Sacramento City Council
August 26, 2025

Resource Name or # Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought DPR 523B (1/95) *Required Information B1. Historic Name: Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought B2. Common Name:

B3. Original Use: Commercial, Educational B4. Present Use: Commercial B5. Architectural Style: International Style
B6. Construction History: Built in 1964, interior remodel in 1988, windows replaced, stone veneer added, back garage door addition at unknown dates.

B7. Moved? ⌧ No □ Yes □ Unknown Date: Original Location:

B8. Related Features:

B9. Architect: Dean Unger b. Builder: Miller & Edwards B10. Significance: Theme African American History, Civil Rights, Ethnic Studies Area Sacramento Period of Significance 1970-1977 Property Type Commercial Applicable Criteria Sacramento Historic Register Criterion I

The property at 3639 4th Ave appears to meet the criteria for listing on the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources under Criterion I, for significant associations with local African American History and the Civil Rights Movement. The property at 3639 4th Ave does not appear to meet the criteria for listing under Criterion II, association with significant persons, Criteria III or IV, as it is not a distinguished example of the International style and does not have an association with a master in its design or construction. Nor does it appear to meet Criteria V or VI, as it does not exhibit high artistic value or the potential to yield important information on history or prehistory.

B12. References: Sacramento County Assessor’s Office; Sacra- mento Building Division, Application for Permit to Build for 3639 4th Avenue, Center for Sacramento History; City of Sac- ramento Planning and Building Dept., Certificate of Occu- pancy; City of Sacramento, Mid-century Modern in the City of Sacramento Historic Context Statement and Survey Results; Sacramento City Planning Commission, “Community Plan for Oak Park,” September1963; Sacramento City Directories (vari- ous years); Sacramento Office of Historic Preservation, Sacra- mento African American Experience Project: Historic Context Statement, Sacramento, 2022.

B13. Remarks:

B14. Evaluator:

Ettienne LeFebre and Ella Cross

Date of Evaluation: April 30, 2023

(This space reserved for official comments.)

State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

Resource Name or # Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought DPR 523B (1/95) *Required Information

P3a. Description (continued):

Fenestration on the first story of the main façade includes three window walls, the two facing South being combi- nation 4/4 fixed windows with rectangular horizontally oriented double-paned replacement windows, and the one on the interior of the L facing East being combination 4/4 fixed windows with rectangular vertically oriented double- paned replacement windows. All of the windows are set flush with the facade and are cased in aluminum. The main entry door, located on the South façade, is a sash door with two double-paned glass panels. The door is set flush with the façade. Three lampposts with cylindrical posts and spherical glass shades protrude out of the shrub- bery on the left side of the South façade. On the North façade, facing the alley, a large square metal garage door and a recessed door located to the left of it provide access to the building. Between the alley and the North façade is a gated loading dock area. The window on the North facade of the building facing the alley, is a fixed, horizontally oriented single-paned window obscured by horizontal metal bars with a decorative design in the center. The door on the North fa çade, facing the alley, is a metal panel door recessed into the facade covered by a metal security gate in a design matching the security bars of the window on the same facade.

B10. Significance (continued):

Historic Context

The property at 3639 4th Avenue is located in the Oak Park neighborhood, a mixed-use area south of Downtown Sacramento. Established in 1887 after real estate developer Edwin K. Alsip subdivided the William Doyle ranch, Oak Park is one of the oldest communities in Sacramento. After 1900 Oak Park developed into a street car neigh- borhood and became the location of the California State Fair, which increased the number of residents and the economic activity in the area. Population growth and sewage and water issuers promoted the 1911 annexation of Oak Park into Sacramento city proper. After the redevelopment projects in the West End of Sacramento many displaced minority populations, especially African Americans, moved into Oak Park due to its lack of racial re- strictions. White flight to the suburbs increased the number of homes and commercial spaces available to African Americans, and by the 1960s Oak Park was a definitively African American neighborhood in Sacramento. Oak Park became increasingly isolated after the construction of Highway 99 and U.S. Highway 50 to the West and North, insulating the African American community further.

The commercial district of Oak Park was between 31st and 35th Streets on Broadway. The building at 3639 4th Avenue is located two blocks east in what was formerly a residential zoning district, and the first residential building on the parcel was a wood frame building built in 1925 by owner J.B. Pond. In 1958, the City of Sacramento developed plans to increase commercial traffic to the Oak Park business district by redeveloping sections of the surrounding area to create more parking areas. During this redevelopment process, the area around 3639 4th Avenue was converted from a residential zone to a commercial one in 1963 City plans. In 1964, the current International style building was constructed.

T
he International style originated with the Bauhaus movement in Germany in the 1920s and became popular in the United States in 1932 after New York’s Museum of Modern Art held an exhibition on the architectural style.

Defining characteristics of the style include flat roofs, rectangular shapes, asymmetrical facades, horizontal bands of flush windows and glass curtain walls, and minimalistic ornamentation. Buildings in this style tended to be constructed with concrete or steel and often had stucco massing. This minimalist design was popular in parts of Northeast United States and California in the 1930s, and after World War II appeared in less experimental and smaller forms. During the 1950s and 1960s many new International style developments appeared, including 3639 4th Avenue in Sacramento. The majority of the properties surrounding 3639 4th Avenue remained residential single State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

Resource Name or # Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought DPR 523B (1/95) *Required Information or multi-family buildings in various Victorian era and Craftsman styles and retain integrity from an earlier historical period before the 1960s.

After 1964 the property first appears in 1966 city directory as vacant, and from 1967-1968 a business listed as “Closet the Clo SLS,” which is likely some kind of clothing related business. In 1969, the property was occupied by Bennie’s Beauty Bar, a hair salon owned by an African American woman who had relocated after being displaced by West End redevelopment.

In 1969, Sacramento City College (SCC) acquired the property and designated it as the Oak Park School of Afro- American Thought, a program operated by the Black Student Union (BSU) at the college. The BSU moved in in early 1970. SCC’s BSU formed in February 1967 as similar groups formed across California universities, inspired by the 1966 founding of the Black Panther Party in Oakland and other Black Power and Black Nationalism movements across the United States in the late 1960s. BSU’s were among the targets of the F.B.I.’s COINTELPRO program.

This covert and illegal program, sought to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" civil rights organizations, and was responsible for the assassination of several Black Panther leaders. Founders of SCC’s BSU included Kinnie Ruth Foote (Hicks), Fredrick K. Foote, and other students. Future research into SCC’s BSU is needed so that its contributions can be preserved. While not all members of the SCC Black Student Union were Black Panthers, many were. The goals of the two organizations complemented each other, focusing on free community education, public service, counseling programs, and Black pride.

The SCC BS U organization devoted its time and energy to providing resources to Black students and advocating for diversified and less Euro-centric education. In fall 1968, less than six months after the assassination of Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr., San Francisco State College (SFSC) students went on strike after the school fired graduate student, lecturer, and Black Panther Minister George Murray for controversial comments he made regarding Black Nationalism and self-defense. Students from the BSU and newly formed Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), issued several demands, including the formation of a Department of Black Studies and College of Ethnic Studies.

The SCC BSU were vocal supporters of strikers at SFSC, and began demonstrating on the SCC campus for Black and other Ethnic Studies curriculum to be created by and for the marginalized students of the college. On February 7, 1969, the BSU issued a list of ten demands to SCC administrators to promote more inclusion of minority students in campus curriculum, including the creation of the Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought to create a center of learning in a Black community that had been historically undereducated. The BSU staged a series of protests, marches, and s it -ins to support their demands until President Sam Kipp agreed to give the BSU space at the American Legion High School during the Spring semester. However, the room given was reportedly the “size of a broom closet” and the students protested on campus the next day until the administration agreed to set the school up in trailers on the premises of the burned down Stanford Middle School at Martin Luther King Boulevard and 10th Avenue. In May of 1969, Los Rios Community College District agreed to move the school to a permanent location in the new SCC College Outreach Center in Oak Park at 3639 4th Avenue. In 1969 and early 1970 the school was still operating in the temporary trailers at the former site of Stanford Middle School.

F
ollowing the June 1969 Oak Park Riot which resulted in the ransacking of the 35th street office of the Sacramento Chapter of the Black Panther Party and the destruction of their ‘free breakfast for children’ program’s food supplies by the police, the SCC BSU stepped forward, volunteering to take over the program, which was hosted at a local church, since their site at Stanford Middle School was not large enough.

In May 1970, the fatal wounding of police officer Bernard Bennett resulted in the arrest of the later exonerated Oak Park Four, all of whom were involved in the SCC BSU, including Booker T. Cooke Jr. who was a past president of the organization. The BSU and Oak Park community members tirelessly raised funds for the defense of these State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

Resource Name or # Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought DPR 523B (1/95) *Required Information innocent young men through dances, concerts and direct, door to door appeals for contributions. If convicted, these young men would have faced the death penalty. Eventually all four were acquitted.

The School of Afro-American Thought moved into the building at 3639 4th Avenue in the Fall of 1970 and offered three classes: Ghetto Economics, an African American History class, and Black Drama. SCC teachers volunteered to teach these night classes free of charge to the public. The school welcomed all ages and races and often held lively and passionate discussions about race, ethnicity, and class. The drama classes produced community plays with free admission over the five years the school operated, and a counseling center also operated in the building, aiding African Americans and others in need of mental aid. The BSU took a leading role in the school, recruiting teachers, counselors, and developing curriculum, as well as getting the word out to community residents in Oak Park that the school was available to all of them, free of charge. The interior of the school reflected the empowering mission of the school, as it was decorated with wall murals of African American historical figures and Civil Rights leaders. Classes on Black and Afro-American Art, Spanish, Black Experience in Music, Sociology, and Consumer Problems were added to the curriculum as the school grew.

In
1977 the Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought, listed in many county directories alternatively as the Sacramento City College Awareness Center or the Oak Park Counseling Center, ceases to exist in county and city records. There are also no records from SCC regarding operations of the school after 1977. The reasons for the discontinuation of the program requires further research, but it was reported by the SCC college newspaper, The Express, on February 27, 1975, that the school was operating under the same budget it was given when it was first established in 1969, which was preventing it from expanding its programming. Budgeting could potentially be a factor in its discontinuation.

3639 4th Avenue later housed a Sacramento Housing Development office, the Oak Park Project Area Committee, and several construction and real estate offices from 1980 to 1997 when Bouey Termite and Construction Inc., acquired use of the building. The property currently operates as their office and warehouse. The last property transfer to occur was in 2008.

Evaluation

Under C riterion I of the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources, the property at 3639 4th Avenue has important associations with significant events in local history with a period of significance from 1970-1977.

The Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought represented a significant achievement for not only African American students at SCC, but African American citizens and students across Sacramento. Whereas the city’s state university did not develop their Black Studies programs until Fall 1969, and required students be enrolled in the university, the Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought was not only established first but was available to all members of the community free of charge. BSU students were entirely responsible for the operation of the school. Its location in Oak Park made it accessible to a large African American population. The program is an outstanding example of the Black Power movement in 1960s and 1970s in Sacramento and represents the determination and achievements of Sacramento City College’s Black students and Sacramento’s Black community. While the School first operated in trailers on the former site of Stanford Middle School, this location was temporary and is not extant today. The building most closely a ssociated with the Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought, 3639 4th Avenue, acted as the home of the institution during its period of significance.

T
he property may be significant under the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources, Criterion II, but will require more research into the lives of Fredrick K. Foote and Kinnie Ruth Foote (Hicks), two of the founders of SCC’s BSU, and the Oak Park Four: Akinsanya Kambon (Mark Teemer), Jack Stivers, Ceariaco Cabrallis and State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

Resource Name or # Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought DPR 523B (1/95) *Required Information Booker T. Cooke Jr., all of whom are significant persons in the history of the school and in local African American history. It is not known at this time if this property would be the property most associated with them during its period of significance. Further research is also needed to identify the volunteer teaching staff, who may also have been significant persons in the local community.

Under the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources, Criteria III, and IV, the property is not significant for its architectural style or for being the work of a master builder. While 3639 4th Ave is an International style building, it is not a significant example the style and lacks several character-defining features.

The property at 3639 4th Avenue is not significant under Criteria V or VI, as it does not exhibit high artistic value and is unlikely to yield any archaeological or informational value that has not already been recorded.

Alterations to the building since the period of significance include the replacement of the original sash windows with single pane windows, as well as the uncoursed ledge rock veneer on the building and the addition of a large garage door on the north façade facing the alley. Although the 1964 building permit details the planned project to be a one-story building, the second story does not appear to be an addition. The building retains strong integrity as it continues to be clad in stucco, retains its design characteristics, and although the windows have been replaced, the window walls retain the same layout as during the period of significance. The location and especially the setting around the property remain excellent, as the surrounding properties appear to be original to the period of signifi- cance. Considering these factors, the building is not only significant but highly recognizable as the building from the period of significance, which qualifies it for eligibility for listing under Criterion I of the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources under city code criteria 17.604.210.A.1.a.i for its association with the Sacramento City College Black Student Union’s School of African American Thought, a free and volunteer run, off campus center of learning focusing on issues important to the Sacramento Black community. The School of African American Thought was the first and only such center in Sacramento that operated outside of a college campus and was open to all members of the public, free of charge.

B12. References (continued):

Barth, Teri. “Fred Foote recalls his historic role in Civil Rights movement.” Sac City Express. February 6, 2015.

Bloom, Joshua and Waldo E. Martin, Black against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party.

Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013.

Cartwright Aerial Survey. Photograph. “Flight CAS-3315.” 1: 48,000. Sacramento, CA, June 13, 1972. UCSB Li- brary.

Cartwright Aerial Survey. Photograph. “Flight CAS-81081.” 1: 12,000. Sacramento, CA, April 1, 1981. UCSB Li- brary.

Cartwright Aerial Survey. Photograph. “Flight CAS-SAC 2-225.” 1: 20,000. Sacramento, CA, June 1, 1961. UCSB Library.

State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

Resource Name or # Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought DPR 523B (1/95) *Required Information City of Sacramento. Mid-century Modern in the City of Sacramento Historic Context Statement and Survey Re- sults, by GEI Consultants and Mead & Hunt. September 30, 2017.

City of Sacramento Building Department. Certificate of Occupancy for 3639 4th Avenue. Sacramento, CA. June 20, 1988.

City of Sacramento Community Development Department. “Oral History Project: Fredrick K. Foote” by Dane Nico- las. In
Oral History Interview Transcripts: African American Experience Project. November 29, 2021.

Datel, Robin. “Central Oak Park Walking Tour Brochure.” Sacramento County Historical Society and CSU Sacra- mento, 2010. Sacramento Room, Sacramento Public Library.

https://everloved.com/life-of/kinnie-foote/obituary/

“The Ethnic Studies Center at Sacramento State College.” October 14, 1969, AR 85, Ethnic Studies Center 1969- 1970, Donald and Beverly Gerth Special Collections and University Archives, Sacramento, CA.

Google Maps. “3639 4th Avenue Sacramento, CA.” https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bouey+Termite+Ser- vice,+Inc.+dba+Bouey+Construction/@38.5505106,-
121.4672634,167m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x809ad06734b00131:0xc126a202c75a2239!8m2!3d38.5 503423!4d-121.4667437!16s%2Fg%2F1w8wb84v.

Haines and Co. Inc..
1989 Sacramento City and Suburban Directory. North Canton, OH, 1989. CSU Sacramento Library, Sacramento, CA.

Haines and Co. Inc.. 1994 Sacramento City and Suburban Directory. North Canton, OH, 1994. CSU Sacramento Library, Sacramento, CA.

Haines and Co. Inc.. 1998 Sacramento City and Suburban Directory. North Canton, OH, 1998. CSU Sacramento Library, Sacramento, CA.

“Los Rios Board Okays Tentative $19.8 Million Budget Despite ‘Nays.’” Sacramento Bee. June 5, 1969.

McAlester, Virginia Savage. A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Under- standing America’s Domestic Architecture, 2nd ed.. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2022.

Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought. Pamphlet. “College Comes to the Black Community.” Sacramento, CA, Fall 1969. Fredrick K. Foote Collection, Sacramento City College Special Collections, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA.

Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought. Pamphlet. “College Comes to Oak Park.” Sacramento, CA, Fall 1970.

Fredrick K. Foote Collection, Sacramento City College Special Collections, Sacramento City College, Sacra- mento, CA.

State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

Resource Name or # Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought DPR 523B (1/95) *Required Information “Oak Park facility.” The Express. February 27, 1975. California Digital Newspaper Collection, UC Riverside, https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=EXP19750227.1.4&srpos=1&e=------197-en--20-EXP-1--txt-txIN- oak+park+school+afro%252Damerican+thought----1975---.

Photo and Newspaper Clipping. Sacramento Observer, August 1970. Sacramento Observer Collection, Center for Sacramento History, Sacramento, CA.

Photo of Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought at Stanford Middle School Site. Circa 1969. Sacramento, CA.

Sacramento City College Special Collections, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA.

Photo of Exterior of Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought. Circa 1970-1975. Sacramento, CA. Sacramento City College Special Collections, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA.

Photo of Interior of Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought. Circa 1970-1975. Sacramento, CA. Sacramento City College Special Collections, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA.

Polk’s Sacramento Directory Co. Publishers.

Sacramento Directory 1966. Los Angeles, CA, 1966. Center for Sac- ramento History, Sacramento, CA.

Polk’s Sacramento Directory Co. Publishers. Sacramento Directory 1967. Los Angeles, CA, 1967. Center for Sac- ramento History, Sacramento, CA.

Polk’s Sacramento Directory Co. Publishers.

Sacramento Directory 1969. Los Angeles, CA, 1969. Center for Sac- ramento History, Sacramento, CA.

Polk’s Sacramento Directory Co. Publishers. Sacramento Directory 1970. Los Angeles, CA, 1970. CSU Sacramento Library, Sacramento, CA.

Polk’s Sacramento Directory Co. Publishers.

Sacramento Directory 1971. Los Angeles, CA, 1971. CSU Sacramento Library, Sacramento, CA.

Polk’s Sacramento Directory Co. Publishers.

Sacramento Directory 1972. Los Angeles, CA, 1971. CSU Sacramento Library, Sacramento, CA.

Polk’s Sacramento Directory Co. Publishers.

Sacramento Directory 1975. Los Angeles, CA, 1971. CSU Sacramento Library, Sacramento, CA

Polk’s Sacramento Directory Co. Publishers,
Sacramento Directory 1977, Los Angeles, CA, 1977, CSU Sacramento Library, Sacramento, CA.

Sacramento Building Division. Application for Permit to Build for 3639 4th Avenue. March 29, 1963. Sacramento (Calif.) Building Division Records, Center for Sacramento History, Sacramento, CA.

Sacramento Building Division. Building Inspector ’
s Report Card for 3639 4th Avenue. January 9, 1926. Sacra- mento (Calif.) Building Division Records, Center for Sacramento History, Sacramento, CA.

State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

Resource Name or # Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought DPR 523B (1/95) *Required Information Sacramento City Planning Commission. “A Community Plan for Oak Park.” Sacramento, CA, September 1963.

Sacramento Room, Sacramento Public Library.

Sacramento City Planning Commission. “Oak Park Business District.” Sacramento, CA, 1961. Sacramento Room, Sacramento Public Library.

Sacramento City Planning Commission. “Oak Park Business District Study: Addendum Material.” Sacramento, CA,

July 1958. Sacramento Room, Sacramento Public Library.

Sacramento Office of Historic Preservation.

Sacramento African American Experience Project: Historic Context Statement, by Page & Turnbull with Damany M. Fisher. Sacramento, 2022.

Sacramento County Assessor’s Office. “Parcel 010-0385-012 Property Building Information.” Assessor Parcel Viewer. https://assessorparcelviewer.saccounty.gov/jsviewer/assessor.html#.

Sacramento Office of Historic Preservation.

Oak Park: Historic District Plan. https://www.cityofsacramento.org/- /media/Corporate/Files/CDD/Planning/Urban-Design/Preservation/Adopted-Historic-District-Plans/Oak-Park- HDP.pdf?la=en.

Smith, William A et. al. “Annual Report Special Programs SCC: EOP&S, Tutorial Center, College Awareness, Oak Park School, 1973-1974.” Sacramento, CA, 1974. Sacramento City College Special Collections, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA.

Smith, William A et. al. “Annual Report Special Programs SCC: EOP&S, Tutorial Center, College Awareness, Oak Park School, 1974-1975.” Sacramento, CA, 1975. Sacramento City College Special Collections, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA.

State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

Resource Name or # Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought DPR 523B (1/95) *Required Information

Photographs (continued):

Photograph 2: Bouey Termite and Construction, Inc., facing northwest, March 27, 2023.

Photograph 3: Bouey Termite and Construction, Inc., facing southeast, March 27, 2023.

State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

Resource Name or # Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought DPR 523B (1/95) *Required Information

Photograph 3: Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought south facade, Sacramento City College Special Collections, date unknown.

Photograph 4: Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought interior, Sacramento City College Special Collec- tions, date unknown.

State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

Resource Name or # Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought DPR 523B (1/95) *Required Information

SCC BSU Founding Members, Fredrick K. Foote and Kinnie Ruth (Hicks) Foote with an unidentified man, during the early 1970s.

P1. Other Identifier: 3555 3rd Avenue, Sacramento, CA, 95817

DPR 523A (9/2013) *Required information
State of California
The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI #
PRIMARY RECORD Trinomial
NRHP Status Code
Other Listings
Review Code Reviewer Date
*P2. Location:  Not for Publication X Unrestricted *a. County: Sacramento and (P2c, P2e, and P2b or P2d. Attach a Location Map as necessary.) *b. USGS 7.5' Quad Sacramento East Date 1967 (rev. 1980) T 8N; R 5E ;  of  of Sec ; B.M. c. Address 3555 3rd Avenue City Sacramento Zip 95817 e. Other Locational Data: APN# 010-0381-019-0000 (main) and 010-0381-011-0000 (rear). *P3a. Description: (Describe resource and its major elements. Include design, materials, condition, alterations, size, setting, and boundaries)
The Women’s Civic Improvement Club center is a complex of connected one-story buildings in a transitional Contemporary style, some portions bearing mansard roofs. It was designed by architect James Robert “Bob” McCabe in 1966, expanded in 1975, and again sometime after 1984.

Although it has been expanded it still retains much of its original design and the additions are in the same style. The original structure and the additions are a mix of post and beam construction with portions in masonry blocks, on cement slab foundations. The large lot was assembled from several smaller lots and is bordered on the west side by a neighboring house, on the south side by 3rd avenue, on the east side by 36th street and on the north side by mule alley. The WCIC with its expansions is 10,662 square feet. The southwest corner of the lot is occupied by the WCIC’s colorful, modern playground covered by a permanent shade structure with a fabric shade cloth roof. (See continuation sheet)

*P3b. Resource Attributes: (List
attributes and codes)
*P4. Resources Present: X Building
 Structure  Object  Site  District
 Element of District  Other
(Isolates, etc.)
P5b. Description of Photo: (view, date,
accession #)
*P6. Date Constructed/Age and
Source: X Historic  Prehistoric
 Both
Built 1966
*P7. Owner and Address:

Women’s Civic Improvement
Club, 3555 3 rd Avenue,
Sacramento, CA 95817.
*P8. Recorded by: Ella Cross,
CSUS.
*P9. Date Recorded: 5/17/2023
*P10. Survey Type: Intensive
*P11. Report Citation : None
*Attachments: NONE Location
Map X Continuation Sheet X
Building, Structure, and Object Record
Archaeological Record District Record Linear Feature Record Milling Station Record Rock Art Record Artifact Record Photograph Record  Other (List):

P5a. Photograph or Drawing

*Resource Name or # Women’s Civic Improvement Club *NRHP Status Code

DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California
The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
(This space reserved for official comments.)
(Sketch Map with north arrow required.)
B1. Historic Name: Negro Women’s Civic Improvement Club B2. Common Name: Women’s Civic Improvement Club or WCIC B3. Original Use: Social Services B4. Present Use: Same *B5. Architectural Style: Transitional Contemporary with Mansard roof. *B6. Construction History: Built in 1966, expanded in 1975 and expanded further after 1984. *B7. Moved? X No Yes Unknown Date: Original Location:
*B8. Related Features:

B9a. Architect: James Robert “Bob” McCabe b. Builder: Brown Construction *B10. Significance: Theme Civic engagement, activism and the fight for civil rights Area Oak Park Neighborhood
Period of Significance 1966-Present Property Type Commercial Applicable Criteria Black institutions and organizations also took it upon themselves to provide housing for their members. One such example is the Negro Women’s Civic Improvement Club (NWCIC). Founded in 1936 by a group of women, including Viola Brooks and Netta Sparks, the organization provided safe, comfortable housing for single Black women, who otherwise found their options for housing extremely limited or non-existent. During World War II and the postwar period, guests included women employed at McClellan Air Force Base and Mather Field. (See continuation sheet)

B11. Additional Resource Attributes: (List attributes and codes) *B12. References:

B13. Remarks:

*B14. Evaluator: Ella Cross
*Date of Evaluation: 5/17/2023

age of *Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) *Recorded by: *Date
Continuation
Update

DPR 523L (9/2013
State of California - The Resources Agency Primary#
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI #
Trinomial

CONTINUATION SHEET
Property Name: Women’s Civic Improvement Club

*P3A Description (continued)
The original Oak Park WCIC building was 4,054 square feet, built in 1966 and dedicated in 1967. As visible in the artist’s rendering of the building from 1967, the original 3rd avenue façade was asymmetrical and contained the double entry doors set into a window wall of fixed rectangular panes at the far left side of the façade. The entry was shaded by a wide overhanging flat roof with slat patterned exterior plywood finish under the eaves. The original signage seems to have been metal letters mounted to the right of the front entry on the existing cement masonry brick wall. The 3rd avenue façade was altered in 1975 at the time of the first addition. The 3rd avenue façade today is symmetrical, with the central double door entry reached by two cement steps from the sidewalk and flanked by cement masonry brick walls of equal length on either side. The signage today is a rectangular panel above the flat roof of the entry and lit by two floodlights. It reads “Women’s Civic Improvement Club.” Instead of a window wall, the entry now has a small rectangular, aluminum framed, side light window on the right and a larger rectangular fixed aluminum frame window on the left of the double, wooden, flat panneled doors.

The 36th street façade is complex. The façade has a partial flat roof with wide overhanging eaves which shelter five different doors, today each has their own entry gate. The original portion of the 36th street façade 16 large vertical, aluminum framed, fixed windows over horizontal rectangular recessed wooden panels. There are four wooden flat panel single doors and one matching double door. The central portion of this façade has a one and half story high mansard roof with no fenestration. With the post 1984 addition, the length of the 36th street façade was doubled and it now extends all the way to Mule Alley. This addition has two groups of windows. In all there are 11 rectangular, aluminum frame, fixed windows outlined in wide wooden trim. The left half of the addition has six windows and the right half has five.

Between the two groups of fenestration is a window width panel of slat patterned wood. The alley facing wall of the addition is in the same cement masonry brick as seen elsewhere in the building. The roof of the 36th street addition is flat with a rear portion mansard of one and a half stories, identical to the original portion of the WCIC building.

As seen from Mule Alley, the addition is L shaped. From the right corner, at 36th street and Mule Alley, the end of the “L” is a windowless wall entirely of cement masonry brick. Parking spaces are set within the L shape, along the alley. The shorter leg of the “L” is lit by five small, fixed pane, horizontally placed rectangular windows. The walls are of exterior plywood, vertically patterned as slats. A recessed doorway leads into the building but the door was not visible from the alley.
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The taller, mansard roofed portion of the addition is lit by 7 smaller fixed pane windows, of rectangular shape and also placed horizontally. The walls below the mansard are also of exterior plywood vertically patterned as slats.

Two further doors, matching the flat wooden panel doors of the rest of the structure open onto the alley. The end of the “L” shaped addition which abuts the residental property next door is made of the same cement masonry blocks seen elsewhere in the building.

*B10 Significance (continued)
Significance of the Women’s Civic Improvement Club
The organization was led by elder Black women and initially located at 19th and T streets before relocating to a Craftsman mansion at 1219 X Street. This building was demolished during the construction of Highway 50, forcing the NWCIC to move once again, this time to its existing location in Oak Park at 3555 3rd Avenue (extant). NAACP leader Alvernon Tripp served as executive director of the organization in the 1960s and was instrumental in the relocation effort. The organization continued its mission in its new neighborhood. In 1970, the NWCIC joined with the Shiloh Baptist Church to construct the Shiloh Arms, a low-income housing complex at 4009 23rd Avenue (extant) in Oak Park.

The WCIC continues to provide a head start program and other community services today.

This property is eligible for listing on the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resouces per criterion I, for its association with the Women’s Civic Improvement Club and the theme of Civic engagement, activism and the fight for civil rights. Sacramento’s African American community remained small compared to the city’s overall population through the 19th century but grew noticeable in the early 20th century and after World War II. This growth coincided with the periods during which the City of Sacramento experienced massive population spikes and parallels the First and Second Great Migrations during which African American individuals and families moved from the South to the Northeast and Western United States in search of economic opportunities. In Sacramento, African Americans settled in homes and apartments, found jobs and started businesses, attended schools and churches, and socialized and supported each other through clubs like age of *Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) *Recorded by: *Date
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the WCIC and other organizations. The African American community tirelessly supported and provided for its own.

As African American populations grew in cities and towns throughout California, racism and acts of discrimination increased, including the pervasive use of restrictive housing covenants, redlining older multiracial and multiethnic neighborhoods, and refusing to sell property to people of color to preserve white dominance in desireable neighborhoods. Sacramento was no different. Over the course of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, discriminatory housing practices concentrated the majority of African American residents in Sacramento’s West End neighborhood, along with other marginalized racial and ethnic groups.

The responses of Sacramento’s Black residents reflected the broader aims of the civil rights movement nationwide to address widespread discrimination across the United States during the 19th and much of the 20th centuries. In the face of direct and indirect discrimination, Sacramento’s African American residents worked to uplift their community and achieve greater racial equality through the efforts of their churches, community clubs and organizations, and the work of countless individuals. In spite of the Black community’s relatively small size compared to Sacramento’s overall population and that of other larger California cities, it had an outsized impact on the fight to broaden the rights of African Americans throughout California, thanks in part to its proximity to the State Capitol and the wide-ranging influence of several powerful community leaders. Sacramento’s African American community achieved major victories in the fight for equal rights, particularly during periods of heightened civil rights activity across the country in the Civil Rights era of the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Patterns surmised from primary and secondary historic resources through academic and community research indicate that many built resources associated with important events, persons and organizations in local African American history are no longer extant. The redevelopment of the West End neighborhood in the mid-20th century destroyed large swaths of Sacramento’s downtown, including the houses, businesses, churches, and other significant gathering places of the African American community. As a result, very few buildings related to the history of the local African American community before the 1950’s survive. The majority of those that remain standing from this early period are located in outlying neighborhoods where African Americans were able to settle in the early 20th century due to a lack of, or uneven enforcement of restrictive housing covenants, such as Oak Park, Del Paso Heights, and some areas at the periphery of the central city including Highland Park and Southside Park. The vast majority of surviving buildings and sites with ties to local African American history were built or used by members of the community after the 1950’s and are located in the neighborhoods previously mentioned.
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Desgnation of the Woman’s Civic Improvement Club as a landmark under criterion I is reasonable, appropriate and necessary to promote, protect and further the goals of American historic preservation.

Significance of James Robert “Bob” McCabe
Bob McCabe
The Women’s Civic Improvement Club is also significant as a good example of the work of architect Bob McCabe (1927-2015) a native Californian and prolific architect who’s work in California and especially and around Sacramento helped to preserve historic structures as well as create new ones. Therefore the building is also eligible for inclusion on the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources under Criteria IV as the work of an important creative individual or master. McCabe’s work included the first Crocker Museum expansion, the master plan and complete design of California State University Los Angeles, several buildings at California State University Sacramento, remodeling the homes of C.K. McClatchy and Wayne Thiebaud, a ten story office building in downtown Fresno, and numerous shopping centers to name just a few. He was responsible for the renovation of over one third of the buildings in Old Sacramento as well as several famous local historical homes and mansions. Through his mastery of his craft, McCabe was able to work with his clients and provide for their needs.

His work on the WCIC spanned more than twenty years. He expanded the building to meet the needs of the WCIC as times changed and more space was needed. Because of his mastery of the Contemporary style, McCabe was able to create a typology of forms, especially a rhythm of rectangular shapes, which he blended with the newly fashionable Mansard style. Although no original images of the WCIC have been located, the artists rendering from the building’s dedication in 1967 seems to indicate that the original mansard roof was sheathed in split wooden shingles. Today the mansard roofs of the complex are sheathed in vertical aluminum paneling.

The Women’s Civic Improvement Club is eligible for inclusion on the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources under Critera I and IV, given it’s association with events that have made a significan contribution to the broad patters of the history of the city, such as age of *Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) *Recorded by: *Date
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civic engagement, activism and the African American community’s fight for Civil Rights. The building is also notable the work of an important creative individual or master, the architect James Robert “Bob” McCabe, a California native who was actively involved in designing community structures such as the WCIC, universities, historic restorations and residential work for the wealthy. Under Criteria I and IV, it is logical and desirable that the Women’s Civic Improvement Club be designated a Sacramento Landmark.

Images

Image of 1219 X, the second home of the WCIC, demolished for Highway 50.

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Image of the Women’s Civic Improvement Club building at the time of its dedication in 1967. Source: African American Museum and Library at Oakland.

Note: original mansard roof seems to have been shingled.

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This assessor’s image has been labled to show the original footprint of the WCIC and the subsequent additions to the structure, the two unmarked additions were built sometime after 1984.

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Image of original building permits for 1966 and 1975.

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Image of the left half of the east façade of the WCIC, showing mansard roof.

This is the east side of the original 1966 portion of the building. Today the building’s mansard roofs are clad in vertical metal siding.

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Image of the right half of the east façade. The portion of the building past the double red doors is a post 1984 addition. Also visible in the background is the larger mansard roof of second post 1984 addition.

Image of far left corner of east façade of original 1966 portion of WCIC.

Note the flat slat roof with deep eaves, cement brick veneer at corner and rectangular aluminum frame fixed windows over rectangular recessed wood panels. Also visible is mansard roof.

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Image of WCIC post 1984 additions from Mule Alley. Note the consistency of materials and design with the 1966 original portion, including cement brick masonry exterior wall, flat slat roof and mansard roof.

Image of west side of WCIC showing 1975 cement brick additions at left and right of rectangular courtyard. Building materials and style are consistent with the original WCIC design.

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References
Center for Sacramento History, Catalog # 1995/027. Collection of architectural plans, elevations, drawings, and designs by Bob McCabe, Architect including the Women’s Civic Improvement Club.

Legacy.com Obituary for James Robert “Bob” McCabe:
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sacbee/name/james-mccabe- obituary?id=10149211 .

Online archive of the Sacramento Observer newspaper.

Lionel Holmes and Joseph D’Alessandro, Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area. Sacramento, Portuguese Historical and Cultural Society, 1990.

Sacramento’s African American Experience Project’s Historical Context Statement.

Sacramento County Assessor’s records.

Sacramento City building permit records.

State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ PRIMARY RECORD Trinomial _____________________________________ NRHP Status Code
Other Listings _______________________________________________________________ Review Code __________ Reviewer ____________________________ Date ___________

P1. Other Identifier: 2710 X Street
*P2. Location:  Not for Publication  Unrestricted *a. County Sacramento County and (P2b and P2c or P2d. Attach a Location Map as necessary.) *b. USGS 7.5’ Quad Sacramento East Date 2018 T___; R ___; ___ ¼ of Sec ___; _____ B.M. c. Address 2710 X Street City Sacramento Zip 95818 d. UTM: (give more than one for large and/or linear resources) Zone _____; ______________mE/ _____________mN e. Other Locational Data: (e.g., parcel #, directions to resource, elevation, etc., as appropriate) Assessor Parcel Number: 010-0241-029
*P3a. Description: (Describe resource and its major elements. Include design, materials, condition, alterations, size, setting, and boundaries) The office building at 2710 X Street was constructed in 1971 and is located on a .15 acre parcel. It is 2,842 square feet and built in the International style. It is located at the edge of the Curtis Park neighborhood in Sacramento, near the US Highway 50 freeway entrance. This two-story building has an L-shaped floor plan and features a flat roof with shallow coping. Both side walls of the building rise above the roof-wall junctions to form parapets and are built with concrete blocks with a geometric pattern that feature no windows or entrances. The main facade is on the north side of the building, which faces onto X Street. The recessed front facade is asymmetrical and features a mixture of cladding materials. The first story features three bays, with the center bay clad in concrete with a geometric pattern. The west bay is clad in vertical tongue in groove wood with a stucco ribbon above. The west bay also features three small, rectangular single pane windows set in a wooden frame ribbon with a large wooden panel beneath each. The second story features four bays and hangs over the first story. It is clad exclusively in stucco. Large, deeply inset single-pane paired windows dominate the second story in a ribbon of four pairs separated by a thin, metal mullion. Beneath each pair is a sill that slopes downward. (See Continuation sheet) *P3b. Resource Attributes: (List attributes and codes) HP6. 1-3 story commercial building *P4. Resources Present:  Building  Structure  Object  Site  District  Element of District  Other (Isolates, etc.) P5b. Description of Photo: (View, date,
accession #) Photo#1. Camera
facing southeast depicting
front and west facade; April
23, 2023.
*P6. Date Constructed/Age and Sources:
 Historic  Prehistoric  Both
1971, Sacramento County Assessor
*P7. Owner and Address:

Multbox LLC
1127 11th Street, Suite 824
Sacramento, CA 95814
*P8. Recorded by: (Name, affiliation,
address)
Alison Blecman
California State University,
Sacramento
6000 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95819
*P9. Date Recorded: April 23, 2023
*P10. Survey Type: Intensive
*P11. Report Citation: (Cite survey report and other sources, or enter “none.”) None *Attachments:  None  Location Map  Sketch Map  Continuation Sheet  Building, Structure, and Object Record  Archaeological Record  District Record  Linear Feature Record  Milling Station Record  Rock Art Record  Artifact Record  Photograph Record Other (list)
DPR 523A (1/95) *Required Information P5a. Photo or Drawing (Photo required for buildings, structures, and objects.)

State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Crossroads Building B1. Historic Name: 2710 X Street
B2. Common Name: Crossroads Building
B3. Original Use: Residential B4. Present Use: Commercial *B5. Architectural Style: International Style
*B6. Construction History: (Construction date, alteration, and date of alterations) Built in 1971 *B7. Moved?  No  Yes  Unknown Date: Original Location:
*B8. Related Features: ________
B9. Architect: James C. Dodd b. Builder: James C. Dodd *B10. Significance: Theme Architecture: Ethnic Heritage (Black) Area Sacramento Period of Significance 1971-1999 Property Type Commercial Applicable Criteria NRHP B and NRHP C (Discuss importance in terms of historical or architectural context as defined by theme, period, and geographic scope. Also address integrity.) The property at 2710 X Street meets the criteria for the National Register of Historic Places under the NHRP Criterion B and Criterion C. It both has historic significance and maintains its integrity to its period of significance, 1971-1999. The property shares significance locally and nationally with James C. Dodd, the first licensed and registered Black architect in the Sacramento area and a founding member of NOMA, or the National Organization of Minority Architects, therefore making it eligible under NHRP Criterion B. The property is also a significant example of the Mid-Century Modern International architectural style, and therefore meets eligibility under NHRP Criterion C at the local level. The property does not share significant associations to any events nationally, at the state level, or locally and therefore does not meet eligibility under NHRP Criterion A. The property does not appear to provide any information potential, and therefore does not share significance under NHRP Criterion D. (See continuation sheet) B11. Additional Resource Attributes: (List attributes and codes) *B12. References:

Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Marriage Index, 1949-
1959 [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com
Operations, Inc., 2013; Board of Trustees, Shiloh Baptist Church, “National Register for Historic Places
Nomination for Shiloh Baptist Church,” 2012; R. R.

