Daniel E. Crowe - Prophets of Rage: The Black Freedom Struggle in San Francisco, 1945-1969

Prophets of rage : the Black freedom struggle in San
Francisco, 19451969 / Daniel E. Crowe

p. cm.(Studies in African American history and
culture)

Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index

ISBN 0-8153-3766-3 (alk. paper)

1. Afro-AmericansCivil rightsCaliforniaSan
Francisco Bay AreaHistory20th century. 2. Civil rights
movementsCaliforniaSan Francisco Bay AreaHistory
20th century. 3. San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.)Race relations.
I. Title. II. Series.

The roots of the Black Revolution that shook the San Francisco Bay Area to its foundations during the 1960s stretched far back into the regions past. The long history of conflict and discord between the white majorities and black minorities of Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and San Francisco, thinly veiled by the cities liberal reputations, led to a dramatic explosion of black rage in the Age of Aquarius. Although many of the African American radicals spawned from the ghettos of the Bay Area would eventually gain national and even international fame, the origins and nature of modern Bay Area black radicalism, especially that of the Black Panther Party, can best be understood by examining the social, economic, political, and cultural environments present in northern Californias urban centers since the Second World War. During the 1940s, southern black migrants flooded into the San Francisco Bay Area in search of lucrative employment in the burgeoning war industries. The promise of upward economic mobility for thousands of African Americans proved chimerical, however, and the black newcomers faced an ever-hardening system of employment discrimination, residential segregation, unequal education, and police brutality. Conditions worsened for African Americans during the next two decades and growing discontent among working-class and low-income blacks over economic, political, and social injustices erupted in the 1960s. Abandoning the nonviolent and integrationist tactics of mainstream leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., African Americans from urban ghettos in the West preached revolution and redistribution of wealth and power. The move toward Black Power marked a distinctive shift away from the modern Civil Rights Movement, and the radicalization of many African Americans changed the nature of black protest, the rhythms of everyday life, and the course of federal welfare policy.

The massive influx of African American migrants into the Bay Area during the war years upset the racial status quo that the established white majority and tiny black minority had carefully crafted and maintained for more than a century. Prior to 1940, less than 15,000 African Americans called the Bay Area home. By 1950, however, the black population of Oakland alone had jumped from 8,462 to 47,610, a decade later, blacks in San Francisco and Oakland numbered in excess of 237,000. Due to their small sizes, black communities in the Bay Area were relatively autonomous before the Second World War, although white residents kept African Americans at the bottom of the social and economic hierarchy. After the arrival of the wartime migrants, however, race relations in the Bay Area deteriorated, and a pattern of discrimination and segregation common to the rest of the nation took hold. Despite the tenacity of white racism, however, African American migrants left an indelible impression upon the Bay Area. The newcomers helped to draw a new cultural landscape in northern California, and their patterns of speech, dress, religion, cuisine, and music forever altered life for blacks and whites alike. The migrants and their children would also form the vanguard of racial protest and black nationalism in the Bay Area, and established residents grappled with the shock waves of black migration for decades.1