klan gained its original foothold in the state, the hate group found a Northern California epicenter in Oakland.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In a nearly 500-page&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/oag.ca.gov\/system\/files\/media\/ab3121-reparations-interim-report-2022.pdf\">report,<\/a>&nbsp;California\u2019s reparations task force detailed how slavery, despite never being technically legal in the state, serves as the bedrock for systemic inequalities that Black residents endure today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report, which the task force spent a year crafting and released Wednesday, makes an extensive case for reparations. It also achieves something else:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woven through its pages of exhaustive research are dozens of examples of stomach-turning racist episodes in the Bay Area, some of which have been documented before. But when viewed as a whole, they expose the region for what it really was \u2014 and pretended not to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis report pulls back the curtain on San Francisco,\u201d said Rev. Amos Brown, the vice chair of the task force and president of the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP. \u201cIt also tells the truth about the nation because San Francisco is a reflection of America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>California joined the Union as a free state with an anti-slavery Constitution in 1850. But when the Gold Rush attracted slave-owning whites from the South, the state did little to interfere with their human trafficking. If anything, lawmakers strengthened the rights of migrating slave owners.More for you<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/bayarea\/justinphillips\/article\/California-s-reparations-task-force-is-16978715.php\">California\u2019s reparations task force is struggling with its first big test: Who should qualify?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/bayarea\/justinphillips\/article\/California-paved-the-way-for-reparations-16795425.php\">California paved the way for reparations conversation. Will America ever follow?<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1852, the California Legislature expanded the fugitive slave law to include \u201cany enslaved person who arrived before California officially became a U.S. state &#8230; but refused to return to the en-slaving states with their enslavers,\u201d the task force report states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the report, conservative estimates show anywhere from 500 to 1,500 enslaved Africans Americans living in California that year. Around three-quarters \u201cof the enslaved people trafficked to California were younger men or teenaged boys who ended up working as gold miners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The violence these enslaved residents faced was often brutal and sometimes public. The report shares an 1850 story from the Daily Alta California, a San Francisco newspaper, that illustrates one such scene: A slave owner beat a slave \u201cfor disobeying him\u201d in \u201cthe town square of San Jose.\u201d Both the slave and the slave owner were arrested, but because the slave was considered property, the owner wasn\u2019t found guilty of assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Fleeing San Francisco<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Peter Lester came to loathe living in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lester moved to the city from Philadelphia with his wife and five children in 1850, the same year California achieved statehood. A bootmaker by trade, Lester and a partner opened a shoe store the next year, and quickly found success during the early days of the Gold Rush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Lester was Black and recoiled at the loopholes in the state\u2019s \u201canti-slavery\u201d Constitution. He also slammed up against other ways the state actively disenfranchised its Black residents. When two men entered his store, throttled him with a cane and stole some shoes, Lester had no recourse. Because he was Black, the state law did not allow him to testify in court, preventing him from pressing charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1858, Lester\u2019s 15-year-old daughter became the focus of a local controversy. A pro-slavery local newspaper printed an anonymous letter demanding her removal from an otherwise all-white school, which Lester acceded to after weeks of racist backlash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lester ultimately gathered up his family and moved to British Columbia \u2014 much of the above account comes&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/bcblackhistory.ca\/peter-lester\/\">from the BC Black Awareness History Society<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 joining the roughly 200 Black families who left California \u201cin a mass exodus to British colonies in what is now Canada\u201d during the 1850s, the task force report states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDiscriminated against by both the laws and those who would break (them), many Black Californians &#8230; left the state,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time, the large outflow of families represented a significant proportion of the 4,000 Black people who had settled in California between 1850 and 1860, frustrated and appalled by the state\u2019s legalized protections for slave owners and legalized hostility toward them, in laws that stated, \u201cNo Black, or Mulatto person, or Indian shall be allowed to give evidence for or against a White person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The story came full circle for Lester, the BC Black History Awareness Society noted. In 1860, he became the first Black person to sit as a juror in British Columbia, serving a civic duty that California forbade him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">S.F. expands exclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Twenty-five years after the U.S. Congress abolished slavery through the 13th Amendment in 1865, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/S-F-could-become-4th-California-city-to-16604108.php\">to move all Chinese residents<\/a>&nbsp;to an isolated neighborhood. This 1890 decision marked what the report called \u201cthe first known attempt by an American city to segregate on the basis of race.