Bowker, The American Architects Directory, (Chatham,
New Jersey: R.R. Bowker, LLC), 1970; William Burg,
Sacramento Renaissance, (Charleston, SC: The History
Press), 2013; Curtis Burau, “Architect James Dodd Is
Glad He Ignored Counselor’s Advice,” Sacramento Bee,
March 30, 1969, 24; City of Sacramento, Permit #H-
1834, 2710 X Street, Sacramento, CA 95818, June 8,
1971; City of Sacramento, Permit #F-2959, 3555 3rd
Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95817, October 14, 1966; City
of Sacramento, Assessor’s Map Book 010, pg 24,
County of Sacramento, CA. (See continuation sheet)
B13. Remarks:
*B14. Evaluator: Alison Blecman
*Date of Evaluation: April 2023
(This space reserved for official comments.)
DPR 523B (1/95) *Required Information

State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial ____________________________________________

*Recorded by Alison Blecman *Date 4/2023  Continuation  Update P3a. Description (continued):

The first story east bay features a wrought-iron gate with a modern hexagonal pattern leading to the porch, which rests under the second-story overhang and extends to the building’s rear. A straight run staircase towards the porch’s rear with concrete steps and a metal stringer leads up to the second story offices. The staircase features a simple, metal handrail.

Similar to the front, the rear facade is also clad in a mixture of materials. The second story is once more clad exclusively in stucco, while the first story is clad in both concrete block and stucco, with windowed areas surrounded by stucco cladding and the areas in between clad in concrete block with a geometric pattern similar to the building’s side walls.

The second story of this elevation features a balcony that covers the building’s length with a cantilevered roof covering. The balcony railing is enclosed with a stucco cladding and topped with a wooden handrail. Two sliding glass doors provide access from the balcony into the building, one in each bay. A wrought iron ladder attached to the west bay wall provides access to the roof. On the first story, another wrought iron gate with a hexagonal pattern leads to the porch. The two east bay windows on the first story are sliding windows with wrought iron bars blocking outside access. The west bay is surrounded by a wooden fence, but appears to have a large, single-paned sliding glass door. The building’s southern, rear side features a large parking lot behind an electric, wrought-iron gate.

B10. Significance (continued):

Historic Context
Curtis Park
The city of Sacramento’s Curtis Park neighborhood initially began as a ranch owned by William Curtis and his family in 1852. During the 1880s, the Sacramento area experienced a real estate boom, with families beginning to move into new homes in the city and the areas around the ranch. In the early 20 th century, the Curtis family sold off large portions of their land, allowing for further development in the area, including the establishment of Western Pacific Railroad shops, making it an ideal location for work and home. Much of Curtis Park’s residential areas were primarily constructed in various revival styles during this time, including Colonial, Spanish, and Tudor. In 1911, Curtis Park was incorporated into Sacramento, and continued to develop and expand until the Great Depression.1 In the 1950s and 1960s, Sacramento began its various urban renewal projects, upending its West End in favor of building the Capitol Mall, sending its former inhabitants, mainly people of color, into other areas of Sacramento. Curtis Park, a majority white section of Sacramento, continued to enforce its racial make-up through discriminatory housing practices and remained a majority white neighborhood despite the sudden upheaval in other parts of the city. Sacramento also began construction on its freeways, constructing US Highway 50, US Highway 99, and US Interstate 80 throughout the city. The freeways severed any connection between Curtis Park and the Oak Park neighborhood, which was quickly becoming a prominent Black neighborhood as a result of the urban renewal upheaval. The highways served not only as a physical barrier but an effective racial and class barrier between Oak Park and the wealthier Curtis Park. By 1970, the civil rights movement and the push for fair housing brought down racist housing covenants, opening more of the Sacramento area to Black families and families of color.2
1 Dan Murphy, Sacramento’s Curtis Park (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2005), 9-10, 33, 58. 2 Page & Turnbull. “Sacramento African American Experience History Project Historic Context Statement,” 2022, 36. Murphy, Sacramento’s Curtis Park, 87.

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial ____________________________________________

*Recorded by Alison Blecman *Date 4/2023  Continuation  Update Historic Persons
James C. Dodd was born to Richard Dodd and Pearl Smith in Texarkana, Texas on January 17, 1923. After graduating high school, he moved to Chicago in 1943 with plans to relocate to Wisconsin to attend university for a degree in journalism. The United States Army drafted him for service in World War II that summer, and he served as an Army Air Corps pilot until 1946. 3
Following his time in the army, he utilized his GI Bill benefits and moved to California where he attended University of California, Berkeley. In 1952, he received his bachelor’s degree in architecture from the university and moved to Sacramento in 1953 with his partner, Constance Curry, and young daughter, Florinda Dodd. His arrival in Sacramento marked him as the first licensed Black architect to operate within the city. In 1955, he married Constance and they had two children together, Florinda and James Dodd, Jr.4
Once in Sacramento, Dodd briefly worked for the State of California as a draftsman before he joined the architectural firm Barovetto & Thomas. His stay at the firm only lasted a few years, though. Eager to begin his own line of work, in 1956 he left Barovetto & Thomas and started his own firm James C. Dodd & Associates in 1960.5 Dodd produced some of his most notable designs at his newly established firm. As an architect, Dodd accomplished a huge body of work, many of which are in Sacramento and the surrounding area. One of his first works independent of Barovetto & Thomas was his family home, located at 1860 60th Avenue in Sacramento. He operated his firm from his home until he completed his office at 2710 X Street in 1971, where he then continued to operate for nearly 30 years until his death in 1999.6
Among his most noteworthy works is the Shiloh Baptist Church, the design for which he completed within the first few years of his independent practice. The Shiloh Baptist Congregation is among the oldest of Black Christian congregations in Sacramento, with origins dating back to 1856. With urban renewal and Sacramento’s West End’s imminent destruction hanging over the church, the current reverend, Reverend Joseph Williams, purchased the plot for a new building to house the congregation in Sacramento’s Oak Park in 1958. Dodd, a member of the church, was contracted to design the new building, construction for which was completed in 1963 in the International style.7 With its relocation to Oak Park, the church attracted many of West End’s former Black population to also move to the area.

In order to help their community, the church and Reverend Joseph Williams contracted Dodd to once again design for them, 3 Un ited States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K7L-3L3J: 10 February 2023), James Charles Dodd; Yvonne Chiu, “James C. Dodd, Sr.:

Pioneering Black Architect in Capital,” Sacramento Bee , February 10, 1999, 16 ; Curtis Burau, “Architect James Dodd Is Glad He Ignored Counselor’s Advice,” Sacramento Bee, March 30, 1969, 24. 4 Yvonne Chiu, “James C. Dodd, Sr.: Pioneering Black Architect in Capital,” Sacramento Bee, February 10, 1999, 16; Curtis Burau, “Architect James Dodd Is Glad He Ignored Counselor’s Advice,” Sacramento Bee, March 30, 1969, 24; Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Marriage Index, 1949-1959 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013; Ananda Rochita. “ James Dodd:

Sacramento's first Black architect, ABC10 Originals.” ABC10, February 7, 2022. 5 Yvonne Chiu, “James C. Dodd, Sr.: Pioneering Black Architect in Capital,” Sacramento Bee, February 10, 1999, 16; Curtis Burau, “Architect James Dodd Is Glad He Ignored Counselor’s Advice,” Sacramento Bee, March 30, 1969, 24. ; R. R. Bowker. The American Architects Directory (Chatham, New Jersey: R.R. Bowker, LLC, 1970), 228. 6 Cory Quon. “National Register for Historic Places Nomination for 1860 60 th Avenue,” 2021. GEI Consultants. “Mid-Century Modern in the City of Sacramento Historic Context Statement and Survey Results,” 2017, 76; 1. Yvonne Chiu, “James C. Dodd, Sr.: Pioneering Black Architect in Capital,” Sacramento Bee, February 10, 1999, 16. 7 Page & Turnbull. “Sacramento African American Experience History Project Historic Context Statement,” 67, 74; Board of Trustees, Shiloh Baptist Church. “National Register for Historic Places Nomination for Shiloh Baptist Church,” 2012, 14.

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial ____________________________________________

*Recorded by Alison Blecman *Date 4/2023  Continuation  Update this time to create affordable housing for the incoming community. In 1971, Dodd completed his work on the low-income complex, Shiloh Arms, at 4009 23rd Avenue.8
Another of Dodd’s notable accomplishments includes the Herold Wing of the Crocker Art Museum. It was a joint effort on by the city of Sacramento and the museum to modernize their art gallery and the surrounding area, and featured a reinforced coffer grid system and the museum’s first elevator. While he alone is not solely responsible, he contributed to its overall design and completion in 1969 with architect Bob McCabe and the architectural firm Cox & Liske Associates, whom he later worked with in 1984 to help construct a building for Kyle’s Temple AME Zion Church, the third Black church to establish itself in Sacramento.9
Dodd’s other significant works include the law offices for the prominent civil rights law firm Colley & McGhee in 1967, built in the International Style’s middle period. He also completed the Netta Sparks Women’s Civic Improvement Club building in 1966, the redesign of Sacramento High School for students’ safety in 1973, the St. Hope Academy of Sacramento in 1989, and several elementary schools throughout Northern California. While his primary work involved Northern California and the Sacramento area, Dodd was also licensed for work in Mississippi and Nevada.10 Similar to his design and construction of Shiloh Arms, many of Dodd’s works included low-income and environmentally friendly housing, creating communities, complexes and residences throughout northern California. In 1976, Dodd was approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to conduct work with his business venture, the Urfab System. The Urfab System begins with a pre-built, factory-made home that is then clad in recycled materials.11 Dodd was an active member of both his local and broader community, joining, participating in and leading multiple organizations within Sacramento and elsewhere in California. He was both a board member and served as president for the Central Valley Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1968. He also served as a member of the board of directors for the American Institute of Architects, as a board member for the Community Welfare Council of Sacramento in 1967 as well as chairman for their School Dropout Committee from 1966 to 1969, and he served as a member of the board of directors for the Sacramento Red Cross from 1968 to 1969. He was a director for a chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, from which he also received the Outstanding in the Field of Architecture Citizens Award in 1974. He was also a director for the Golden Empire Council for the Boy Scouts of America, Big Brothers, and the Sacramento Mental Health Association. Among his larger commitments to his community, Ronald Reagan appointed him to the board of governors for California Community Colleges in 1968 and 1969, and he participated as a member of the Coordinating Council on Higher Education in 1968. In 1966, he ran for a seat on the Sacramento Board of Education.12 8 Page & Turnbull. “Sacramento African American Experience History Project Historic Context Statement,” 74-75; William Burg, Sacramento Renaissance (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2013), 57. 9 Bowker. The American Architects Directory , 228; Yvonne Chiu, “James C. Dodd, Sr.: Pioneering Black Architect in Capital,” Sacramento Bee, February 10, 1999, 16; Quon. “National Register for Historic Places Nomination for 1860 60 th Avenue,” 11; Page & Turnbull. “Sacramento African American Experience History Project Historic Context Statement,” 25; 1. Charles Johnson, “Herold Wing Will Bring Modern Look to Century-Old Crocker Art Gallery,” Sacramento Bee, October 5, 1969, 33. 10 Page & Turnbull. “Sacramento African American Experience History Project Historic Context Statement,” 59; Bowker. The American Architects Directory , 228; Yvonne Chiu, “James C. Dodd, Sr.: Pioneering Black Architect in Capital,” Sacramento Bee , February 10, 1999, 16; Curtis Burau, “Architect James Dodd Is Glad He Ignored Counselor’s Advice,” Sacramento Bee, March 30, 1969, 24; 1. Mel Whitaker, “Sacramento High, Carson Plan Gains Favor,” Sacramento Bee, December 18, 1973, 5; Board of Trustees, Shiloh Baptist Church. “National Register for Historic Places Nomination for Shiloh Baptist Church,” 2012, 14. 11 Yvonne Chiu, “James C. Dodd, Sr.: Pioneering Black Architect in Capital,” Sacramento Bee, February 10, 1999, 16; 1. Curtis Burau, “Architect James Dodd Is Glad He Ignored Counselor’s Advice,” Sacramento Bee, March 30, 1969, 24; Board of Trustees, Shiloh Baptist Church. “National Register for Historic Places Nomination for Shiloh Baptist Church,” 2012, 13. 12 Yvonne Chiu, “James C. Dodd, Sr.: Pioneering Black Architect in Capital,” Sacramento Bee, February 10, 1999, 16; 1. Curtis Burau, “Architect James Dodd Is Glad He Ignored Counselor’s Advice,” Sacramento Bee , March 30, 1969, 24; Bowker. The American Architects Directory , 228; Board of Trustees, Shiloh Baptist Church. “National Register for Historic Places Nomination for Shiloh DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial ____________________________________________

*Recorded by Alison Blecman *Date 4/2023  Continuation  Update Dodd was a founding member of NOMA in 1971, the National Organization of Minority Architects. During the AIA National Convention of that same year, he and eleven other Black architects came together to form the organization for the advancement of other Black architects in their field.13 Architectural Style
The International architectural style, like many modern architectural movements, draws its origins from the Arts and Crafts Movement of the 19 th century. However, rather than embrace the social and political ideals of this artistic movement, the International Style instead rejects many of these ideals.14 The Arts and Crafts movement began in 1860 with John Ruskin’s belief that art should not only be beautiful but also accessible to the common man. Materials should be drawn from natural resources and laborers, rather than constrained by streamlined factory settings, ought to have the freedom to design and build their own craft. Freedom of choice would then produce work of higher quality and social value. These ideals carried over to the Amsterdam School of architects, who believed architecture to be an art and ought to be equally accessible to the common man.15 The Dutch de Stijl movement holds equal sway over the early International Style ideals. Started by Theo van Doesburg’s magazine, de Stijl, he published ideals similar to the Arts and Crafts movement, professing social utopia and a society freed from chaos. De Stijl art placed value in minimalism and cubism with emphasis on horizontal and vertical lines.16 From the Amsterdam School and de Stijl movement, the Arts and Crafts ideals quickly moved through the architectural world, eventually coming to influence those architects in Germany’s Bauhaus School of Design after World War I.

Architects Walter Gropius, Adolf Meyer, Adolf Summerfeld, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe pioneered the International style with industrial designs that featured minimalist, block-like structures, and their influence quickly spread across both Europe and to the United States.17
In 1932, historian Henry-Russel Hitchcock and architect Philip Johnson documented the work of these and other architects in the New York Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition, “Modern Architecture: International Exhibition.” When developing the exhibition, Hitchcock and Johnson utilized three criteria: the expression of volume, balance through means not necessarily symmetrical, and lack of ornamentation. Unlike other modern architectural styles though, Hitchcock and Johnson avoided social, political, and economic ideology when developing the exhibition, instead relying on the visuals of the architecture in question. In this, they rejected the ideology of movements like the Arts and Crafts, instead placing value on the artistic elements of the buildings alone. Their exhibition thus served to define the International style.18 Post World War II, the International style’s influence in architecture fell into decline, though it did not disappear entirely.

Influenced by the Contemporary style, International style architects of this middle period designed their buildings with significantly more glass windows but maintained square, minimalist designs. By the 1970s, an interest in the style resurfaced with the work of a group of architects known as the New York Five. Charles Gwathmey, Michael Graves, John Hejduk, Baptist Church,” 2012, 14.
13 “Noma Founder 05 James C. Dodd,” NOMA, April 5, 2021, https://www.noma.net/noma-founder-05-james-c-dodd/. 14 Lawrence Wodehouse, The Roots of International Style Architecture (West Cornwall, CT: Locus Hill Press, 1991), xiii. 15 Oscar Lovell Triggs, Arts & Crafts Movement (Arts and Crafts Movement) (New York, New York: Parkstone International, 2009), 8, 18, 22; Wodehouse, The Roots of International Style Architecture, 6-9. 16 Wodehouse, The Roots of International Style Architecture, 10. 17 Wodehouse, The Roots of International Style Architecture, 27-32; GEI Consultants. “Mid-Century Modern in the City of Sacramento Historic Context Statement and Survey Results,” 2017, 65. 18 Wodehouse, The Roots of International Style Architecture, xiii-xv.

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial ____________________________________________

*Recorded by Alison Blecman *Date 4/2023  Continuation  Update Richard Meier, and Peter Eisenman revitalized the style back into prominence, drawing from the earlier architects of the 1920s and 1930s, but incorporated the use of large windows into their designs.19 The International style is typically defined by its rectangular, block-like massing and balanced, asymmetrical facades. It commonly sports flat roof lines, with shallow coping the most common for the roof-wall junction, but can also appear unelaborated or with a wide, boxed overhang. Windows are large, often covering entire bays, and sit flush with the exterior wall. These commonly appear in long, horizontal ribbons or as floor to ceiling openings. Ornamentation is kept to a minimum if any, with some side walls entirely lacking windows, entrances, or adornments.20 The International style manifests in three periods, each with distinctive style differences. International style buildings constructed from the 1920s to the 1950s feature block-like structures, few stories, and less elaborate frames. From the 1950s to the 1980s, International Style buildings remain low, often single-story but not always, and are often raised off the ground by podiums at the corners of the home. This style is more rectangular than cubical and commonly feature shallow coping at the roof-wall junction. The third, most recent period begins in the 1970s and extends to the present. This International era is reminiscent of the earlier style, but features larger, more elaborate structures.21 Evaluation
The Crossroads Building at 2710 X Street, while having undergone re-roofing and an indoor redesign with the addition of an extra partition unassociated with the frame of the building. The property at 2710 X Street, is not significant under NHRP Criterion A. The building’s architect, James C. Dodd, while an active member and supporter of his local community and Civil Rights activists, did not conduct any known or historically significant events at his office at 2710 X Street. While this building was constructed during an era of desegregation in Curtis Park, it is not the first Black business in the area nor one that raised significant notice, and there is not significant.

This building meets the significance requirements for Criterion B under the NHRP. James C. Dodd is the first registered and licensed Black architect in the Sacramento area, as well as a prolific master of Mid-Century Modern architecture primarily but not exclusively throughout Northern California. He helped found NOMA, the National Organization of Minority architects, and he was a profoundly active citizen in Sacramento community services. While he accomplished his most well- known designs at other locations, he completed the majority of his work while his firm was located at the Crossroads Building. However, the residents following Dodd’s occupation do not meet any significance. This renders 2710 X Street eligible under NHRP Criterion B.

The property at 2710 X Street, also known as the Crossroads Building, meets the significance requirements for Criterion C under the NHRP. It is as an excellent example of the International Architectural Style. Built in 1971, it falls within the period that the International Style was in widespread use, especially for commercial buildings. The use of large glass windows and openings as well as the return to structure more cubic and larger in shape are exemplary of the International style during this period. The Crossroads Building similarly exemplifies features that the International Style of architecture is well known for throughout the twentieth century and into the present day, such as flat rooflines, balanced but asymmetrical facades, large, horizontal bands of windows, cantilevering, and expanses of walls lacking any windows at all. Finally, James C. Dodd was recognized both locally and by the state for his architectural work, both in composition and in style, and regularly consulted and hired on for architectural projects. This qualifies Dodd as a master of his trade. The Crossroads Building is an excellent, distinctive example of his work. This, renders 2710 X Street eligible under NHRP Criterion C. 19 Virginia McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America’s Domestic Architecture (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), 2049-2093. 20 McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses, 2049-2093. 21 McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses, 2049-2093.

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial ____________________________________________

*Recorded by Alison Blecman *Date 4/2023  Continuation  Update The Crossroads Building does not appear to provide any important information regarding human activity or history in its composition or construction, rendering it ineligible for NHRP Criterion D.

The property at 2710 X Street remains at its original location where Dodd constructed the building in 1971. The building’s overall structural remains unchanged from Dodd’s original conception in 1971 and the proceeding decades he remained in the building. The setting surrounding the Crossroads Building is equally unchanged. The property does face towards US Highway 50, however, it was constructed after the completion of the highway, and therefore the setting remains unchanged from both its construction and period of significance. There are no recorded permits that indicate any remodeling or restructuring of the property, maintaining the integrity of its materials. Dodd’s signature workmanship remains clearly identifiable, as does the feeling of its original design. Its association equally remains unchanged and its overall integrity intact.

B12. References (continued):

Chiu, Yvonne. “James C. Dodd, Sr.: Pioneering Black Architect in Capital.” Sacramento Bee. February 10, 1999.

GEI Consultants, “Mid-Century Modern in the City of Sacramento Historic Context Statement and Survey Results,” 2017.

Greene, Fayal. The Anatomy of a House: A Picture Dictionary of Architectural and Design Elements. New York, NY:

Doubleday, 1991.
“James C. Dodd: Beyond the Built Environment.” BeyondtheBuilt.com. https://www.beyondthebuilt.com/james-c-dodd.

Johnson, Charles. “Herold Wing Will Bring Modern Look to Century-Old Crocker Art Gallery.” Sacramento Bee. October 5, 1969.

Longstreth, Richard. The Buildings of Main Street: A Guide to American Commercial Architecture. Washington, DC: The Preservation Press, 2000.

McAlester, Virginia. A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.

Murphy, Dan. Sacramento’s Curtis Park. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2005. “Noma Founder 05 James C. Dodd.” NOMA, April 5, 2021. https://www.noma.net/noma-founder-05-james-c-dodd/.

Page & Turnbull, Damany M. Fisher, and Caru Bowns. “Sacramento African American Experience History Project Historic Context Statement,” Public Draft, October 28, 2022.

Quon, Cory. “National Register for Historic Places Nomination for 1860 60th Avenue,” 2021.

Rochita, Ananda. Article. “James Dodd: Sacramento's first Black architect, ABC10 Originals.” ABC10, February 7, 2022.

Sacramento County Clerk Recorder. Document #202210210767. 2710 X Street, Sacramento, CA 95821. October 21, 2022.

Triggs, Oscar Lovell. Arts & Crafts Movement (Arts and Crafts Movement) . New York, New York: Parkstone International, 2009.
"United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K7L-3L3J : 10 February 2023), James Charles Dodd.

USGS, “Sacramento East, California” Map, 2018, 1:24.

Whitaker, Mel. “Sacramento High, Carson Plan Gains Favor.” Sacramento Bee. December 18, 1973.

Wodehouse, Lawrence. The Roots of International Style Architecture. West Cornwall, CT: Locus Hill Press, 1991.

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial ____________________________________________

*Recorded by Alison Blecman *Date 4/2023  Continuation  Update Photographs (continued):

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information Figure 1: Photograph 2: Camera facing southwest depicting front and east facade, April 23, 2023.

State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial ____________________________________________

*Recorded by Alison Blecman *Date 4/2023  Continuation  Update DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information Figure 2: Photograph 3: Camera facing south depicting front entrance gate, April 23, 2023.

State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial ____________________________________________

*Recorded by Alison Blecman *Date 4/2023  Continuation  Update Figure 3: Photograph 4: Camera facing north depicting rear facade, April 23, 2023.

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information

*P11. Report Citation : (Cite survey report and other sources or enter “none.”) none *Attachments:  None  Location Map  Sketch Map  Continuation Sheet  Building, Structure, and Object Record  Archaeological Record
 District Record  Linear Feature Record  Milling Station Record  Rock Art Record  Artifact Record  Photograph Record Other (list)
DPR 523A (1/95) *Required Information
State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ PRIMARY RECORD Trinomial _____________________________________ NRHP Status Code
Other Listings _______________________________________________________________ Review Code __________ Reviewer ____________________________ Date ___________

P1. Other Identifier: Lewis Nelson Crawford House
*P2. Location:  Not for Publication  Unrestricted *a. County Sacramento and (P2b and P2c or P2d. Attach a Location Map as necessary.) *b. USGS 7.5’ Quad Sacramento East Date 1929 T_8N__; R _5E__; ___ ¼ of Sec ___; _____ B.M. c. Address 2685 26th Street City Sacramento, CA Zip 95818 e. Other Locational Data: (e.g., parcel #, directions to resource, elevation, etc., as appropriate) Assessor Parcel Number: 01003550140000

*P3a. Description: (Describe resource and its major elements. Include design, materials, condition, alterations, size, setting, and boundaries)

The property located at 2685 26th Street is a single-story, 1,027 square foot building with cement foundation on the north end of the residential neighborhood Curtis Park. The building is a Spanish Colonial Revival influenced craftsman bungalow. The building is defined by its asymmetrical stucco clad façade, eaves with little overhang, and a moderately pitched side gabled roof intersecting with an overlaid hipped roof with ridge clad in composite shingles (Photograph 1 and Sketch Map). The building also features a front gabled recessed arched entryway porch with one stucco column and two sets of three-step concrete stairs on either side of the stucco porch column. One set of steps faces the street elevation while the second set faces the driveway to the south. (Photograph 2). The porch gable additionally features a circle attic vent. The primary entryway door is a south facing glass door. The north side of the building features an exterior chimney clad in stucco on the gable wall (Photograph 1).

(See Continuation Sheet)

*P3b. Resource Attributes: (List attributes and codes) HP2 Single Family Property *P4. Resources Present:  Building  Structure  Object  Site  District  Element of District  Other (Isolates, etc.) P5b. Description of Photo: (View, date,
accession #) Photo#1. Camera facing
southeast on 26th Street, April 16, 2023, Photo

1. *P6. Date Constructed/Age and Sources:
 Historic  Prehistoric  Both
Sacramento County Assessor Parcel Viewer
(1929)
*P7. Owner and Address:
unknown
*P8. Recorded by: Michelle Laguna,
Sacramento State University and Ella Cross,
Sacramento State University.
*P9. Date Recorded: April 30, 2023
*P10. Survey Type: Intensive

P5a. Photo or Drawing (Photo required for buildings, structures, and objects.)

*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Lewis N. Crawford 2685 DPR 523B (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
B1. Historic Name: Crawford House
B2. Common Name: None
B3. Original Use: Residential B4. Present Use: Residential *B5. Architectural Style: Spanish Colonial Revival
*B6. Construction History: Building constructed in 1929 per Sacramento County Assessor.

Fire damage repair 1982 (Per county Assessor, no details), Permit 2021 Interior remodel (Per county Assessor, no details).

The Stucco façade of building appears to have been repaired in 2021 based on Google maps images.

South and north facing windows are metal replacement windows in original placement based on visual assessment.

*B7. Moved?  No  Yes  Unknown Original Location:
*B8. Related Features: Parcel features a side garden. Part of the Garden and shed near property are on separate land parcel.

B9. Architect: Unknown b. Builder: Unknown
*B10. Significance: Theme African American Real Estate Area Curtis Park Neighborhood, Sacramento Period of Significance Crawford Residence approximately 1930-1955 Property Type Dwelling Applicable Criteria: Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources Criteria I and II.

B11. Additional Resource Attributes: (List attributes and codes)

*B12. References:

Sacramento County Assessor’s Records, Sacramento County Directories

B13. Remarks:

*B14. Evaluator: Michelle Laguna and Ella Cross

*Date of Evaluation: April 30, 2023

(This space reserved for official comments.)

*Recorded by Michelle Laguna and Ella Cross *Date April 30, 2023  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial _________________________________________ __ _

P3a. Description (Continued):

Fenestration on the front (west facing) side of the building includes a four-part original wooden window including a central fixed window beneath a 1x3 fixed window, flanked by two double -hung 4x4 windows ( Photograph 1 and 2 ). The west facing side of the building also includes two 6x6 wooden original windows within the entryway porch. The south side of the building ( Photograph 3) features three separate double -hung metal replacement windows in their original placements. The north side of the building includes one 3x1 double hung wooden window and three double hung metal replacement window (Photograph 4). The rear (east facing) side of the building is not visible from public streets. The property includes a backyard surrounded by a chain-link fence.

The garden directly south of the building and the wooden shed southeast of the building are on separate land parcels and are community owned (Photograph 3 and Sketch Map). It is unclear if the garden parcel was historically connected to the property at 2685 26th Street.

B10. Significance (continued):

Architectural style
The building is a modest bungalow in Spanish Colonial Revival style created during the 1920’s Small Homes Movement. This movement was founded in 1919 by the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) non -profit organization “The Architects’ Small House Service Bureau” which offered high quality blueprints for small, inexpens ive, working-class homes, designed by AIA members. Some of the most famous residential architects of the 1920s designed these blueprints. Almost forgotten today, the Architects’ Small House Bureau and the Better Homes in America program which it immediately inspired, were promoted by the US Government and President Herbert Hoover in particular. Much has been written about the societal goals of t he movement, which were to promote homeownership among the working-class as well as pride of place. However, very little about the architectural history of the homes themselves has been written. This almost forgotten typology of American home was designed to be high quality, well organized, beautiful and inexpensive, goals which remain compelling today. Although by its very nature, not a high style example, Spanish Colonial Revival influences are apparent in the stucco clad exterior and recessed arched entryway porch (Photograph 5).

Historic Context [Industry (real estate), social history (advancement), and African American Heritage]

CURTIS PARK/HIGHLAND PARK
The 2685 26th Street property is in the northernmost part of Curtis Park, sometimes referred to as Highland Park (Photograph 7). The City of Sacramento acquired Curtis Park in 1911. Greater transportation methods, such as the Sacramento streetcar, allowed for Sacramentans to live outside the immediate city boundaries and expand residential settlement to neighboring suburbs . Curtis Park became one of Sacramento’s first suburbs and quickly attracted middle class whites who wanted to escape the downtown area. Throughout the 1920s housing developers in Curtis Park created restrictive housing covenants that explicitly prohibited African American home ownership. For example, the developer Heilbron Oaks developed a large subdivision directly south of 2685 26th street that forbid anyone of, “Negro, Japanese, or Chinese…or any person of African or Mongolian descent,” from occupying the new development (Photograph 8). These restrictions were put in place to prevent the perceived devalue of properties and enforce the containment of non -whites to urban slums. In addition to city zoning, local real estate businesses often supported these covenants by refusing to assist non-whites to acquire property in primarily white neighborhoods. Many realtors supported restrictive housing by refusing to assist black patrons to purchase homes or recommending housing opt ions outside of white areas. This ideology was systematically suppo rted through the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) Code of Ethics, Article 34 that stated, “a Realtor should never be instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood … members of any race or nationality … whose prese nce will clearly be detrimental to property values in that neighborhood.” This provision was introduced in 1924 and remained in effect until 1950.

In addition, in 1933 the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) was created as a New Deal program used to appraise neighborhoods and assess loan risks. As part of their assessment, the portion of Curtis Park that includes 2685 26th Street was described as having, “Few scattered Negro families (six known) [that] do not affect values beyond adjoining property.” The HOLC listed the neighborhood as having , “Danger of subversive racial infiltration and encroachment of business.” As noted, some black families lived within restricted areas when covenants were not strictly enforced. As for the 2685 26th Street property, it remained technically outside the perimeter of exclusion to allow for some non-whites to live there starting in 1930 (Photograph 9).

To cope with racism, the Sacramento African American community relied on a philosophy of self -help and internal community assistance wh en government and courts were unreliable in assisting with economic and personal advancement. For example, the philosophies of W .E.B. DuBois promoted self-reliance, self-investment, and economic solidarity amongst blacks and was a popular ideology in the f irst half of the twentieth century. Community members confronted housing discrimination through the creation of African American real estate firms that would buy and sell property to people of color and make business deals with both white and black patrons . Through the creation of a black-owned business that served primarily black Sacramentans one could provide a vital resource to a community with few options. Crawford’s Business, Star Real Estate Company, may have been the first to do so in the Sacramento area.

CRAWFORD AND STAR REAL ESTATE COMPANY
Lewis Nelson Crawford was born in Salem, Kentucky in September 1880. He moved to Sacramento in 1911 during the First Great Migration of African Americans who left the American South and Midwest in search of better economic opportunities on the West Coast. Crawford married his first wife, Frances, the same year he arrived in Sacramento (Photograph 10). For most of his working life in Sacramento, Crawford’s occupation is listed as janitor and porter. However, this was not his only profession. In 1923 he opened Star Realty Business with a business partner, J. W. Mills. Star Real Estate was originally located at 601 ½ K Street in Sacramento, California between 1923 and 1926. Presently the K street location is no l onger in existence and its association with Star Realty Estate was short-lived. Between 1927 and 1950, Star Real Estate Company is not listed in Sacramento directories , and it only reappears in directories between 1955 and 1965. According to Sacramento directories, Star Real Estate operated out of Crawford’s residences in the years between 1955 and 1965. Because there is no clear advertisement for an additional business address between 1927 and 1955, and Recorder records display

*Recorded by Michelle Laguna and Ella Cross *Date April 30, 2023  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial _________________________________________ __ _

ongoing realty transactions in this period, it may be that Crawford operated his business primarily from his residences from 1927 to 1965 (see TABLE 1).

Based on Sacramento Recorders Office records, Crawford participated in several real estate transactions between 1916 and 1965 that included acquiring lots of land and reselling them to black buyers. Crawford had at least 29 business transactions as a Grantee in Sacramento County and the only gap in business

TABLE 1
Applicable Years Star Real Estate Company Business Address 1923-1926 (3 years) 601 ½ K Street, Sacramento, CA
1927-1929 (2 years) 2675 26th Street, Sacramento, CA
1930-1958 (28 years) 2685 26th Street, Sacramento, CA
1959-1965 (6 years) 4308 Roosevelt Avenue, Sacramento, CA

is between 1931-1938 when there are no recorded property transactions that include Crawford’s name. This may be attributed to the Great Depression that negatively affected the housing market. In addition, Crawford’s first wife, Frances, passed away in 1938 due to health problems. Therefore, the general economy and personal life challenges may have contributed to the lack of business transactions in this period. Despite this, Crawford had several notable land transactions during his productive life that display his industrial savvy, middle -man role, and grassroots activism.

For example, in 1916 and 1922 Crawford purchased land from C.M. Goethe. Charles Matthias Goethe was a well-known land developer in the Sacramento area who many consider controversial for his Eugenicist opinions. In November of 1922 Crawford sold several lots of land to the Pacific School District of Sacramento County for $2,000, approximately worth $36,000 today. In 1944 Crawford purchased property in Highland Park from Russel Cy Venezia, a white seller, and shortly afterward sold this same property to Ray Jenkins, a black buyer. In 1945, Crawford had several la nd transactions with William H.

Talley, a white property owner. In this instance, Talley seems to have purchased property from a white owner, then transferred the property to Crawford.

It’s unclear what Crawford did with the land in this specific instance, but it’s clear Crawford had several additional sales to black home buyers in the Sacramento area after this purchase. In 1946 Crawford sold property on the corner of 19 th Street and T Street to the Negro Women’s Civi c Improvement Club (NWCIC) who were forced out of Sacramento’s west end by urban renewal . The NWCIC was highly involved in civil rights and social services for Sacramento’s black community. It also offered housing for single black women who often found Sacramento housing options limited. These business transactions clearly demonstrate Crawford’s ability to build networks and make deals with both blacks and whites .

Through Star Real Estate Company, Crawford provided a service to the black community that few realtors were willing to provide . In addition to his role as a business middleman, Crawford’s longest personal residential location is at 2685 26th Street that falls directly on the edge of restrictive housing covenants. Crawford purchased the 2685 26th Street property in approximately 1930 and remained in this house until 1958. Based on this assessment, the majority of Crawford’s productive life was while residing at the 2685 26th Street house. Crawford died on November 3, 1965, at age 85 and is buried in Odd Fellows Lawn (Photograph 11). Although Crawford was married two additional times after his first wife’s death, Crawford does not appear to have had any children.

Evaluation
CRITERION I: ELIGIBLE
Crawford’s residence is historically significant for its association with his business, St ar Real Estate Company, an African American owned and centered business in the Sacramento area that operated between 1923 and 1965. This business is relevant in the context of early African American settlement, African American business ownership, and African American housing sales in the Sacramento area. Historical records indicate that Star Real Estate Company operated out of 2685 26th Street location for approximately 28 years (see TABLE 1 above). Crawford’s business contributed to the development of housing opportunities for African Americans in the Sacramento area and may be the first of its kind in Sacramento local history. These transactions were made necessary by discriminatory housing covenants and the systematic exclusion of black patrons in the real estate business. Crawford’s business transactions represent a trend in black business ownership that provided essential services to black patrons through middle-man business transactions in the early twentieth century. Therefore, this property is eligible under the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources, Criterion I, as it is associated with broad patterns of African American history in Sacramento.

CRITERION II: ELIGIBLE
Crawford is significant to early African American settlement, African American business ownership, and African American housi ng sales in Sacramento local history through his operation of Star Realty Business between 1923 and 1965. Crawford ran his business from his residences, primarily at 2685 26th Street for approximately 28 years (see TABLE 1 above). Therefore, this property is representative of Crawford’s productive life and eligible for inclusion on the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources under Criterion II. Star Real Estate Company appears to be the first major African American realty business in the Sacramento area and contributed to the betterment of the black community by providing a vital resource to black patrons. In addition, this property is Crawford’s longest held residence throughout his life in Sacramento and therefore holds significant association with Crawford and Star Realty Business. Crawford’s ownership and operation of his realty business stood in contrast to commonly held exclusionary practices supported by realtors and their associations. In addition, Crawford opened his business in 1923, during the First Great Migration of African Americans , when the black population in Sacramento was relatively small. Despite being a minority, Crawford created his business and negotiated business deals with white landowners as early as 1916 and continued to negotiate deals until his death in 1965. Therefore, this property is also eligible under Criterion II for its association with Crawford.

CRITERIA III – ELIGIBLE The Crawford home embodies the distinctive characteristics of the 1920’s Small House and Better Homes in America Movements. This understudied typology of working -class American architecture was promoted nationally by the US Government, the American Institute of Architects, popular magazines and by the innovative use of model homes built in cities across America which prospective homeowners could tour, not necessarily to purchase the model home itself, but to purchase blueprints for such a home. Working -class Americans such as the Crawfords would have then purchased a lot and hired a builder, or if they had construction experience, the homeowner may have built the house themselves. These architect -designed small homes were created with a variety of societal goals in mind. The most importa nt of these were to

*Recorded by Michelle Laguna and Ella Cross *Date April 30, 2023  Continuation  Update

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improve living conditions among the working-class, to beautify America’s rapidly developing automobile centered suburbs and to improve household efficiency for American housewives. Although small and inexpensive, these homes were made o f quality materials, logically organized, and attractive. Fostering the American dream of home ownership and the architectural goal of well -designed and beautiful homes for all, the Small House Movement of the 1920s helped to create beloved neighborhoods a cross the country for the working-class.

