African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to Present - Book Report/Review Example

L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to Present As an historical and sociological work, L.A. City Limits presents interesting, enlightening and revealing stories of the black experience from days of rural slavery to the often frustrating and regularly disappointing life in the city and its environs. It is provocative in its exploration of the black experience, as its author argues that for African Americans Los Angeles was both destination, dream, and in the end, not the escape from racism and bigotry they’d hoped for. Instead they found limits that were geographical, political and particularly, and perhaps most prohibiting, socioeconomic. His hypothesis: In the end, and throughout the twentieth century, white society failed to understand “the critical historical dimensions of the subject”(Sides 5), and despite laws and edicts passed over time, and the hopeful predictions of many African American leaders, racial equality in Los Angeles never actually became reality and urban life in America’s cities not the great opportunity for advancement they’d hoped. In the work and giving it added credibility, Sides draws on census data, local media of the time, federal records, civil right documents, labor organizations and oral records to paint a literary portrait that is clear, concise, informative and moving of a despised people, resentful of the bigotry they had experienced in the south, longing for acceptance and opportunity, found instead many of the same restrictions. In many respects the book can be summarized in Sides own words. “...enticed by well-advertised job opportunities” and “cautiously optimistic about the potential for racial equality in America’s big cities” (Sides 2) they came. That optimism is reflected in the words of writer W.E.B DuBois: “Nowhere in the United States is the Negro so well and beautifully housed...Here is an aggressive hopeful group—with some wealth, large industrial opportunity and a buoyant spirit. (DuBois in Sides 11) Similar favorable predictions came from writer Cary McWilliams in his article “Southern California: An Island on the Land” as late as 1946. “Today there can be no question that Los Angeles is destined to be one of the great centers of Negro life in America” (Sides quoting McWilliams 36) Both quotes seem echoes of the overall optimism of the time as reflected in the modern opera, Porgy and Bess, as the ensemble sings “I’m gonna live the high life in New York,” as in high expectation one of their number boards the train going from the plantation to New York City. DuBois’s, McWilliams’ and perhaps even Gershwin himself paint fanciful portraits that exclude the reality of racial incidents as experienced by Caleb Holden, who as early as 1912 was charged one dollar for a beer his white companion paid a nickel (Sides 12). Incidents such as these, over time, reinforced black misgivings regarding their acceptance. While blacks secured decent jobs and many owned homes, the city was notably segregated and steeped in what Sides quoting Clark Davis terms, “A Cult of Anglo-Saxonness,” (14) a harbinger of things to come in the 1990s with charges that the L.A. police department had in a racist fury brutally beaten Rodney King. Also Pre War and Post War integration was largely illusionary due to the wide spatial arrangement of the city (Sides 16) that gave the appearance of racially tolerant neighborhoods. Reality was that tacit segregation was evidenced in blacks rarely visiting public places. As for employment, problems were already manifesting themselves in the form of Mexican immigrants hired at low pay, a situation then unique to L.A. that caused a black representative of the California State Employment Bureau to charge, “no other part of the country would stand to have the labor done by persons other than citizens” (Sides 24). Early on and through the Post War period good jobs, many in industries formerly accepting of black workers, became progressively harder to come by, to some extent due to intransigent racist policies of the big labor unions. “Particularly galling to Los Angeles's black shipyard workers was the way the ‘whites-only’ policy was enforced” (Sides 66). Again we see the conflict between black workers and Mexicans emerging as the latter [and other minority groups] gained acceptance to unions while blacks were locked out. “Thomas Doram, a light-skinned African American, recalled that the union believed that he was white, ‘or at least not a Negro’” (Sides 67). It was the start of a problem that persists today, causing rising conflict between the black and Mexican communities. Alonso calls that conflict the city’s “dirty little secret” (http://www.streetgangs.com/magazine/070406racial.html). However, while Alonso suggests the violence is gang related [a lifestyle among blacks and Hispanics common in many of America’s cities], others have different opinions regarding its source. As Woodson-Bryant suggests, “Mexican President Vicente Fox said that his countrymen take jobs that American blacks don't want. But if you look a little closer, you find a disturbing trend of employers giving Latinos preferential hiring over African Americans”(http://www.thefreelibrary.com/RACIAL+TENSION+REACHES+FAR+BEYOND+GANGS+AND+JAILS.