Watts, one of the most famous neighborhoods in Los Angeles, California, is located approximately seven miles southeast of downtown. Originally part of the Rancho La Tajauta Mexican land grant, Watts was incorporated in 1903 and began to grow as a community in 1907, when the … Read MoreWatts, California (1903- )
In the following article, James Langford, the first black teacher in Weed, briefly describes the history of the African American community there. Langford, who graduated from California State University at San Francisco with an elementary teaching credential in the spring of 1974, began teaching at … Read MoreAfrican Americans in the Shadow of Mt. Shasta: The Black Community of Weed, California
In the following article Dr. Carol Lynn McKibben, Director of the Seaside History Project, City of Seaside, California, and Lecturer, Department of History, Stanford University, describes the subject of her research, Seaside, California, and specifically the unusual history of the African American community in this … Read MoreRace and Color in A California Coastal Community: The Seaside Story
Now known as an upscale tourist destination, few people realize that Saltspring Island, British Columbia was seen as a land of freedom and of opportunity for many blacks in the mid-19th Century. It was a new frontier where blacks were granted rights by the British … Read MoreSaltspring Island, British Columbia
Roslyn, Washington was a coal mining town located at the eastern base of the Cascade Mountains. The first commercial operations in Roslyn were initiated in 1886 by Logan M. Bullet, Vice President of the Northern Pacific Coal Company, (a subsidiary of the Northern Pacific Railroad). … Read MoreRoslyn, Washington (1886- )
Established in 1738, Fort Mose was the first free black settlement in what is now the United States. Located just north of St. Augustine, Florida, Fort Mose played an important role in the development of colonial North America. As Great Britain, France, Spain and other … Read MoreFort Mose, Florida (1738-1820)
Originally the site of New York City’s first free black settlement, by 1850 the Five Points district in lower Manhattan had instead become infamous for its dance halls, bars, gambling houses, prostitution, and for its mixed-race clientele. To the larger white community, the Five Points … Read MoreFive Points District, New York City, New York (1830s-1860s)
Oliver Toussaint Jackson was an example of 19th Century western African American entrepreneurship. Jackson created a restaurant, a farm and a laundry service. His most ambitious venture was the establishment of Dearfield, Colorado, an agricultural colony for African Americans about 70 miles northeast of Denver. … Read MoreOliver Toussaint Jackson (1862–1948)
In the following article, Henry W. McGee, Jr., a Seattle University Professor of Law and Central District resident, discusses the recent dramatic transformation of the area from a predominately working class African American community into an area of high income white, Asian American and African … Read MoreGentrification, Integration or Displacement?: The Seattle Story
The Oak Hill neighborhood of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, had in the first decade of the 20th Century been the residence of well-to-do white families. Over the next two decades it was transformed from the addresses of the affluent into a working class neighborhood. During the … Read MoreOak Hill, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (1920-1950)