CRITERON IV: NOT ELIGIBLE The Crawford house, as a representative of the Small House Movement of the 1920’s which included the Better Homes in America program, may with further research be shown to be the work of a master architect participating in the era’s push for low cost, high quality housing for the working class. The movement was founded in 1919 by the American Institute of Architects ’ non-profit organization, The Architects Small House Service Bureau . The Bureau sold high quality blueprints through the mail, for homes which could be built by average working-class Americans. These blueprints were created by some of the nation’s best architects . However, this will require further research. At this time the Crawford house is not eligible under Criteria IV.

CRITERIA V and VI: NOT ELIGIBLE
The property does not possess high artistic values nor has it yielded, and is not likely to yield, important information for history and is therefore not significant under Criteria V or VI. The building represents common construction techniques and practices that have been well researched and studied. For those reasons the Crawford house is not be eligible under Criteria V or VI.

INTEGRITY
Sanborn maps from 1952 display consistent building layout and location as suggested in present day aerial maps (Photographs 12 and Sketch Map). Based on this information, t he location remains intact, the building design does not appear to be significantly altered , the setting remains within a residential suburb of Sacramento , and the workmanship appears consistent. The metal replacement windows on the north and south sides of the house, and fire damage re pair conducted in 1982 may have diminished the building integrity based on material s used. In addition, despite the construction of major highways in the surrounding area, they are not visible from the property and therefore do n ot compromise the feeling of the building. The building is clearly associated with Crawford and is his longest held residence.

B12. References (continued):

Bibliography
Caesar, Clarence. “An Historical Overview of the Development of Sacramento’s Black Community 1850 -1983.” Maste rs thesis, Sacramento State University, 1985.
“C. M. Goethe to Lewis N. Crawford,” The Sacramento Bee. December 9, 1916. Accessed April 30, 2023 from the California Digital Newspaper Collection "Code of Ethics, National Association of Real Estate Boards, Article 34." California Real Estate Magazine. June, 1939. “Colored Baptists Open Convention: Naming of Chairmen of Committees is First Works of Annual Conference.” The Sacramento Bee. October 8, 1924, accessed via NewsBank digital archive.
“Curtis Park History,” website by Dan Murphy https://curtphist.blogspot.com/2019/05/how-to-find-information-about-history.html “Elizabeth Whightman,” United States of America, Bureau of the Census Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950 Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Website Inflation Calculator. https://www.minneapolisfed.org/about-us/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator Find a Grave, “Lewis Crawford,” accessed April 27, 2023. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49110560/lewis-crawford Fisher, Damany. “Far From Utopia: Race, Housing, and the Figh t to End Residential Segregation in Sacramento, 1900 -1980,” PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2008. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

Green, Fayal. The Anatomy of a House: A Picture of Architectural and Design Elements . New York: Doubleday, 1991.

Google Maps, “2685 26th Street, Sacramento CA, 95818,” Accessed April 30, 2023. “Jennie B. Crawford.” The Sacramento Bee. January 5, 1961, accessed via NewsBank digital archive. “Leatha Jewell,” 1940 United States Federal Census
“Lewis N. Crawford.” The Sacramento Bee. November 6, 1965, accessed via NewsBank digital archive.

Page and Turnbull with Damany Fisher. “Sacramento County African American Experience History Project: Historic Context Statem ent,” October 28, 2022. “Ray Jenkins,” 1940 United States Federal Census .
“Real Estate Partnership Formed.” The Sacramento Bee. February 10, 1923, accessed via NewsBank digital archive. “Real Estate Transfers.” Sacramento Daily Union . December 9, 2016, https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDU19161209.2.144&srpos=1&e=------- en--20--1--txt- txIN-%22lewis+n.+crawford%22-------
“Real Estate Transfers.” The Sacramento Bee. July 3, 1922, accessed via NewsBank digital archive.

*Recorded by Michelle Laguna and Ella Cross *Date April 30, 2023  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial _________________________________________ __ _

“Russel Cy Venezia,” 1950 United States Federal Census.

Sacramento County Assessor’s Office.

Sacramento County Clerk Recorder Public Index Search , “Crawford L N”.

Sacramento County Clerk Recorder, Marriage Certificate for Lewis N. Crawford and Frances Crawford.

Sacramento County Clerk Recorder, Death Certificate for Frances Crawford.

Sacramento County Directories years 1911-1965, accessed in the Sacramento Room Archive . “Sacramento Women are Elected.” The Sacramento Bee. October 12, 1936, accessed via NewsBank digital archive. “San Diego Modernism: Historic Context Statement,” Accessed from: California State Parks, Office of Historic Preservation, Historic Context Library.

Smith, Valerie. “ The Small House Movement of the 1920’s: Preserving Small “Better” Houses.” https://santabarbaraca.gov/sites/def ault/files/2022- 07/SmithValerie_GSAPP_2022_Thesis.pdf
“Star Real Estate Co.” The Sacramento Bee. December 31, 1923, accessed via NewsBank digital archive.

Mapping Inequality, Redlining a New Deal America website, Accessed April 30, 2023. https://dsl.richmo nd.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=12/38.574/- 121.554&city=sacramento-ca&text=about
McAlester, Virginia S. A Field Guide to American Houses. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015.

Murphy , Dan. Images of American: Sacramento Curtis Park. New Hampshire: Arcadia Publishing, 2005.

National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior, Historic Residential Suburbs, 56 . “Porter W House,” United States of America, Bureau of the Census; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950.

Sanborn Maps 1952, Accessed in the Sacramento Room Archive. “Wm E Talley,” 1940 United States Federal Census.

Photographs (continued):

Photograph 2: Photo of west and south sides of building. Camera facing northeast.

*Recorded by Michelle Laguna and Ella Cross *Date April 30, 2023  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial _________________________________________ __ _

Photograph 3: Photo of south side of building. Camera facing north.

Photograph 4: Photo of north side of building with limited visibility. Camera facing southeast.

*Recorded by Michelle Laguna and Ella Cross *Date April 30, 2023  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial _________________________________________ __ _

Photograph 5: Kensington Heights suburb in San Diego, California, pictured in 1926 shortly after development. The Spanish Colonial Revival stucco clad houses with arched entryway porches are similar in style to the Crawford home and reflect the popularity of the 1920’s Small House movement.

Photograph 7: Curtis Park is located south of Downtown Sacramento and was one of the first Sacramento Suburbs.

*Recorded by Michelle Laguna and Ella Cross *Date April 30, 2023  Continuation  Update

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Photograph 8: This advertisement for Heilbron Oaks in 1923 demonstrates that the Crawford building was later built just outside the exclusionary housing covenants so prevalent with Heilbronn Oaks.

Photograph 9: HOLC maps display that Crawford’s property fell within a yellow portion of maps, indicating the inclusion of some non-whites. The circle indicates the 2685 26th street location that falls only one block above the “blue” restrictive Heilbron Oaks development.

*Recorded by Michelle Laguna and Ella Cross *Date April 30, 2023  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial _________________________________________ __ _

Photograph 10: Lewis Crawford and Frances Crawford ( middle) with his wife Frances (second from left) and others outside their home at 2685 26th Street. The recessed front porch, windows, entryway column, and side garden are consistent with the current building.

Photograph 11: Lewis N. Crawford is buried at Odd Fellows Lawn in Sacramento, California. His three wives are buried separately.

*Recorded by Michelle Laguna and Ella Cross *Date April 30, 2023  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial _________________________________________ __ _

Photograph 12: This 1952 Sanborn map image does not indicate any alterations in the general layout of the property when compared to present day aerial view images.

*P11. Report Citation: (Cite survey report and other sources, or enter “none.”) *Attachments:  None  Location Map  Sketch Map  Continuation Sheet  Building, Structure, and Object Record  Archaeological Record  District Record  Linear Feature Record  Milling Station Record  Rock Art Record  Artifact Record  Photograph Record Other (list)
DPR 523A (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ PRIMARY RECORD Trinomial _____________________________________ NRHP Status Code
Other Listings _______________________________________________________________ Review Code __________ Reviewer ____________________________ Date ___________

P1. Other Identifier: Canson Law Office and NAACP Credit Union

*P2. Location:  Not for Publication  Unrestricted
*a. County Sacramento
*b. USGS 7.5’ Quad: Sacramento East Date: 1967

c. Address: 2404 21
st Street City: Sacramento Zip: 95818

Assessor Parcel Number: 010-0216-008-0000

*P3a. Description:

The 3200 square foot parcel at the corner of 21 st and X streets contains a simple multi-unit commercial building. 2404 21st street, was built sometime prior to 1937 as per historic aerial photographs. No original building permit has been located for this utilitarian, masonry block one story commercial building with a flat roof. It contains five small retail spaces each with their own address, four
of which front 21 st street and one which fronts X
street. The total square footage of the building is
2785 square feet. Constructed of plain masonry
block without architectural decoration it is enlivened
by modern steel frame windows and doors that allow
access to each retail unit. The only exception is 2412
21 st street, the unit at the south end of the building facing 21 st street, which is set back from the
sidewalk behind a two-foot-tall brick wall topped by
planter boxes. Access is through a small gate at the
middle of the low brick wall. The wall forms a small
courtyard approximately ten feet deep and 15 feet
wide.

*P3b. Resource Attributes: (List attributes and codes) *P4. Resources Present:  Building  Structure  Object  Site  District  Element of District  Other (Isolates, etc.) P5b. Description of Photo: (View, date,
accession #) 21st Street elevation
P5a. Photo or Drawing (Photo required for buildings, structures, and objects.)

*P11. Report Citation: (Cite survey report and other sources, or enter “none.”) *Attachments:  None  Location Map  Sketch Map  Continuation Sheet  Building, Structure, and Object Record  Archaeological Record  District Record  Linear Feature Record  Milling Station Record  Rock Art Record  Artifact Record  Photograph Record Other (list)
DPR 523A (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ PRIMARY RECORD Trinomial _____________________________________ NRHP Status Code
Other Listings _______________________________________________________________ Review Code __________ Reviewer ____________________________ Date ___________ *P6. Date Constructed/Age and Sources:
 Historic  Prehistoric  Both
_________________
*P7. Owner and Address:

Avalos Family Trust
1266 43rd Avenue
Sacramento, CA 95822

*P8. Recorded by: (Name, affiliation, address)
Ella Cross
Preservation Intern, City of Sacramento Department of Historic Preservation

*P9. Date Recorded: 9/25/2023
*P10. Survey Type: (Describe)
Intensive

*Recorded by Ella Cross *Date 09/25/2023  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial ____________________________________________

B1. Historic Name: Canson Law Office and NAACP Credit Union B2. Common Name:

B3. Original Use: Commercial B4. Present Use: Small Retail *B5. Architectural Style: Early 20th Century Masonry Block Commercial *B6. Construction History: (Construction date, alteration, and date of alterations) Constructed prior to 1937, likely in the 1930s.

*B7. Moved?  No  Yes  Unknown Date: Original Location:
*B8. Related Features: ________
B9. Architect: b. Builder:
*B10. Significance: Theme Civil Rights, Area
Period of Significance 1957-1977 Property Type Commercial Applicable Criteria Criterion II (Discuss importance in terms of historical or architectural context as defined by theme, period, and geographic scope. Also address integrity.)

B10. Significance:

The property at 2404 21st Street is eligible for inclusion in the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources under Criterion II, association with persons significant in the city’s past. The building housed the law office of Clarence Canson and the Sacramento NAACP Credit Union, under the direction of Virna Mae Canson from 1954- until the early 1970s. The building was purchased in 1957 by Mr. Canson’s parents, Frank and Gladys Canson. Earlier, Clarence and Virna Canson rented from the previous owner, Mr. Richard Case.

Clarence Canson was born November 26
th, 1916 in Leesville, Louisiana and passed away in Sacramento in 1989. He was the son of Frank Columbus Canson, a tailor, and Gladys Varner, both of Louisiana. In search of better opportunities, his parents moved to Sacramento in 1930, with three children. After completing high school, Clarence attended the prestigious Tuskegee Institute of Alabama as a tailoring major and graduated in 1940.

Virna Mae (Dobson) Canson was born June 10
th, 1921, in Bridgeport, Oklahoma and passed away in
Sacramento in 2003. She was the daughter of educators, William Augustus Dobson and Eula Mae Gross Dobson. Her father was mayor of Lima, Oklahoma, a historically African American small town. Her father graduated from Langston University, Oklahoma’s only Historic Black College. Both of her parents were politically active and were involved in the civil rights movement of their time. Virna also attended the Tuskegee Institute, as a home economics major. When she was a sophomore, she met Clarence Canson, then an upper classman from Sacramento.

While at the Tuskegee Institute, Clarence and Virna met Nathaniel Colley, the future pioneering Black lawyer of Sacramento. At Tuskegee, Colley studied chemistry with George Washington Carver. Another friend at Tuskegee was Jerlean Jackson, the future Mrs. Colley, who was a childhood friend of Clarence Canson’s from Sacramento. The Cansons and the Colleys remained close throughout their lives.

*Recorded by Ella Cross *Date 09/25/2023  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial ____________________________________________

B10. Significance (continued):

Historic Context

Clarence and Virna were married on August 7th, 1940 in Lima, Oklahoma and celebrated at the home of her parents. Virna was not able to graduate as the young couple decided to move to Sacramento after their marriage. Their first child, Clarence Canson Jr., was born in 1941. Their second child, Faythe Canson was born in 1952.

Clarence found work in 1941 at McClellan Field where he was a civilian employee doing low paid, unskilled labor despite his college education. After several years of trying to find higher paying work, he decided to attend law school at McGeorge (now UOP ). Working full time as well as going to school, he was the first Black graduate of the school in 1954. He then founded his own practice at 2404 21 st Street, becoming
one of the few Black lawyers in Sacramento. In addition to his private practice, Mr. Canson worked as a legal advisor for the NAACP. He was a staunch Democrat and along with other influential Black Sacramentan leaders such as Nathaniel Colley, supported the nomination of Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1960. (Photograph 2)

The Cansons were active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1954 Virna Canson accepted the position of Treasurer and Manager of the Sacramento branch of the NAACP Credit Union, which she established at 2404 21
st Street. Through her work she was able to help Black
Sacramentans buy homes and establish businesses.

In addition to her work at the NAACP Credit Union, Virna Canson was appointed by the Governor of California to the California Committee for Fair Practices. She was an advocate for the passing of legislation to protect Black Americans and for the equal treatment of all oppressed groups in American society. She was also appointed by the Governor as a Credit Union and Consumer Education Specialist for the State Office of Economic Opportunity. Through her work she helped address discrimination, consumer rights and economic rights. Eventually Mrs. Canson was appointed to the directorship of the NAACP West Coast Office.

*Recorded by Ella Cross *Date 09/25/2023  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial ____________________________________________

Virna Canson earned the nickname “Mrs. NAACP” and was a leading figure in that organization locally as well as nationally. She was involved with seminal civil rights court cases including NAACP v. City and County of Sacramento and Ming v. Horgan, which helped to end discrimination in FHA and VA funded housing developments and in FHA and VA backed mortgages in California. It is important to note that racial discrimination in housing was only declared illegal nationwide in 1968 with the passage of the congressional Fair Housing Act. This puts the 1958 Ming v. Horgan case here in Sacramento in its proper context. It was a groundbreaking judgement.

As a legal advisor to the NAACP, who were involved in Ming v. Horgan and many other civil rights and equal housing cases, Clarence Canson spent his professional career advocating for civil rights and equality, working side by side with his wife Virna.

Conclusion:

The property at 2402 21
st street holds crucial historical significance as the site of Clarence Canson’s law office and the NAACP Credit Union operated by Virna Canson. As the first Black graduate of Sacramento’s own McGeorge Law School and as one of the pioneer Black lawyers in our city, Clarence Canson deserves recognition. Virna Canson, indefatigable advocate for equal rights, Treasurer and Manager of the Sacramento Branch of the NAACP Credit Union, made homeownership possible for untold numbers of local Black families. Her Governor appointed positions in State service reflect high regard for her professional skills. The involvement of both Mr. and Mrs. Canson in groundbreaking equal housing and equal lending cases in Sacramento, beginning in the late 1950’s, predated National legislation by a decade. Sacramento was pushed to become a more inclusive and equitable city as a direct result of the Cansons work. Designation of 2404 21
st Street as a City landmark is therefore reasonable, appropriate and necessary to promote, protect, and further the goals and purposes of the City’s historic preservation program under Criteria II, for its association with Clarence B. and Virna M. Canson, persons significant in the City’s past.

*Recorded by Ella Cross *Date 09/25/2023  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial ____________________________________________

B12. References (continued):

Sacramento Observer Collection.

Center for Sacramento History, “The Time is Now: The Civic Life of Sacramento’s Nathaniel Colley.” African American Museum and Library of Oakland, Oakland Public Library, the Virna M. Canson papers, and Virna Canson oral history interview.

United States Federal Census Records.

UCSB Framefinder Aerial Imagery, Sacramento, California, 1937.

Sacramento City Directories, 1954-1970.

California Birth and Death Indexes.

Sacramento County Registrar, Property Records

Photographs (Continued)
Photograph 1: Virna Mae Canson, 1950’s.

*Recorded by Ella Cross *Date 09/25/2023  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (1/95) *Required Information State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial ____________________________________________

Photograph 2: Sen. Clair Engle, Eddie Hall, Nathaniel Colley, Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson, Clarence Canson, Rev. Joseph Williams, Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown, November 1960

NPS Form 10-900a
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES

CONTINUATION SHEET
Section Page_
0MB No. 1024-0018
----=======-=-=============================================~=====================

SUPPLEMENTARY LISTING RECORD
NRIS Reference Number: 14000109 Date Listed: 4/4/2014
New Helvetia Historic District
Property Name
N/A
Multiple Name
Sacramento
County
CA
State
This property is listed in the National Register of Historic Places in accordance with the attached nomination documentation subject to the following exceptions, exclusions, or amendments, notwithstanding the National Park Service certification included in the nomination documentation.

Keeper Date of Action
Nomination:

Name of Related Multiple Property Listing:

The Public Housing in the United States MPS is not an approved multiple property submission cover document. It remains in draft form as a research context and all references in the nomination should acknowledge this fact. The New Helvetia nomination provides sufficient historic context to justify listing under Criterion A as a stand-alone nomination.

Significance:

The Period of Significance is correctly noted as 1942-1952; overlapping or consecutive periods are best combined as one longer period for purposes of data entry.

These clarifications were confirmed with the CA SHPO.

DISTRIBUTION:

National Register property file
Nominating Authority (without nomination attachment)
NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service
National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
Thi s fom1 is for use in nominating or requestin g determination s for individu al propertie s a nd distri cts. See instruct 011s i1 :t~e, ff e Bulletin , How to Complete the National Regis/er of Historic Places Registration Form. If any item does not .ipr ly l e fo en •1ictn° documented , enter "N/A" for "not applicable ." For functions , a rchitectur al classifi cation, material s, and areas o sig 1ific111ice, enter only categories and subc ategories from the instruction s.

1. Name of Property
Historic name: New Hel vetia Historjc District
Other names/site number: Alder Grove Community Complex
Name of related multiple property listing:

Public Housing in the United States MPS
(Enter "NI A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing

2. Location
FEB 1 8 2014
Street & number: 752 Revere Street --"'-='--'==-'-.=..c...cc-=-=--=---=--.c..--------~- - ----------City or town: _S_ac_r_a-=mc:-::e=n=-t-'-,o _ _ _ __ State: __ C_A~--- - County: Sacramento Not For Publication : D Vicinity: D

3. State/Federal Agency Certification
As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act , as amended , I hereby ce1iify that this _x_ nomination _ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60.

In my opinion , the property _X _ meets _ does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant at the following level(s) of significance:
_national statewide _K_local
Applicable National Register Criteria:
-X_A -X_B -X_C _D
Jenan Saunders/Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Date California S tate Office of Historic Presetv~\tion
State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government
In my opinion, the property _ meets _ _ does not meet the National Register criteria.

Signature of commenting official:

Title:
1 Date
State or Federal agency/bureau
or Tribal Government
/0
0 National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District
Name of Property

4. National Park Service Certification
I hereby certify that this property is:
_Bntered in the National Register
_ determined eligible for the National Register
_ determined not eligible for the National Register
_ removed from the National Register
_ other (explain:)
Ownership of Property
(Check as many boxes as apply.

Private: □
Public - Local 0
Public - State □
Public - Federal □
Category of Property
(Check only one box.)
Building(s) .

District
Site
Structure
Object
□ 0
□
□
□
Sections 1 -6 page 2
Sacramento , CA
County and State
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District
Name of Property
Number of Resources within Property
(Do not include previously listed resources in the count) Contributing Noncontributing
62 62 0
Sacramento, CA
County and State
buildings
sites
structures
objects
Total
Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register ---'O'-

6. Function or Use
Historic Functions
(Enter categories from instructions.)
DOMESTIC: multiple dwelling - defense housing project
DOMESTIC; multiple dwelling - public housing
SOCIAL; clubhouse - Community Center
Current Functions
(Enter categories from instructions.)
DOMESTIC: multipl dwelling - publi bousing ptoject
OMMERCE/TRADE: business - office building
EDUCATION: school - daycare center
Sections 1-6 page 3
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service I National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District
Name of Property

7. Description
Architectural Classification
(Enter categories from instructions.)
MODERN MOVEMENT: International Stvle
Materials: (enter categories from instructions.)
Sacramento , CA
County and State
Principal exterior materials of the property: Brick veneer with some random clinker brick, omposition shingles. metal sash windows, metal do rs. concrete foundations Narrative Description
(Describe the historic and current physical appearance and condition of the property. Describe contributing and noncontributing resources if applicable. Begin with a summary paragraph that briefly describes the general characteristics of the property, such as its location, type, style, method of construction, setting, size, and significant features. Indicate whether the property has historic integrity.)
Summary
The New Helvetia Historic District is located within the Alder Grove housing complex located between Broadway, Muir Way, Kit Carson Street, and Kemble Street in Sacramento. There are 62 contributing buildings, including the central community center building at 816 Revere Way.

Buildings are wood framed with gabled roofs, clipped eaves, brick cladding, clinker brick, and metal framed windows. The simplicity and lack of exterior ornamentation illustrate the influence of the Modern Movement that focused on the functional aspects of architecture, and reflect wartime economic constraints as well. The buildings are set in a 26 acre rectilinear pattern of organized blocks, asphalt paved streets, concrete sidewalks, with pathways separated by lawn and containing trees, bushes and shrubs within a defined landscape accessible from major city streets. The one and two story buildings are narrow and long, have brick veneer surfaces, side­ gabled roofs with composition shingles and clipped eaves, shallow roof overhangs on the side­ gabled elevations, small entry canopies above doorways - some with shed-roofs and some flat - and metal-framed windows, both sliding and double hung. There is ample open space within the block layout and parking lots surrounded by lawn. Plantings and open yards without fences are dominant and provide little privacy. A very few units use plantings in their backyards to create small partially private outdoor areas. The buildings' brick veneer recalls elements of Georgian and Tudor revival designs, while open space and green landscaping contribute a gardenlike character to the complex . The prope1iy is in good condition.

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United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento, CA
Name of Property County and State
Narrative Description
The sixty one apartment buildings constructed within the twenty six acre site are divided into five different unit plans with a total of three hundred and ten apartments. Plans include building Types A to E. 1
Type A: Fourteen type A buildings: one and two story sections with eight apa1tment units each. The two story central section contains four two story apartments with two bedrooms each. Two attached one story sections flank the central two story section and each contains two one bedroom apartments. The two story central sections are slightly offset from the flanking one story portion walls.

Type B: Fourteen type B buildings: two story with eight two story apartments, with two or three bedrooms each.

Type C: Twenty four type C buildings: one story with two two-bedroom apaitments each.

Type D: Four type D buildings: one story with two four-bedroom apartments each.

Type E: Five type E buildings: one story with six one-bedroom apartments each.

Building types A, B, and E have service and laundry room utility extensions at each end. They are narrower and shorter than the apartment units themselves, are finished with gabled roofs and brick like the rest of the buildings, and contain exterior wall sections with decorative open brickwork patterns.

The locations of each building type in the district are indicated on the site map.

The Type A building has side-gabled roofs with a sh01t overhang on the entry elevations that are flush with the walls on the gable ends. It is surfaced with brick that contains soldier courses above and below windows and above doorways. Darker clinker-type bricks are randomly placed within the walls to add visual interest and texture. The front elevation is described from left to right. A small shorter brick-clad utility extension projects from each end of the building. Metal framed windows are located on the outer comers of the one story section, then the front door, and then the bedroom window comprises the first apartment. The reverse plan of this apaitment adjoins the first with a window and the entrance door and small window. The front entrance door to the first two story unit is next and the window to its living room. The next unit is the reverse of this one.

The other two two-story units are adjacent and reversed, with front entrances side by side in the central section then windows for each living room, before the last two story unit entry. The front entrance to the other one story section unit is next to the two story entry, and then the bedroom 1 Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA), original floor plans (Figure 4).

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United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento, CA
Name of Property County and State
windows for each of the other one story units, and finally the entrance to the last one story unit and a corner window with a metal frame. There is a shallow roof overhang on both the one and two story sections on the front and back elevations. There are concrete walkways leading to the front entries with lawns and plantings next to the building.

The rear elevation left to right begins with the utility wing and its door, next to the kitchen window and back door and a bathroom window. The adjacent unit is the reverse of this floor plan. The central section of this plan is offset, with the back door into the kitchen and a kitchen/dining room window adjacent to it. The next unit is the reverse of this unit, and the last two story unit is again reversed. The next two one story units are replicas of the first two units with a utility wing matching the one on the other end. Materials match the other elevations.

From left to right, the front elevations of Type B buildings contain a window and an entrance adjacent to the reverse layout of the next unit with its entrance and living room window. The next six units are the same as the first two units with their reverse plans: a window, an entrance, another entrance, and another window. The second floor of the units contains either two or three bedrooms. There is a shallow roof overhang along the front and rear elevations. The roof is gabled and the building surfaced with brick-detailed and textured the same as the other buildings. Windows are metal framed and either sliding or double hung. There are utility wing extensions on each end of the buildings. There are concrete walkways to the front entries and back doors flanked by lawn and plants. The rear elevation left to right begins with the narrower utility wing and door, next to a window and the back door into the kitchen. The remaining seven units are each the reverse floor plan of the adjacent unit. Materials match the other elevations.

Type C buildings are the smallest of the district buildings types. They are surfaced with brick, have gabled roofs, and windows and doors like the other district buildings. From left to right:
there is a smaller corner window than the comer windows of type C, an entry door, and bedroom window. The next unit is the reverse plan which places the entries to the next two units adjacent to each other. The living room and bedroom windows are reversed from the other end of the building, completed with another corner window like that on the opposite end. There are concrete walkways to the front entries and back doors flanked by lawn and plants. Type C does not have utility wings on each end. The rear elevation from left to right contains a sliding metal sash comer window and single hung window, a bathroom window, a back door to the kitchen, and a kitchen window. The adjoining unit has the reverse floor plan. Materials match the other elevations.

Type D buildings are one story duplexes and each apaiiment unit contains four bedrooms. From left to right: a corner window comprised of two double-glazed metal framed, one on each intersecting elevation, a metal entry door, four, double-glazed sliding windows framed in metal sash, then another metal entry door, and another corner window the same as that on the other end of the building. The building is sheathed with the same brick as the other buildings and has a gabled roof covered with asphalt shingles. Type D does not have utility wings on each end.

There are concrete walkways to the front entries and back doors flanked by lawn and plants. The rear elevation from left to right contains a kitchen window, a back door to the kitchen, a Section 7 page 6
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento, CA
Name of Property County and State
bathroom window, and a window for each of the adjacent bedrooms. The adjoining unit has the same floor plan in reverse. Materials match the other elevations.

Type E buildings are one story and contain six apaiiments each. Type E plans include a small utility wing on each end just like Types A a11d B. From left to right: after the utility wing, there is a narrow double hung window at ninety degrees to the building adjacent to a double-glazed sliding corner window, then the entry to that unit, then a double-glazed sliding window. This unit layout is repeated and alternated throughout the length of the building to create six apartments.

The sidewalk is widened where two adjacent entries occur. The building is sheathed with the same brick as the other buildings and has a gabled roof covered with asphalt shingles. There are concrete walkways to the front entries and back doors flanked by lawn and plants.

The rear elevation from left to right contains a small utility wing and door, a kitchen/dining room window, and a bathroom window. The next five units are identical in plan with adjacent units reversed. A small utility wing with a door stands on the end of the building. Materials match the other elevations. The buildings all possess side-gabled roofs with a shallow overhang on the exterior entry walls and flush with the gable end walls. All of the buildings are the same width.

The buildings are surfaced with brick veneer, and brick soldier courses are used to emphasize different height levels of the buildings such as above and below window openings and extending across the top of doorways. Visual interest is provided by ra11domly inse1ied clinker brick to add minor color variations and texture to the brick veneer walls. Originally small shed-roofed porch canopies supported by wood posts cover all of the entrances. Some canopies have been replaced with flat roofs. The original multi-paned casement windows were steel framed, painted white, and located both on the fac;ade elevations and on the comers of the ground floor portions.

Original windows have been replaced with bronze colored metal sash containing dual pane windows in fixed, sliding, single and double hung styles, and doors have been replaced. The floors are concrete and the walls and ceilings are plastered. Each unit was supplied with a gas range and oven, automatic hot water heater, gas space heater, and electric refrigerator.

The only unique building within the complex is the community center building on the corner of Muir Way a11d Revere Street. The building is roughly L-shaped, one story tall with intersecting gabled roofs with clipped eaves and a brick veneer to match the other buildings in the district.

The fac;ade on Revere Street contains two gabled wings, one larger and somewhat irregular in shape, and one longer and narrower than the other, both connected by the middle cross gable.

The intersecting gables of the roof are surfaced with asphalt shingles. The building is surfaced with brick in the same style and character as the other buildings within the district. Windows occur in metal-framed segments, replacements of the original ones. The foundation is concrete.

The Revere Street entrance has been modified, and an opening in the brick on the south, once created as a door from an original window, is now closed.

Strong character-defining features of the district are the long, narrow, gabled brick buildings, arranged in an ordered rectilinear pattern of streets and paths, the open spacing between the buildings, the attractive garden-like landscaping and well-maintained image.

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United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento , CA
Name of Property County and State
Broadway, the principal nearby thoroughfare, extends along the northern boundary of the project. Muir Way, leads off of Broadway, runs adjacent to the Sacramento Cemetery, and provides an eastern boundary. The southern boundary extends along the rear boundaries of buildings fronting on Kemble and Ringold. The western boundary contains a cut-out corner and extends along the west end of buildings fronting on Kit Carson. A simple network of paved roads access open parking areas that are placed at the back of buildings whose rear elevations face each other. Paved paths and individual concrete walkways provide front elevation access.

The planning pattern of the buildings ' placement somewhat reflects settlement patterns that date back to the rectilinear organization of even early Roman military camps and forts, and military barracks as noted by Hans Scharoun who designed the Ring estate at Siemensstadt in Germany in the early twentieth century, an example of similar design patterns .2 The Bauhaus and architects such as Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe developed multiple housing patterns in the 1920s and 1930s, arranging long two to five story buildings on blocks in parallel order, that became popular in multiple housing units in Europe as the Zeilenbau pattern or system. The system often housed residents in multi-story buildings arranged in rectilinear patterns. In addition to the ~rowing functional architecture movement which discouraged unnecessary ornamentation, the United States Housing Authority (USHA) economized materials and design over the exploration of new design alternatives.

A north/south orientation of long housing units appears to have been preferred due to its optimal circulation oflight and air. The largely north/south orientation of the long narrow buildings reflected the architect's desire to maximize natural light and climate comfort. In 1936, Dean and Dean, one of the district's architects, oriented its main Sutter Maternity hospital rooms in a north/south direction, in a conscious effort to provide patients with natural lighting and climate comfort .

The plantings next to the buildings, expanses of green grass, large trees, and the individual unit walkways add to the character of the units. The walkways and intimate scale of the buildings and their setting, though rectilinear, have a certain casual and comfortable ambiance - and suggest English cottage ancestry not unlike that of a semi-rural English countryside. A sketch by architect Charles Dean illustrates his design plan for the image of the complex (Figure 6).4 Visually, the New Helvetia buildings appear to reflect the late nineteenth century English garden city planning concept where eff01is to attract people to a life style closer to rural values, as opposed to urban density and intensity, became imp01iant. Ebenezer Howard, founder of the English garden city movement, wrote Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path To Social Reform in 1898, reissued in 1965 as Garden Cities of Tomorrow, that advocated the creation of self-sufficient settlements ringed by an agricultural belt. The intent was to reverse the large scale migration of 2 Douglas Spencer , Lecture: "Scharoun, Siemesstadt and the Zeilenbau," Accessed October 10, 2010, http://terrai ncritical. word press.com/201 0/08/ 12/scharoun-and-siemensstadt/ . 3 Virginia and Lee McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984), 469. 4 Center for Sacramento History, Tomich Architecture Collection, Dean & Dean Drawing Files.

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United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento, CA
Name of Property County and State
people from rural areas and small towns to cities, which were becoming overpopulated. The settlements were also intended to be self-sufficient - and would provide rural districts with the economic opportunities and the amenities of larger industrial cities. It appears that the overall image of garden cities would interweave agricultural and landscaped areas with dwelling units to create self-sustaining and pleasant living entities. New Helvetia visually relates to such patterns through its open space, physical order, and landscaping qualities.5 The buildings' style incorporated design elements of the 1920s and 30s that in turn reinterpreted past architectural styles. According to Virginia and Lee McAlister, "In the decades separating World Wars I and II, Americans tended to prefer period houses that reflected past traditions, while European architects emphasized radically new designs that came to be known as International style architecture." 6
New Helvetia buildings reflect influences of past English architectural traditions such as Georgian and Tudor, through their clipped eaves, gabled roofs, warm brick materials, overall human scale, original multi-paned casement windows, minor English industrial design references, and other features intended to encourage an affinity for rural values. The buildings also reflect the modern architectural movement of the era which valued functionality and Werkbund objectivity. 7 What European designers called objectivity translated into a design focus on the function of the buildings, and the omission of non-functional architectural decoration in building design. This theme coincided with the limited amount of money available for federal housing projects, and the government began to press for the removal of ornamentation, supporting simple design to save money. These two forces came together in public housing resulting in simple buildings without superfluous ornamentation. 8 This became a characteristic of some of the federal housing projects of the era. While simple in fo1m, the scale and warmth and texture of the brick buildings of New Helvetia, and its green open spaces provide a ce1iain sense of well-being that would appear to be a top goal of public housing.9 The campus contains playgrounds with play equipment, a few backyard features, parking lots, and lots of grass. The lack of backyard fencing limits outdoor privacy. The New Helvetia Historic District buildings and grounds are in good physical condition.

Alterations include the 1990 replacement of the original multi-paned metal-framed casement windows, with contemporary sliding, single, and double hung windows framed in dark bronze anodized aluminum with wider frames than the original windows. Original doors were also replaced at that time. The replacement of the original comer windows, windows, and doors, designed to enhance the original image of the buildings, now suggests a more contemporary 5 William J.R. Curtis, and H.H. Smith, Modern Architecture since 1900, Second Edition (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1987), 130, 161-162, 165.
6 Virginia and Lee McAlister, A Field Guide to American Houses, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984), 469. 7 National Park Service, Public Housing in the United States, 1933-1949, 2004, F70-71. 8 Ibid.
9 Gail Radford, Modern Housing for America: Policy Struggles in the New Deal Era (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996) 31-32, 62; NPS, F70-71.

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United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento, CA
Name of Property County and State
appearance. They were replaced just before the buildings became 50 years old. A few of the original shed-roof entry canopies have been replaced with horizontal canopies. A few units have been fitted with unobtrusive ramped concrete path entries from the sidewalk to near the front doors to accommodate handicapped needs.

One of the duplex units near the community/office building has been converted to a Head Start facility with a cyclone fence and play equipment in the yard. A playhouse and small storage shed have been added nearby. Alterations to the building itself are not apparent. While minor changes have been made to the original appearance of the district, the complex has retained its most significant character-defining features and overall integrity.

In 1960, new units designed by Sacramento architect Raymond Franceschi were constructed in the southwestern comer of the complex, outside of the original plat. 10 They are similar in form and size but there are strong differences in surfacing, windows and doors, etc. and the street plan was changed to provide access to the units. The original street called Kit Carson within the complex was extended south, providing street access to the newer units on both sides of the new street in that corner.

These later units were not designed by the same architects nor do they possess the same visual character or history of the low income and defense housing of the original group of buildings.

The 1960 buildings therefore are not included in the nomination. Only the original project buildings are included in the nomination.

The buildings have retained their integrity although the doors and windows were replaced. There was no change to the original openings and the replacement materials are glass and metal as were the original. The setting has remained intact, and except for the changes noted, the existing materials are otherwise original. The siting and landscaping are intact with one street modification, and it has retained its feeling and sense of place. Its design integrity has not been altered and it has retained its original function and association. 10 SHRA.

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United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District
Name of Property

8. Statement of Significance
Applicable National Register Criteria
Sacramento, CA
County and State
(Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property for National Register listing.)
A. Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history.

B. Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past.

C. Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction.

D. Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.

Criteria Considerations
(Mark "x" in all the boxes that apply.)
D A. Owned by a religious institution or used for religious purposes D B. Removed from its original location
D C. A bi1ihplace or grave
D D. A cemetery
D E. A reconstructed building, object, or structure
□ F. A commemorative property
□ G. Less than 50 years old or achieving significance within the past 50 years Section 8 page 11
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District
Name of Property
Areas of Significance
(Enter categories from instructions.)
SOCIAL HlSTOR Y
ETHNIC HERITAGE/Black

ARCHITECTURE
Periods of Significance
1942
1942-1949
1951-1952
Significant Dates
1942
1952
Significant Person
(Complete only if Criterion Bis marked above.)
Colley, Nathaniel S.

Cultural Affiliation
__ NIA
Architect/Builder
Dean, Charles __ _
Devine. Sr.. Han')'
Flanders. Ed
Starks, Leonard
Campbell Construction Co.

Sacramento, CA
County and State
Statement of Significance Summary Paragraph (Provide a summary paragraph that includes level of significance, applicable criteria , justification for the period of significance, and any applicable criteria considerations.)
The New Helvetia Historic District is eligible for listing in the National Register at the local level under Criteria A, B, and C. It meets the registration requirements of the National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Submission (MPS) Public Housing in the United States, 1933- 1949 and is specifically listed as a Defense Housing project in the Multiple Prope11y Section 8 page 12
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento , CA
Name of Property County and State
Documentation Fonn. 11 In the area of Social History, New Helvetia represents an important local attempt to improve the housing conditions of African Americans, and in the area of Ethnic Heritage is associated with the career of Nathaniel Colley, the first African American attorney in Sacramento, who had a significant role in the effort to implement fair housing practices. In the area of Architecture, the buildings were designed by a coalition of Sacramento's Master architects-Charles Dean, Leonard Starks, Ed Flanders, and Harry Devine, Sr.-working together as a Board of Architects, the only project on which they Qollaborated. Periods of significance are 1942 to 1949 for Criterion A in association with the MPS, 1951 to 1952 for Criterion B in association with Nathaniel Colley's efforts to end discrimination at New Helvetia, and 1942 for Criterion C when construction was completed.

