Migration and demographics
In 1940, 3% of the population of Oakland was Black, which grew to 12% in 1950, 23% in 1960, 34.5% in 1970. [4] African Americans arrived in Oakland en masse between 1940 and 1970 (which is called the Second Great Migration), as they left the American South where segregationalist Jim Crow laws were in effect. [1] Local jobs in the East Bay, particularly in the World War II era, such as shipyard work and railroad work offered Black Americans middle class wages. [5] [6] [7]
In 1980, Oakland, California had a 47% Black population (the 20th-century peak number); and by the 2010 census, Oakland had a 27% Black population due to out of state migration and an influx of Chinese, Mexican, and Filipino immigrants. [4] [5] [8]
Oakland, California culture
In 1867, the Brooklyn Colored School was opened by teacher Mary J. Sanderson (later Mary J. Sanderson–Grases) from Sacramento, offering early public school education to African American students in what was Brooklyn, California. [9] [10] [11] The school was closed when the city of Brooklyn was annexed as part of Oakland in 1872. [9]
Oakland is home to Black rights organizations, such as the Black Panther Party (1966–1982). [5] [1] Students Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party in 1966 at Merritt College (then located at a former high school on Grove Street, now occupied by Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute), which emphasized Black nationalism, advocated armed self-defense against police, and was involved in several incidents that ended in the deaths of police officers and other Black Panther members. Among their social programs were feeding children and providing other services to the needy. [12]
From 1968 until 1979 the Bayviewer (Lennie's Bayviewer) magazine was published, a political and social magazine focused on the African American community in the San Francisco Bay Area. [13] Bayviewer magazine collection can be found at Oakland Public Library in the African American Museum and Library at Oakland. [13]
Marcus Books was founded in 1960 in the Fillmore District of San Francisco as one of the country's first Black bookstores and oldest African American bookstore in the United States. It closed its San Francisco location in 2014 (with plans to return), and has a second location at 3900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Oakland. [14] [15]
Many Black celebrities grew up in Oakland, such as NFL player Marshawn Lynch, [16] and rapper MC Hammer. [17] Vice President Kamala Harris was born and raised in Oakland. [18]