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the local political body already had a history of targeted racist policies. From 1870 to 1883, city supervisors voted to bar Chinese people from government jobs and passed more than a dozen ordinances intended to harm Chinese-owned businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The modern-day Board of Supervisors acknowledged these and other past atrocities earlier this year when it adopted a resolution&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/San-Francisco-becomes-fourth-California-city-to-16823441.php\">formally apologizing<\/a>&nbsp;to its Chinese community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Sundown towns<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A popular Jim Crow-era racial segregation tactic was the creation of \u201csundown towns.\u201d These all-white communities used city ordinances, violence and threats of violence to keep nonwhite people outside their borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The term itself conveys an inherent threat: It isn\u2019t safe for a person of color to be in town when the sun goes down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sundown towns were a widespread phenomenon in California during the early 1900s. At one point, the state had more sundown towns than there were in the \u201centire South,\u201d and \u201cmost\u201d of San Francisco\u2019s suburbs were considered sundown towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>S.F.\u2019s KKK west<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The popularity of 1915\u2019s \u201cThe Birth of a Nation\u201d propelled America\u2019s oldest hate group to a strong second act thanks to the silent film\u2019s depiction of the Ku Klux Klan as heroic. In California, the KKK franchise actually started in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The KKK\u2019s emerged in the city shortly after the film\u2019s release, the report shows, making San Francisco the first city in the state with an established KKK presence \u2014 but not the last. Chapters of the violent white supremacist organization soon appeared in Los Angeles, where \u201cThe Birth of a Nation\u201d was filmed, as well as Oakland, Fresno, Riverside, Sacramento, Anaheim and San Jose, the report states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Klan culture so permeated Bay Area culture back then that public parades drew thousands of spectators and the KKK\u2019s influence shaped local policies&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/local\/justinphillips\/article\/An-affluent-East-Bay-city-chased-out-its-first-16242252.php\">restricting Black homeownership.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While San Francisco is where the Klan gained its California foothold, it found a Northern California epicenter&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/27502269\">in Oakland.<\/a>&nbsp;The East Bay city was home to at least 2,000 members by 1924, had a KKK vigilante group that worked with federal law enforcement officers, and successfully put forth political candidates for county sheriff and city commissioner that same decade, the report states, crediting&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/27502269\">research<\/a>&nbsp;by historian Chris Rhomberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Klan\u2019s infiltration of civic life in the 1920s also permeated the local law enforcement profession: At least 25 police officers in San Francisco belonged to the Klan, the task force wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Urban renewal<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Established by the Housing Act of 1949, urban renewal was dressed-up policy guidance directing cities to \u201credevelop\u201d their impoverished areas. In reality, it meant decimating Black communities, including one of California\u2019s most vibrant Black neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>San Francisco\u2019s Fillmore district was the center of the Black cultural experience on the West Coast, known as the \u201cHarlem of the West.\u201d Black-owned bars and jazz clubs lined the streets, frequented by the mixed-class Black residents living in the area. But the Fillmore didn\u2019t stand a chance against urban renewal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The city\u2019s redevelopment agency deemed the Fillmore a blight and through eminent domain, forced thousands of residents to leave. In the 1950s through 1970s, the agency made hollow promises that a better neighborhood would emerge after the razing of the old. But after the din of wrecking balls and bulldozers was gone, redevelopment efforts stalled for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the report, San Francisco\u2019s redevelopment plan \u201cclosed 883 businesses, displaced 4,729 households, destroyed 2,500 Victorian homes, and damaged the lives of nearly 20,000 people\u201d mostly in the Fillmore and the greater historically Black Western Addition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than 70 years later, the Fillmore is still struggling to reclaim its earlier glory, and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/Linking-Black-ownership-of-the-Fillmore-center-to-16636515.php\">disagreeing with the city about how to do so.