Narrative Statement of Significance (Provide at least one paragraph for each area of significance.)
Criterion A: Social History
The historic district represents an early interaction between the federal government and local community to eliminate slums and to improve housing available to the urban poor. 12 Initially intended to assist low income citizens, it became an important effort by the federal government and local community to provide low cost family housing for workers involved in vital defense industries during World War II. The project provided 310 units for low income housing in Sacramento. It was converted to defense housing during World War II, assisting important wartime housing needs at a critical time.

The political catalyst that sparked the national public housing movement and the creation of local housing authorities was the passage of the United States Housing Act of 1937. The Act established a pern1anent low-rent public housing program between the federal government and local communities. The Housing Act created a partnership between the U.S. government and local communities: "To promote the general welfare of the Nation by employing its funds and credit ... to remedy the non-safe and unsanitary housing conditions and the acute shortage of decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings for families of low income, in urban and rural non-farm areas." 13
It also created a new federal agency, the United States Housing Authority (USHA) to administer the program. The USHA required that communities requesting federal assistance must first establish a local public housing authority (PHA) since the USHA was not authorized to directly build or manage public housing. The USHA was ultimately responsible for supporting the completion of Bublic housing units for nearly 120,000 families in 370 housing projects, including New Helvetia . 4 As a reaction to the passage of the Housing Act of 193 7, the State of California passed enabling legislation in 193 8.
11 NPS, Public Housing in the United States, 1933-1949, Appendix IV, 2. 12 The Sacramento Bee, "Slum Clearance Committee asks Action by County," September 2, 1939; Sacramento Housing Authority (SHA), First Annual Repo1t, May 8, 1942, Preface, 1. 13 NPS, 42-46.
14 NPS, 42-53.

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United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No 1024-0016
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento, CA
Name of Property County and State
The passage of the Housing Act reflected the nation's problems with low income housing as well as those in Sacramento at the time. By 1935, housing for low income people in Sacramento had been affected by three trends: 1) the expansion of the city to the east and south, sometimes causing a decline in older areas left behind, 2) the dramatic growth and development of agriculture in the Valley; and 3) the large influx of population into California from the Dust Bowl during the years of the Great Depression. 15
The growth in agriculture in the Valley was spuned by the building of the railroad and the development of improved means of agricultural transport, such as express trains and refrigerated railroad cars. This activity created a need for worker housing. Agricultural growth created a need for seasonal workers and they began to move into the older dwellings and hotels in the west side of the community, Old Sacramento, and other marginally livable locations.

The Great Depression exacerbated the growth in agricultural employment as people migrated to California to escape the "Dust Bowl" in the Midwest. Some of these people impacted the west side, as well as creating new communities of temporary housing known as Hoovervilles and migrant camps along the American River north of Sacramento. All of these events generated a need for low income housing in Sacramento. However, low income residents were often relegated to poor land that was swampy and undesirable for general public use. Such land was located along the river, in the Natomas and North Sacramento areas, and along Broadway and the lower west side of the city. Due to lower land values, these areas had attracted low income residents and sub-standard housing. Slums developed during the Great Depression and had become a health hazard by the early 1940s. Low income housing problems were a concern in many cities at this time.

To address the problem of sub-standard housing in Sacramento neighborhoods, activists in the city formed the Sacramento Citizens Committee on Slum Clearance and Low Cost Housing. 16 In February of 1939 they petitioned the City Council to establish a local housing authority. Support for this action was bruad based and included: the Downtown Improvement Association; Sacramento Tuberculosis Association, the Local 107 Journeymen Tailors' Union of America, the Buddhist Church of Sacramento, the Salvation Army, and the Workers Alliance. Public pressure encouraged the Council to authorize the establishment of the Sacramento City Housing Authority on July 7, 1939.17 Support for this action was broad based within the community. The Citizens Committee also sponsored a movement to create a County Housing Authority due to the vital needs of slum clearance in districts outside the city. By June 1940, the County had established its own housing authority .18
The New Helvetia site plan submitted to USHA for approval featured elements common to other federally-sponsored public housing projects throughout the country between 1933 and 1949. 15 Ibid.
16 The Sacramento Bee, "Slum Clearance Committee Asks Action by County," September 2, 1939. 17 The Sacramento Bee, September 2, 1939.
18 SHA, First Annual Report, Preface, 1.

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United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento, CA
Name of Property County and State
These housing projects were designed as a grouping of multi-family, low-scale residential buildings arranged in a pattern according to circulation needs within large open spaces. Some planning patterns reflected versions of European housing solutions of the times. Modem amenities such as parking areas, service driveways, and individual concrete walkways to apmtment units were included. As noted in The Sacramento Bee, "Other features such as the placement of on-site community centers, management offices, playgrounds, and other recreational areas within the housing complex were characteristics common to other USHA developments. "19
In August 1939, the agency submitted an application to the USHA for a $1.5 million loan to finance the development of the project. In January 1940, $1,125 million was approved. Under terms of the housing act, the City was responsible for raising 10% of the project costs.20 A Board of Architects was created for the project and its members consisted of a highly regarded group of local architecture firms including: Dean & Dean, Harry Devine, and Starks & Flanders.21 On Ma~ 1_7, 19~0 their preliminar~ plans for the New Helvetia project were sent to Washington, D.C for review and approval.

The site selected for the development was a vacant tract owned by the Southern Pacific Company located south of Broadway and west of Ninth Street (now Muir Way).23 Rather than slum clearance, which was one of the stated goals in the federal legislation, the local Housing Authority chose a vacant site, stating, "It is more economical to build on a vacant site because of the cost ofland acquisition and cost ofrelocation of tenants before construction can begin." 24 The lowest bid for construction was submitted by the Walter Campbell Construction Co. of Sacramento. 25 Local management was directed by Thomas Scollan, originally the secretary and executive director of both the City and County Housing Authorities. Upon his death, he was replaced by Bartley Cavanaugh on May 7, 1941. At that time, local newspapers reported that work to clear and level the New Helvetia site was underway. A rent schedule for the project was published in The Sacramento Bee September 8, 1941. In that article it was noted that the project was experiencing some difficulty in obtaining materials, due to the pre-war build-up. A November 3, 1941 mticle in The Bee indicated that New Helvetia was 40% complete and that the first families would begin moving into already completed units in February.

Before its completion New Helvetia was conve1ted from low income housing to defense housing.

Part of the reasoning for the conversion was a concern for local real estate markets after the war.

If private housing was built to meet defense needs, many of these units would become vacant after the war and local real estate value would plummet. Converting units such as New Helvetia 19 The Sacramento Bee, "Plans for Local Housing Project Go To Washington," May 17, 1940; NPS, 70. 20 The Sacramento Bee, August 9, 1939; NPS, 42-53.
21 The Sacramento Bee, "U.S. Earmarks Fund for City Housing Plan," January 22, 1940. 22 The Sacramento Bee, "Plans for Local Housing Project Go To Washington," May 17, 1940. 23 The Sacramento Bee, "Workers Level, Clear Site for New Helvetia," May 15, 1941. 24 SHA 2
25 Ibid. ,
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United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento, CA
Name of Property County and State
to defense housing would provide timely needed housing and after the war they could be converted back to low income housing. Sacramento was a center for military-industrial activity with McClellan and Mather airfields, and the Army Depot. The 310 apartments at New Helvetia were among approximately 65,000 units nationwide converted from low income to defense housing. 26 The project was completed in August 1942 and dedicated in November. 27 The original Housing Act of 1937 was not funded beyond 1940. However, the build-up of the nation's industries for World War II in 1940 and 1941 caused about 3 million war workers and their families ( about 8 to 10 million people) to migrate to the nation's defense industrial centers.

As a result, throughout the 1940-41 fiscal year Congress increased funding for public and private housing construction to meet the demand. The National Defense Act passed in June 1940, and also known as Public Law 671, authorized the USHA to assist the more than 500 local housing authorities to work with the Navy and War Departments to make "necessary housing available for persons engaged in national defense activities." 28 The United States was attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and war was soon declared against both Japan and Germany as the U.S. officially entered World War II. Even before December, by August of 1941, employment at McClellan had grown to 3,000 civilian employees. By March 1942 its employment had grown substantially to 8,000 and many of those workers were coming from outside the market area. The National Defense Act of June 1940, also known as Public Law 671 endured until President Truman ordered the defense housing to revert to low income housing in 1947.29
Criterion B: Ethnic Heritage
Nathaniel Colley, the first African American attorney in private practice in Sacramento, was instrumental in both local and national efforts to implement fair housing practices and end segregation in public housing, a career that began with his involvement with New Helvetia.

Colley instituted the first formal legal effort to end racial segregation in Sacramento, beginning with the Sacramento Housing Authority's New Helvetia defense/public housing.

New Helvetia is the most pertinent remaining location associated with Colley's initial segregation work in public housing in Sacramento beginning in 1951. The two legal offices he successively occupied during this period have been demolished due to downtown redevelopment efforts. In 1951, Colley's law office was located at 421 ½ L Street, according to the City of Sacramento's 1951 Phone Book (there is no 1951 City Directory). The 1952 City Directory lists Colley's law office at the same location. 421 ½ L Street is now a parking lot for the 45 5 Capitol Mall office building. The 1953-1956 City Directories list Calley's office at 621 P Street, cunently the location of the Capitol Towers apartment complex. 26 NPS, E53-63.
27 The Sacramento Bee, "1154 Folks at New Helvetia Feel High Degree of Community Spirit More Than Justified," November 22, 1942.
28 NPS, E54.
29 Ibid., E65.

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Nathaniel Sextus Colley gained local, regional, and national recognition as one of the leaders in the struggle to end segregation in public housing for African Americans. Expanding on his success and experience in Sacramento, Colley took the segregation fight to other California and western cities that operated public housing, working with branches of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in California and other western states. After fighting segregation in public housing, Colley used this experience to fight racial discrimination against African Americans who tried to purchase private residences in Sacramento and eventually nationwide. He became a recognized national leader in the effort to end racial segregation and discrimination and was a highly regarded attorney who fought for equality for Af . Am , 3031 ncan encans.

Colley Challenged Segregation In Sacramento
Colley experienced racial prejudice and discrimination on a first-hand basis. He was born in Alabama, where he graduated from high school. He enrolled at the Tuskegee Institute and graduated at the top of his class. His life was interrupted by World War II, where he was an officer in an all-black unit which served in the Pacific. After the war he applied to the University of Alabama School of Law and was rejected because he was black. He was soon admitted to the Yale School of Law. After his graduation, he moved in 1948 to Sacramento-his wife's home town. He passed the California State Bar on his first try and opened the first African American law practice in the city. Colley became an attorney because he thought he could bring about more improvements for African Americans through the legal process. 32 He joined the Sacramento Branch of the NAACP and became its legal counsel. He began advising the group to proactively fight segregation in public housing. Unlike southern states that instituted segregation through Jim Crow laws, Sacramento practiced de facto segregation through unwritten rules.

Calley's first legal fight against segregation of African Americans began in Sacramento at New Helvetia. He was the first to discover that the Sacramento Housing Authority was segregating them in two buildings at New Helvetia. Colley wrote in his "One Man's Opinion" column, From a practical economic standpoint, segregation in public housing in Sacramento has been a disaster to Negros seeking public housing. The average white applicant for such housing has had to wait from three to six months for assignment to New Helvetia, while the average Negro applicant has been required to wait from two to four years for assignment. Of the 310 units there, 16 have been set aside for Negroes. The others are for all other groups. The 16 Negro units are in two buildings reserved exclusively for Negroes. If a vacancy occurs in one of the 294 units reserved for other people, the Negro applicant is no1 allowed to fill it even though he has been on the waiting list for four years . A white application who has been on the list only three weeks could fill such a 30 The Sacramento Bee, June 20, 1991.
31 KVIE, Public Television Channel 6 Sacramento and the Center for Sacramento History, "The Time is Now: Nathaniel Colley." August 28, 2006.
32 Ibid.

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vacancy. Thus, need for a house and prioritv of application become secondary, and racial identification becomes primary [ emphasis added]. 33
When Colley informed the NAACP Housing Committee that de facto segregation was occurring in New Helvetia, its members stated that they were unaware of this practice. Colley argued that doing nothing allowed segregation to continue and that the NAACP should proactively tackle the issue. The committee agreed with Colley and decided they would try to convince the Housing Authority to integrate African Americans throughout the City's public housing buildings, rather than immediately going to court.34
The effort to end segregation in New Helvetia began as an effort of the Sacramento NAACP, but Colley and other NAACP members realized they needed a community-wide effort to win. Colley helped create and organize the Sacramento Committee Against Segregation in Public Housing (Sacramento Committee), with Myra West as chair and himself as chief counsel. A collaboration of twenty-five churches, political groups, unions, charities and labor unions. Twenty-two took a stand to support the NAACP's goal to eliminate segregation. Colley personally recruited organizations to join the Committee. On January 7, 1952, Colley asked the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce to support the NAACP's position. He told Chamber members that "discrimination consists of setting aside 16 units in New Helvetia project for Negroes and the rest for other racial groups. The 16 units are in one group. Negros who apply for an apartment, do not get one if there is no vacancy in the 16 units, regardless of how many vacancies exist in the remaining units." 35 At the same Chamber meeting, Housing Authority Executive Director Albert Becker countered by saying "the tenants are satisfied with the present system" and that "similar segregation is practiced in Richmond and Stockton, ... Oakland and Fresno housing projects are divided on a racial basis." 36
Previously, in November 1951, West and Colley, as members of the Sacramento NAACP branch, met with Housing Authority Executive Director Albert Becker. Becker said he was unaware segregation was occurring in New Helvetia and referred West and Colley to the Housing Authority Commissioners because they made policy decisions. Commissioners were approached one by one and also said they were unaware of any segregation. On December 18, 1951, Myra West and others testified before the Housing Authority and asked them to eliminate the practice of segregation in New Helvetia because it limited the housing supply for minorities, among other things. Commissioners said they were opposed to segregation, but that no one had complained. The Commission agreed to look into the issue and Colley requested a written response from the Commission, which they agreed to provide. 37 33 Nathaniel S. Colley, "One Man's Opinion," Sacramento Outlook; Nathaniel S. and Jerlean J. Colley Papers, Series 8, Carton 4, Folder 5, Center for Sacramento History. 34 William Mayer, "Sacramento's Fight for Integration in Public Housing," The Crisis, January 1953, 26-33. 35 "C of C Hands Racial Issue to Board," Sacramento Union, January 8, 1952, 2. 36 Ibid.
37 Mayer, 29.

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When the Sacramento Committee did not get a response from the Housing Authority, the Committee testified before the City Council on January 3, 1952. Committee Chair Myra West submitted a resolution to the Council requesting support to eliminate segregation in public housing. She stated that "while the construction of the units within the project is the same, Negroes are placed in a designated area. In New Helvetia for example , there are 310 units of which only 16 units are available to Negroes." 38 The ouncil refeffed the issue to City Manager Burt Cavanaugh for investigation of the complaint and a report back to the ouncil. After the council hearing, West and Colley met with the City Manager who indicated that the Housing Authority was an independent entity, but promised a response by January 18. In the meantime, the Housing Authority had rented 100 of the new River Oaks public housing units. Colley knew that by February 4, 1952 another 114 units would be ready to rent. There was no response from Cavanaugh and on January 22, 1952, Colley was authorized by the Sacramento Committee to pursue legal action against the Sacramento Housing Authority. However, on January 23, 1952, Executive Director Becker responded and said he had good news: the number of units set aside for African Americans in the new River Oaks public housing would be increased to 18% of the 400 units. That was more than the current local population figures required (13. 7 % ). 39 In other words, the Housing Authority would continue the same segregation pattern as New Helvetia­ segregating African Americans in a separate area and setting aside a specific number of units within the new River Oaks development. However, they would allow more African Americans to move into the project. This offer ignored the main legal argument of the NAACP and Sacramento Committee Against Segregation in Public Housing- that separating out a limited number of housing units for African Americans unfairly made qualified African American applicants wait longer than others to receive needed housing and didn't integrate them into the whole community.

On February 1, 1952, Colley filed a complaint with the Sacramento County Superior Court, requesting the Comi prevent the Housing Authority from moving more tenants into the River Oaks development. 4° Colley knew that prohibiting the rental of new River Oaks units would put pressure on the Housing Authority to end segregation not only in River Oaks, but in New Helvetia as well.

On April 18, 1952, a Courier newspaper article declared Housing bias was dealt a stum1ing blow here Friday by the NAACP when the local authority agreed to integrate families in the Government's large Sacramento development.

The Housing Authority decided on a settlement after a suit had been filed by the aggressive NAACP Attorney, Nathaniel S. Colley, demanding that the authority show cause why minority families should be separated. The suit charged that segregation is discrimination. The authority agreed to move 16 minority families into previously all 38 The Sacramento Bee, "City will Probe Housing Discrimination Charge," January 4, 1952, 17. 39 Mayer, 26-33.
4 ° Franklin, Reynolds, Johnson, plaintiffs, vs. Housing Authority of Sacramento, Complaint No. 89018, filed February 1, 1952, Sacramento County Superior Court.

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white areas and 16 white families into sections formerly occupied by minoritli groups.

The court also granted a permanent injunction barring separation in housing. 1 Thus, de facto segregation would be eliminated in all of Sacramento's public housing.

Colley 's Influence Expanded to Other Cal!fornia Cities and Western States Colley did not focus only on segregation in Sacran1ento's public housing . He soon realized that segregation was occurring in public housing in numerous California cities. Colley lost no time in expanding the NAACP legal challenges against public housing segregation in other California cities. Colley was the lead attorney on the reconstruction of the Central Valley's NAACP branches and began working with them to fight segregation in their public housing . 42 He became President of the Central Valley NAACP branches. In January 1952, Colley reported at the NAACP's Western Region 1 Annual Meeting that "The Central Area Conference adopted as a project the matter of doing something about racial segregation in public housing projects. A program is being worked out in Sacramento which ... will help remedy the situation in other communities. "43
On May 6, 1952, a NAACP West Coast Region press release announced that more than 50 NAACP attorneys would meet in Asilomar, CaHfornia to plan "attacks on housing segregation in California and Other Western States." The NAACP West Coast Region was comprised of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, and California. Lawyers from these states met at Asilomar, California on May 17-18, 1952, and developed strategies to fight segregation in public housing. The NAACP's press release also announced that Nathaniel Colley had successfully sued the Sacramento Housing Authority. He had forced them to cease segregation and was planning other similar law suits in Central Valley communities where racial segregation was the pattern. Colley was quoted: "The NAACP will sue in every city and town that has racial segregation in public housing from Barstow on the South to Redding on the North." 44
Actions at the Western Region I Annual Meeting supported Calley's pro-active approach to initiate legal challenges to segregation in public housing. The Region's Legal Committee had an "extended conversation on the subject of residential segregation of Negros. It agreed that in California the Courts will not tolerate racial segregation in public housing. Attorneys Hugh Goodwin of Fresno and Nathaniel Colley of Sacramento related their experiences." The Legal Committee agreed to "make its services available to any NAACP branch desiring to tackle the 41 The Courier, "Deal Death Blow to Housing Bias," April 19, 1952, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Region 1 Records, Bancroft Library BANC MSS 78/180 c; Carton 73, Folder 54.
42 1951 Annual Report, 13, NAACP, Region 1 Records, 1942-1986, Bancroft Library, BANC MSS 78/180 c; Carton 106 Publications/Publicity, Folder 35.
43 "Minutes of the Central Area Conference," January 26, 1952, San Francisco; Center for Sacramento History, Nathaniel S. and Jerlean J. Colley Papers, Series 1 Regional Advisory Committee 1947-1979, Carton 1, Folder 4.
44 "West Coast Regional News" Press Release, May 6, 1952, NAACP, Region 1 Records, Bancroft Library BANC MSS 78/180 c; Carton 107, Folder 52.

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problem of racial segregation in public housing. The following cities were among tbose found to be critical areas from the point of view of racial segregation : Richmond Vallejo San Francisco , Oakland, Stockton." 45 Colley also prepared a "splendid report on his legal efforts and made it available for use by other branches. 46
Because of the size of the effort, it was agreed that the NAACP Legal Committee would formally organize as the Regional Legal Redress Committee of the NAACP, Western Region, to handle injustices which were not being addressed. Attorney Loren Miller (LA) was elected chairman and Attorney Nathaniel Colley was elected vice-chair; other committee members of this expanded legal effort included NAACP representatives from California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah47 "Most of the smaller communities throughout the region do not have practicing attorneys sympathetic to civil rights cases. As a result many issues which should be litigated go unattended or are not vigorously pressed in the courts." 48 The establishment of a Regional Legal Redress Committee facilitated the sharing of Calley's legal expertise to less experienced NAACP branches in California and western states. Colley and others reviewed cases for their importance, their ability to win cases and then initiated them.

Colley provided legal advice on an ongoing basis to other NAACP attorneys in Fresno, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City, Utah. "The newly-formed committee agreed to undertake an organized legal attack on segregated public housing throughout the region. A 'pilot' case was planned to be brought in San Francisco in an effort to establish a legal precedent that could be applied throught [sic] the seven western states."49
Colley brought his legal experience with the Sacramento Housing Authority lawsuit and became a counsel in a precedent-setting lawsuit against the Housing Authority of the City and County of San Francisco, along with Attorney Loren Miller, Chair of the Legal Redress Committee and local San Francisco Attorney Terry A. Francois. They accused the City and County of San Francisco of "failing to admit the petitioners to any permanent low rent housing development except Westside Courts, solely because of their race and color and for no other reason." so Colley and the newly structured NAACP Western Region's Legal Redress C01mnittee facilitated and successfully won this case with an opinion by Judge Cronin declaring "segregation violative [sic] of the U.S. and California Supreme Courts and the public policy of the City of Sacramento ... and 45 "Minutes of the Legal Committee," May 17-18, 1952, pages 1-2, Western Region 1 NAACP, 1952 Annual Meeting, Nathaniel S. Colley and Jerlean J. Colley Papers, Series 1 Regional Advisory Committee 1947-1979, Carton 1, Folder 11.
46 "The New Frontier," 1952, 21, NAACP Region 1, Records, Bancroft Library, BANC MSS 78/180 c; Carton 106, Folder 36.
47 "Minutes of the Legal Committee," May 17-18, 1952, 3. 48 "The New Frontier," 1952, 11, NAACP, Region 1 Records, Bancroft Library, BANC MSS 78/180 c, Carton 106, F~der36 .
49 "The New Frontier," 1952," 1952, 11.
50 Mattie Banks, et al, Petitioners vs. Housing Authority of the City and Council of San Francisco, No. 420534, City and County of San Francisco Superior Court, Findings of Facts and Judgment Granting Preemptory Writ of Mandate; NAACP, Region 1 Collection, Bancroft Library BANC MSS 78/180 c, Carton 103, Folder 20.

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is considered a sufficient basis for destroying the pattern throughout the Region." 51 Thus, Colley helped other NAACP branches to successfully win legal challenges against segregation in public housing in San Francisco, Fresno, and other cities in California and other western states.

Colley continued to fight for fair housing for African Americans and in 1954 filed the landmark legal case of Ming vs. Horgan. The lawsuit claimed that a real estate developer who was receiving federal funds for a housing project could not engage in racial discrimination against African Americans, who were qualified, and wanted to purchase a home. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Colley and found that these discriminatory practices were illegal for the sale of any housing that used federal funds. This eliminated discrimination against African Americans who were barred from purchasing residential homes in specific areas of a community because of restrictions written into the original deeds .

Colley was active in the NAACP for nearly four decades, beginning as the Sacramento branch's legal counsel, president of the NAACP's Central Valley Area, and eventually chair of the Western Region's Legal Committee and a member of the NAACP's National Board, among other positions. In addition, he was active in California state politics beginning in 1951 as the NAACP's Western Region's legislative representative and actively worked on legislation which eliminated segregation and discrimination against African Americans in California. When Colley died in 1992, U.S. Supreme Comt Justice Anthony M. Kennedy described him as a " ... fascinating and brilliant trial lawyer who knew and taught that the law could be an instrument, not only for justice, but for compassion." Robert K. Puglia, presiding justice of the 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento said "He was a giant in his profession - one of the finest lawyers ever to practice here." Former Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, Earle Warren said Colley was, "A splendid champion of many civil rights cases."
Nathaniel Colley was known as a talented and gifted attorney who embarked on a prominent and respected legal career that fought for fair housing for African Americans and all people of color.

His brilliant legal career began with his fight against de facto segregation of African Americans in New Helvetia public housing, isolating them to 16 units in two buildings merely because of their skin color. Because of Nathaniel S. Calley's effo1ts, public housing practices were changed throughout California and the western states. African Americans were finally able to apply for, and receive, public housing on an equal basis with other people in need.

Criterion C: Architecture
New Helvetia Historic District represents the unusual collaboration of four of Sacramento's most notable Master architects on a design that provided a transition between architectural images from the past and an interface with modern more functional design concepts of the future. These four architects designed a predominant number of Sacramento buildings and contributed substantially to the style and image of the city's built environment. 52 Working as a Board of 51 "The New Frontier," 1952, 21.
52 The Architect & Engineer, June 1922, "Recent work by Dean and Dean, Architects, 46-81; "Recent work by Dean & Dean Architects, 38-54, 69-71, 73-99; Sutter Memorial Hospital, Cultural Resources Section 8 page 22
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Architects, the committee developed the planning concepts and design of the New Helvetia public housing project that, in turn, affected the design of other architectural works in the city.

The design is also significant as it bridged the substantial changes in architectural thought and design from the first portion of the twentieth century to the more modern era.

Charles Dean of Dean and Dean, Leonard Starks and Ed Flanders of Starks and Flanders, and Harry Devine Sr. were each masters of their profession, with design followers of their own. They were among the prime architects in Sacramento at the time. Combining their professional design efforts on this project was quite unusual, and was the only such project on which they collaborated. 53 Research has not indicated that a specific architect was forn1ally designated as the principal designer. Extant drawings for the buildings and landscape plan bear the name plate of Charles Dean. 54 A brief overview of their individual accomplishments provides some insight into their design philosophies and accomplishments as Master architects.

Dean_and Dean55
The architectural firm of Charles and James Dean was a prominent design firm in the early twentieth century in Sacramento. Charles and James Dean were born and raised in Texas. Their father, R.K. Dean, was an engineer and builder, and both boys graduated from Texas A&M University. After A&M, where he took classes in engineering and drawing, Charles Dean went to work in an architectural office in San Antonio for two years. He then moved to Chicago to work for the architectural firm of Englehart & Englehart for seven years. George Sell on, also from Chicago, was California's first State Architect and he convinced Dean to come to work for his office in 1908. James, who attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after Texas A&M,joined his brother in the State Architect's Office in 1912.

In 1921 the Dean brothers left the State Architect.' s Office to form their own firm, Dean & Dean.

Charles Dean was the principal designer of the firm and James handled the business matters.

Sacramento had embarked on an ambitious school building program beginning in 1920 and Dean & Dean completed several schools in the next five years including: Fremont, El Dorado, Newton Booth, Franklin, Donner, Bret Haiie, Jefferson, East Sacramento, Highland Park, McKinley, Leland Stanford, Sierra, and Theodore Judah.

Dean & Dean were also prolific residential and commercial designers who influenced residential design in Sacramento. They designed a number of imposing residences in South Curtis Oaks and East Sacramento. They designed the Sutter Lawn and Tennis Club, Sacramento Junior College buildings, the Municipal Water Filtration Plant, the Sacramento Orphanage and Children's Report, Paula Boghosian and Don Cox, May 2013; Devine, Harry, Unpublished Manuscript, Paula Boghosian and Don Cox, June 10, 2013.
53 Sacramento Housing Authority, First Annual Report, 2; Sacramento Bee, "U.S. Earmarks Fund for City Housing Plan," January 22, 1940.
54 SCH, Tomich/Dean & Dean, Collection .
55 Walter Reed, History of Sacramento County, California: With Biographical Sketches (Los Angeles:

Historic Record Company, 1923), 518; The Sacramento Bee, "Charles F. Dean, Capitol Architect is Dead at 72," June 30, 1956; Paula Boghosian and Don Cox, Sutter Memorial Hospital Cultural Resources Report, May 2013.

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Home, the Golf Club House at Land Park, the Sutter Club, Westminster Presbyterian Church, the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, Breuner's Furniture Store, Alhambra Shopping Center, Clunie Clubhouse and Library, YWCA, Dean Apa1iments, and Sutter Maternity Hospital in 1936. The firm often worked in Revival styles with English or Tudor themes, those of Mediterranean or Romanesque architecture, as well as some Modeme themes. The design of the New Helvetia complex is one of the types of projects for which the firm was noted. Their design direction was generally evolving through a variety of Revival projects toward modernism at the time of this project.

James Dean accepted an appointment by the City of Sacramento to supervise the construction of the Memorial Auditorium. He eventually became the City Architect and sold his interest in Dean & Dean to his brother. Charles Dean continued the firm under both names until his death in 1956.

Harry Devine_Sr. ~~
Another notable Sacramento architect, Harry Devine, subsequently designed several buildings for the Mercy Hospital and Sacred Heart School complex. On September 13, 1931 Sacred Heart Church at 39th and J Streets designed by local architect Harry Devine was formally dedicated.

For many years to come Devine would have a hand in designing many projects for the hospital and the diocese.

Harry Devine was born in Sacramento in 1894. Harry graduated from high school at Christian Brothers School in Sacramento, and went on to the University of California at Berkeley. His academic career was inten:upted by the onset of World War I until he returned, graduating in 1919. Devine opened an architectural office in Sacramento, and mairied in 1922. His son, Harry Devine, Jr., ultimately assumed the management of his father's architectural firm, which has continued to the present, despite the demise of both father and son.

Among t.he more notable Sacramento buildings designed by the Devine firm are the following, listed alphabetically:

Bishop Annstrong High School
California Junior High School
Federal Building, Capitol Mall
J. Magnin Depaiiment Store
Mercy Hospital additions
National Catholic Education Association for the most distinguished church design of 1957, and the parish campus master plan
Roos Atkins Department Store
Sacred Heart Church
St. Ignatius Catholic Church Campus - for which he was given two First Place awards State Dept. of Education Building, Capitol Mall
56 Paula Boghosian and Don Cox, Mercy Hospital Addition: Cultural Resources Report, May 2007.

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Mr. Devine also worked as Supervising Architect for the Sacramento Unified School District for sixteen years, served on the Sacramento Planning Commission, and on the State Board of Architectural Examiners for ten years, including three years as its president. At his death in 1963 he was honored as an architect and an outstanding citizen of Sacramento. He was one of the first Sacramentans to receive the highest laymen rank in the diocese, conferred by Pope Pius XII, as "Knighthood Commander in the Order of St. Gregory the Great," awarded for his service to the church and for his participation in civic activities. Devine's work tended to more fully embrace the new modernism in architecture than previously popular Revival themes. The architectural work of Hany Devine has contributed substantially to the community and influenced the design of other buildings in the Sacramento area.

Leonard Starks and Edward F. Flaii.ders of Starks and Flanders 57 Born in Healdsburg in 1891, Leonard Starks completed his architectural course at the Lick­ Wilmerding School of Industrial Arts in San Francisco in 1908. He then went to work in the office of Bakewell & Brown. In 1912 he transferred to the Panama Pacific International Exposition as an assistant designer, where he designed several of the exposition buildings. He also worked with several of prominent Bay Area architects, including Bernard Maybeck, assisting him with the 1915 Palace of Fine A1is.

After the Exposition work, Starks moved to the East Coast to pursue further studies taught by graduates of the Beaux Arts School of Architecture in Paris. He then moved to Washington D. C. where he worked until the end of the First World War when he moved to New York in 1919. In charge of Thomas W. Lamb's office, he designed theaters and other public buildings throughout the United States and Canada. In 1921 the Lamb finn obtained a commission by the Famous Players, Inc. to build a chain of theaters on the west coast. Starks was sent to Sacramento to build the first theater. Due to an anti-trust suit, the project was abandoned, but Starks decided to stay in Sacramento and open his own architectural firm. Local investors became interested in the project and Starks soon had his first major commission, the design of the Senator Theater.

Starks soon became a partner of a weU-known Sacramento architect, E.C. Hemmings. Their firm was retained by the Elks Lodge in 1923 to begin preliminary sketches for their new building at 11 th and J Streets. Just following the order to begin preparation of working drawings for the Elks Lodge, in June of 1924, Hemmings died. By early 1925 Starks had taken in another patiner, Edward F. Flanders, and the two continued in business together for many years. Starks served as the master designer of the firm. Mr. Flanders passed away in 1941, after participating in the early planning and construction of New Helvetia. Starks had a long and distinguished career in Sacramento and his finn designed many well-known and admired buildings, a number of which are extant. Some of them are as follows, listed alphabetically:

Frank Z. Ahl Building, 1925
Alhambra Theater, 192 7
57 Paula Boghosian and Don Cox, Sutter Memorial Hospital Cultural Resources Report, May 2013.

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Alturas High School, Alturas, 1930
Arnold Brothers Auto Agency, 1925
Bank of America, Oak Park, 1951
California Fruit Exchange, 1932
California National Bank, 1926
Capitol Building & Loan Association, 1927
Clunie Club House and Pool, 1936
Crocker School, 1930
Hickman & Coleman Co., 1929
Herman Davis & Sons, 1 924
UC Davis, Administration & Library Buildings, 1939
Davis Union High School, 1926
Dunsmuir High School, 1928
Eaton Cleaning & Dyeing Co., 1926
Elks Club Building, 1926
Elliott Auto Agency, 1922
First Baptist Church, Willows, 1929
First Congregational Church (Pioneer Memorial Church), 1926 Fremont Presbyterian Church, 1926
Fresno Bee Building, 1922
W.P. Fuller Co. Warehouse, 1925
Gladding, McBean Office, I ,incoln, 1951
Marysville City Hall, 1940
C.K. McClatchy High School, 1949
Moose Hall, 1927
Mount Shasta High School, Mount Shasta, 1927
Newcastle Community Hall, 1926
North Sacramento Theatre, 1928
Oroville Elks Lodge, 1929
Perfection Bread Co., East addition, 1924
Percy Reese Residence, 1925
Placer National Bank, Placerville, 192 7
Portola High School, 1930
Russell & Logan Battery Shop
Sacramento County Comihouse, 1961
Sacramento Municipal Airport, Hangers & Terminal, 1931
Senator Theatre, 1924
Sun Mount Preventorium, Colfax, 1925
Sutter Memorial Hospital additions 1955
U.S. Post Office, Sacramento, 1932
Veterans Memorial Bldg, Lincoln, 1931
William Land Memorial Monument, 1934
Williams, City Hall and Firehouse, 193 8
Williams, Grammar School, 1930
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Woodland, Christian Church, 1928
Yuba City, City Hall, 1939
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The firm's work on New Helvetia would have reflected both its Period Revival work and its evolution toward modem design, as shown in a progression from the Clunie Clubhouse in 1936 to the C.K. McClatchy High School of 1949.

In addition to his work as an architect, Starks was involved in professional activities and organizations. In 1930 he became a member of the Sacramento Building Code Board of Examiners and Appeals, on which he served for the next thirty-two years. Starks was an active member of the San Francisco chapter of the American Institute of Architects and later served as the first president of the Northern California Chapter after it was established. He was the first architect to serve as president of the Sacramento Builders Exchange. After his retirement in 1962 Starks turned to his hobby of water color painting. The firm continues today under the name of Nacht and Lewis.

The New Helvetia complex was constructed by Campbell Construction Company of Sacramento, a well-respected longtime construction firm in Sacramento and northern California.

The New Helvetia site plan that the Sacramento architectural consortium submitted for USHA approval featured elements common to other federally-sponsored public housing projects constructed throughout the country between 1933 and 1949. As a building type, the housing developments were designed as a grouping of multi-family, low-scale residential buildings organized on a site around large open spaces. Some of the design features reflected the influence of the late nineteenth-century English Garden City movement, including the use of open spaces delineated by winding streets and large buildings blocks closed to vehicular traffic. Other design elements were rooted in the rational, functional, twentieth-century aesthetics of the European Modernists, such as the German Zeilenbau strategy of arranging buildings in parallel rows to maximize solar exposure and ventilation. 58
The architects also included modem amenities such as automobile parking areas, service driveways, and individual concrete walkways to each residential unit. Other features such as the placement of an on-site community center management office, a playground, and other recreational areas within the housing complex were characteristics common to other USHA developments. Some architectural elements, such as the brick-veneer wall cladding and gable roofs, are more commonly associated with the earlier housing projects, while other features such as the steel-frame casement windows are consistent with the use oflntemational-style design elements that were used on some public housing developments between the early 1930s and the late 1940s. Simple fonns and a lack of ornamentation became defining features of public housing complexes of this period, and were well suited to the USHA's legislative and administrative cost restrictions. The completed design was a melded product of European design theories, local preferences, and federal programmatic guidance.
58 Mies van der Rohe, 1927 Werkbund Exhibition, Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart, 1927.

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Sacramento has a perceived history of "traditionalism" in its tastes and did not wholeheartedly embrace the age of Moderne or Art Deco design themes of the 1920s and 193 Os. 59 The comfortable traditional revival houses and multiple versions of ranch house design were the principal public choices for residential architecture during that era and into the 1950s. While public buildings employed some modern design, Streamline Moderne and the International style were largely bypassed by the Sacramento community in favor of more traditional modes.60 The somewhat plain, barracks-like image of the housing complex differed from the more complex Period Revival or modest 1920s and 1930s bungalow forn1s lining Sacramento streets.

However, the lack of ornament and the clipped functional design of the housing complex buildings were acceptable due to the traditional forms and materials employed, and helped introduce the concept of functionality in architecture to the Sacramento community. The simple forms of New Helvetia buildings anticipated the "form follows function" architectural philosophies that were emerging in Europe. "Objectivity," the lack of extraneous decoration, was seen as a goal of the new design movement and reflected the rise of modernism. 61 The New Helvetia Historic District reflects an important transitional phase in architectural design in Sacramento.

At that moment in time, the design world was balanced between the past and familiar revivalist machinations, and the new Modern which relied on a building's function and objectivity as progenitors of the next generation of architectural forms and thought, a balance that moved forward to a new architectural imagery and philosophy.

Although extant drawings for the project display a Charles Dean name plate, it is not known at this time the extent of individual design involvement of each architect in the New Helvetia project. A review of their varied projects appears to indicate the architects chosen would have been among the more forward thinking designers of that time, and the New Helvetia Historic District complex an important architectural statement of the era in Sacramento.

The New Helvetia Historic District meets the registration requirements of the National Register of Historic Places MPS Public Housing in the United States, 1933-1949 and is eligible for listing in the National Register at the local level under Criteria A, B, and C. 59 City of Sacramento, Sacramento Register of Historic & Cultural Resources, December 2011 . 60 Ibid.
61 Curtis and Smith, 108-109 .

Section 8 page 28
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento, CA
Name of Property County and State

9. Major Bibliographical References
Bibliography (Cite the books, articles, and other sources used in preparing this form.) Banks, et al, vs. Housing Authority of the City and Council of San Francisco, No. 420534, City and County of San Francisco Superior Court, Findings of Facts and Judgment Granting Preemptory Writ of Mandate, BANC MSS 78/180 c, Bancroft Library.