-a0142025507). However illusory their ideas of emigrating may have been, and whatever racist issues were present in the Pre and Post War era, one thing is clear:” the coming of African Americans to the city transformed it, as the city in the process ultimately transformed the emigrants” (Sides 20). A short chronological summary at this point serves to inform much of which Sides later suggests. At first in terms of jobs things had gone fairly well for African Americans. With the coming of World War II things got even better in that regard with industries hiring both skilled and non skilled employees to work in the many defense factories that located in and around Los Angeles. “By 1943, more than half a million people were employed in ship, plane, and steel production in Los Angeles” (Sides 37). Yet more and more workers were needed to fill the jobs, and a “continuing stream of migrants” fled from the south to the city, fueling fear from the white populace that the minority would overtake white dominance with their black aspirations for equality and upward mobility. (Sides 37) Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802 and other edicts forbidding segregation and discrimination in the job market were encouraging to blacks with the belief that “...the federal government, when compelled, could be a potent force for desegregation” (Sides 3). One might say that the war in a sense propelled blacks toward renewed hopes of success and the possibility of a life among the middle classes. One thing, however, laid lurking. The 1960s. While Los Angeles, on paper, was considered a bastion of opportunity, the race riots of the 1960s revealed an undercurrent of racism [perceived or real] that diminished L.A.'s image and for the rest of the country became “a sign of a dangerous turning point in the history of U.S. cities [ in general]” (Baldassare 1). Despite all of the former hopes and predictions, the black family began its decent, good jobs became less available, and black youth, unlike their forerunners from the south and its repressive environment, began seeing themselves as disenfranchised and disenchanted with the notion that L..A., and indeed other U.S. cities, offered little opportunity over racism. PreWar habits of blacks staying to themselves, away from public places essentially white in character became steadily more pronounced. Clear definition of ghettos emerged along with closing window of job opportunities. The radical ideas and violent push for civil rights of the 60s replaced the hope and expectations of the children of the emigrants of a former, more innocent and hopeful time. The L.A. race riots of the 60s bear careful consideration in the cities current identity and regarding the status of its black population. For urban blacks, especially in the western United States, the dramatic events of the 1960s [civil rights movement and riots] were the culmination of at least two decades of struggle for equality [begun in earnest in the 1950s]. At the forefront of the struggle were “migrants...determined to finally and fully share in the country's new prosperity” (Sides 131) and, as they believed, only possible in America’s cities with the help of burgeoning black organizations such as the NAACP, working in conjunction with powerful black churches and their leaders at the forefront. Whilst most efforts from the war through the 1950s were sporadic and smaller, by the 1960s a fully developed movement manned by dedicated adherents evolved and became a force in American city life. They could and would no longer be ignored. Moves for desegregation were going on everywhere with the government’s [Kennedy Administratin’s] advise and consent. L.A.’s importance in the movement as a national phenomena can not be denied. “Southern California's new black leadership was both a product of and an inspiration for regional and national movements for African American civil rights” (Sides 152). While sociologists generally consider this movement a positive step forward in the African American quest for civil rights and equality, there is no denying that the black leadership of the city did not have the power of persuasion over the younger elements for whom, without jobs and living in the deteriorated, crime ridden ghetto of the city, Watts, the peaceful pursuit of political justice and civil rights meant little, culminating in one of the worst and most violent actions recorded. The Watts Riots of 1965-- six days of killing and violence set that part of the city ablaze. In the end, thirty-four people died, 1,032 had been seriously injured and four thousand arrested and over forty-million in damage. (Sides 169) While some