Lynn M. Hudson - West of Jim Crow: The Fight against Californias Color Line

West of Jim Crow

The Fight against
Californias Color Line

LYNN M. HUDSON

2020 by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved

Publication supported by a grant from the Howard D. and Marjorie I. Brooks Fund for Progressive Thought.

Portions of appeared in Entertaining Citizenship: Masculinity and Minstrelsy in Jim Crow San Francisco, The Journal of African American History 93, no. 2 (Spring 2008): 174197. Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

Portions of appeared in This is Our Fair and Our State: African Americans and the Panama Pacific International Exposition, California History 87, no. 3 (July 2010): 2645. California Historical Society.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hudson, Lynn M. (Lynn Maria), 1961author.

Title: West of Jim Crow : the fight against Californias color line / Lynn M. Hudson.

Description: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020006503 (print) | LCCN 2020006504 (ebook) | ISBN 9780252043345 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780252085253 (paperback) | ISBN 9780252052224 (ebook)

Subjects: African AmericansSegregationCaliforniaHistory. | African AmericansCivil rightsCaliforniaHistory. | RacismCaliforniaHistory. | CaliforniaRace relationsHistory.

E185.93.C2

Classification: LCC E185.93.C2 H83 2020 (print) | LCC E185.93.C2 (ebook) | DDC 323.1196/0730794dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020006503

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020006504

For my mother,
Antonette M. Hudson

The journey of this book has been a long one. It has taken me up and down the state of California, to public libraries in Visalia and Riverside, to special collections at the Bancroft Library, UCLA, and the California Historical Society, and to the offices of the NAACP in Pasadena, my hometown. During the research and writing of West of Jim Crow, I have taught at four institutions and was encouraged and supported by innumerable colleagues, students, and friends. A journey like this requires sensible shoes and at least a village on your side, but several villages are best.

I was fortunate to be the recipient of generous support from the Newberry Library (in the form of a fellowship from the Associated Colleges of the Midwest) while I was employed by Macalester College. This was the perfect place to think about the significance of worlds fairs. Several grants from Macalester Colleges Wallace Foundation made it possible for me to advance the project in its early stages. Since I arrived at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), the Department of History and the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences have been stalwart supporters of my research, and I thank them for this. A fellowship from the Huntington Library allowed me to benefit from their rich collections in western history and the company of a great cohort.

Sometimes support comes from unexpected places. A retreat for historians organized by Annette Atkins, professor emeritus of Saint Benedict and Saint Johns University, provided a quiet sanctuary for writing and reflection. I benefitted tremendously from the suggestions I received from my fellow historians. A big thanks also to the writing coaches from the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. A wonderful circle of women in Cambridge, Massachusetts, sustained my body and soul during a sabbatical in 2015, and to them I remain forever grateful. Thanks to Daisy Hay, Lydia Diamond, Katherine Ibbett, and Tsitsi Jaji. While in Chicago, I had the good fortune to attend Write Out!, a writing retreat at the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at UIC, where I met amazing colleagues and felt truly lucky to be in the company of such fierce and committed scholars. To also receive editorial advice and support from editor extraordinaire Jill Petty seemed an embarrassment of riches.

My deep thanks to friends and colleagues who read all or part of the manuscript and offered invaluable suggestions: Julia Trimmer, Choi Chatterjee, Karin Vlez, Lisa Park, Mary Murphy, Charise Cheney, Jayna Brown, Mrida Ra, Jeff Sklansky, Kevin Schultz, Sue Levine, Marina Mogilner, and Jane Rhodes. A special thanks to Richard Blackett, whose job as advisor is, apparently, never-ending. His skills as a historian are unmatched, and I will always consider myself lucky to have landed in his orbit.

Other friends and colleagues sent sources, asked questions, challenged me, or let me bounce ideas around in their company. Thanks to Alexandra Stern, Albert Broussard, Jason Ruiz, Regina Kunzel, Dara Strolovitch, David Pellow, Amy Glass, Peter Geoffrion, Keith Glidewell, Scott Nelson, Cindy Hahamovitch, Susan Larsen, Cynthia Chris, Jill Randerson, Johanna Eager, Erica Doss, Tiya Miles, Michelle Mitchell, Becky Nicolaides, Martin Schiesl, Laura Ackley, Jamie Monson, Andrea Robertson, Chris Wells, Catherine Jacquet, Leon Fink, Keely Stauter-Halsted, Gosia Fidelis, Cynthia Blair, Jennie Brier, Barbara Ransby, Lisa Lee, Laura Hostetler, Elizabeth Todd-Breland, Chris Boyer, Rod Ferguson, Quintard Taylor, Leslie Harris, Robin D.G. Kelley, Jacquelyn Hall, and Bob Korstad.

Librarians at the following institutions offered their expertise and guidance: the Bancroft Library, Special Collections at UCLA, Pasadena Public Library, Pasadena History Museum Research Library and Archives, Riverside Public Library, Tulare County Library, (including volunteers Bobbie Levine and Sheryll Strachan), California Polytechnic State University, the Newberry Library, and the Huntington Library. A special thanks to the California Historical Society, especially Alison Moore and Debra Kaufman for their patience and deep knowledge of the archives; and to Lorraine Perrotta and Peter Blodgett of the Huntington Library for alerting me to sources that delighted and surprised.

. At UIC my research assistant Stephanie Smith applied her razor-sharp research skills and legal acumen to several of the chapters.

I could never have written this book without a team of California supporters. The following people provided shelter and love on endless visits to the Golden State: Michael Gorman, Patrick Patterson, Gary Phillips, Choi Chatterjee, Omer Sayeed, Ellen Seiter, Stevie Ruiz, Brenda and Darryl Henriques, Leslie Henriques, Ray Riegert, Alice Riegert, Jadson Souza de Jesus, Toni Hudson, Patrick Gaganidze, and Mignon Henriques. Alma Stokes, my junior high school teacher, showed me at an early age why history mattered and what racial injustice in California looked like.

Special thanks to members of my extended family who provided joy and encouragement during what must have seemed like an interminable journey: Kris, Kyr, Isabel and Skye Gaganidze, the Rhodes family, and my amazing aunties Debbie Wier and Sandra Clark and the whole Ciunci clan. I am especially grateful to my mother, Toni Hudson, for her unwavering support and faith in my abilities. If not for her admonition to enjoy the ride, I would never have been able to complete this book. Big thanks to my sister, Kim Hudson, who has been a friend, assistant, mentor, technical wizard, and so much more. Jane Rhodes has been with me on every part of this journey. She has read drafts, discussed evidence, listened to my rambling, shared her vast knowledge of African American history, and in every way possible made this a better book. I am truly grateful that she is by my side.