Blau, Eve. The Architecture of Red Vienna: 1919-1934. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999.

Boghosian, Paula and Don Cox. Sutter Memorial Hospital Cultural Resources Report. 2013. ____ . Mercy Hospital Addition Cultural Resources Report. 2007.

Brunskill, R.W. Vernacular Architecture of the Lake Counties. London: Faber & Faber, 1978.

Center for Sacramento History Photos: 1985/024/6857; 2001/057/293.

Center for Sacramento History. City of Sacramento Housing Authority. First Annual Report.

May 8, 1942 (No. 406). '
Center for Sacramento History. Tomich Architecture Collection. Dean & Dean drawing files.

New Helvetia.

City Directories, 1952 - 1956, Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento Room.

City of Sacramento Telephone Book, 1951, Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento Room.

Colley, Nathaniel S. and Jerlean J. Papers, c. 1940-1992, Collection Number 2010/036.

Sacramento, California: Center for Sacramento History.

Colquhoun, Alan, Modern Architecture, Oxford University Press, UK, 2002.

Columbia University Electronic Encyclopedia. Smith, M.H. Histo,y of the Garden City.

Covin, David. Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement . Jefferson, North Carolina:

McFarland & Co., 2009.

Curtis, Willian1 J.R., and Smith, H.H. Modern Architecture since 1900. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:

Prentice-Hall, 1987.

Encyclopedia.com. Curl, James Stevens. "Sir Ebenezer Howard and the Garden City movement." A Dictionary o,f Architecture and Landscape Architecture, 2000.

Google Earth.

Howard, Sir Ebenezer. Garden Cities o,fTomorrow. 1898. Reprint, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1965.

Johnson vs. Housing Authority of Sacramento, Complaint No. 89018, filed February 1, 1952, Sacramento County Superior Court.

Jordy, William H. The Impact of European Modernism in the Mid-Twentieth Century, New York: Oxford University Press, 1972.

Kim, Monte. Alder Grove Housing Community, California Department of Parks and Recreation Form 523. 2011.

KVIE, Public Television Channel 6 Sacramento and the Center for Sacramento History. "The Time is Now: Nathaniel Colley." August 28, 2006.

Mayer, William. "Sacramento's Fight for Integration in Public Housing." The Crisis. New York:

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, January 1953.

McAlester, Virginia & Lee. A Field Guide to American Houses. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Region 1 Records, 1942-1986, BANCMSS 78/180 c; Bancroft Library; University of California, Berkeley, California.

Sections 9-end page 29
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento, CA
Name of Property County and State
National Park Service. Public Housing in the United States Multiple Property Submission. 2004.

Pommer, Richard. "The Architecture of Urban Housing in the United States during the Early 1930s." Journal ofthe Society of Architectural Historians 37, no. 4 (Dec. 1978): 235-64 .

Radford, Gail. Modern Housing for America: Policy Struggles in the New Deal Era, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1996.

The Sacramento Bee: Aug. 9, 1939; Sept. 2, 1939; January 22, 1940; May 17, 1940; May 7, 1941; May 15, 1941; May 13, 1942; Aug. 4, 1942; Nov. 12, 1942; June 5, 1947; Jan. 4, 1952; Nov. 21, 1963, Jun. 20, 1991.

Sacramento City Council, Minutes of the Regular Meeting, 61 in Proceedings of the City Council 1939, Vol. 44, March 24 (164); July 7 (381).

The Sacramento Union: June 8, 1942; Oct. 9, 1942; Nov. 22, 1942; Jan. 8, 1952.

Smith, M.H. History of the Garden City. New York: Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Columbia University Press, 6th Edition, 1997.

Spencer, Douglas. "Scharoun, Siemesstadt and the Zeilenbau." Accessed October 10, 2010. bttp: //te1nincr itical. word pr ss.com/2010/08/l 2/scharnun-and-siemensstadt/ Van der Rohe, Mies. Werkbund Exhibition, Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart, 1927.

Whitford, Frank. The Bauhaus. London: Thames & Hudson, 1985.

Wingler, Hans. The Bauhaus. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1978.

Previous documentation on file (NPS):
__ preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67) has been requested __ previously listed in the National Register
__ previously determined eligible by the National Register __ designated a National Historic Landmark
__ recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey #- ~ ---- __ recorded by Historic American Engineering Record # ____ _ __ recorded by Historic American Landscape Survey # -~--- Primary location of additional data:

State Historic Preservation Office
__ Other State agency
__ Federal agency
_x_ Local government
__ University
___2L Other
Name of reposito1ies: a.crament Hous ing and Redevelopm nt Agency Center for Sacramento History, UC Bancroft Library (NAACP Region 1. Records) Historic Resources Survey Number (if assigned): ------ ~ Sections 9-end page 30
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District
Name of Property

10. Geographical Data
Acreage of Property __ a=b~o'---"u=t-=2=6--=-a=c"-'re=s- Latitude/Longitude Coordinates
Datum if other than WGS84: -----
( enter coordinates to 6 decimal places)

1. Latitude: 38.564297

2. Latitude: 38.560427

3. Latitude: 38.560905

4. Latitude: 38.565064
Longitude: -121.502482
Longitude: -121.504179
Longitude: -121.506073
Longitude: -121.505354
Verbal Boundary Description (Describe the boundaries of the property.) Sacramento, CA
County and State
Beginning at a point at the junction of Broadway and Muir Way, go south 1,467'-3"; then west 628'- 8"; then north 431 '; then west 284'-5"; then north 1,037'-10" to meet Broadway; then east 913 ' - 3" to meet the starting point at Muir Way.

The boundary excludes a group of newer units in the southwest comer outside of the complex that are not included due to younger age, different design, and different history.

Boundary Justification (Explain why the boundaries were selected.) The boundaries are those of the original housing development project constructed in 1942.

11. Form Prepared By
name/title: Paula oghosian, MS
organization: Historic Environment Consultants
street & number: 5420 Home Court
city or town: Carmichael state: CA zip code: 95608
e-mail historicconsu1tantsl977 @gmail.com
telephone: (916) 488-1680
date: July 2013. Revised December 2013
Sections 9-end page 31
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service I National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento, CA
Name of Property County and State
Additional Documentation
Submit the following items with the completed fonn:

Maps: A USGS map or equivalent (7.5 or 15 minute series) indicating the prope11y's location.
• Sketch map for historic districts and properties having large acreage or numerous resources. Key all photographs to this map.
• Additional items: (Check with the SHPO, TPO, or FPO for any additional items.) Photographs
Submit clear and descriptive photographs. The size of each image must be 1600x 1200 pixels (minimum), 3000x2000 preferred, at 300 ppi (pixels per inch) or larger. Key all photographs to the sketch map. Each photograph must be numbered and that number must correspond to the photograph number on the photo log. For simplicity, the name of the photographer, photo date, etc. may be listed once on the photograph log and doesn't need to be labeled on every photograph.

Photo Log
Name of Prope11y: New Helvetia Historic District
City or Vicinity: Sacramento
County: Sacramento State: CA
Photographer: Don Cox
Date Photographed: 11/01/2012, 06/02/2013, or 06/24/2013 per individual listing Description of Photograph(s) and number, include description of view indicating direction of camera:
1 of 13, (CA_Sacramento_New_Helvetia_Historic_District_000I), General View of setting, camera facing north, 11/01/2012.
2 of 13, (CA_Sacramento_New_Helvetia_Historic_District_0002), General View of setting, camera facing south, 06/24/2013.
3 of 13, (CA_Sacramento_New_Helvetia_Historic_District_0003), Single story units along Muir Way, camera facing southwest, 06/02/2013.

Sections 9-end page 32
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento, CA
Name of Property County and State
4 of 13, (CA_Sacramento_New_Helvetia_Historic_District_0004), Single story duplex unit, camera facing northeast, 06/02/2013.
5 of 13, (CA_Sacramento_New_Helvetia_Historic_District_0005), Two story unit, camera facing nmiheast, 06/02/2013.
6 of 13, (CA_Sacramento_New_Helvetia_Historic_District_0006), Split level unit, camera facing northwest, 11/01/2012.
7 of 13, (CA __ Sacramento_New_Helvetia_Historic_District_0007), Close-up detail view of split level unit, camera facing southwest, 11/01/2012.
8 of 13, (CA_Sacramento_New_Helvetia_Historic_District_0008), Detail view of front door, camera facing west, 11/01/2012.
9 of 13, (CA_Sacramento_New __ Helvetia_Historic_District_0009), General view of the front of the Community Center and Office Building, camera facing southwest, 06/24/2013. 10 of 13, (CA Sacramento New Helvetia Historic District 0010), General view of the rear - - - - - - of the Community Center, camera facing nmih, 06/24/2013. 11 of 13, (CA __ Sacramento_New_Helvetia_Historic_District_00l 1), Housing units that have been converted to house Head Start program, camera facing southwest, 06/24/2013. 12 of 13, (CA_Sacramento_New_Helvetia_Historic_District_0012), General view of playground, camera facing to the northeast, 11/01/2012. 13 of 13, (CA_Sacramento_New_Helvetia_Historic_District_0013), General view of 1961 unit, camera facing to the southwest, 06/02/2013.

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amende.d (16 U.S.C.460 et seq.).

Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 100 hours per response including time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form, Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Office of Planning and Performance Management. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1 B49 C. Street, NW, Washington, DC.

Sections 9-end page 33
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District
Name of Property
Figure 1. Photo Key Map
B
r,
I
j
4 11
11 _-q_ (
10 I ,,,
1 '· I
'
'
3 ~~ --1
~ ' . lr1 1: -- II
Sacramento , CA
County and State
Source: Original Site Plan Provided by Sacramento Housing & Redevelopment Agency (SHRA) June 2013; Modified by Historic Environment Consultants 2013.

Sections 9-end page 34
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District
Name of Property
Figure 2. Historic photo of New Helvetia, 1943
Source: Sacramento Public Library, AASAC1035.

Note: these original windows were replaced 1990.

Sections 9-end page 35
Sacramento , CA
County and State
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District
Name of Property
Figure 3. Latitude/Longitude Coordinate Map
Source: Google Maps, December 2013;
Modified by Historic Environment Consultants, 2013.

Sections 9-end page 36
Sacramento , CA
County and State
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District
Name of Property Sacramento , CA
County and State
Figure 4. Original Floor Plans (Drawings for each of 5 different floor plans) Source: Original Sacramento City Housing Authority Drawing, March 11, 1941; Provided by Sacramento Housing & Redevelopment Agency, June 2013.

Sections 9-end page 3 7
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District
Name of Property
Figure 5. Architects' Sketch, circa 1941
.. r
'I
·-
,1
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i=tat :i
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- ti • ..,..~.
--
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' J
\
' ,-1
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/ \..

Source: Original Plans, Center for Sacramento History.

Sections 9-end page 3 8
Sacramento , CA
County and State
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento, CA
Name of Property County and State
Figure 6. Architects' Sketch - Plot Plan, circa 1941
Source: Center for Sacramento History.

Sections 9--end page 39
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District
Name of Property
Figure 7. Site Map with Unit Types, Sanborn Map 1952
:Cl
m
0) c._,_::.L ..• } ~
,_ h;
Broadway
uJ
'
~ I
~ .

4. "' • ~':5~~ = :¼~ll~B~~
~ .. ,o ,H a~ .,~
Sections 9-end page 40
Sacramento, CA
County and State
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service / National Registe r of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District
Name of Property
Figure 8. Site Map & District Boundary
(j
r,
I> ..
t >..,
L 1\, t \
I
Sacramento, CA
County and State
Source: Original Site Plan Provided by Sacramento Housing & Redevelopment Agency (SHRA) June 2013.

Sections 9-end page 41
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service I National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento , CA
Name of Property County and State
Figure 9. Aerial Map of District Boundary
Source: Google Maps, 2013; Modified by Historic Environment Consultants 2013.

Sections 9-end page 42
United States Departmen t of the Interior
National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento, CA
Name of Property County and State
Figure 10. Nathaniel Colley in his law office, circa 1952 Source: Center for Sacramento History
Sections 9-end page 43
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento , CA
Name of Property County and State
Figure 11. Page 17 COLORFORNIA Magazine, circa 1954 (transcription follows) Young Attorney Gives Leadership
to Colored Cornmunity
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k Si:?~nnvm?-~ --;~urni cmd forpl t)r:;i'-'1' U:-. G-:'.:l!c-'J "hi 1.l\ ttm;~-,,d.. H~ l::i t; rn•:m• hut d tit"' c~!i!,,rr,ir.. 5l~Ji,t fku "mro~,:c,.n, th-, fi:lzrau1,c~ntnC.cu~:\' Bcir A:;.::~;::ir;!\(sn u~1d •t~ ~rmrnu , ::?YtYGfl .. luni:uC!!m Ciu-o &t:an,,-:snYz·• t:"'ti.lc.:~l 1tlU"tm: ra-,m::t Mmu.11 a fitntl!I~ Hy111ut fm th~r ri1J1\.ln :1,~d d l6.1d111 otl witou, J}1oy c=::rr1 dt"Pr,ttrad 1!!!.tun:I Uum opll'lh.Pn.11 a:W cn~Jltubh·1 .Jltmont w. 1.:.: ·'111 1::•rk i.':fk:..rt NAACP and Dthu tOmm:iUJ.lly ~c..lll'c1ft tulu•
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tli11r~ .. "-i.ml1111Uor,, iri ·i.:!iy'• pulJllc hu-.u,lor; r,01110:I ""-Ith ·Mt.I., 7'-hrrh, Cu1n•on, wha h, .elwlrmnn til
lf~J\c~·, Hou,lt1~ Com.rulllc,,.,
"R1t~1.DI a~lllo:, lo M1, CQll&y'" alHt"1i hi Alkljtn1y WUJor:1. IN<t>tH, h,JJ, ..,,.bo fini•lu,.;I Yal• UDJNt• rity Le"' Sd,uol tlili; vu.i:r, Wlth tm aOl&Oc1au,' fi,t.

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Next Issue, COLOR,FORNIA Will Feature:
·:· SAN DIEGO, CAUF:ORNIA~s-BORDER· CITY
.llON"r MISS I1' ·

COATES MOTEL
Mcnced. CulUomJa
Ptiono 30'2
Cl•ttm .. Mod.otn-Alr CtmlJlliouod
StJt•nd n W,~,,ki::;;,d Poor<:> c:n~i IT<!,!!
r;~~~B,;£!:P
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REAL ESTATE
* C,.,1j11l,w11,,I
rcrrl o .
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NAMCTTE M::MUtiRAY
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r:.,fi!,, P!tf,tir CJ~ Z-6~H-.-!IJ !~VC..1~
Source: Center for Sacramento History
Prhalt· ucnt1ny Qna af1k• .. rncr,,og-o: <ii la...- cum i.. M111. llat<l'rd Cml~. =alw ... . Sh .. h. w~H ,-ani,.-d l!'I tUl'ipuH1Jlon c:::f l•?al dae,,irn.nl ■ 11t1rl crc1011l,o n:.lleh o.l Mi::, Ceil1<11y'L wodi:, 5h• l• ah:1•r of Mr•. Cull ■-.,, J11fd .. na,d (oy ot p.aa, Ull111n-t I• .,.u,. lul...aa und..hMt dmavlllaa.

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1 :J1Tc':

Sections 9-end page 44
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service I National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 0MB No. 1024-0018
New Helvetia Historic District Sacramento, CA
Name of Property County and State
Young Attorney Gives Leadership to Colored Community
It is no secret and is generally agreed among Sacramentans, both white and colored, that much of the progress of Sacramento's colored community in the last three years has been due largely to the fact that a brilliant young attorney, Nathaniel S. Colley, came to the city in 1948, the year he finished Yale, and began his law practice. Within this short time the 34-year-old attorney has won the respect and admiration of Sacramento's citizens and is the undisputed leader in the colored community.

Conservative, well informed and polished, Mr. Colley is easily one of California's most capable Negro lawyers. As a Yale University student, he won the C. LaRue Munson Prize for the most significant contribution of any Yale Law School student to New Haven, Connecticut, Legal Aid Bureau, and shared honors for the Benjamin Scharp Prize for the best original essay on some aspect of law.

Since he opened Sacramento's first Negro law office, he has kept a schedule and built a clientele that would be the envy of many an attorney practicing in metropolitan areas. He confesses that he has, "done more business than I ever, in my wildest dream, imagined possible in Sacramento." His clients include Hindus, Caucasians, Mexicans and about fifty percent Negroes. In addition to his regular practice he is Vice-President and Counsel for the local NAACP to which he donates his services in preparing and trying discrimination cases in the Sacramento area. He is chairman of the Legal Committee and member of the Board of Directors of the California Federation of Civic Unity, President of the Sacramento CCU and Executive Board Member of a dozen other civic organizations.

In Sacramento courts and legal circles Mr. Colley is highly respected. He is a member of the California State Bar Association, the Sacran1ento County Bar Association and the Sacramento Lawyers Luncheon Club. Sacramento's colored citizens regard him as a fearless fighter for their rights and a leader on whom they can depend to reflect their opinions and creditably represent them in all civic affairs.

Photo captions, from left to right and top down:

NAACP and other community projects take much of Mr. Colley's time, Above he checks report on court order he obtained prohibiting discrimination in city's public housing project with Mrs. Marie Cranson, who is chairman ofNAACP's Housing Committee.

Recent addition to Mr. Calley's office is Attorney Wilford James, left, who finished Yale University Law School this year. With an associate, Mr. Colley plans to extend firm's services to surrounding areas and to build a new and modern office building.

Attorney Nathaniel S. Colley, seated, has only Negro law office in Sacramento. He handles a record number of cases and keeps a staff of assistants busy. In the above photo he checks legal papers with Harold Craft, a member of his office staff.

Private secretary and office manager of law finn is Mrs. Harold Craft, above. She is well versed in preparation oflegal documents and organizes much of Mr. Calley's work. She is sister of Mrs. Colley.

Pride and joy of your attorney is wife, Jerlean and four daughters, Sandra Aileen, Natalie Suza1me, Ola Marie and Jerlean Evelyn, left to right. He met and married the former Jerlean Jackson, who is a native Sacramentan, while they were both students at Tuskegee Institute. Mrs.

Colley has also served as secretary in law office.

Sections 9-end page 45

-----=-

National Register of Historic Places
Memo to File

Correspondence
The Correspondence consists of communications from (and possibly to) the nominating authority, notes from the staff of the National Register of Historic Places, and/or other material the National Register of Historic Places received associated with the property.

Correspondence may also include information from other sources, drafts of the nomination, letters of support or objection, memorandums, and ephemera which document the efforts to recognize the property.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES

EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET
REQUESTED ACTION: NOMINATION

PROPERTY
NAME:

MULTIPLE
NAME:

New Helvetia Historic District
STATE & COUNTY: CALIFORNIA, Sacramento
DATE RECEIVED:

DATE OF 16TH DAY:

DATE OF WEEKLY LIST:
2/18/14
4/02/14
DATE OF PENDING LIST:

DATE OF 45TH DAY:
3/18/14
4/06/14
REFERENCE NUMBER: 14000109
REASONS FOR REVIEW:

APPEAL: N
OTHER: N
REQUEST: Y
DATA PROBLEM: N
PDIL: N
SAMPLE: N
COMMENT WAIVER: N

ACCEPT RETURN
ABSTRACT/SUMMARY COMMENTS:

LANDSCAPE: N
PERIOD: N
SLR DRAFT: Y
LESS THAN 50 YEARS:

PROGRAM UNAPPROVED:

NATIONAL:

REJECT _______ DATE
N
N
N
The New Helvetia Historic District is of local significance under National Register Criteria A, Band C, in the areas of Social History, Ethnic Heritage-Black, and Architecture. Completed in 1942, the 62-building complex is a well preserved local example of low-income public housing built under the auspices of the United States Housin~, Act of 1937 and the National Defense Act.

Rapidly converted to defense housing during World War II, the project illustrates th•~ significant Depression -era efforts of the federal government and local communities to provide low cost family housing to local working-class residents. The functional design of the complex, representing the collaborative work of several prominent lo<:al architectural firms, reflected the financial constraints of the public housing programs along with federal guidelines for unit types, project layout and building forms. The New Helvetia housing project is also directly associated with the work of Sacramento lawyer Nathaniel S. Colley and his ground-breaking efforts to implement fair housing practices in Sacramento and elsewhere. Sacramento's first African American attorney, Colley was instrumental in instituting successful challenges to the de facto segregation practices in public housing accommodations in Sacramento, beginning with the New Helvetia public housing complex. Colley would continue to pursue fair housing issues at the county, state and federal levels.

RECOM. /C~ITERIA f\ccey\ {:g__a:ca 1A A::i3~C..

REvrnw@u \ '.7._ l v ''CJ A.J nrscr PLINE - \ 1 = a •I\N TELEPHONE___ _______ DATE ::/ / 'f ( /=f
DOCUMENTATION see attached comments Y/N see attached s u(i), N If a nomination is returned to the nominating authority the nomination is no longer under consideration by the NPS.' Arthur G. Scotland
California Court of Appeal F residing Justice , R.etired r.o. E>ox 189206
Sacramento, CA 95818-9206
January 7, 2014
California State Parks, Office of Historic Preservation Attention: Carol Roland-Nawi, Ph.D., State Historic Preservation Officer 1725 23rd Street, Suite 100
Sacramento , Ca 95816
RE: Support for application to designate a New Helvetia Historic District Dear Ms. Roland-Nawi:

Four decades ago, Sacramento lost part of our culture and history - the Alhambra Theatre.

We are now at risk of losing another part of our heritage - New Helvetia's historic brick buildings. "The essential feature of a landmark is not its design, but the place it holds in a city's memory," said architecture critic Herbert Muschamp. So it is with New Helvetia's historic brick buildings, which, as reflected in the enclosed fact sheet, "stand as a legacy of Sacramento's past and a symbol of the courage and leadership to right a wrong." Buildings are powerful reminders of the highlights and lowlights of our past. New Helvetia's historic brick buildings are reminders of both.

They remind us of Sacramento's best intentions and actions - the creation of public housing to benefit low-income families that needed roofs over their heads; and the collaboration of four skilled and distinguished Sacramento architects to design public housing both "functional and aesthetically pleasing, generating pride in inhabitants and in the greater Sacramento community." And they remind us of an unflattering part of our history - racial discrimination in housing - with a fortunate bright side due to the valiant efforts of a Sacramento legend, attorney Nathaniel Colley, who successfully used our legal system to end public housing discrimination in New Helvetia and in other California cities and several western states.

Thus, it is fitting that a New Helvetia Historic District be designated to memorialize and hopefully allow its historic brick buildings to continue standing as monuments and tributes to the positive and transformative influences of those who created the public housing and then made it available to all, regardless of race and ethnicity. Without such monuments, it is harder for future generations to remember the past and act to promote its positives and avoid its negatives.

For these reasons, I encourage the designation of a New Helvetia Historic District.

Cordially,
Enclosure Arthur G. Scotland

SAVE NEW HELVETIA'S HISTORIC BUILDINGS
WHAT ARE NEW HELVETIA'S HISTORIC BUILDINGS? Located along Broadway and Muir Way, west of the historic City Cemetery, the historic brick buildings of New Helvetia (also known as Alder Grove) have provided affordable housing since 1942. Designed by a coalition of Sacramento Master architects, the buildings are a unique, historic, and attractive example of public housing architecture, and played a significant role in the efforts of renowned Sacramento attorney Nathaniel Colley to end discrimination in public housing. Simply stated, they are an important part of the history and fabric of Sacramento that should be retained not destroyed.

WHY ARE THE HISTORIC BRICK BUILDINGS AT RISK? The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA) wants to sell its New Helvetia properties to a private development team that would be responsible for building new affordable housing and single family residences there at a higher density than the current neighborhoods. SHRA and the City of Sacramento approved language asking for bids from the development team, based upon demolition of all buildings on SHRA property. When Upper Land Park Neighbors (ULPN), a neighborhood group located south of Broadway and west of Riverside, asked SHRA and the City to consider retaining the historic brick buildings, both declined to make this a requirement, even though SHRA and the City agreed to six other objectives proposed by ULPN.

WHAT IS BEING DONE TO RETAIN NEW HELVETIA'S HISTORIC BUILDINGS? ULPN has applied to the California Office of Historic Preservation to designate New Helvetia as an historic district. If approved by the State Historic Resources Commission and the National Park Service, the historic brick buildings along Broadway and Muir Way would be eligible for federal tax incentives, including tax credits and state grants to help retain the historic brick buildings. If New Helvetia becomes an historic district, the City and SHRA would have to consider this national designation during the project development process. This would result in more public support to save -- rather than demolish -- these unique historic buildings.

WHY SAVE NEW HELVETIA'S HISTORIC BRICK BUILDINGS?
• Retaining historic buildings is important to a community. They are valuable reminders of our past and examples of our city's nature and evolution.
• Saving New Helvetia's history brick buildings is particularly important because they were the focus of life-changing events in 1952, when attorney Nathaniel Colley and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People successfully challenged and eliminated "de facto" segregation in New Helvetia's public housing. Mr. Colley then shared his New Helvetia experience and expertise with other NAACP branches and led efforts to eliminate racial segregation in public housing projects in other cities in Northern California and several western states. Thus, the buildings stand as a legacy of Sacramento's past and a symbol of the courage and leadership to right a wrong. • Saving the buildings also is important because they were designed by a coalition of Sacramento's Master architects, Charles Dean, Leonard Starks, Ed Flanders, and Harry Devine, Sr. -- the only project on which they collaborated -- and represent an attractive example of how public housing was viewed then as needing to be both functional and aesthetically pleasing, generating pride in inhabitants and in the greater Sacramento community.

January 14, 2014
Ann Taylor Schwing
1425 Robertson Way
Sacramento, CA 95818
California State Parks, Office of Historic Preservation Attn: Carol Roland-Nawi, Ph.D., State Historic Preservation Officer 1725 23rd Street, Suite 110
Sacramento. CA 95816
Re: Support for application to designate New Helvetia Historic District Dear Ms. Roland-Nawi:

I write in support of the creation and preservation of a New Helvetia Historic District. The historic brick buildings evidence the efforts of significant individuals to provide housing for low income families in years past and today. I drive past those buildings regularly and see happy families enjoying the shade from the tall trees with children running and playing and fathers barbecuing dinner in the summer.

Nathaniel Colley battled discrimination to ensure that these homes would be available to families of all races, and we do well to remember his efforts. As a young attorney in the federal court, I remember Nat Calley's appearance to represent his clients in a variety of cases. His deep and powerful voice was remarkable, and he could move the courtroom with the power of his views.

Whatever side one took on the merits of the specific issue, no one could be unmoved by the strength of his character.

I encourage the creation of the New Helvetia Historic District.

Very truiy yours,
~-=rb 5_~
Ann Taylor Schwing
Sacramento Old City Association - PO Box 162140, Sacramento CA 95816 - (916)202-4815 - [email protected] January 13, 2014
California State Parks
Office of Historic Preservation
Attn: Carol Roland-Nawi Ph.D.

State Historic Preservation Officer
1725 23
rd
Street, Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95816
Re: Support for Nomination of New Helvetia Historic Public Housing to the National Register Dear Chair Polanco and Commissioners
The board of the Sacramento Old City Association wishes to express its strong support for the nomination of New Helvetia's sixty-two public housing buildings to the National Register as an historic district.

New Helvetia has already been identified as meeting the requirements of the Multiple Property Submission (MPS) Public Housing in the United States 1933 to 1949.

It qualifies at the local level under criteria A, B, and C. The group of architects who designed it were Sacramento's most prominent architects during the priod when it was built . It is also significant for its association with Nathaniel Colley, Sacramento's first African American attorney who sued the Sacramento Housing Authority in order to end segregation at New Helvetia. That lawsuit was the beginning of Mr. Calley's long and successful career of using the law to end housing discrimination.

Thank-you for your consideration. Our board looks forward to seeing the New Helvetia buildings added to the National Register.

Karen Jacques,
Vice President,
Sacramento Old City Association Board
1 INVESTING IN COMMUNITIES
A Joint Powers Agency
MEM8F.RS
City of Sacramento
County of Sacramentc
Successor Agency for the
Redevelopment Agency
of the Cily of Sar,;amento
Successor Agency for the
Redevelopment /1.gency
of the County of Sacramento
Housing Authority of the
City of Sacramento
Housing Authority of the
County of Sacramento
. ..
•'
January 17, 2013
California State Parks
Office of Historic Preservation
Carol Roland-Nawi, PhD, State Historic Preservation Officer 1725 23rd Street, Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95816
RE: New Helvetia Historic District Nomination
Dear Ms. Roland
At the February 7, 2014 meeting, the State Historical Resources Commission will consider the New Helvetia Historic District nomination.

The property is the 360 unit Alder Grove public housing community owned and managed by Housing Authority of the City of Sacramento. On November 22, 2013, the Housing Authority was awarded one of only nine Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Planning Grants to prepare a Neighborhood Transformation Plan (NTP). This $500,000 from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development will be leveraged by $680,000 in City of Sacramento Community Development Block Grant funds. The combined funding provides the critical resources necessary to craft a comprehensive, community-driven plan to revitalize and transform the public housing community and the adjacent neighborhood. Due to the upcoming NTP, the designation is premature and requires more community engagement prior to approval. The community will consider the extent to which historic preservation will be incorporated into the planning effort to develop the NTP. We at the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, which includes the Housing Authority of the City of Sacramento, respectfully request that this item be tabled until the NTP is complete at the end of 2015.

Sincerely,
ector
Housing Authority of
cc: Sacramento Councilmember Hansen
Sacramento Housing & Redevelopment Agency 801 ·12th Street I Sacramento, CA 95814 I www.shra.org ERNEST A. LONG
Alternative Dispute Resolution
@)@Resolution Arts Building •®
2630 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95816
ph: (916) 442-6739 • fx: (916) 442-4107
[email protected] • www.ernestalongadr.com
January 20, 2014
California State Parks, Office of Historic Preservation Attention: Carol Roland-Nawi, State Historic Preservation Officer 1725 23rd Street, Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 9.5816
Re: Support for application to designate a New Helvetia Historic District Dear Ms. Roland-Nevi:

One of my favorite jogging paths takes me along the Sacramento River levee into Miller Park and onto Broadway. From there I tum right just before arriving at the old City Cemetery and run along a quiet shady street bordered on one side by the graves of ancient Sacramento residents, and on the other by several neat rows of brick housing structures.

Until recently, these brick bufldings had existed in my consciousness as peaceful place that seemed to provide a decent place for many, many, low income folks to call home. I admired the tranquility and order that always seemed to pervade the place.

Recently it has come to my attention that there is a history attached to the buildings that captures my imagination and leads me to write this letter. When I became an attorney in 1983, Sacramento was still home to Nathaniel Colley, a significant figure in the movement to secure housing equality for all in our town. Mr. Colley had an aura, and a real legendary presence, while he continued ' to prosecute cases on behalf of those in our society with less fortunate backgrounds. The work he generated in his career stands as a reminder of what all lawyers should strive for, a beacon that is more important in this money centric world than ever.

It is my understanding that efforts are underway to develop the land now the home of the brick buildings I've described. At the same time, there is a movement to preserve, in some permanent way, the historic brick structures with a monument or some other designation that will live on to remind the populace of the history of racial discrimination and the wrongs that were righted largely due to Mr.

Colley's actions. Sacramento, like most places in this country was not always such a melting pot, and the recognition that prejudice existed here, is a wonderful way to tell the story of our evolution as a tolerant people.

As a citizen of California during my entire lifetime, I have come to love our golden state. We hold onto our history and celebrate it from the missions, to the government buildings, to the monuments that men and women have created all over this state. Here is an opportunity to share with future generations an important chapter in our development as place open and welcoming to everyone.

In my view, a New Helvetia Historic District would be a wonderful addition to our culture and our memorialized history. I encourage the Historic Preservation department to give this proposal its most favorable consideration.

Carol Roland-Nawi, Ph.D.

State Historic Preservation Officer
1725 23rd Street, Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95816
RE: Application to Establish New Helvetia as a Historic District Dear Dr. Roland-Nawi:

Nicole A. Amador, Ph.D.
2910 Riverside Boulevard
Sacramento, CA 95818
1/23/2014
This letter is submitted in support of the Upper Land Park Neighbors' application to establish the New Helvetia properties as a historic district. Located at Broadway and ·Muir Way, just west of the historic City Cemetery, the brick buildings of New Helvetia are a defining part of Sacramento's past, present, and future.

The buildings are the only collaborative product of Sacramento's Master Architects, Charles Dean; Harry Devine, Sr.; Leonard Starks; and Ed Flanders. Their brick facades remind us of the strength Sacramentans had to rebuild the city after the great fires of the late nineteenth century.

Additionally, New Helvetia serves as one of the few existing examples in this nation of how public housing can offer those in need the opportunity to be a an effective part of the community. With open green spaces for children to safely play and buildings that blend with the surrounding neighborhoods, it provides not just housing but a place to call home. As a woman of color, I feel the most important aspect of New Helvetia is that it represents Sacramento's victory over racial segregation in public housing, a victory that spread to other cities in Northern California and other western states.

Approval of the application will make the property eligible for federal tax incentives, including tax credits and state grants to help retain all or part of the historic brick buildings. This is particularly important now as the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency embarks on an accelerated schedule to re-develop the area. I urge the State Historic Resources Commission to carefully consider the application and est~blish New Helvetia as a historic district at its February 7, 2014, meeting.

Nicole A. Amador, Ph.D.

Alice A. Huffman
President
Gwen Moore
1st Vice Preside111
Rick Callender

CALIFORNIA STATE CONFERENCE OF THE NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT ~•1-'¥-ji~.ll'Y PEOPLE
ESQUIRE PLAZA, 1215 K STREET, 16TH FLOOR, SUITE ]609 • SACRAM ls • {~16) 498- l8l)8 • FAX (916) 498-1895 l/.\~ l ~ 10\
or\P
January 23, 2014
California State Parks, Office of Historic Preservation Attn: Carol Roland-Nawi, Ph.D., State Historic Preservation Officer 1725 23rd Street, Suite 100
Sacramento , California 95816
2nd Vice President Re: Support for New Helvetia as an Historic District Paulette Simpson-Gipson Dear Ms. Roland-Nawi:
3rd Vice President
Ida M. Johnson
Secretcu y
Olivia Verrett
Assistant Secretary
Carolyn Veal-Hunter
Treasurer
Alan Carroll
Assis/Oil/ Treosurer
Waudieur Rucker-Hughes
Area Dire ctor Sowh eosl
Ronald Hasson
Areo Dire ctor Southw est
Delois Edwards
Area Director Nor//1
Lajuana Bivens
Area Director Ceutml
Dan Danit!ls, Sr.

Area Directo r Coc1s1a/
Freddie Davis
Area Direc/or West
The California State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (Cal NAACP) supports the National Register application to designate New Helvetia as an historic district. It has been identified as meeting the requirements of the Multiple Property Submission (MPS) Public Housing in the United States and has been identified as eligible.

While the public housing development has architectural significance, it also strongly represents the important civil rights efforts of Nathaniel S. Colley, the first African-American attorney in private practice in Sacramento. He successfully ended segregation in public housing in Sacramento and other cities by using the New Helvetia project as a specific example. As a new resident of Sacramento and new member of the Sacramento NAACP branch, Mr. Colley began his first legal fight against wide-scale segregation -- focusing on public housing.

It was Mr. Colley who first discovered and addressed "de facto" segregation in the New Helvetia development units. He reported the facts to the local NAACP branch, of which he was a member, and was authorized to pursue its elimination. Working with local NAACP members, as well as numerous community members, he successfully ended segregation in the City's public housing. Mr. Colley's shared his legal experience and expertise gained at New Helvetia with other NAACP attorneys at the 1952 NAACP Western Region I Conference. He helped develop a strategy to work with other NAACP Western Region branches to fight public housing segregation, which expedited the end of segregation in public housing in California and other Western States.

Mr. Colley fought very hard to ensure that all people would have equal access to all housing units in New Helvetia. If designated an historic district, these buildings would serve as a monument to the historic efforts of Nathaniel S.

Colley and other NAACP members who fought so hard and successfully ended segregation in public housing throughout California and the western states.

WEBSITE: WWW.CA-NAACP.ORG
Thank you for your consideration of this important applicant for National Register designation.

Sinc!!eJ' , _.._
~ ' ;/ ,'T- -------- -
Alice Huffman,
President
AHH: SJ
SEGAL &: KIRBY LLP
January 24, 2014
Carol Roland-Nawi, Ph.D.

State Historic Preservation Officer
California State Parks, Office of Historic Preservation 1725 23rd Street, Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95816
400 Capitol Mall, Suite 1600
Sacramento, CA 95814
Telephone (916) 441-0828
www.segalandkirby.com
Re: Support For Application to Designate a New Helvetia Historic District Dear Ms. Roland-Nawi:

We are long time residents of the Land Park neighborhood in Sacramento. We would like to add our voices to the request to designate a New Helvetia Historic District at Broadway and Muir Way in Sacramento.

Unlike much of Sacramento's more recent here-today-gone-tomorrow construction, these beautiful brick structures were built to last and they should be permitted to do so.

Neither of us lived in Sacramento during the heyday of Nathaniel Calley's fight to desegregate this City. As attorneys who have practiced here, however, we have heard of his dedication and admire his accomplishments. We understand this residential community was integrated due to Mr. Calley's efforts.

Designation of the New Helvetia District would be a fitting tribute to this great resident of our City.

DANIELE. WIL CO XEN :j:

WILLIAM C. CALLAHAM* :j:

E. S. (TED) DEACON
MICHELLE C. JENNI :j:
*CERTIFIED SPECIALIST IN CIVIL

TRIAL ADVOCACY BY THE

NATIONAL BOARD OF TRIAL

ADVOCACY

WILCOXEN CALLAHAM, LLP

ATTORNEYS AT LAW
2114 KSTREET
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 95816
TELEPHONE: (916) 442-2777
FACSIMILE: (916) 442-4118
www.wilcoxenlaw.com
January 24, 2014
California State Parks, Office of Historic Preservation Attention: Carol Roland -Nawi, Ph.D., State Historic Preservation Officer 1725 - 23
rd
Street, Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95816
WILLIAM M. LYONS :j:

WALTER H. LOVING Ill :j:

DREW M. WIDDERS
MARTHA A. TAYLOR
RANDEE M. ROLFE
CAROLYN A. GYERMEK+
ALEXA R. GREENBAUM
* MEMBER:

AMERICAN BOARD
or TRIAL ADVOCATES
+ALSO ADMITTED IN COLORADO
Re: Sup port for applic ation to design ate a New 11i1vetia ·Histori c District . ' . ,, ...

I ~ • I ~
Dear Ms. Roland~;Nawi:
. I· ·
:.' • ;-' • , ~: • • •• I , I • • •
It has been brought to my attention that the New Helyetia historic brick buildings are at risk to be lost to private development. I strongly support the application to preserve this landmark by the designation of a New Helvetia Historic District.

My personal interest in this cause stems from my knowledge of Nathaniel Colley's efforts beginning in the 1950's to eradicate racial discrimination in housing. Mr. Colley was vve!! knovvn to my fami!y and his legacy h,:id a significant influence on my decision to pursue the practice of law. As such, I feel an obligation to speak out against what I see would be a great loss to our community.