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Reverse migration<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Escaping the harsh economic climate and segregationist laws of the rural South, upward of 6 million Black people migrated to the West, Midwest and North between World War I and 1980. Those who came to California often faced the kind of employment and housing discrimination they thought they left behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>San Francisco didn\u2019t employ any Black teachers, police officers, firefighters, streetcar conductors, bank tellers, bus drivers or cab drivers before 1940, the report states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ford Motor Co. moved from Richmond to a plant in Milpitas in 1953. But the city of Milpitas made it clear it didn\u2019t want Ford\u2019s Black workers there. According to the report, when the Ford Motor Co. labor union attempted to build housing for Black workers in Milpitas, the city responded by rezoning the site where the housing could have gone for industrial use, and banned more affordable apartment buildings through a zoning ordinance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fruits of that inhospitable climate fanned a reverse migration pattern in the modern era, the task force argues: \u201cIn the past three decades, about 275,000 Black Californians have left expensive coastal cities to move inland or to other states.\u201d This coincided with huge decreases in the number of Black people living in San Francisco and Oakland. Both cities saw their African American populations plunge at least 40% over the past few decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Brown, Wednesday\u2019s sobering report provides the public with an accessible if difficult tour through a side of California \u2014 and Bay Area \u2014 history that is rarely told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019ve done is given people the facts,\u201d Brown told The Chronicle. \u201cThe question now is what San Francisco \u2014 and the rest of California \u2014 will do with those facts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Justin Phillips and Raheem Hosseini are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email:&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:jphillips@sfchronicle.com\">jphillips@sfchronicle.com<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:raheem.hosseini@sfchronicle.com\">raheem.hosseini@sfchronicle.com<\/a>&nbsp;Twitter:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JustMrPhillips\">@JustMrPhillips<\/a>, @raheemfh<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/projects\/podcasts\/fifth-and-mission\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fifth &amp; Mission<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Justin Phillips joined The San Francisco Chronicle in November 2016 as a food writer. He previously served as the City, Industry, and Gaming reporter for the American Press in Lake Charles, Louisiana. In 2019, Justin also began writing a weekly column for The Chronicle&#8217;s Datebook section that focused on Black culture in the Bay Area. In 2020, Justin helped launch Extra Spicy, a food and culture podcast he co-hosts with restaurant critic Soleil Ho. Following its first season, the podcast was named one of the best podcasts in America by the Atlantic. In February, Justin left the food team to become a full-time columnist for The Chronicle. His columns focus on race and inequality in the Bay Area, while also placing a spotlight on the experiences of marginalized communities in the region.Written By<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/author\/raheem-hosseini\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Raheem Hosseini<\/a>Reach Raheem on<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before joining The Chronicle to be its race and equity editor in February 2021, Raheem Hosseini served as editor of the Amador Ledger-Dispatch and spent more than eight years writing and editing stories for his hometown alternative weekly, the Sacramento News &amp; Review, the last several as its news editor. Raheem has also reported stories for The Guardian, CalMatters and Capital Public Radio, among others, and his work&#8217;s been credited or cited by The Atlantic, The New York Times, Washington Post and ProPublica. He has a bachelor&#8217;s degree in contemporary literature from UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/img\/logos\/black\/logo.svg\" alt=\"San Francisco Chronicle Homepage - Site Logo\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/img\/core\/hearst_newspapers_logo.svg\" alt=\"HEARST newspapers logo\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a92022 Hearst<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Justin Phillips,\u00a0Raheem Hosseini June 3, 2022 (SFChronicle.com) In a nearly 500-page&nbsp;report,&nbsp;California\u2019s reparations task force detailed how slavery, despite never being technically legal in the state, serves as the bedrock for systemic inequalities that Black residents endure today. The report, which the task force spent a year crafting and released Wednesday,&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/06\/04\/a-task-force-made-the-case-for-reparations-it-also-revealed-the-bay-areas-racist-past\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22657"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22658,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22657\/revisions\/22658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}