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Review of Racism in Our Local Past

By Richard Myers
Posted: 11/20/2024

The 1619: Lingering Imprint Discussion Group met Friday, November 15, 2024 at 12:00 PM PST.  Dr. Lynn Hudson was the speaker presenting on her book "West of Jim Crow: The Fight Against California's Color Line".  The meeting was recorded and the recording is available on the Pasadena Village YouTube channel (for techincal reasons, t maybe necessary to copy this link and paste it into your browser instead of just clicking on it). 

Dr. Hudson grew up in Northwest Pasadena and attended Cleveland Elementary School, McKinley Junior High School and Muir High School.  She explained that she would be discussing one chapter from her book selected because she believed it provided a sense of the depth and breadth of White Supremacy in California.

Dr. Hudson indicated that while White Supremacy was complex, it was well established in California with Jim Crow laws in place early in the history of the state.  She indicated California was "not late to the party" and invented forms and practices of Jim Crow both common and unique.  Her book, "West of Jim Crow" Is divided into six chapters which demonstrate the nature of segregation in California.

For the purposes of this talk, Dr. Hudson chose to focus on Chapter 5: Burning Down the House/The Ku Klux Klan in California.  The chapter begins with the introduction of Charlotta Bass who wrote for the California Eagle, an African American owned newspaper.  Charlotta Bass raised the alarm about the rise of the KKK in California in the early 1920s.  Dr. Hudson reviewed the history of the Klan from it's beginning in the reconstruction era South. Originally, the Klan harassed newly freed slaves with a focus on voter suppression.  The Klan developed White Leagues, Citizen's Councils and other local structures to accomplish their desired outcomes of suppressing African American involvement in community life.

In the 1920's the Klan saw a broader rebirth in the West and Mid-West. This was illustrated by a photograph of a Klan March in Downtown Los Angeles. The photograph was published in the California Eagle with the question "what should we do about it?"  As the Klan became more politically involved, the California Eagle reported to the African American community of not just California, but, Oregon and Washington.

One story reported in 1922, involved the California Attorney General becoming involved after Klan members kidnapped a Latino couple in Inglewood.  The subsequent investigation led to the discovery of Klan membership lists which revealed over 1,000 Los Angeles City Police Officers and 3,000 County Law Enforcement personnel were Klan members.  Both the Los Angeles City Police Chief and the Los Angeles County Sheriff were members.  The kidnapping trial ended in an acquittal.  The NAACP reported "the Klan has continued to operate in plain view".

After World War II, the Klan saw a revitalization in California.  The focus at this time was on home buying, particularly by Latino and African Americans purchasing homes.  California had long used restricted housing covenants. One of the first to use them was Henry Huntington. California was considered a leader in the practice with it well established in Los Angeles County. A prior presentation on  the LA Times article how "Los Angeles pioneered the residential segregation that divided America" discusses these issues. 

The NAACP decided to focus on these covenants in legal actions.  The point person for the work was an attorney, Loren Miller.  In 1945, an African American family named Short moved to the city of Fontana. O'Day Short was an engineer for Kaiser Steel which had recently built a manufacturing plant in Fontana.
At this time, the City of Fontana represented itself as free of racial restrictions.  Mr. Short purchased a five acre lot and built a house.  Shortly after moving in, the County Sheriff visited and advised the family to move.  The Sheriff told the family they had come to the attention of the local Vigilantes and they "we're a tough bunch" (per a newspaper report).

In response, O'Day Short contacted a lawyer, the FBI and the Black Press. On December 6, 1945, the Los Angeles Sentinel ran a story about the Short family.  Three days after the report appeared, the Short house caught fire with all four members of the family dying.  The California Eagle began an investigation of the cause of the fire.  The paper hired a fire investigator and provided the information to the authorities, however, there were no criminal charges or follow up. Eventually, State Attorney General Robert Kinney withdrew the Charter of the Klu Klux Klan to operate in California.  The revocation had little actual effect. Beginning in 1952, there were a series of attacks related to housing attributed to Klan action.

Questions followed.  The first being from a former teacher of Dr. Hudson who asked why she made this area of research her academic work.  Dr. Hudson indicated that she felt having African American teachers exposed her to these stories from the community which she felt needed to be studied. Additional questions followed.

The participants thanked Dr. Hudson for her wonderful and informative presentation.  

The regular presentation on the 3rd Friday of the month is on December 20th which is too close to the holidays so we have decided to cancel the presentation and take the time off. Our next presentation will be on January 17th, 2025. The presenter be John Williams from the Center for Restorative Justice. 

We would like to wish everyone wonderful holiday season!