As I understand it, for over six decades the New Helvetia brick buildings have continued to provide housing for low income families and have stood as "monuments" to the struggle agqinst racial discrimination in our country spearheaded by the great Nat Colley. Just as the annual celebration of Martin Luther King allows my children to learn about their qeritage and the sacrifices of those who came before them, the designation of a New Helvetia Historic District would allow this generation and generations to come to understand the efforts of pioneers such as Nat Colley. It would l;>_e .a tr_avesty for this landmark to be buried and not be· preserved arid duly r·ecC:1gniied for its historic :
significance.

Wilcoxen Callaham, LLP
January 24, 2014

Thank you for your consideration of the application for the designation of a New Helvetia Historic District.

WHL/nlp
00079740
January 23, 2001
California State Parks

JENNIFER STANLEY
Sacramento, CA. 95819
Office of Historic Preservation
Attn: Carol Roland-Nawi, Ph.D.

State Historic Preservation Officer
1725 - 23rd Street, Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95816
RE:C£JVE:o
JAN 2 8 2014
0Hp
Re: Support for Nomination of New Helvetia Historic Public Housing to the National Register Dear Chair Polanco and Commissioners:

As a long time resident of the City of Sacramento I wish to express my support of Upper Land Park's application for the designation of the New Helvetia Public Housing complex to the National Register as an historic district.

There are many social, legal and ethnic factors that the Commission may consider in order to approve this as an historic district, including:
► Identify New Helvetia as the location where "de facto: segregation was first discovered in Sacramento's public housing, as well as to recognize Nathaniel Colley's legal and political efforts which led to elimination of segregation in Sacramento's public housing. ► Value New Helvetia's historical and ethnic contribution to our City's historical past. ► Create a unique historic housing development - with more appeal than "anywhere U.S.A." new construction.
► Ensure a long term successful, unique housing development project by retaining New Helvetia's historic brick buildings.
► Recognize the only project created by a team of Sacramento's esteemed architects - Charles Dean, Leonard Starks, Ed Flanders and Harry Devine, Sr.

Thank you for you consideration of this important designation. I look forward to a positive outcome of your actions.

Sincere!¼
;J,, ~ / I ,·
C ,, a-- ..

Je1~nifer Stanley .
1619- 50th Street
Sacramento, CA 95819
TODDD.IRBY
1227 0 Street, Suite 306
Sacramento, California 95814
(916) 654-7022
Todd.IrbyCakalvet.ca.gov
January 24, 2013
California State Parks, Office of Historic Preservation Attention: Carol Rowland-Nawi, Ph.D, State Historic Preservation Officer 1725 23rd Street, Suite 100
Sacramento, California 95816
Re: Support tor Anp licotin11 lo Desigurrte n Ne111 H e!,,etia Hirtoric Distri ct Dear Ms. Roland-Nawi :

I am writing to request that you add my nam~ to the ranks of those individuals who have given their unequivocal support for the drive to designate New Helvetia as a protected Sacramento historical district.

While I am not a Sacramentan by birth, over the course of the more than six years that my family and I have been privileged to call Sacramento our home I have come to regard the city, its rich history, its beautiful architecture, and its racially and culturally diverse population as the ideal locale to raise our child and pursue my career. As an African-American attorney with a strong affinity for the city and its citizens' historical role in cementing California's place in our nation's racial, cultural, legal, and political firmament, I was fascinated to learn of attorney Nathaniel Colley's valiant efforts to utilize our country's legal system to end public housing discrimination in Sacramento and other California cities, as well as several Western states. His and his allies' successful efforts to eradicate the residual Jim Crow-inspired barriers to full residential equality and self­ detennination that faced New Helvetia's earliest African-American residents in the form of pernicious de facto segregation stand as a lasting testament to their unwillingness to accept the status quo.

In light of the foregoing, I firmly believe that designating a New Helvetia Historic District would be the most fitting way to assure that the brick buildings comprising the remaining portion of the original community would be the most effective method of assuring that those buildings continue to stand as perpetual monuments to those men and women who never ceased to believe that public housing for ail people, regardless of race or creed, is a right, not merely a dream.

For each of these reasons, I strongly urge the approval of this wort y proposal.

TDI: ti
Deputy Secretary & Chief Counsel
California Department of Veterans Affairs

STA TE OF CALIFORNIA - THE RESOURCES AGENCY

OFFICE OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION

DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION
1725 23rd Street, Suite 100
SACRAMENTO, CA 95816-7100
(916) 445-7000 Fax: (916) 445-7053
[email protected] ,gov
www.ohp.parks.ca.gov
January 24, 2014
La Shelle Dozier
Executive Director
Housing Authority of the City of Sacramento
Sacramento Housing & Redevelopment Agency
801 1 ih Street .

Sacramento, CA 95814
Subject: New Helvetia Historic District
Sacramento County, California
National Register of Historic Places Nomination
Dear Ms. Dozier:

EDMUND G BROWN, JR., Governor
In response to your letter of January 17, 2014 requesting the above-referenced National Register nomination be tabled until the end of 2015, there is no legal basis for pulling the nomination from the State Historical Resources Commission's February 7, 2014 agenda at this time.

The legal basis for the State Historic Preservation Officer to pull a nomination is narrowly defined, per the regulations of the National Historic Preservation Act.

In accordance with Title I Section 101 (16 U.S .C. 470a)(c)(2)(A), if no report and recommendation are received from the local historic preservation commission within sixty days of notification, the State shall make the nomination.

In accordance with Section 101 (c)(2)(8), if both the local historic preservation commission and the chief local elected official recommend that a property not be nominated , the State Historic Preservation Officer shall take no further action, unless an appeal is filed.

Such an appeal would most likely delay the nomination for only one quarter, from the February 7, 2014 meeting of the State Historical Resources Commission to the April 22, 2014 meeting.

The Commission hearing is an open meeting , and members of the community are welcome to attend, and comment if desired.

Sincerely,
~
Jenan Saunders
Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer
STATE OF CALIFORNIA- THE NATURAL RESOURCES AGENCY EDMUND G. BROWN, JR., Governor

OFFICE OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION

DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION
1725 23rd Street , Suite 100
SACRAMENTO, CA 95816 -7100
(916) 445-7000 Fax: (916) 445-7053
[email protected]
www.ohp.parks .ca.gov
January 27, 2014
La Shefle Dozier, Executive Director
Housing Authority of the City of Sacramento
Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency
801 1 ih Street
Sacramento, Californi~ 95814
Dear Ms. Dozier:

I am writing to inform you that as the State Historic Preservation Officer, I am recusing myself from any involvement with the New Helvetia /Alder Grove nomination to the National Register and from ariy Section 106 or CEQA review of the city's proposed project at that location. I own property at 956 Fremont Way and could be affected directly or indirectly by the proposed project.

Please direct all correspondence and inquiries to the State Office of Historic Preservation to the Deputy SHPO, Jenan Saunders. Ms. Saunders can be reached by phone at (916) 445-7019 or by email. at [email protected].' Carol Rola
State Historic Preservation Officer
" cc: Jay Correia, Supervi~or, Office of Historic Preservation.Registration Uriit; Jenan .

Saunders, Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer; Tara Lynch, Chief Counsel, CA Department of Parks and Recreation; Roberta Deering, Senior Pianner of Historic Preservation, City of Sacramento
~
-
Marcia L. Augsburger
Stephen L. Goff
1560 12th Avenue
Sacramento, CA 95818
916-446-9724

VIA FIRST CLASS MAIL
January 30, 2014
California State Parks, Office of Historic Preservation Attention: Carol Roland-Nawi, Ph.D.

State Historic Preservation Officer
1725 23rd Street, Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95816
Re: Land Park Issue
Dear. Ms. Roland-Nawi:

As residents of Land Park who work down town, we regularly pass the New Helvetia brick housing units on Broadway. Brick buildings are rare in California. They bring a polished, sophisticated look to the area - a look of something lasting and substantial.

They set a high bar for "low cost housing," creating an environment that expresses strength, pride, solidarity, and community support. There can be no doubt that these buildings were the foundation for the many success stories we have heard from people who started their lives in the project.

Please do not allow these beautiful and distinguished monuments to be destroyed.

Please do all you can to preserve them and to promote the designation of a New Helvetia Historic District.