believe the riot a reaction to ongoing police brutality against blacks, others more astute and in touch with historical realities saw the riots as reaction in frustration to lack of jobs and housing discrimination that essentially forced them to live in one of the most notoriously crime ridden areas of the city. Besides, L.A. was not alone as a center for riots. Having weathered racial disturbances in New York City, Rochester, Jersey City, Paterson and Elizabeth in New Jersey, and Philadelphia in 1964, Americans had become familiar with racial violence in cities. But the Watts riot shocked blacks and whites alike not only because it was the most destructive racial explosion since the Detroit riots of 1943 but also because it took place in Los Angeles, still perceived by many as a relatively favorable city for blacks. (Sides 169) “Still perceived by many...” is an interesting statement. As evident earlier on, the African American effort to blend with middle class neighborhoods and achieve the lifestyle had generally failed. Had no one seen this? The practices of ongoing political, social and economic racism had triumphed, and the same attitudes that caused the city to boil over soon spread to other American cities for much the same reasons. As time went on, the situation obviously did not improve. While Sides only takes us through the 1970s, it is relevant to mention in the interests of continuity and understanding that in 1992 a series of well-publicized riots occurred behind the beating by the Los Angeles Police Department of Rodney King. When white officers were acquitted the African American community was so enraged the single worst episode of urban unrest broke out, leaving fifty-three dead and a billion in damage. “...the very destructiveness of the [both] riots proved to be an affirmation of their [disenchanted blacks] growing numerical strength and their power to shape the racial psychology of white Los Angeles by making people afraid” (Sides 170). This psychology unfortunately flowed over into other cities such as New York, where until the late 1990s Harlem was considered an unsafe place to avoid. Fortunately this is changing rapidly with the influx of new more affluent residents [black and white], and the area is fast become a trendy place to visit as it was early on in the twentieth century, when it developed as a center of black culture albeit not with a goal similar or expected in L.A. of racial intermingling. By the 1970s L.A. too had all but given up its identity as a place where racial intermingling was anticipated and “South Central's remaining white residents to abandon [abandoned] their efforts at ‘neighborhood preservation’ and simply move out” (Sides 170). The author, however, maintains that while the riots caused fear among whites, of much greater import was the loss of blue collar jobs over time and widening economic disparities, a condition common in many urban areas throughout the country. In general the book was very informative and the information enlightening. I did think, however, that the author tended to repeat himself and reiterate points he had made throughout the book. Examples are his insistence that the reason the L.A. experiment was unsuccessful over time was not only changing ideology but the loss of jobs, particularly blue collar jobs. He also does not, in my opinion, sufficiently stress the educational disparities that exist based on neighborhoods. His quantitative analysis was sparse but for the most sufficient to make his points. Qualitative analysis in terms of reinforcing statement were also scattered and in my opinion not always sufficient to prove his point. For instance he fails to go into enough depth regarding the cause of the Watt’s riots. Certainly there must be a wealth of quotable information on this topic that was not included. He only half makes his point consistent with his statement that “In their search for this better life, blacks often found urban America to be uneven terrain, bitterly reminiscent of the old South one moment, brilliantly bursting with opportunity the next” (Sides 201). It is the latter to which I would take exception, as the African American experience in Los Angeles, in my opinion and from his own statement, was and is hardly “brilliantly bursting with opportunity” (Sides 201). His policy suggestion while true enough on a certain level hardly addresses the specifics of the problem. As social policy he recommends that well meaning people need to think about where inequality comes from if real change is to happen in L.A. and the city’s promise fulfilled. While this is true, the problem, it seems, is far more complex. Work Cited Alonso, Alex. “Racial Tensions Between Blacks & Mexicans in Los Angeles are Growing.” Street Gangs Magazine (July 1, 2006). Baldassare, Mark. The Los Angeles Riots: Lessons for the Urban Future. Boulder, Co: Westview Press, 1994. DuBois, W.E.B. The Crisis, July 1913. Sides, Josh. L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004. Read More