Very truly yours,
~~~ ,wky /Jr
jrfci~ ~
February 4, 2014
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Carol Roland-Nawi, Ph.D., State Historic Preservation Director Office of Historic Preservation, Department of Parks and Recreation 1725 23rd Street, Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95816
Dear Ms. Roland-Nawi :

Please accept our letter of support for the nomination of the New Helvetia Historic District in Sacramento to the National Register of Historic Places.

Sacramento Modern is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, preserving and protecting modern art, architecture and design in the Sacramento region.

We concur with the findings in the nomination and applaud the effort to recognize and honor the collaborative architecture by Dean & Dean, Starks & Flanders, and Harry Devine, Sr. Over the last four years, our organization has celebrated dozens of significant mid-20th century commercial, civic, religious, and residential buildings in the Land Park and South Land Park neighborhoods -- including several designed by these modern masters. We hope you agree that this project is eligible for designation to the National Register of Historic Places.

Respectfully submitted,
Gretchen Steinberg
President, Sacramento Modern, in conjunction with the SacMod Board of Directors:

Dane Henas, Vice President
William Peterson, Secretary
Zann Gates, Treasurer
Justin Wood, Director At-Large
Jon Hill, Director At-Large
Nick Vinciguerra, Director At-Large
f\ 5~1 (c)(3) 1H111-p1 olil 01 oanirntion lledicawu 10 promoting, preservino and llr □ Wcling mode111 nrt, mhitr.cturn an □ dusign in tlrn Sac1 ~ment region.

Gretchen Sleinberg 4910 South Land Park Drive, Sacramento, CA 95822 (916) 813-7528 [email protected]
SacMod.org
New Helvetia Historic District
Sacramento, Sacramento County
Staff Report (UPDATED)
The New Helvetia Historic District is located within the Alder Grove housing complex between Broadway, Muir Way, Kit Carson Street, and Kemble Street in Sacramento.

There are 62 contributing buildings, including the central community center building at 816 Revere Way. Buildings are wood framed with gabled roofs, clipped eaves, brick cladding, clinker brick, and metal framed windows. The simplicity and lack of exterior ornamentation illustrate the influence of the Modern Movement that focused on the functional aspects of architecture, and reflect wartime economic constraints as well.

The buildings are set in a 26 acre rectilinear pattern of organized blocks, asphalt paved streets, concrete sidewalks, with pathways separated by lawn and containing trees, bushes and shrubs within a defined landscape accessible from major city streets. The one and two story buildings are narrow and long, have brick veneer surfaces, side­ gabled roofs with composition shingles and clipped eaves, shallow roof overhangs on the side-gabled elevations, small entry canopies above doorways - some with shed­ roofs and some flat- and metal-framed windows, both sliding and double hung. There is ample open space within the block layout and parking lots surrounded by lawn.

Plantings and open yards without fences are dominant and provide little privacy. A very few units use plantings in their backyards to create small partially private outdoor areas.

The property is in good condition.

The New Helvetia Historic District is eligible for listing in the National Register at the local level under Criteria A, B, and C. It meets the registration requirements of the National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Submission (MPS) Public Housing in the United States, 1933-1949 and is specifically listed as a Defense Housing project in the Multiple Property Documentation Form. In the area of Social History, New Helvetia represents an important local attempt to improve the housing conditions of African Americans, and in the area of Ethnic Heritage is associated with the career of Nathaniel Colley, the first African American attorney in Sacramento, who had a significant role in the effort to implement fair housing practices. In the area of Architecture, the buildings were designed by a coalition of Sacramento's Master architects - Charles Dean, Leonard Starks, Ed Flanders, and Harry Devine, Sr. - working together as a Board of Architects, the only project on which they collaborated.

Periods of significance are 1942 to 1949 for Criterion A in association with the MPS, 1951 to 1952 for Criterion B in association with Nathaniel Calley's efforts to end discrimination at New Helvetia, and 1942 for Criterion C when construction was completed.

The property is nominated by Upper Land Park Neighbors, a local neighborhood association. One letter of objection was received from the property owner, Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA). Twelve letters of support have been received to date. In its role as representative of a Certified Local Government, the Sacramento Preservation Commission was scheduled to discuss the nomination at its New Helvetia Historic District
Sacramento , Sacramento County
Staff Report

January 15, 2014 meeting . The meeting was cancelled, and it does not appear there will be comments from the Preservation Commission.

Acting as historic preservation consultant for the California Department of Community Services & Development (CSD) on behalf of the Department of Energy, ICF International (ICF) completed a Section 106 review of the New Helvetia Historic District.

On CSD's behalf , ICF determined the property eligible for the National Register as a historic district under Criteria A and C at the local level of significance with a period of significance 1942 to 1949. Eligibility under Criterion B was not evaluated at that time.

In preparation for SHRA 's intention to use Community Development Block Grant funds from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development , ICF's intensive survey was also the basis for SHRA 's determination that the district is significant at the local level in the areas of community development, politics and government, social history, and architecture, eligible for listing in the National Register under Criteria A and C at the local level of significance . State Historic Preservation Office staff concurred with these determinations of eligibility on December 13, 2012 to Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency and on December 21, 2012 to Community Services & Development.

OHP staff supports the nomination and recommends the State Historical Resources Commission determine the New Helvetia Historic District meets National Register Criteria A, B, and C at the local level of significance . Periods of significance are 1942 to 1949 for Criterion A in association with the MPS, 1951 to 1952 for Criterion B in association with Nathaniel Calley's efforts to end discrimination at New Helvetia , and 1942 for Criterion C when construction was completed. Staff recommends the Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer approve the nomination for forwarding to the National Park Service for listing in the National Register .

Amy H. Crain
Historian II
February 7, 2014

STATE OF CALIFORNIA- THE RESOURCES AGENCY

OFFICE OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION

DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION
1725 23'" Street, Suite 100
SACRAMENTO, CA 95816-7100
(916) 445-7000 Fax: (916) 445-7053
calshpo@parks .ca.gov
www.ohp.parks.ca .gov
February 12, 2014
Ms. Carol Shull, Keeper
National Register of Historic Places
National Park Service 2280 ·
1201 I (Eye) Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
Subject: New Helvetia Historic District
Sacramento, Sacramento County, California
National Register of Historic Places Nomination
Dear Ms. Shull:

EDMUND G_ BROWN, JR., Governor
RECEIVED 2280
FEB 1 B ;-u1,: •
NAl R(GISTfR _J
NAr10M 9l~~¢rw1,r r1: ,;&Es
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Enclosed please find the New Helvetia Historic District nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. On February 7, 2014 in Sacramento, California, the California State Historical Resources Commission unanimously found the property eligible for the Natir;:>nal Register under Criteria A, B, and C. It meets the registration requirements of the National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Submission Public Housing in the United States, 1933-1949 and is specifically listed as a Defense Housing project in the Multiple Property Documentation Form.

In the area of Social History, New Helvetia represents an important local attempt to improve the housing conditions of African Americans, and in the area of Ethnic Heritage is associated with the career of Nathaniel Colley, the first African American attorney in Sacramento, who had a significant role in the effort to implement fair housing practices. In the area of Architecture, the buildings were designed by a coalition of Sacramento's Master architects - Charles Dean, Leonard Starks, Ed Flanders, and Harry Devine, Sr. - working together as a Board of Architects, the only project on which they collaborated. Periods of significance are 1942 to 1949 for Criterion A in association with the MPS, 1951 to 1952 for Criterion B in association with Nathaniel Calley's efforts to end discrimination at New Helvetia, and 1942 for Criterion C when construction was completed.

The property is nominated by Upper Land Park Neighbors, a local neighborhood association. One letter of objection was received from the property owner, Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. Twelve letters of support have been received to date. In its role as representative of a Certified Local Government, the Sacramento Preservation Commission was scheduled to discuss the nomination at its January 15, 2014 meeting. The meeting was cancelled, and it does not appear there will be comments from the Preservation Commission. Under Section 106 review, State Historic Preservation Office staff concurred with two separate determinations of eligibility in December 2012.

If you have any questions regarding this nomination, please contact Amy Crain of my staff at (916) 445-7009.

Sincerely,
<?<-
Jenan Saunders
Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer
Enclosure

with DAMANY M. FISHER, PH.D

SACRAMENTO AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE HISTORY

PROJECT

HISTORIC CONTEXT STATEMENT

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA
[22020]

PREPARED FOR

June 2023

FINAL

Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

PAGE & TURNBULL ii June 2023

Cover image: Members of Adah Chapter #1, Order of the Eastern Star (1924). Source: Center for Sacramento History, Clarissa Hundley Wildy Collection, 2000/061/115.

Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

PAGE & TURNBULL iii June 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 3 Project Background & Goals ............................................................................................................... 3 Sacramento African American Experience History Project Mission Statement ......................... 4 Historic Context Statement ............................................................................................................. 5 Project Team ..................................................................................................................................... 5 Methodology & Public Outreach ..................................................................................................... 7 MIGRATION & SETTLEMENT ........................................................................................................ 12 Overview Theme: African American Migration & Settlement in Sacramento, ca. 1839-1980 ... 13 Early Settlement of African Americans, ca. 1850-1900 ............................................................... 13 First Great Migration & The Early 20th Century, ca. 1900-1940 ................................................. 19 Second Great Migration, 1940-1970 ............................................................................................. 30 BUSINESSES & COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................... 45 Theme: African American Businesses and Commercial Development in Sacramento, ca. 1839- 1980 ..................................................................................................................................................... 46 Pre-World War II, ca. 1839-1940 ................................................................................................... 46 World War II and Postwar Period, ca. 1940-1980 ....................................................................... 55 RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY .......................................................................................................... 71 Theme: African American Religion and Spirituality in Sacramento, ca. 1839-1980 .................... 72 Pre-World War II, ca. 1850-1940 ................................................................................................... 72 Post-World War II, ca. 1940-1980 .................................................................................................. 78 CIVIC ENGAGEMENT, ACTIVISM & THE FIGHT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS ............................................ 86 Theme: Black Civic Engagement, Activism & The Fight for Civil Rights in Sacramento, ca. 1850- 1980 ..................................................................................................................................................... 87 Churches & Individual Residents Lead the Fight, ca. 1850-1916 ............................................... 87 Activism & Resistance, ca. 1916-1960 .......................................................................................... 96 New Approaches to Resistance & Community Uplift, ca. 1960-1980 .................................... 110 ARTS, CULTURE & RECREATION ................................................................................................ 129 Theme: Black Arts, Culture & Recreation in Sacramento, ca. 1839-1980 ................................. 128 Music, Theater & Fine Art ........................................................................................................... 128 Black Journalism .......................................................................................................................... 140 Social Clubs, Fraternities, and Sororities .................................................................................. 143 Athletics ........................................................................................................................................ 146 Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

PAGE & TURNBULL iv June 2023
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 155 Public & Archival Records ........................................................................................................... 155 Oral Histories ............................................................................................................................... 157 Published Works .......................................................................................................................... 158 Unpublished Academic Papers .................................................................................................. 160 Newspaper & Magazine Articles ................................................................................................ 160 Internet Sources .......................................................................................................................... 164 Other ............................................................................................................................................. 166 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................... 168 Terms and Definitions .................................................................................................................... 169 Frequently Asked Questions .......................................................................................................... 169 Preservation Goals & Policies ........................................................................................................ 171 Survey Methodology & Framework .............................................................................................. 174 Identified Potential Historic Properties ........................................................................................ 175

Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
African Americans have played an integral role in the history of Sacramento since its founding in the mid-19th century. To date, their contributions have been significantly under recognized. In 2022, the City of Sacramento received a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) to fund the development of a historic context statement (HCS) to document the African American experience in Sacramento from roughly the era of the Gold Rush to the 1980s. This HCS highlights Sacramento’s Black history and begins to rectify historical disparities through the identification of community sites, persons, and events that are of historic importance to Sacramento’s African American community. It is not intended as a comprehensive history of this community, which has been and continues to be documented by community members and scholars. Instead, this context statement draws upon new and existing research, including oral histories with members of the community, and re-frames it through the lens of the physical geography and built environment, that is, the places, sites, buildings, structures, and incidents that tell the story of that legacy.

This context begins with an overview of the migration and settlement history of Sacramento’s African American community from approximately the founding of the first non-native settlement in 1839 to the 1980s. The overview is intended to provide a broad foundation for the thematic sections that follow, which include Businesses and Commercial Development; Religion and Spirituality; Civic Engagement, Activism, and the Fight for Civil Rights; and Arts, Culture, and Recreation. A list of potentially eligible properties related to each theme, as well as guidelines for assessing the eligibility of properties for historic designation is included in the Appendices.

Due to limited available research and time constraints tied to the project’s grant funding, not all possible themes associated with Sacramento’s African American community were examined.

Suggestions for future research to expand this HCS are included in the “Preservation Goals and Policies” section of the Appendices.

Sacramento’s African American community remained small compared to the city’s overall population through the 19th century but grew noticeably in the early 20th century and after World War II. This growth coincided with the periods during which the City of Sacramento experienced massive population spikes and expansive residential and commercial development beyond its initial settlement areas. These periods of growth parallel the First and Second Great Migrations during which African American individuals and families moved from the South to the Northeast and Western United States in search of economic opportunities, homes, and community. In Sacramento, African Americans settled in homes and apartments, found jobs Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

PAGE & TURNBULL 2 June 2023
and started businesses, attended schools and churches, and socialized and supported each other through clubs and organizations. Anchored by two of the oldest African American churches on the West Coast, St. Andrew’s AME and Shiloh Baptist Church, the African American community formed a vibrant community that tirelessly supported and provided for its own.

As African American populations grew in cities throughout California, racism and acts of discrimination increased. The pervasive use of restrictive housing covenants allowed developers to create white residential and commercial enclaves and deny homeownership and commercial investment to people of color. Government-sanctioned redlining policies obstructed loans and mortgages to homeowners and prospective buyers in older multiracial and multiethnic neighborhoods. Sacramento was no different. Over the course of the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, discriminatory housing practices concentrated the majority of African American residents in Sacramento’s West End neighborhood, along with other marginalized racial and ethnic groups.

The responses of Sacramento’s Black residents to pervasive racism reflected the broader aims of nationwide civil rights movements to strategically address widespread discrimination throughout California and across the United States during the 19th and much of the 20th centuries. In the face of direct and indirect discrimination, Sacramento’s African American residents worked to uplift their community and achieve greater racial equality through the efforts of their churches, community clubs and organizations, and countless individuals. In spite of the Black community’s relatively small size compared to Sacramento’s overall population and that of other larger California cities, it had an outsized impact on the fight to broaden the rights of African Americans throughout California, thanks in part to its proximity to the State Capitol and the wide-ranging influence of several powerful community leaders. Sacramento’s African American community achieved major victories in the fight for equal rights, particularly during periods of heightened civil rights activity across the country in the lead up to the Civil War during the 1850s, the Reconstruction era of the 1860s and 1870s, and again during the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 1960s.

In many cities across the United States, a large number of the historic places associated with Black communities are no longer extant. Widespread patterns of government-sanctioned destruction through financial disinvestment, post-World War II redevelopment, and retaliatory racial actions, such as the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and 1960s urban rioting, decimated the Black urban landscape and cultural assets associated with Black commercial and residential areas. In Sacramento, the redevelopment of the West End neighborhood in the mid-20th century Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

PAGE & TURNBULL 3 June 2023
destroyed large swaths of Sacramento’s downtown, including the homes, businesses, churches, and other significant gathering places of the African American community. As a result, very few buildings related to the history of the local African American community before the 1950s survive. The majority of those that remain standing from this early period are located in outlying neighborhoods where African Americans were able to settle in the early 20th century due to a lack of restrictive housing covenants, such as Oak Park, Del Paso Heights, and some areas at the periphery of the central city, including Highland Park and Southside Park. The vast majority of surviving buildings and sites with ties to local African American history were built or used by members of the community after the 1950s and are located in the neighborhoods previously mentioned, as well as recent postwar developments, such as Glen Elder and Meadowview.

As there are so few places remaining, built resources associated with the history of African Americans before the 1950s may possess greater historic importance because of their rarity.

The guidelines for historic designation recognize this and offer a broad basis for determining significance. Throughout this document, properties that are known to survive are labeled as “extant.” Properties that do not include this label have either been demolished or require more research to determine their status.

Members of the public, the academic community, and City staff will continue to research the history of Sacramento’s African American community, leading to future discoveries, new observations, and more detailed analyses of this history. Historic context statements can be living documents, and with time and as more information is revealed, this context may be amended and expanded to add more themes, time periods, and details to recognize the continued contributions of the African American community to Sacramento’s development.

INTRODUCTION

PROJECT BACKGROUND & GOALS
The Sacramento African American Experience History Project (AAE History Project) is one step in the documentation and recognition of the contributions of the African American community to the City of Sacramento. Beginning in 2016, City Preservation staff sought grant funding from the National Park Service to build upon prior research on the civil rights advocacy efforts of Sacramento’s Black churches. Efforts to increase community awareness of African American social justice concerns arising from the police-involved death of Stephon Clark (2018) and the murder of George Floyd (2020) sparked a series of City initiatives, including, among others, the Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

PAGE & TURNBULL 4 June 2023
formalization of the City’s Office of Diversity and Equity, Implicit Bias training for management staff, and Office of Preservation staff efforts to advance landmark designations for properties with strong Black historical associations in the hope that such history, once highlighted, has the potential to enlighten and advance inclusivity in Sacramento’s civic life. The historical analysis being conducted as part of the AAE History Project may inform the study of racism and discrimination against African Americans undertaken by the Office of the Mayor and by the California Reparations Task Force.

Inspired by the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, City of Sacramento staff submitted and was awarded a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund (AACHAF). Since it was first established in November 2017, the AACHAF has supported approximately 200 projects across the United States. The stated purpose of such grants is “to preserve and protect places that have been overlooked in American history and represent centuries of African American activism, achievement and resilience,” against the backdrop of America’s complex, often difficult past.

The goal is to achieve “equity-driven outcomes that benefit all Americans.”1

Sacramento African American Experience History Project Mission Statement

PROJECT GOALS
• Acknowledge racial injustice using history
• Document Black history in an accurate narrative
• Recognize historic properties important to the Black community • Challenge misinformation about the Black experience
• Record Black voices for future generations

POTENTIAL OUTCOMES
• Celebrate Black history embedded in neighborhoods and places • Lay a foundation for future grant-funded projects
• Leave the community with a toolkit for understanding the past • Preserve places and stories important to the Black community • Help advance City and statewide efforts to address racial injustice

1 “African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund,” National Trust for Historic Preservation, accessed October 27, 2022, https://savingplaces.org/african-american-cultural-heritage.

Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

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Historic Context Statement
As part of the effort to accomplish these goals and outcomes, the Sacramento AAE History Project provides a historic context statement (HCS) as a foundation for the identification of significant individuals, key events, buildings, and sites associated with Sacramento’s African American community. An HCS is a specialized historic study. As defined by the National Park Service, it is an organizational structure for the interpretation of history that groups information about historic properties sharing a common theme, a common geographical area, and a common time period. That is, it is the history of the physical development of a place during a certain time and organized by themes and patterns.

In this case, the Sacramento AAE History Project HCS focuses on the history of the African American community (theme) in Sacramento (geographic area) from the 19th century through 1980 (time period) during the time people of African descent are known to have lived here.

While the African American community extended across the greater Sacramento area, the focus of this context is within the current boundaries of the City of Sacramento. The end date, approximately 40 years ago, was selected to allow for sufficient time and distance from the events described to adequately understand their impact in the context of the past. However, in several instances, individuals and events that occurred during the 1980s or later have been included, which were identified by members of the Black community as being of particularly high significance and worthy of inclusion.

It is important to note that the HCS is not a comprehensive history of Sacramento or the African American community’s contributions to the city. It does not include all themes, potentially significant built resources, or individuals related to the city’s African American history. Instead, it provides a general overview of the community’s presence in Sacramento and the forces that shaped its growth, settlement, and activities over a specific period of time.

Project Team
Page & Turnbull, in partnership with Damany M. Fisher, Ph.D, and Caru Bowns, Ph.D, AICP, prepared this HCS. Page & Turnbull is a California-based architecture and planning firm that has been dedicated to historic preservation since 1973. With its headquarters in San Francisco, the firm has had a local office in Sacramento since 2006. Page & Turnbull staff responsible for this project includes Principal-in-Charge Ruth Todd, FAIA, AICP, Project Manager/Associate Cultural Resources Planner Clare Flynn, with support from Associate Principals Christina Dikas Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

PAGE & TURNBULL 6 June 2023
and Flora Chou, all of whom meet the Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualifications Standards in Historic Architecture, Architectural History, and/or History. Cultural Resources Planner Walker Shores also contributed to the project.

Damany M. Fisher, Ph.D. is a native of Sacramento, California. A graduate of the University of California, Davis with a B.A. degree in History, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in History from the University of California, Berkeley, his program of research investigates the origins of residential segregation in Sacramento, California and the fair housing movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

A dedicated educator, Damany has built a career working in service of students in secondary and higher education settings. He was tenured as an Instructor of History at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California, and served as a member of the teaching faculty at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. These divergent experiences have helped shape Damany’s teaching philosophy and have greatly influenced current research interests in the areas of restorative justice and teacher education.

Caru Bowns is a planner certified by the AICP (American Institute of Certified Planners) and a practicing landscape designer. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with masters degrees in Landscape Architecture and City and Regional Planning, her Ph.D. is in Geography from the University of California, Davis. As a planner, she has worked with communities in Sacramento, the Bay Area, Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River Valley, the Middle East, and Brazil, engaging residents in community revitalization efforts. Caru has also taught planning and design as a faculty member at Pennsylvania State University and as adjunct faculty at California State University, Sacramento, American River College, and UC Davis. Beginning in 2014, she served as a member of the City of Sacramento Preservation Commission, until she termed out in 2021. She has also served as a director of Sacramento Heritage Inc. Bowns lived in Davis between 1990 and 2003 and became a Sacramento resident in 2012.

Coordination of the project was undertaken by City of Sacramento Preservation Director Sean deCourcy, retired Preservation Director Carson Anderson, and Preservation Planner Henry Fuess. Public outreach efforts were led by the City’s Community Engagement Manager Lynette Hall, with assistance from her mother Ella Hall Kelly. Kelly Fong Rivas, Racial Equity Advisor to the Mayor’s Office, also helped plan and coordinate public outreach and community meetings for the project. Considerable day-to-day assistance on the project was provided by City of Sacramento interns Kristen Ross and Ashlee Green. Additionally, members of the Preservation Commission and local subject matter experts, including Clarence Caesar and Susheel Bibbs, were of great support to the project. Shiloh Baptist Church Deacon Dan Fontenot worked Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

PAGE & TURNBULL 7 June 2023
tirelessly to document the oral histories of Shiloh’s oldest members. Finally, Jay King and Former Police Chief Daniel Hahn assisted as valuable community liaisons early in the public outreach efforts for the project.

Special acknowledgement goes to the long-term Sacramento residents who shared their personal and family memories through oral histories, emails, phone calls, and other methods of communication. Their assistance has added invaluable insight and perspective to create a document that provides a more accurate account of the history of Sacramento’s African American community.

Methodology & Public Outreach
The Historic Context Statement is organized thematically, beginning with an overview of the history of the migration and settlement of Sacramento’s African American community from the 19th century to 1980. The overview is intended to provide the necessary background information for the thematic discussions that follow. The organization and content of this HCS are consistent with federal, state, and local guidelines for developing historic contexts and registering historic properties. These include the guidelines found in the following publications:

• National Park Service: National Register Bulletin No. 15 How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation
• National Register Bulletin No. 16A How to Complete the National Register Registration Form
• National Register Bulletin No. 16B How to Complete the National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form
• National Register Bulletin No. 24 Guidelines for Local Surveys: A Basis for Preservation Planning
• State of California, Office of Historic Preservation “Instructions for Recording Historical Resources”
• California Statewide Historic Preservation Plan, 2006-2010 • Marie Nelson, State of California, Office of Historic Preservation, “Writing Historic Contexts”
• State of California, Office of Historic Preservation, “OHP Preferred Format for Historic Context Statements”

Numerous and varied sources of information were reviewed to create this report. Primary source documents that originated within the historical period include media accounts, federal census records, official reports and records, records of building construction, personal narratives, maps and photographs. Sanborn Fire Insurance Company maps of Sacramento Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

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from 1895, 1915, and 1950 illustrate lot-by-lot, building-by-building development during much of the period under discussion. Of particular importance are oral histories and biographies written by family members that are archived at the Center for Sacramento History or which were newly conducted purposely for this project. These oral histories and biographies provide a first-hand account of the lives and experiences of individual members of Sacramento’s African American community and are an invaluable resource for continued research.

LITERATURE REVIEW
A thorough review of existing written academic research and popular histories related to the history of African Americans in Sacramento, as well as the state of California, formed the basis of the HCS. Principal literary sources that informed this study include Clarence Caesar’s unpublished master’s thesis, “An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850- 1980” (1985), Damany M. Fisher’s doctoral dissertation, “Far From Utopia: Race, Housing, and the Fight to End Residential Segregation in Sacramento, 1900-1980” (2008), David Covin’s book, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement: Activity and Beliefs in Sacramento, 1970-2000 (2009), and William Burg’s book, Sacramento Renaissance: Art, Music & Activism in California’s Capital City (2013). Research term papers completed by students at California State University, Sacramento in 2021 were also referenced, as well as biographies completed by family members of local African American residents, such as Clarissa Hundley Wildy’s master’s dissertation, “Mend A Broken Chain: The Story of My Grandfather” (1973) and Eva Rutland’s autobiography, When We Were Colored: A Mother’s Story (2007).

Recent historic context statements for African American communities in other California cities were also referenced to provide general background information about African Americans in California. These include the SurveyLA context, African American History of Los Angeles, as well as contexts recently completed for Santa Barbara and Altadena.

Other literary sources that informed this HCS include journal and magazine articles, such as Clarence Caesar’s journal article in California History, “The Historical Demographics of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1848-1900” (1996) and the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans’ “Interim Report” (June 2022). Landmark nominations and historic resource evaluations for the City of Sacramento were additional sources.

Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

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ARCHIVAL RESEARCH
The following is a summary of the archival research that informed the HCS:
• Historic photographs, city directories, city and subdivision maps, historic burial records, exhibitions, oral histories, archival collections donated by members of the African American community, and other research materials at the Center for Sacramento History
• Online historic newspaper articles in the Sacramento Bee, Sacramento Union, Sacramento Star, and others at Newspapers.com
• Online newspaper articles from the Sacramento Observer • Online map, aerial photograph, and historic photograph research from the Sacramento Public Library, Calisphere.org, and UC Santa Barbara’s FrameFinder website, • Archival materials held by the Shiloh Baptist Church, St. Andrews AME Church, and African American Museum and Library at Oakland
• United States federal census records, city directories, and other records held by Ancestry.com
• Photographs, booklets, pamphlets, and other materials provided by members of the public

City of Sacramento interns collected the addresses of Black-owned or -operated businesses from archival copies of the Negro Motorists Green Books and the United States federal census records, including Sacramento’s population numbers by race available in printed tables from 1850 to 1980. Individual census records, available through Ancestry.com, were collected for the years 1850-1940 through a search by race; such electronic searches are inexact, and some records may not have been collected. For years in which there were more than 200 recorded African American residents, a sample of approximately 200 records was collected. The individual records for the 1950 census were released in early 2022 and were not searchable at the time research for the HCS was conducted.

It should be noted that questions asked at each decennial census change over time, as do terms and definitions. Not all information gathered in previous censuses continue to be asked in later censuses, such as homeownership or place of birth, and some years were not searchable by race.

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COMMUNITY OUTREACH & ORAL HISTORIES
The City of Sacramento conducted an extensive public outreach program to inform and engage the local African American community in the project. Prior to the start of the project, the City coordinated with California State University, Sacramento (Sacramento State) professors Rebekkah Mulholland, Ty Smith, Mark Beason, and Bryan Larson to have students of the Public History program complete a series of term papers on topics related to the history of Sacramento’s African American community, as well as oral histories with prominent, long- standing members of the community. In June 2022, the City invited project partners from the community to an initial project kickoff meeting in Oak Park. Based on public feedback from the meeting, the City initiated a wide-ranging effort to collect additional oral histories from members of the African American community, created a training video to provide guidance on how to conduct an oral interview, developed a dedicated website for members of the public to upload their oral histories, and embarked on an extensive community outreach campaign to raise awareness of the oral history project. The City held recording sessions with elders at the Shiloh Baptist Church and at a February community meeting at the Oak Park Community Center. City staff also conducted in-home recording sessions with individual community members on request. As the oral histories were completed and submitted, they were reviewed by City staff and Page & Turnbull, and relevant information was incorporated into the HCS. The oral histories will ultimately be archived in a collection at the Center for Sacramento History so that they can be freely accessed by the community and inform research for generations to come.

The City, with assistance from Page & Turnbull and consultant Caru Bowns, conducted a series of public meetings and workshops at various stages of the project to hear the opinions, suggestions, and recommendations of the community. The meetings were held throughout the city, alternating between neighborhoods where Black residents formed a large portion of the population historically, such as Oak Park, Meadowview, North Sacramento, and Del Paso Heights. Members of the project team also delivered presentations to students in the Sacramento State Public History program.

Organizations and individuals such as Shiloh Baptist Church, Williams Memorial Church of God in Christ, City Church of Sacramento, a coalition of Sacramento’s retired Black police officers, the Greater Sacramento African American Genealogy Society, the Roberts Family Development Center, Dale McKinney, and others held meetings and workshops to promote the project and to collect oral histories.

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The City’s community outreach efforts were bolstered by a significant number of media announcements on television, local radio, and in newspapers. These served to amplify the City’s social media postings and those of its community partners

Stipend Program
City staff recognized the need to compensate members of the community for their contributions to the project. To respond to this need, City staff partnered with Preservation Sacramento, with support from a supplemental grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, to create a stipend program. The stipend program provided a total of $10,000 in stipends to community members and organizations who contributed to the project.

HISTORIC RESOURCE SURVEY
In conjunction with the HCS, Page & Turnbull developed a Survey Methodology and Framework (SMF) to guide future survey work to identify and evaluate places with important historic associations to the local African American community. For each of the individual themes included in the HCS, a summary statement of significance, description of associated property types, eligibility standards, and integrity considerations were prepared. The SMF is included in the appendix of this document.

In April 2023, students in Sacramento State’s Public History program were asked to contribute to the Sacramento African American Experience Project as part of their final class project. Each student was assigned a property that was identified in the HCS and considered potentially eligible for historic designation. Utilizing the SMF to guide their work, the students photographed the properties, conducted detailed historic research, and completed full historic evaluations of the properties. After they were completed, the final class submittals were delivered to the City. City staff subsequently peer reviewed the reports and prepared those for which properties had been found to be eligible historic resources for landmark designation on the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources (Sacramento Register). To supplement the student’s survey work, Sacramento State University identified additional grant monies to support Ella Cross, a student assistant, to document additional properties identified in the HCS as being potentially significant. Student interns with the City also evaluated and documented additional properties during the course of the project.

Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

Photograph: Charles Nelson Gibson with family on the porch of their home, likely in the West End (address unknown, ca. 1880s). Source: Center for Sacramento History, Clarissa Hundley Wildy Collection, 2000/061/078.

MIGRATION & SETTLEMENT
Circa 1839-1980

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OVERVIEW THEME: AFRICAN AMERICAN MIGRATION & SETTLEMENT IN SACRAMENTO, CA. 1839-1980
The African American presence in California traces back to the 18th century. As early as 1769, persons of African descent took part in Spanish military expeditions that occupied San Diego and Monterey. Settlers of mixed African-Mexican ancestry had been among the group that founded Los Angeles in 1781 and several held administrative positions in California during the late eighteenth and early 19th centuries. Others continued to settle in the Sacramento region throughout the early 19th century. In the 1830s, Black fur trader and entrepreneur James P.

Beckwourth, via Missouri and Puebla, Colorado, made the first of several trips to the Sacramento region, utilizing a traditional Native American trail in the Sierra Nevada that became known to countless migrants to California as “Beckwourth Pass.” During the 1840s, William Alexander Leidesdorff, of Danish-African background, left the West Indies for Louisiana before settling in the village of Yerba Buena (now San Francisco), then part of Mexico, where he established a successful steamboat company, as well as the city’s first hotel. After becoming a Mexican citizen, Leidesdorff received a 35,0521-acre Mexican land grant on the south side of the American River. The land grant covered most of the land which later became the cities of Folsom and Rancho Cordova, directly to the east of Sacramento.2 In addition to his land grant, Leidesdorff eventually acquired much of the land in San Francisco’s present-day financial district, becoming one of the wealthiest men in California, the country’s first Black millionaire, first Black U.S. diplomat as vice-consul to Mexico, and first Black elected official when he became a San Francisco city councilman and city treasurer. Leidesdorff’s steamship “Sitka” appears on the California State Seal.3

Early Settlement of African Americans, ca. 1850-1900
Blacks were well-represented among the thousands of gold-seekers who rushed to California soon after the discovery of gold at John Sutter’s mill in Coloma in 1848. Like other new arrivals at this time, Blacks also made their way to the “Mother Lode”—the area east of Sacramento where vast gold deposits were known to exist.4 During the Gold Rush, no fewer than 65 sites in the Mother Lode were given names, marking the presence of Black miners, including “Negro

2 Jack D. Forbes, "The Early African Heritage in California," in Seeking El Dorado: African Americans in California, ed. Lawrence B. de Graaf and Quintard Taylor (Los Angeles: Autry Museum of Western Heritage, 2001); Lonnie G. Bunch III, Black Angelinos: The Afro American in Los Angeles, 1850-1950 (Los Angeles: California Afro-American Museum, 1988); Rudolph Lapp, Blacks in Gold Rush California (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977).
3 James Reede, “Leidesdorff Narrative,” undated, sent via email to Carson Anderson, March 9, 2023; Sue Bailey Thurman, “William Alexander Leidesdorff,” Pioneers of Negro Origin in California (San Francisco: Acme Publishing Co., 1952). 4 Lapp, Blacks in Gold Rush California, 50-52; James A. Fisher, “A History of the Political and Social Development of the Black Community in California, 1850-1950,” (Ph.D. diss., State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1971), 9.

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Hill” near Mormon Island and “Negro Bar,” near Folsom.5 By no means restricted to the Sacramento area, small Black enclaves took shape throughout northern California, including surrounding towns such as Marysville, Stockton, and Placerville.6

Resettlement in California’s “gold country” brought freedom and new opportunities, as well as hardship, for Black families. In 1849, Peter and Nancy Gooch were brought by their enslaver from Missouri to California to work in the goldfields. Unable to bring their three-year-old son, Andrew, with them, the couple was forced to leave him behind in Missouri. Although the couple obtained their freedom in 1850 and eventually amassed 320 acres of land, including the gold discovery site in Coloma, Nancy and Peter spent more than 20 years working to earn enough money to buy Andrew’s freedom and reunite their family.7 Their story reflects the complicated legacy that the Gold Rush left on many Black families. Even as racism and slavery persisted, enslaved and free Black people manifested resistance while pursuing human rights.

Sacramento, the gateway to California’s gold fields, attracted hundreds of African Americans, second only in the size of its Black population to San Francisco. Together, the two cities contained 80 percent of California’s African American inhabitants. The majority of the remaining 20 percent lived in the small towns and settlements of the Mother Lode.8 While many pursued mineral wealth, others sought economic opportunities by providing services to miners and travelers, such as operating barbershops, bath houses, and restaurants.

The growth of Sacramento’s African American community in the mid-19th century coincided with the overall flood of newcomers to the city during the Gold Rush and the years immediately following. By 1850, the year California was admitted to the Union, 191 Black individuals lived in Sacramento, representing roughly three percent of Sacramento’s population. City directories from the 1850s show a cluster of Black businesses and residences along 3rd Street and adjacent intersections during this period in what later became known as the West End. Generally, however, Black residents tended to share neighborhoods with other minority groups, such as the Chinese and Mexicans.9

5 David Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement: Activity and Beliefs in Sacramento, 1970-2000 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2009), 16.
6 Clarence Caesar, "The Historical Demographics of Sacramento's Black Community, 1848-1900," California History 75, no. 3 (1996): 199-200. 7 Shirley Anne Wilson Moore, Sweet Freedom’s Plains (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016), 160-162. 8 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 16. 9 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 2.

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Figure 1. Map of Sacramento, showing the growth of the city along the waterfront of the Sacramento River and on the blocks to the east (1854). The approximate boundary of the West End is outlined with a dotted blue line.

Source: Center for Sacramento History. Edited by Page & Turnbull.

Over the course of the 1850s, Sacramento’s population, including its Black community, continued to grow at a rapid pace, even as fires and floods threatened to destroy the fledgling city. The most devastating fire occurred in 1852 when 55 blocks of the city’s business district along the Sacramento River, approximately 70 percent of the city’s building stock, went up in smoke. Another fire in 1854 destroyed 12 city blocks. These conflagrations led to the reconstruction of much of the city using fireproof brick or stone.

In spite of these devastating events, Sacramento continued to grow and mature. In 1854, the city was selected as the permanent capital of the state of California, due to its growing population and advantageous location at the confluence of the Sacramento and American rivers. 10 By 1860, 394 Black residents called Sacramento home.11 Sacramento’s Black population had a relatively high level of parity between men and women, compared to some

10 Page & Turnbull, Sacramento Historic District Plans, 2019, 20. 11 1850-1860 United States Federal Censuses, Ancestry.com.

West End
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other ethnic groups, such as the Chinese community, which was primarily male at the time.12 As a result, Black families contributed to the formation of a well-established Black community early in Sacramento’s development.13

Sacramento functioned as an important social and cultural center for California’s growing Black population. Into the pre-Civil War years, as slavery and racism constrained economic opportunities and social mobility of the state’s Black residents, free Black communities grew, establishing their own institutions. In Sacramento, the social and spiritual life of the city’s early Black community was enhanced in 1850 when the Methodist Church of Colored People of Sacramento City was founded. This church, soon to be named St. Andrews African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, became the first African American-controlled religious institution on the West Coast. A second church, Siloam (later renamed Shiloh) Baptist Church, followed in 1856, as well as social and fraternal organizations, such as the Philomathean Lodge in 1853 and its female adjunct, Adah Chapter No. 2 of the Order of the Eastern Star, in 1871.14

Following the initial fervor of gold discovery, the number of Black residents in Sacramento began to level out and became more insular and self-contained.15 The population grew at a slow but steady pace through the 1880s before declining at the end of the century. By 1890, the Black population had fallen from 455 in 1880 to 402 individuals, a reduction of almost 12 percent. The population hovered around 400 people through 1900, forming a little more than one percent of the total population. African Americans had few incentives to migrate to Sacramento in the late 19th century. Routine discriminatory practices kept most Black residents confined to menial work. Even educated and skilled African Americans found themselves mostly shut out of professional occupations. Black entrepreneurs, meanwhile, found it difficult to gain a strong foothold in the city, as a result of intense competition either from white businesses or from other ethnic groups. Those that did manage to thrive in business tended to provide personal services (i.e., barbershops and restaurants) that often catered to whites exclusively.16 By the late 1800s, white labor unions across California began to bar non-whites, particularly Chinese Americans but also Black individuals, from positions they had previously dominated, including positions in the hotel, hospitality, restaurant, and craft trade industries. With opportunities to support themselves dwindling, many Black residents left Sacramento in search of better paths to economic advancement elsewhere. The expansion of railroad connections to

12 Erika Lee, The Making of Asian America: A History (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015), 59-60. 13 Cesar, "The Historical Demographics of Sacramento's Black Community,” 208. 14 Lapp, Blacks in Gold Rush California, 103-4, Caesar, "The Historical Demographics of Sacramento's Black Community,” 208-210. 15 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 16. 16 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 5.

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Southern California cities and their subsequent growth made cities such as Los Angeles particularly attractive destinations for Black residents, due to a perception of greater job opportunities that could be found there. By 1890, Los Angeles had the largest Black population in California.17

TABLE 1: SACRAMENTO’S POPULATION FIGURES, 1850-1900
1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900
African American and Black
Residents
191 394 418 455 401 402
Percent Change from Previous
Decade
N/A 106.28% 6.09% 8.85% -11.87% 0.25%
Total City Population 6,280 13,785 16,283 21,420 26,386 29,282 Percent of Total Population 3.04% 2.86% 2.57% 2.12% 1.52% 1.37% Source: U.S. Census, 1850-1900.18

In spite of the growing hostility toward African Americans and other non-white residents, a distinct African American community emerged in Sacramento. While a sampling of addresses for Black residents recorded in the 1880s federal census indicates that the African American population was relatively spread out throughout the extent of the developed portions of the city through much of the 19th century, a similar sampling of Black residences recorded 20 years later in 1900 federal census data shows that by this time the local African American population began to be concentrated primarily in the West End. The West End was a multi-ethnic district that stretched roughly from the Sacramento River waterfront east to the Capitol on 10th Street, and from the Southern Pacific Railroad depot on the north to Y Street (now Broadway) on the south. J and K Streets emerged as Sacramento’s main commercial streets, with the largest concentration of businesses on the blocks closest to the riverfront, including hotels, restaurants, saloons, grocers, barbers, and other businesses. Lumber and planning mills, box factories, and other industrial factories lined the Sacramento River waterfront to the west, while the workshops of the Southern Pacific Railroad were located to the north, on the south side of the American River.19 The proximity to numerous employment hubs and transportation attracted a diverse mix of residents to the area. As a result, the West End became home to a

17 Caesar, "The Historical Demographics of Sacramento's Black Community,” 208-212. 18 U.S. Census Bureau, Statistics of the Population of the United States at the Tenth Census (June 1, 1880) (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1882); Compendium of the Eleventh Census: 1890. Part I – Population (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1892); United States Census Office. "Statistics of Population." Twelfth Census of the United States, Taken in the Year 1900, Census Reports, Volume 1, Population, Part 1 (Washington, D.C.: United States Census Office, 1901). 19 Fire insurance map, Sanborn-Peris Map Company, Sacramento, California, 1895, Library of Congress.

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mixture of Black, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, and white residents and businesses. The area served as the center for economic activity in the Sacramento region through World War II.20

Figure 2. Map of Sacramento, showing the original city grid. The approximate location of the West End is shown in blue (1873). Source: Center for Sacramento History.

20 Sacramento City Planning Commission, Sacramento Urban Redevelopment: Existing Conditions in Blighted Conditions (Sacramento, CA, 1950), 4-5.

West End
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First Great Migration & The Early 20th Century, ca. 1900-1940 After the decline and stagnation of the city’s Black population in the late 19th century, it began to grow again in the first few decades of the 20th century. From 1900 to 1910, the number of Black residents jumped 20 percent to 486 individuals, then nearly 40 percent to 675 people in 1920. By 1930, the local Black population increased by another 60 percent to just over one- thousand residents for the first time. Although the Black population continued to consist of roughly one percent of Sacramento’s overall population through the first three decades of the 20th century, its growth during this period reflected a nationwide pattern of Black individuals leaving the South for cities in the Northeast and West in search of greater economic opportunities from around 1910 to 1940. Known as the First Great Migration, the mass migration of African Americans was in part an effort to escape from the racial violence and discrimination experienced in the Jim Crow-era South.21 The slow growth also reflected Sacramento’s physical expansion during this period. In 1911, the city annexed new territory for the first time since its founding, adding the neighborhoods of East Sacramento, Oak Park, Land Park, and Curtis Park into its boundaries.

21 “The Great Migration, (1910-1970),” National Archives, accessed March 2, 2022, https://www.archives.gov/research/african- americans/migrations/great-migration.

Figure 3. Map showing the distribution of Black
residents in 1880, based on a sampling of addresses
listed in the 1880 federal census data. Source:

Google Maps, edited by Page & Turnbull.

Figure 4. Map showing the distribution of Black
residents in 1900, based on a sampling of addresses
listed in the 1900 federal census. Source: Google
Maps, edited by Page & Turnbull.

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TABLE 2: SACRAMENTO’S POPULATION FIGURES, 1910-1940
1910 1920 1930 1940
African American and Black Residents 486 675 1,086 1,468 Percent Change from Previous Decade 20.90% 38.89% 60.89% 35.17% Total City Population 44,696 65,908 93,750 105,958
Percent of Total Population 1.09% 1.02% 1.16% 1.39%
Source: U.S. Census, 1910-1940.22

Figure 5. May Russell with her grandmother in front of their home, possibly 1419 4th Street in the West End (1914). Source: Center for Sacramento History, Clarissa Hundley Wildy Collection, 2000/061/081.

22 United States Bureau of the Census, Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1910. Volume II, Population 1910 (Washington, D.C.:

Government Printing Office, 191); United States Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1920. Volume III, Population 1920. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1922); United States Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, “Population,” Volume III, Part 1. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1932); United States Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States: 1940, “Population,” Volume II: Characteristics of the Population (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1943).

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Although a few Black families had managed to acquire homes in other parts of the city by the early 1900s, most Blacks and other ethnic minorities still lived in the West End on the eve of World War II. This remained the case in spite of the city’s growth after the turn of the century.

The city’s expansion siphoned off much of the area’s largely white middle- and upper-class residents. Newer suburbs like Oak Park, Curtis Park, East Sacramento, Land Park, North Sacramento, and Del Paso Heights attracted working- and middle-class whites as a way out of the old city. Oak Park, Sacramento’s first suburb located to the southeast of the original city grid, emerged as one of the preferred residential districts in the city shortly after its creation in 1887. Its relatively inexpensive homes, lower taxes, thriving businesses, and relative autonomy attracted thousands of white home seekers.

Figure 6. Map showing the boundaries of Sacramento (outlined in blue) and its subdivisions in 1913, following the annexation of new land in 1911. The original city boundaries are highlighted yellow. Source: Center for Sacramento History. Edited by Page & Turnbull.

Oak Park Curtis Park
East Sacramento
Del Paso Heights and North
Sacramento
(outside City boundaries)
Land Park

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Meanwhile, by the early 20th century, much of the West End had become what one observer described as “the quarter that people who made money moved away from.” Southern European and Asian immigrants poured into the West End, taking up residence in many of the neighborhood’s older homes. The continuous stream of migrant families into the West End put additional pressure on an area already dealing with overcrowding and an aging building stock.

Speculators in the West End subdivided properties and constructed shanties in alleys that had previously been stables. They converted what were once opulent private homes into rentals, “flophouses,” flats, and boardinghouses.23

Most African Americans and other ethnic minorities had to endure substandard housing in the West End due to intense housing discrimination. The rise of racial zoning and restrictive covenants coincided with the emergence of the modern city planning profession in the early 1900s.24 Although zoning was introduced as a means of improving public health and safety by designating particular areas of a city for specific uses and densities, it became a tool for racial suppression. Fueled in part by the Great Migration of African Americans into cities, as well as the dramatic increase of Southern European immigrants to the United States, these public sector (racial zoning) and private sector (restrictive covenants included on property deeds) tools reflected the unfounded belief among members of the white community that homogenous neighborhoods – that is, communities of one race, ethnic group, religion, etc. – would remain peaceful if people of similar backgrounds lived together. As a result, cities across the United States stepped up efforts to segregate white and non-white residents, often leading to the containment of residents of color into urban slums.25

Once the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against racial zoning ordinances in the 1917 Buchanan v.

Warley decision, cities used their zoning authorities in more indirect ways to segregate neighborhoods.26 Also as a result, restrictive covenants became more widespread, particularly as the 1920s saw a residential building boom across the country. Often placed on deeds by the private subdividing developer, restrictive covenants often listed “building restrictions” such as setback lines, minimum building cost, or prohibited uses like oil drilling, in addition to exclusions of African American, Asian American, Mexican American, Jewish, and other non-

23 Steven Avella, Sacramento: Indomitable City (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2003), 77. 24 Matthew D. Lassiter and Susan Cianci Salvatore, Civil Rights in America: Racial Discrimination in Housing, A National Historic Landmarks Theme Study (Washington, DC: National Park Service, 2021), 8-11; SurveyLA, Los Angeles Citywide Historic Context Statement, Context: African American History of Los Angeles, 41.
25 Carson Anderson, “Historical Overview: The Civil Rights Effort to End Segregation in Housing in America, 1910-1960,” September 2022, 2-3. 26 Lassiter and Salvatore, Civil Rights in America: Racial Discrimination in Housing; Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2017), 44-48.

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white residents.27 Italian and other Southern and Eastern European immigrants were sometimes included among that list, given the nativist, anti-immigration sentiments of the period. Some covenants had time limits, such as 20 to 50 years.

The national real estate industry supported and advocated for restrictive covenants in order to maintain homogenous neighborhoods, and thereby property values, by steering African Americans and people of color away from white neighborhoods.28 In 1924, the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) Code of Ethics, Article 34 stated that “a Realtor should never be instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood … members of any race or nationality … whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values in that neighborhood.” This provision remained in effect until 1950. In spite of legal challenges, courts routinely maintained the constitutionality of covenants. In 1926, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld restrictive covenants in Corrigan v. Buckley. It would not be until 1948 when, in the landmark case of Shelley v. Kraemer, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed itself and ruled enforcement of restrictive covenants unconstitutional. Nevertheless, the inclusion of restrictive covenants in property deeds persisted through the 1950s.29

Sacramento became one of many cities to follow this trend. Restrictions became so widespread throughout the city that on April 13, 1928, the Sacramento Bee ran a special article in its real estate section dedicated to the issue. Citing a study on new subdivisions from the Institute for Research in Land Economics and Public Utilities, the Bee stated that,

…the man who buys a subdivision lot to-day looks to it carefully to see the deed to his lot limits him as to what he can build thereon in order that he may be spared a shack, factory, garage used as residence, or some other inappropriate building on the lot adjoining his property or at the corner of the block, and a more striking recent restriction, so he may be sure what the color and race of his next door neighbor will not be.30

Outside the West End, many Sacramento neighborhoods – including Oak Park, Highland Park, Curtis Park, Land Park, East Sacramento, North Sacramento, and Hagginwood, among others – had restrictive covenants. Heilbron Oaks, one of the subdivisions in Curtis Park, provides a clear example of how these restrictions were used to exclude African Americans. A 1927 deed from

27Los Angeles Citywide Historic Context Statement, Context: African American History of Los Angeles, 41. 28 Rothstein, The Color of Law, 52.
29 "Code of Ethics, National Association of Real Estate Boards, Article 34," California Real Estate Magazine, June, 1939; Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton, American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), 33-37. 30 "Subdivision Trend Shows Lot Purchasers Demand Restriction," Sacramento Bee, April 13, 1928.

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California Trust & Savings Bank to a Clarence Bovey declared that “no Negro, Japanese or Chinese, or any person of African or Mongolian descent shall own or occupy any part of said premises.” The deed made it clear that these restrictions were needed “for the mutual benefit and advantage of all of the purchasers of lots in Heilbron Oaks, and are intended to enhance the value of such adjoining property and increase its desirability for residence purposes.” All restrictions were legally binding for the next twenty-five years dating from April 25, 1923. If residents violated any terms of the agreement, “the title to said property” reverted back to the previous owner.

The North Sacramento communities of Woodlake and Norwood Acres also had race restrictive covenants. An article from the Sacramento Bee in 1938 reported that the Hagginwood district, which had no restrictive covenants when it was first subdivided in 1911, attempted to enact them in 1939 when the Hagginwood Improvement Club sponsored a campaign to enact “building and racial restrictions” in the district. Presumably, increased Black migration into Del Paso Heights gave impetus to such efforts.31

Figure 7. Portion of a 1923 property deed containing a restrictive covenant (highlighted in yellow). Source:

Sacramento County Clerk-Recorder's office.

As a result of these discriminatory practices, even the city’s handful of educated professionals had few options outside the West End. For instance, Dr. Roscoe Brewer, the city’s first African American dentist, moved to Sacramento from Berkeley during the 1930s to establish his practice. Local realtors refused to show him vacancies in predominantly white sections in the city. Faced with no other option, Dr. Brewer’s eventually set up his practice on Seventh Street in the West End. This scenario became routine for Black Sacramentans.32

Federal housing policies also contributed to this pattern of racial segregation and discrimination. During the Great Depression, Sacramento was among the cities in the United

31 California Trust & Savings Bank to Clarence E. Bovey, Sacramento County Recorder’s Office, Deed Book, 200; ”North Sacramento Has Growth,” Sacramento Bee, September 1, 1938.
32 A Long Look Back: A Special Look at the History of Sacramento and the Black Citizens Who Played a Major Role in That History , ed. Terris McMahon (Sacramento, California: William H. Lee, 1973), 64.

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States that was mapped by the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC). Established in 1933 as a New Deal program to refinance mortgages and grant low-interest loans to prevent foreclosures, HOLC established an appraisal system for rating neighborhoods for their potential “security risk” when underwriting such loans.33 Among the factors considered were topographic features, the age and mix of the housing stock, and most crucially, the racial makeup of an area.

Those with homogenous attributes in many factors received higher ratings than racially/ ethnically mixed and mixed-residential-density areas. The resulting HOLC-produced, color- coded maps, with blue and green for newer, mainly single-family, and almost exclusively white neighborhoods, and yellow and red for older, multi-family, and racially and ethnically mixed communities, became the origin of the term “redlining.” HOLC’s appraisal system was adopted by another New Deal program, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which became the most important program for home ownership in the nation and helped to fuel the postwar suburban housing boom.34 Created by the National Housing Act of 1934, the FHA revolutionized home financing by providing mortgage insurance and other incentives that revived the nation’s construction industry, providing millions of Americans the opportunity to purchase homes, typically in new suburbs. Redlining denied residents in diverse, inner-city neighborhoods, such as the West End, access to credit and insurance that could be used to improve housing and economic opportunities for residents and contributed to a decline in the condition of these neighborhoods.35

In Sacramento, the Sacramento County Housing Authority identified the West End and the bordering Southside community – two neighborhoods with large African American, Mexican, and Asian populations – as having the city’s worst housing and living arrangements. The Housing Authority descriptions of these areas included wording such as “overcrowded;” “home is old and hazardous;” "poor sanitation facilities;” “house in need of major repairs;” "unfit for human habitation;” and “appearances and surroundings not conducive to decent living.” Indeed, a 1940 City Housing Authority report identified the worst block as located between 2nd and 3rd Streets, S and T Streets, an area that consisted of “mostly negroes and Mexicans.” The same document also mentioned that African Americans and Mexicans paid “excessive [rent] for [the] amount of accommodation.”36

33 SurveyLA, Los Angeles Citywide Historic Context Statement, Context: African American History of Los Angeles, 44. 34 SurveyLA, Los Angeles Citywide Historic Context Statement, Context: African American History of Los Angeles, 45. 35 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 159.
36 Sacramento County Housing Authority, "Report of Survey of Sub-Standard Dwellings in a Portion of the County of Sacramento Made to the Commissioners of the Housing Authority of the County of Sacramento by the Executive Director," ed. Sacramento County Housing Authority (Sacramento County Housing Authority, 1940).

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Figure 8. HOLC redlining map of Sacramento. The approximate location of the West End is outlined in black (1938). Source: Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America.

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SETTLEMENT OUTSIDE THE WEST END
While neighborhoods annexed into Sacramento in 1911 – such as Curtis Park, Land Park, and East Sacramento – remained effectively off-limits to African American settlement in the early 20th century, a few African Americans were able to find housing in unrestricted pockets outside the West End in the early 20th century. Oak Park and Del Paso Heights in particular gradually opened up to a handful of African American families, a precedent that would have enormous consequences on future patterns of Black settlement during World War II and beyond.

Despite the fact that many Oak Park properties contained restrictive covenants, they were not strictly enforced. In 1937, the HOLC survey noted that “deed restrictions have expired in sections of Oak Park and Highland Park.” For East Oak Park, HOLC surveyors interpreted the presence of several Black families living between Fifth and Eighth Streets on San Jose Way as evidence that “deed restrictions were not enforced” in that particular section, prompting “active resistance [from local white residents] to further infiltration of all subversive [nonwhite] elements.” Apparently, Oak Park whites failed to put up much resistance as the district saw more African Americans move into the area. Given the weak enforcement of restrictive covenants, it is no surprise that by the 1940s Oak Park had developed pockets of African American, Mexican American, and Japanese American settlement.37 The popular Black restauranteur, George Dunlap, and his family moved to a house at 4322 4th Avenue (extant) in Oak Park as early as 1906 but he was an exception. Other Black families trickled into the community throughout the 1920s and 1930s, but evidence suggests that their presence was unwelcome. Missouri Nash recalled her white neighbor’ apprehension when she and her husband began to build a house on an Oak Park lot they had purchased. Several years later, when her daughter attempted to buy the home across the street, the seller refused her. Nash later discovered that the sellers of the property included in their deed a clause prohibiting its sale to any nonwhites. When Gladys and Frank Canson tried to move to Oak Park in 1930, white realtors refused to sell to them. Both the Cansons and the white sellers of the property received several death threats.38

Although the Black community in Oak Park was small it was significant enough to support the founding of a Black church in the neighborhood in the first decades of the 20th century. In 1917, Reverend Thomas Allen Harvey established Sacramento’s third Black church, the African

37 "T-RACES: a Testbed for the Redlining Archives of California's Exclusionary Spaces,“ R. Marciano, D. Goldberg, C. Hou, http://t-races.net/T- RACES.
38 A Long Look Back, 64.

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Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, or Kyles Temple AME Zion at a building formerly occupied by an Episcopalian church at 36th Street and 4th Avenue in Oak Park.39

Still by 1940 Oak Park’s racial character remained mostly white due, in part, to the rapid assimilation of European immigrants. Several Mexican, Asian and African American families had either purchased or rented homes, but their small numbers were not enough to significantly alter the neighborhood ’s image as a largely white working-class enclave. Not until after the redevelopment of the West End in the 1950s and 1960s did Oak Park experience a significant influx of African Americans, accompanied by white flight.

Del Paso Heights, outside the city limits of
Sacramento until it was annexed into the city in
1964, was also largely unrestricted. Cheap land,
abundant space, and less housing discrimination
permitted several Black families to move into the
area by the early 1920s. This included Reverend
Hercules D. Benbow, who migrated to California
from Alabama in 1913, and became one of the first
Black residents in the district. When he first came to
Sacramento, Reverend Benbow found lodging in a
West End boardinghouse on Sixth Street and landed
a job as a server at the Sutter Club, an all-white
male restaurant across from the State Capitol
building that catered to lawmakers and the city ’s
elite. In 1922, after having saved up enough money,
Reverend Benbow bought several lots in Del Paso
Heights and hired a contractor to build a large
duplex at 3705 Maple Street (later Dry Creek Road). At the time, the Benbows were only one of a small number of Black families residing in the area, all of which lived near the Benbow property, amongst Native American, Latino, and white residents. As one of the few areas in Sacramento County where Blacks could live, more and more African American families relocated there.40

39 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 116. 40 Sacramento Ethnic Community Survey, "An Interview with Elizabeth Benbow Johnson Love," ed. Clarence Caesar (Sacramento: City of Sacramento, 1983).

Figure 9. Hercules Benbow with his wife and
child (ca. 1922). Photo courtesy of Elizabeth
Benbow Love.

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Some middle-class Black residents were able to find housing in other pockets outside the West End, either due to the lack of restrictive covenants or by asking white friends to purchase property and transfer it to them. Realtor L.N. Crawford and his wife Frances purchased a house at 2685 26th Street (extant) in an unrestricted area of Highland Park, to the west of Oak Park.41 By at least 1930, Alex Moore, owner of the Mo Mo Club, owned a house on 41st Street in the otherwise almost entirely white neighborhood of East Sacramento. According to conversations with local residents and census records, several Black families lived on the stretch of 41st Street between H Street and D Street as early as the 1930s. Due to the concentration of middle-class Black families in the area, the area gained the nickname “Sugar Hill,” possibly in reference to a middle-class Black neighborhood in Harlem, New York, where W.E.B. DuBois, Cab Calloway, and other famous Black individuals lived in the early 20th century.42 Another small enclave existed on 55th and 56th streets, north of Folsom Boulevard. The first known Black resident in this area was Reverend Amos Nash, who lived at 1356 56th Street (extant) from at least the 1920s through the 1940s. The Nash family reportedly invited members of their religious community to purchase lots in the area, resulting in a small concentration of Black homeowners in the area.43

Figure 10. L.N. and Frances Crawford (seated, second and third from the left), celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary at their house in Highland Park (ca. 1932). Source: Center for Sacramento History, Clarissa Hundley Wildy Collection, 2000/061/008.

41 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 70.
42 Conversation with Barbara Covington, conducted by Damany M. Fisher; United States Federal Census, 1930-1950, Ancestry.com. 43 Conversation with Dawn Basciano, conducted by Carson Anderson, March 3, 2023; United States Federal Census, 1920 -1950, Ancestry.com.

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Second Great Migration, 1940-1970
Between 1940 and 1960, corresponding to the national trends of the Second Great Migration, thousands of African Americans entered Sacramento in search of economic opportunity, better education, and to escape Jim Crow conditions in the South. Although it lagged far behind other West Coast cities, Black migration to Sacramento climbed dramatically during the 1940s with the onset of World War II. In the first few years of the decade, the Sacramento region experienced a decrease in population as employment opportunities in the San Francisco- Oakland Bay Area greatly expanded. The opening of defense jobs in other locales combined with military service obligations siphoned off a large portion of the white male labor force in Sacramento, therefore opening the door to greater employment opportunities for African Americans and women.44

The construction of McClellan Field (later Air Force Base) and Mather Army Air Base were the single most transformative events in reshaping Sacramento’s African American community in the middle decades of the 20th century. Combined with other military bases in the surrounding area, including the Sacramento Signal Depot, Camp Beale (now Beale Air Force Base), and Travis Army Air Base in Fairfield, the region’s military bases brought thousands of African Americans to the Sacramento area.45 Many settled in Del Paso Heights and North Highlands, which were just to the south of McClellan Air Force Base and were unrestricted to non-white residents, and parts of Rancho Cordova that were close to Mather Field.46

With its canneries, military bases, and various other plants, Sacramento experienced heightened labor demands to meet wartime production needs. Borrowing a strategy from the Kaiser shipyards, the Southern Pacific Railroad sent recruiters into the South to hire Black labor, promising free transportation and a “good job” once they arrived. In 1942, Matthew Flowers signed up with Southern Pacific and came to Sacramento on a train that included three full cars of Black men recruited in Houston, Texas, all of whom had been promised jobs in Sacramento.

After hearing of higher-paying jobs in the Bay Area shipyards, several left Sacramento shortly after their arrival. Mr. Flowers, meanwhile, found lodging in a rooming house in the West End and secured a job in the Southern Pacific shops working in a boiler room. Several weeks later, he saved up enough money to send for his wife and her son, Willie. “In the evenings, two or three times a week, train loads of black [sic] men from all over the South would come in at

44 Caesar, “An Historical Overview of the Development of Sacramento's Black Community, 148. 45 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 141-142. 46 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 21.

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Southern Pacific,” recalled Phelix Flowers, “Some of them came in overalls, bare-footed, their belongings in cotton sacks.”47

Wartime migration created acute housing shortages in Sacramento. This hit Black migrants especially hard, who had few options outside of the West End and Del Paso Heights. In 1940, the majority of African Americans in Sacramento still lived in the West End. The Second Great Migration only produced greater congestion and overcrowding in the area. Many residents who owned homes took in boarders. Sometimes, garages were converted into extra bedrooms.

Several boardinghouses, including the Lincoln Hotel, Senator Hotel, and the Berkshire provided temporary living quarters for Black workers and their families. In addition, the Negro Women’s Civic Improvement Center (NWCIC, simply WCIC at a later date) housed dozens of single Black women with no family ties to the Sacramento area.48 Like the Flowers family, the Reverend Shelly Williams, his wife Edna, and their five children traveled to Sacramento from Houston, Texas on a train operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad. Upon their arrival, they moved in with four family members who had already settled into a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment above Nardelli’s grocery store at 4th and P streets in the West End, bringing the number of family members living in one apartment to eleven.49

While the war sparked an increase in the African American population living in the West End, it shattered the lives of the area’s Japanese residents. The U.S. government’s decision to forcibly relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps during World War II devastated Sacramento’s Japanese community and institutions. Many were forced to sell their businesses and properties at prices far below their actual value. These tragic circumstances opened up opportunities to African Americans who took over former Japanese American homes and businesses in the West End. Examples of Black-owned businesses purchased from Japanese residents in the 1940s include A&J Liquors, owned by Louise Anderson, Ike Anderson, and Nitz Jackson; the Greenfront Poolroom at 315a Capitol Avenue, owned by Charles and Dorothy Boyd; and the Lincoln Hotel, owned by Oscar Williams. The Lincoln Hotel housed many Black migrants during the war and was one of the few hotels available to African Americans in the city.50

47 Abbott, The Metropolitan Frontier: Cities in the Modern American West, 19-20; A Long Look Back, 75. 48 Grace Carter-Douglas, "A Historical Study of the Women's Civic and Improvement Club," in The Griot: An Anthology of African Necromancers, ed. Grace Carter-Douglas (Sacramento: Rumble, 1988), 22. 49 Lois Evelyn (Williams) Brown, Historical Preservation – Sacramento History, September 29, 2022. Shiloh Baptist Church. 50 Caesar, 148; A Long Look Back, 39.

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The Second Great Migration fueled a surge in Black entrepreneurship, particularly in the West End. In 1944, Bennie Johnson purchased a three-story building at Fourth Street and Capitol Avenue, which she converted into three separate businesses—Twiggs Taxi Company, Twiggs Record Shop, and Twiggs Beauty Shop—that operated well into the 1950s. The following year, Bessie Whitney opened Bessie’s Place, a café on Fourth Street near Capitol. The café’s location was ideal because it was in a densely populated area near several “pool rooms, bars, cafes, and lots of places to get people to spend money.”51 The presence of Black military personnel at McClellan Air Force Base and Mather Air Force Base, to the north and east of Sacramento, respectively, and at Beale Air Force Base in nearby Marysville provided a steady flow of income that allowed these businesses to thrive. Officers and civilian employees in search of recreation and entertainment came to the West End.52

Capitol Avenue—the West End’s main thoroughfare—showcased several Black-owned establishments and others that catered to Black clientele. These included the Banks Café, Little Roma, the Congo Club, the Mo-Mo Club, The Stag Café, and Club Zanzibar. The Crystal Palace Hotel Building and Barbershop, near the corner of Sixth and Capitol, included fourteen rooms, a four-chair barbershop, a shoe repair service and cleaners. In 1951, the Crystal Palace was considered “the Capitol City’s largest Negro owned and operated enterprise.” Naturally, the concentration of bars and nightclubs attracted musicians as well. Vincent “Ted” Thompson, Harold Wiley, Douglas Greer, Dr. James Morris, Ray Jenkins, “Snuffy” Drake, Julius Harris, Dick Brown, Larry Burnett, George Walker, Walter Graham, John Herbert, and Edith Griffin were among the many Sacramento-based musicians who performed around the West End.53

POST-WORLD WAR II
In the postwar years, the African American community continued to increase. By 1950, the Black population had grown to 4,538, an over 200 percent increase from 1940; by 1960, it had climbed to 12,103, doubling in proportion from approximately three to six percent of Sacramento’s total population. Meanwhile, the county’s Black population (which still included Del Paso Heights and Glen Elder until they were annexed into Sacramento in the 1960s) stood at 19,805. Though small compared to other major urban centers in California, the Black population increased at a higher rate during the 1950s than the city’s white majority.54

51 "A Religious Pioneer: An Interview with Rev. Bessie Whitney," in A Long Look Back: A Special Look at the History of Sacramento and the Black Citizens Who Played a Major Role in That History, ed. Terris McMahon (Sacramento, California: William H. Lee, 1973), 59. 52 A Long Look Back, 76.
53 Stephen Magagnini, "Faint Echo of Jazz Mecca at Sixth and Capitol," Sacramento Bee, June 5, 2005. 54 United States Bureau of the Census, U.S. Census of Population and Housing: 1960 Census Tracts, Sacramento, California, (Washington D.C.:

Government Publishing Office, 1960).

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As these migrants soon discovered, Sacramento did not always live up to its reputation as a place of boundless opportunity. Local unions often excluded Black artisans. The most coveted jobs in state and local government were limited to only a few Blacks. Local manufacturing plants had few Black employees and typically confined them to menial roles.

TABLE 3: SACRAMENTO’S POPULATION FIGURES, 1950-1970
1950 1960 1970
African American and Black
Residents
4,538 12,103 27,247
Percent Change from Previous
Decade
209.13% 166.70% 125.13%
Total City Population 137,572 191,667 254,417
Percent of Total Population 3.30% 6.31% 10.71%
Source: U.S. Census, 1950-1980.55

Housing posed an even greater challenge. Despite the 1948 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelley v. Kraemer and Barrows v. Jackson in 1953 that determined racial restrictive covenants were not enforceable by law, residents of color continued to be excluded from some neighborhoods, including newly-constructed postwar subdivisions. Real estate agents steered them away, and homeowner associations and neighbors pressured homeowners on who to sell to or intimidated African American and Black residents.56 For instance, on January 21, 1944, homeowners in the Curtis Oaks subdivision circulated a “Declaration of Restrictions” that essentially reinforced earlier clauses regarding the exclusion of “any person of either Hindu, African, Japanese, Chinese, or Mongolian descent” from renting, leasing or owning property in the neighborhood. Probably owing to the increased presence of Black women, the declaration made an exception for “persons not of the Caucasian race…kept…by a Caucasian occupant, strictly in the capacity of servants or employees actually engaged in domestic service of the occupant, or in the care of the premises for the occupant.”57 Over 200 homeowners in the subdivision signed the document. Whereas earlier restrictive covenants included provisions

55 United States Bureau of the Census, Census of Population: 1950, Volume II: Characteristics of the Population (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1953); United States Bureau of the Census, Census of Population: 1960, Volume I: Characteristics of the Population (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1963); Census of Population and Housing: 1970 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1972).
56 SurveyLA, Los Angeles Citywide Historic Context Statement, Context: African American History of Los Angeles, 41-46. 57 Declaration of Restrictions, Curtis Oaks homeowners circulation, 1944.

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governing physical use of the property, this particular agreement seemed only concerned with the race of occupants in Curtis Oaks.58

Such efforts succeeded in making the process of buying a home a nightmare for African Americans. Consider the case of Virna Canson in the early 1950s. After inquiring about a listing on 58th Street, her real estate agent flatly refused to show her the house. The agent acknowledged the illegality of restrictive covenants but admitted to Canson that de facto enforcement of racial restrictions still remained in certain areas of the city. “It’s not the law, of course,” the agent told Canson, “but just sort of an agreement that Negroes won’t be sold property in a block where there are no other Negroes.” Canson’s experience was not unique.59

A distinct pattern of Black settlement began to take shape by the dawn of the 1950s. Although the West End continued to take in the majority of Black migrants, neighborhoods such as Del Paso Heights and to a lesser extent, Oak Park, became secondary sites for Black settlement. As in prewar times, realtors continued to play a major role in shaping Black residential patterns.

With more and more African Americans entering the city, however, racial steering intensified. “Any black who ventured from the confines of the lower end [West End] or Del Paso Heights, the Black areas, and attempted to purchase property was faced with much opposition,” said Dr.

Kenneth Johnson, one of Sacramento’s earliest African American physicians. “The strongest coming from Sacramento’s realtors.” In 1944, Freddie Martin had little choice but to buy a home in Oak Park. “The [white] realtor would take you to Del Paso Heights,” said Martin, “if that didn’t suit you, he would take you to Oak Park, and if that didn’t suit you, they had to see you later.” One of Martin’s friends had a similar experience. After showing a white realtor a house he wished to buy, the realtor advised him to “pick a block that had colored [people] living on it.”60

Arkansas native Carrie Murchison-Denson remembered a similar experience when she and her husband tried to move their family from Foresthill in Placer County to Sacramento in the 1950s.

Realtors told the family they only had houses available in Oak Park, Del Paso Heights, or certain parts of North Sacramento, or that they had no houses at all. Attracted by the clean, new homes and, above all, the number and quality of schools in the North Highlands neighborhood, the family sought housing in the area. Mrs. Murchison-Denson remembered having to change her voice on the phone to get the landlord to show her the property they eventually rented.

58 Tract Restrictions of Curtis Oaks to Joseph Korn, January 2, 1945, Page 346, Sacramento County Recorder’s Office. 59 Virna Canson, "The Hunt for a Home," The Progressive (1954): 18-20. 60 A Long Look Back, 78-82.

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When she arrived, the landlord increased the rent from its original price and only later lowered it back to its original price after a white neighbor complained. At the time, they were one of only a handful of Black families in the North Highlands area.61

With the influx of Black residents, Del Paso Heights developed into a vibrant community with a character all its own. Many of the Black families who settled in the neighborhood during World War II and shortly afterward relocated from the South for work at McClellan Air Force Base, located a few miles to the north. Residents who lived in “the Heights” remembered it as a wonderful place to live with its own thriving commercial area at the intersection of Grand Avenue, Rio Linda Boulevard, and Palmetto Street, and a strong sense of family and community pride, much of which centered around the neighborhood’s nearest high school, Grant Union High School. Del Paso Heights retained a bucolic, rural character through the 1950s and did not have sidewalks or streetlights through the middle of the 20th century. The area remained sparsely developed, and many residents had home gardens or raised livestock that they used to feed their families. Vacant or undeveloped land was used as farmland, and some residents raised and rode horses.62

In the years surrounding World War II, the growth and establishment of an increasing number of Black households in Del Paso Heights and North Sacramento was aided by established Black residents. In 1947, a group of local women founded the Good Neighbors Club to assist African American families who relocated to the area during and after the war. Later supported by and headquartered at Allen Chapel AME Church, the Good Neighbors Club became a linchpin of the Del Paso Heights community, offering a childcare program and other important services.63 The area’s first reported Black landlords were Bob and Versie Robinson, who offered apartments to rent to Black residents.64 Some residents purchased property and built their own houses on the land. By the 1970s, Black individuals with professional careers in the construction industry contributed to the residential development of the Del Paso Heights and North Sacramento neighborhoods. Scott Hall, owner of Hallcraft Construction Company, and real estate broker C.B. Frazier, built homes in the area, including 1857 Grand Avenue (extant). Frazier’s firm was located in the main commercial center of Del Paso Heights at 921 Grand Avenue.65 Ernest Lee Black left his mark on residential development in Sacramento, as well. Born in Oklahoma, he

61 Carrie Murchison-Denson, interview by Ashlee Green [transcription] at 6324 Long Dale Drive, North Highlands, CA, January 2, 2023, African American Experience History Project, City of Sacramento Community Development Department. 62 Del Paso Heights & Hagginwood: Our Roots, People, Places, and Memories (Undated and Unpublished). 63 Sheila Roundtree and Joyce Burney Askia, North Sacramento/DPH Community Meeting, March 10, 2023, notes taken by Carson Anderson, City of Sacramento.
64 Del Paso Heights & Hagginwood: Our Roots, People, Places, and Memories (Undated and Unpublished). 65 "North Area Homes On Display," Sacramento Bee, 18 May 1980.

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moved to Pasadena in 1948, where he joined the
Carpenters Union. In 1951, Black moved to
Sacramento and built a home for himself in Del Paso
Heights. Almost 20 years later, in 1970, he became
one of Sacramento's first licensed African American
general contractors. Over the course of his career,
Black built federally subsidized homes for the
Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, as
well as custom homes in Del Paso Heights and West
Sacramento, ultimately constructing more than 1,000
homes and a 38-unit apartment complex. He retired
in 1985.66

In spite of the overall pattern of steering residents of color to older neighborhoods, there were some
exceptions. A small enclave of African American
households appeared in the South Land Park Hills
neighborhood during the late 1960s, west of South
Land Park Drive in the vicinity of Volz Drive and
Warren Avenue.92 Most notably, on September 29th,
1954, the Sacramento Bee reported that the
Sacramento County Board of Supervisors approved the construction of a new subdivision on the northwest corner of Elder Creek Road and Power Inn Road called “Glen Elder.” The article quoted the Sacramento County Engineer, Arthur L. Kiefer, who told the board that the new community was “for Negroes only, first of its kind in the county.”67 The next day, Kiefer issued a correction to this statement, claiming that his office had been ”misinformed.” Rather than being for ”Negroes only,” Kiefer said that the builders of the tract, Sun River Homes, Inc., insisted that homes in Glen Elder would be sold to ”all qualified veterans or non-veterans.“ George W. Artz, the President of Sun River Homes, called Glen Elder a ”pioneer“ subdivision in south Sacramento, no doubt in reference to the sea of all-white suburbs surrounding it.68 In fact, advertisements for Glen Elder emphasized that it was an ”unrestricted” community. Artz was sincere in his efforts to make Glen Elder the county’s first integrated suburb. In 1955, he proudly boasted that Glen Elder was "70 percent Negro and 30 percent other races” and that

66 “Ernest Black Was Longtime Home Builder in Region," Sacramento Bee, 9 June 2012. 67 “Subdivision is Set for Negroes Only,” Sacramento Bee, 29 September 1954: 21. 68 ”Kiefer Corrects Statement on Glen Elder Tract,” Sacramento Bee. 30 September 1954: 29.

Figure 11. Ernest Lee Black. Source:
“Ernest Black Was Longtime Home Builder
in Region," Sacramento Bee, 9 June 2012.

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"gradual steps like this could lead to genuine integration throughout the county.”69 If Artz’s goal was to create an integrated community, it proved far too utopian for Sacramento in the 1950s.

Despite his efforts, Glen Elder was a predominately Black neighborhood by the 1960s and hardly resembled an integrated neighborhood.

Glen Elder represented one of the few postwar suburbs open to Black occupancy. The vast majority of new subdivisions in Sacramento County built after World War II followed a strict policy of excluding African Americans. Government policy, in fact, encouraged this form of residential segregation. The FHA and VA continued to support race restrictive covenants even for at least another decade after the 1948 Shelley v. Kraemer Supreme Court decision.70 As they did elsewhere, FHA- and VA-insured subdivisions throughout Sacramento County usually contained restrictive clauses in their deeds or contract.71

URBAN REDEVELOPMENT
Another contributor to the residential segregation of African Americans in Sacramento was the redevelopment of the West End. For years, the West End had been excoriated by city officials as a slum due to the large amount of substandard housing, old commercial buildings, and ethnically diverse population. In 1945, the California state legislature passed the California Redevelopment Act to provide state funds for local improvement projects. The Act allowed cities to acquire property deemed blighted, clear it, and sell or lease it to a private developer to create new uses that complied with the community’s general plan and remained in the public interest.72

Sacramento was at the forefront of redevelopment efforts in California. In 1954, the Sacramento City Council voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution authorizing the Sacramento Redevelopment Agency (SRA) to issue its own bonds to subsidize the so-called “Capitol Mall Project” that would cut right through the heart of the West End. The ceremonial demolition of an old Victorian home at 526 Capitol Avenue in January 1957 initiated the first

69 ”Winners of Glen Elder’s Garden Contest Are Named,” Sacramento Bee, 29 October 1955: 62. 70 Rothstein, The Color of Law, 85-91.
71 Kenneth T. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 190-218; Andrew Wiese, Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 94-109; David M. P. Freund, Colored Property: State Policy and White Racial Politics in Suburban America (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2010), 99-139, 176-242.
72 Page & Turnbull, “Capitol Towers National Register of Historic Places Registration Form,” 2014, 8.19.

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phase of the Capitol Mall Project. By the end of 1961, all buildings located within the fifteen- block project area had been razed.73

The demolition of the West End had enormous consequences for all people living in the area. It eviscerated Sacramento’s Japan Town (one of the then-largest on the West Coast), and although African Americans made up a minority within the project zone, redevelopment struck an especially devastating blow to Black-owned businesses, homes, and institutions. Black business owners in the West End often faced financial ruin following confiscation of their property. Many just could not afford the costs of relocation. Though they claimed otherwise, the SRA typically failed to adequately compensate West End property owners for losses incurred by relocation.

Ted Thompson, who opened his mortuary at Seventh and N Streets in 1948, was forced to move his business to Oak Park in 1957 after the SRA used eminent domain to acquire his property. The state placed certain types of businesses in different categories where, instead of receiving market value, property owners were to receive “real value” established by the cost of replacement. But Thompson and countless others never received “placement in kind” for their properties. Thompson, acknowledged as one of the most successful Black entrepreneurs in the city, estimated that it took him 18 years following relocation to regain all the assets of his original business. But Thompson was fortunate compared to others who could not afford to reestablish new businesses elsewhere.

The SRA’s utter and racist disregard for displaced residents and haphazard relocation process (which was not unique to Sacramento) had profound negative consequences.74 “Where we failed,” said attorney Nathaniel Colley, “and where the [SRA] failed is in trying to provide for the integration of these people who were removed from the community…and…instead of integrating them into the community, they just disbursed them to Glen Elder, Del Paso Heights, and Oak Park, to create new slums.”75 That same sentiment was shared by many others, including Ted Thompson, who compared the SRA’s relocation of Black families to “moving checkers on a checkerboard.” Oak Park, Del Paso Heights, and Glen Elder, “were only three main directions [the SRA] were sending Blacks” from the West End.76

73 Brian Roberts, "Redevelopment at the Crossroads: How Sacramento Chose between Priorities in the 1950s," Golden Notes 35, no. 2 (1989): 7-

10. 74 Charles Abrams, Forbidden Neighbors: A Study of Prejudice in Housing (New York: Harper, 1955). 75 Sacramento Ethnic Communities Survey, "An Interview with Nathaniel Colley, Esq," 16-17. 76 Sacramento Ethnic Communities Survey, "An Interview with Vincent "Ted" Thompson." Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

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ANNEXATION OF NORTH & SOUTH SACRAMENTO
By the dawn of the 1960s, the combination of redevelopment, restrictive covenants, and government policy contributed to the continued residential segregation of African Americans in Sacramento, this time in subdivisions outside the West End. During the decade, Sacramento gained 7,565 African Americans, from 4,538 to 12,103. In 1950, the greatest concentration of African Americans in the city had been located in a section of the West End where Blacks made roughly a quarter of the population. By 1960, this distinction had been transferred to Oak Park, which experienced a net gain of 2,832 Blacks, roughly 74 percent of the 3,824 African Americans added to the city’s Black population during the decade. Census Tract 28 in Oak Park, for example, increased its Black percentage from 6.8 to 42.7 percent.77As a result of redevelopment, between 1950 and 1970, the non-white population of Oak Park increased seven-fold, while the Black population increased nine-fold. The neighborhood’s overall population, however, declined by a third, reflecting the flight of white residents from the area.

As a result, by the 1970s, Oak Park had become a neighborhood of primarily non-white residents.78

A large proportion of the increase in Sacramento’s African American population came from the annexation of several subdivisions south, east, and north of the city in the 1950s and 1960s. In Del Paso Heights, which was annexed into the city in 1964, the Black population rose by 250%, from 1,160 in 1950 to 4,060 in 1960. The increase in residents of color and coinciding exodus of white residents to newer subdivisions to the east, such as Carmichael, transformed Del Paso Heights into a primarily non-white neighborhood by the 1960s.79 Glen Elder, meanwhile, was annexed into the city in the 1950s. In spite of being designed as an integrated subdivision, the neighborhood had become a predominantly Black subdivision by 1960 with a total of 1,974 African Americans. Census Tract 48 in Glen Elder recorded the highest percentage of Blacks (78 percent) than any other tract in the county. Altogether Oak Park, Del Paso Heights, and Glen Elder accounted for approximately half of African Americans in the Sacramento Metropolitan Area.80

77 Leonard D. Cain, Housing Discrimination in Metropolitan Sacramento (Sacramento, CA: Sacramento Committee for Fair Housing, 1961), 2-4. 78 William Burg, Sacramento Renaissance (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2013), 41. 79 Pauline Bartolone, "North Sacramento Was Annexed Decades Ago. Some Residents Say the City has Long Neglected It," CapRadio.or g, 9 August 2022, accessed March 14, 2023, https://www.capradio.org/articles/2022/08/09/north-sacramento-was-annexed-decades-ago-some- residents-say-the-city-has-long-neglected-it/.
80 United States Bureau of the Census, U.S. Census of Population and Housing: 1960 Census Tracts, Sacramento, California, (D.C. Washington:

Government Publishing Office, 1960); Cain, Housing Discrimination in Metropolitan Sacramento, 3-4.

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Figure 12. Map showing the history of annexations into Sacramento. Source: City of Sacramento. Edited by Page & Turnbull.

Glen Elder
Meadowview
Oak Park
Del Paso
Heights
North
Sacramento
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The flight of white residents and annexation into the City of Sacramento contributed to the deterioration of thriving integrated communities in many of Sacramento’s northern neighborhoods. Prior to annexation in the 1960s, the neighborhoods of Del Paso Heights, Northgate, Gardenland, Natomas, Robla, and Hagginwood were unincorporated communities that fell under the jurisdiction of Sacramento County for taxation and public services. North Sacramento was a separate sovereign city with its own city council, police force, and fire department that were dedicated solely to providing for the needs of its own residents. While the City of Sacramento had promised that annexation of these northern communities would bring improved water quality and police protection, as well as an increase in customers for area businesses, in reality, annexation was “a disaster” for many residents.81 With annexation, Sacramento’s northern communities became part of District 2, one of several districts governed by the Sacramento City Council. The loss of local government focus left the city’s northern communities neglected and led to a long spiral of declining living conditions in the formerly tight-knit communities that corresponded with the departure of white residents. As white residents fled the area in the 1960s, so did many of the businesses along Del Paso Boulevard and the intersection of Grand Avenue and Rio Linda Boulevard. Attention from City government officials declined, as well as access to services and resources. Incomes, home values, and homeowner occupancy declined rapidly in the decades following annexation. According to resident Bob Slobe, “[annexation] just let the potholes grow and let the poverty rise and the crime rate rise. … It was a place for the City of Sacramento to put everything bad.”82 A major flood in the winter of 1986 further transformed the communities of northern Sacramento.

Flooding of Arcade Creek extensively damaged nearly 250 houses in the Strawberry Manor neighborhood and additional houses in nearby Richardson Village.83 Tracts in the neighborhoods had been marketed to residents, many of whom were Black, without disclosing the area’s flood hazards and without developers completing necessary flood mitigation measures. The flooding elicited minimal response from local officials. As a result, many households in the area suffered major economic losses, as the country inched toward recession in the early 1990s.84

Sacramento’s southern neighborhoods and communities experienced a similar period of rise and decline in the latter half of the 20th century as a result of white flight and misguided or misused government policies. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Sacramento’s Black population

81 Bartolone, "North Sacramento Was Annexed Decades Ago.” 82 Bartolone, "North Sacramento Was Annexed Decades Ago.” 83 Jim Sanders, “Project Repairs Homes, Hopes,” Sacramento Bee, 6 September 1986. 84 Carson Anderson, “Notes from March 10 Community Meeting (North Sacramento-DPH),” email to Clare Flynn, March 14, 2023.

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expanded into south Sacramento suburbs. The area that saw the largest spike in Black residency was Meadowview. Meadowview’s development began in the mid-1950s, extending from Freeport Boulevard to Twenty-fourth Street and from Florin Road to an area south of Meadowview Road. Meadowview offered middle-class Sacramentans an affordable single- family home. In 1957, one three-bedroom home in the Meadowview Terrace subdivision cost only $13,000.00. The Carella Gardens subdivision advertised three-bedroom homes for only $98 move-in cost and payments that cost “less than rent.” In addition to having affordable homes, Meadowview also offered a lot of new amenities that attracted homebuyers such as new schools, recreation, and a shopping district on the corner of Twenty-Fourth Street and Meadowview Road. A community study of Meadowview from 1965 stated that Meadowview lacked any “deficiencies.”85

For a brief period in the 1960s, Meadowview appeared to some observers as a model for racial integration in the city. In 1968, the Sacramento Observer, a Black-owned newspaper, included Meadowview as part of the “Successfully Integrated South Area.” “If one were to drive down a street in the [South Area]…he would experience a scene of Black and white children playing together in the streets, and Black and white adults talking with each other in the yard or doorway,” the article stated. The article explained that for the “past four or five years a substantial number of Black citizens” moved to the area due primarily to three factors: first, many of these Black newcomers were educated and working professionals who could afford to purchase homes; second, places like Meadowview, unlike many other postwar suburbs in Sacramento, did not restrict Blacks from buying homes in the area; finally, Meadowview had a surplus of “FHA and VA resales” available to anyone who could afford them regardless of race.

The combination of civil rights laws and the evolution of the south area’s housing market opened up previously all-white neighborhoods in Meadowview to African Americans. “Consequently,” the article continued, “when black citizens relocated in Sacramento, or moved into Sacramento from some other area, they, or many of them selected the South area. They have located in areas which have been traditionally closed to them solely because of the color of their skin.”86 For African Americans who had been systematically excluded from much of Sacramento’s housing market, Meadowview offered them their piece of the American Dream.

Unfortunately, whatever degree of optimism surrounding Meadowview began to wane by the early 1970s as the area began to deteriorate. Several factors explain this transition. First, Meadowview suffered from overdevelopment and competition from other suburbs. Developers

85 Sacramento City Planning Commission, “A Community Plan for Meadowview,” November 1985. 86 “The Successfully Integrated South Area, Sacramento Observer, November 14, 1968.

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built more homes in the area than they could actually sell. The availability of homes attracted many renters who were eager to gain access to comfortable single-family homes. Other developers sought to take advantage of Meadowview’s burgeoning rental market by building apartment complexes.87

Meanwhile, fair housing legislation designed to stem divestment in urban communities like Meadowview actually had the opposite effect. For example, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 made federal programs, particularly FHA/VA financing, more accessible to inner-city communities like Oak Park, Del Paso Heights, Glen Elder, and Meadowview. The rationale behind the legislation was to remove barriers to these federal programs and increase homeownership among low- income communities. But what was presented as a positive development in the fight against poverty made the situation in urban communities worse in numerous ways. First, it enabled unscrupulous mortgage companies and real estate speculators to take advantage of loopholes in the legislation that allowed them to profit from poor communities that now qualified for FHA- insured and VA-guaranteed loans. Because there was essentially no risk involved, mortgage companies frequently issued loans to low-income families who could not afford them, thus leading to foreclosure. Speculators often purchased properties that had been foreclosed or that were on the verge of foreclosure. Such properties were given “cosmetic” repairs in order to meet FHA standards, and then sold at a higher price to prospective homebuyers. In historically redlined communities like Oak Park and Del Paso Heights, this cycle resulted in high numbers of foreclosures and abandoned properties during the 1970s.88

Another policy that exacerbated conditions in Meadowview was Section 235 of the Federal Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968. This law sought to encourage homeownership among low-income Americans by subsidizing down payments and monthly mortgage payments. However, many of the homes sold to Section 235 eligible buyers were FHA repossessions that had been vacant and in disrepair. Many of these new homeowners did not possess the financial resources to make necessary repairs or improvements to the property. By 1974, more than half of the housing sold under Section 235 in Meadowview had been foreclosed.89

87 William E. Mahan, “Rebirth of a Community: Meadowview,” (September 2006), 9. 88 D.W. Urquidi, Daniel Leighton, and Burt Hubbard, Speculation in Redlined Areas: Investigation into Relationship between Redlining and Housing Speculation (Los Angeles, CA: California State University, Los Angeles, 1977). 89 Mahan, “Rebirth of a Community,” 9-10.

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The combination of Black in-migration and the problems created by overdevelopment and speculation only hastened the departure of white residents from the area. One Meadowview resident, Deborah Gibson, moved to a street in Meadowview in 1976 that only had three Black families. Shortly thereafter, she recalled white neighbors moving out in droves. “Now we can’t sell our house for what it’s worth,” she lamented. This pattern—commonly referred to as “white flight”—further drained Meadowview, and other multi-ethnic neighborhoods such as Oak Park and Del Paso Heights, of resources and capital and contributed to what one Sacramento Bee reporter described as a “bleak vision of urban despair.” Many properties in Meadowview fell in the hands of absentee landlords eager to take advantage of cheap properties that they, in turn, rented to low-income residents.90

In spite of the many trials and barriers in their way, many Black individuals and families experienced growing prosperity in the latter decades of the 20th century. By 1980, Sacramento County boasted a substantial educated Black middle and upper-middle class. Many African Americans found employment with state agencies and local military installations. State figures showed that 2,895, or 7.7 percent, of the 37,598 state employees in the county were African American. According to the 1980 Census, 9.7 percent—or 1,400 of Sacramento County’s 14,476 Black families—earned at least $35,000 a year. About 2.8 percent—or 400 Black families— earned a minimum of $50,000. These figures were commensurate with statewide income statistics where eleven percent of the state’s Black families made at least $35,000 annually, while three percent earned a minimum of $50,000. At the same time, more African Americans with economic mobility began trickling into predominately all-white enclaves like Fair Oaks, Carmichael, and Greenhaven.91

90 Mahan, “Rebirth of a Community,” 11.
91 Hilary Abramson, "A Long Road to Racial Equality," Sacramento Bee, December 11, 1983; Hilary Abramson, "Black Couple Chases American Dream in White Fair Oaks," Sacramento Bee, December 15, 1983.

Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

Photograph: Palmer Pinkney in front of his business, The Stag Café, Billiard Parlor, and Liquor Store. Source:

Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

BUSINESSES & COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Circa 1839-1980

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THEME: AFRICAN AMERICAN BUSINESSES AND COMMERCIAL
DEVELOPMENT IN SACRAMENTO, CA. 1839-1980
Black Sacramentans contributed to the city’s economy and commercial development since the 1850s both as workers and by founding their own businesses. Racial discrimination limited the types of jobs available to African Americans, as well as their ability to purchase property to establish businesses, depressing their economic growth, both collectively and individually. In spite of these challenges, clusters of Black-owned businesses developed in the West End prior to its redevelopment in the 1950s and in the later decades of the 20th century, in larger numbers in neighborhoods outside the Central City.

Pre-World War II, ca. 1839-1940

LABOR & EMPLOYMENT
With the lack of a permanent non-indigenous settlement in the area until the mid-19th century the commercial activity of individuals of all races and ethnicities who came to the Sacramento region from the early 19th century to the Gold Rush
was primarily of a speculative, transient nature. Like
white men during this period, Black individuals,
most of whom were young men, sought wealth
from the abundant natural and mineral resources
that the Sacramento Valley and surrounding area
offered. In the early 19th century, several young
Black men reportedly came to the region as fur
trappers. Documented examples include Peter
Ranne (alternately spelled Rannee or Raney), who
was hired by frontiersman Jedediah Smith to join
his beaver trapping expeditions on the
Buenaventura (Sacramento), American, and
Klamath rivers in 1827 and 1828, respectively.

Another Black fur trapper and entrepreneur named
James P. Beckwourth made several trips to the
Sacramento area in 1850 and 1851, using Native
American trails through the Sierra Nevada
mountains. One of these trails became known as
Beckwourth Pass and was later used by Euro-
American settlers traveling to California. Born in
Virginia in 1800 to an enslaved woman and English
Figure 13. James P. Beckwourth (1860). Source:

History Colorado Collection.

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white man, he was apprenticed as a blacksmith and hired out as a hunter during his youth, before joining his first fur trapping expedition in 1824. Over the course of his life, Beckwourth traveled throughout the West and was adopted as a member of the Crow Indians. He served as an explorer, fur trapper, guide, and interpreter before his death in 1866. Due to the nature of their work, these men did not establish permanent business establishments in the area, but instead passed through on individual ventures before moving on to the next opportunity.

According to articles written in the 1930s, Sacramento’s first Black resident was a skilled cooper, who was recruited by John Sutter during a trip to Monterey in 1841 to work at Sutter’s Fort, the first permanent, non-indigenous settlement in the area. The cooper produced barrels, casks, buckets, tubs, and other containers and tools made from heated or steamed wood.

Reliable sources of information about the cooper are limited and little is known about his life and identity, including his name. Nevertheless, he provided an invaluable service to the early occupants of Sutter’s Fort.92

After the discovery of gold in the foothills to the east of Sacramento in 1848, more Black men came to Sacramento as miners in search of gold. These men arrived both freely, hoping to find personal wealth in the goldfields, and involuntarily, brought by their white enslavers to work the mines.93 Some of these men decided to permanently settle in Sacramento after the initial fervor of the Gold Rush had passed and opened permanent business establishments in the fledgling city. The majority of Black men recorded in the 1850 census worked as washermen, with six of the 14 men listed as working in the laundering, cleaning, and dyeing services. One man, J.H. Sands, worked as a coffee burner. Others worked as skilled craftsmen or provided important services to the miners passing through Sacramento, as well as the city’s early residents. Of the 19 Black individuals included in the census, only five were women. No occupation was listed for them, except for one woman, Deianira Paullin, a native of Mexico who worked in a billiard saloon.94

Among those who settled in Sacramento were Daniel Blue, who used the fortune he amassed mining on the Sacramento River to open a laundry and later became a key founding member of the first African American church on the West Coast, St. Andrews AME Church.95 Nelson Ray also initially arrived in Sacramento as a miner but took a different path to personal wealth. In 1852, he was taken from Missouri to California by his enslaver’s brother to mine for gold. Ray used the money he earned to purchase his freedom, as well as that of his wife and three

92 Clarence Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” master’s thesis, California State University, Sacramento, 1985.
93 Asal Ehsanipour, "How the Founder of California's First Black Church Fought its Last Known Slavery Case," KQED, February 25, 2022, accessed July 6, 2022, https://www.kqed.org/news/11818409/how-the-founder-of-californias-first-Black-church-fought-its-last-known-slavery-case. 94 1850 United States Federal Census, Sacramento, California, Ancestry.com. 95 Ehsanipour, "How the Founder of California's First Black Church Fought its Last Known Slavery Case," KQED, February 25, 2022.

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daughters. He also purchased property in Placerville, which he rented as a source of income.

After the buildings burned down, he moved to Sacramento and supported his family working as a carpenter and blacksmith, skills he had acquired during his captivity in Missouri. His son, Francis Marion Ray, followed his father into the same professions.96

The diversity of occupations held by Black residents increased in the decades following the Gold Rush; however, available job opportunities were extremely limited through the mid-20th century, due to racist hiring practices that prevented Black men and women from working in many of the fields of their choice. Many business owners refused to hire Black workers regardless of their skills, educational
background, or other qualifications.

As a result, most African American residents
of working age were constrained to low
paying, low-skill positions in the service and
hospitality industries or building trades.97
Census records taken between 1860 and
1870 show that the most common positions
held by African American men during these
years included porters, laborers, cooks,
barbers, and stewards, with a smaller
number working as blacksmiths,
whitewashers, bricklayers, carpenters, and
other similar positions. A small handful of
men operated bars, saloons, or hotels,
notably including Charles Hackett and
Charles Parker, who operated Hackett
House, one of the earliest documented
Black-owned hotels in Sacramento. Historic
photographs indicate that some men were
able to find work with the Southern Pacific
Railroad. Most women over school age took
care of the home. A few worked as
domestic servants, and a smaller number
worked as laundresses, washers, or ironers. One woman, M.L. Givens, was a tailor.98

96 Clarissa Hundley Wildy, “Mend A Broken Chain: The Story of My Grandfather,” Dissertation, University of Hawaii, 1973, 34, 113-115. 97 Damany M. Fisher, “Far From Utopia: Race, Housing, and the Fight to End Residential Segregation in Sacramento, 1900 -1980,” PhD diss.

University of California, Berkeley, 2008, 13-15.
98 1860 and 1870 United States Federal Census, Sacramento, California, Ancestry.com.

Figure 14. An African American worker at the Southern
Pacific Railroad’s shops in Sacramento. Source: Center for Sacramento History.

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Service-oriented jobs were the most common among Sacramento’s African American residents into the early 20th century, with some exceptions. A small number of professionals established careers in Sacramento in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Two men, William Ellis and J.S. Potter, were listed as physicians in the 1860 and 1870 censuses, respectively, perhaps the first Black medical professionals in Sacramento’s history. One man, Carl C. Finckler, a mixed-race immigrant from Germany, worked as a secretary to the California Supreme Court in 1870. In the late 19th century, Robert J. Fletcher, captain of the Black militia and civic organization the Sacramento Zouaves, was a highly regarded podiatrist who served as the personal nurse for Lieutenant Governor Spencer Millard in 1895.99 Sarah Mildred Jones was one of the first teachers of African American descent in Sacramento. A graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio, she was appointed principal of the racially integrated Fremont School in 1894. She continued to

99 William Burg, "From Civil War to Civil Rights: Black Sacramento in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century,” The Metropole, accessed August 25, 2022, https://themetropole.blog/2018/04/09/from-the-civil-war-to-civil-rights-Black-sacramento-in-the-late-19th-and-early-20th-century/.

Figure 15. Sarah Mildred Jones (ca. 1914). Source:

Center for Sacramento History, Clarissa Hundley
Wildy Collection, 2000/061/040.

Figure 16. Anne Virginia Coker's graduation photo
from UC Berkley's Boalt Hall (1929). Source:

Stephens Family papers, African American Museum
and Library at Oakland.

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serve as principal until her retirement in 1914.100 In the 1930s, Dr. Roscoe Brewer opened a dental practice in the West End at 1519 7th Street. Many of his patients consisted of Portuguese immigrants who he served pro bono.101 The first known Black attorney in Sacramento was named Anne Virginia Coker, who received her Juris Doctorate degree from the University of California, Berkeley’s Boalt School of Law and became the first Black woman admitted to the California State Bar in 1929. After leading a private law practice in Virginia for ten years, she moved to Sacramento, where she worked for the State Office of Legislative Counsel from 1939 until her retirement in 1973.102

While Black individuals generally were barred from white collar positions and jobs with the fire department and police force, some found work in lower-level municipal and civil service positions. In the 1920s, a new career path opened after sanitation workers, most of whom worked for private companies and were of Italian descent, went on strike in 1921. The City of Sacramento responded by establishing a municipal sanitation force. Spearheaded by the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the City instituted an unwritten policy of hiring African American workers to fill sanitation positions.103 Black individuals who filled these positions effectively became the City’s first Black employees.104 Although the work was hard and low-paying, sanitation positions became the most coveted jobs by African American residents, because they offered regular, steady employment, wages, and benefits, allowing Black men to earn more money than any other positions available to them at the time and increase their financial and social standing. As a result, sanitation jobs came to symbolize the possibility of upward mobility and were viewed as positions of honor.105 Some of the men who held these positions were highly educated individuals with college degrees, reflecting the degree to which discriminatory practices prevented Black men and women from obtaining jobs in fields for which they were well trained and educated. In addition to these City sanitation positions, some Black residents were able to find employment with large organizations such as the U.S Postal Service and the Southern Pacific Railroad as their hiring practices changed. In addition to City sanitation positions, these became the most prestigious jobs among members of the local African American community.106

100 Burg, "From the Civil War to Civil Rights.”
101 Fisher, “Far from Utopia,” 26; Wildy, “Mend a Broken Chain,” 122. 102 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 133. 103 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 17. 104 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 129-132. 105 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 18-19.
106 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 129-130.

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BLACK BUSINESSES AND COMMERCIAL AREAS
Despite numerous social and economic barriers placed in front of them, Black men and women founded businesses of their own that contributed to the vitality and diversification of Sacramento’s economy as the city grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this period, the majority of Black-owned businesses were small and located in the West End neighborhood, where the largest number of Sacramento’s African American residents lived and worked. The West End contained Sacramento’s primary commercial streets along J and K Streets and Capitol Avenue. Businesses owned by white, Black, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, and other ethnic groups clustered around these streets. A Chinatown was located around I and 3rd streets, directly to the south of the Southern Pacific Railroad depot. Among the Black businesses in the West End in the early 20th century were O ’Riley’s Shoe Repair Shop (not listed in city directories), Taylor Walker’s Barber Shop at 10th and J streets, Frank Canson’s Safeway Cleaners at 1108 5th Street, and O.A. Johnson’s Palace Laundry at 1300 R Street.107 All of these businesses were demolished during redevelopment of the West End in the 1950s and 1960s.

Due to the small size and limited economic power of the African American community until World War II, Black-owned businesses survived through their resilience, pragmatism, ability to adapt, and by cultivating relationships with other minority groups.108 Black businesses faced strong competition from white- and minority-owned businesses. Without a large enough African American community to independently support Black-owned businesses on its own, many Black businesses were forced to cater exclusively to white clientele in order to survive or risk losing white customers. A barber shop owned by Taylor Walker at 1008 7th Street, for instance, served only white customers and employed an all-white staff, in spite of being owned by a Black man.109 Meanwhile, because African American individuals were typically refused service at white-run establishments, they often patronized businesses owned by other minority groups rather than Black-owned businesses. Commercial relationships between racial and ethnic minority groups also extended to medical establishments. Due to the poor treatment they received at white-run hospitals, African American residents frequently sought medical treatment at hospitals operated by Japanese individuals.110

107 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 135. 108 Burg, "From the Civil War to Civil Rights.”
109 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 15.
110 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 11-12.

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Figure 17. Fire insurance map of the block between J, I, 4th, and 5th streets in 1895, showing a concentration of Chinese businesses on I Street and mixture of businesses in the West End. Source: Library of Congress. Edited by Page & Turnbull.

I Street
J Street
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Outside of the West End, prior to the 1950s, a
small number of Black-owned businesses were
scattered in other pockets of the city where
African American residents were able to find
housing. Successful restauranteur George
Dunlap moved to a house (still extant at 4322 4th
Avenue) in Oak Park in 1906 as the
neighborhood was being developed. Dunlap
initially learned his trade as a professional chef
while working as a cook on Southern Pacific
Railroad dining cars. As his career progressed, he
opened several restaurants in Sacramento,
including one on the ground floor of the Capital
Hotel at 6th and K streets, a dining car service for
the Sacramento Northern Railway and Suisun
Bay ferry, the Ramon. Another of his businesses
was a diner at the State Fairgrounds off Stockton
Boulevard that operated for 34 years and served
an average of 3,000 guests per day.

In 1930, he opened Dunlap’s Dining Room out of
his house in Oak Park. The restaurant was highly
regarded for its Southern-style cooking and
hospitality and became a popular dining destination for Sacramento’s political and social elite, serving between 50 and 300 guests per day. Guests included governors, legislators, judges, and other federal, state, and city officials. Although Black patrons were allowed to dine at the restaurant any day of the week, the customers were primarily white, and Black patrons often felt unwelcome except on Monday nights, which were specifically set aside for them. The restaurant remained prominent in Sacramento’s dining scene until it closed in 1968.111

111 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 45; “Colorfornia Visits California’s Capitol City,” Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

Figure 18. Advertisement for the opening of
Dunlap's Dining Room at the Capital Hotel in 1920.

Source: Sacramento Bee, 15 May 1920.

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Figure 19. George Dunlap, cooking at his restaurant Dunlap’s Dining Room (1952).

Source: Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

Figure 20. Employees waiting for customers inside Dunlap’s Dining Room (1952). Source:

Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

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World War II and Postwar Period, ca. 1940-1980

LABOR & EMPLOYMENT
Hundreds of thousands of African American men and women relocated to California during World War II and in the years immediately following. As part of the Second Great Migration, they were attracted by the prospect of steady, lucrative job opportunities in defense-related fields and nearby military bases. After the war, Sacramento’s easy-going lifestyle and its better- than-average economic opportunities for skilled African Americans convinced many Black servicemen to permanently settle in the city. By 1950, more than 250,000 Black men and women had moved to the state. Sacramento received the fifth-most number of Black migrants during this period, after only Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, and San Diego. Although Sacramento did not have any major aircraft or shipbuilding facilities, like these other cities, several military bases and installations were within a 50-mile radius of the city, including McClellan Air Force Base, Mather Army Air Base, Camp Beale, (now Beale Air Force Base), the Sacramento Signal Depot, and Travis Army Air Base in Fairfield. These military facilities brought thousands of workers to the Sacramento area.112 By 1943, the workforce at McClellan alone topped 22,000 people, as the base raced to meet wartime demands.113

Although hiring discrimination continued
to limit where and what kind of work
African American residents were able to
obtain after World War II, in general a
greater number and variety of career
opportunities became available to African
Americans. An increasing number of
Black professionals moved to Sacramento
and established practices during the
postwar period. In the 1940s, Dr. Brewer
and Dr. Kenneth Johnson were the only
Black dentist and physician in
Sacramento, respectively. They operated
a medical practice together in a “modern
professional building” in the West End at
1602-1604 8th Street. Dr. Brewer would
eventually commission a new medical office building at 2014 10th Street (extant), designed by

112 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 141-142. 113 Kyle Byard and Tom Naiman, Images of America: McLellan Air Force Base (San Francsico: Acadia Publishing, 2007), 31.

Figure 21. Realtor J.R. Smith (1952). Source: Colorfornia:

The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

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local Japanese American architect George Muraki. Approximately 40 percent of the practice’s clientele was reportedly white.114 The city’s first known Black pharmacist, Daniel Taylor, arrived in 1943, followed by its first Black mortician, Vincent “Ted” Thompson in 1945; the first known Black licensed realtor, J. R. Smith, in 1946; and its second Black attorney, Nathaniel Colley, in 1948.115 Clarence Craig, Sr. served as a special delivery mail carrier at the Oak Park Post Office and delivered mail across the city. He later became one of the first Black United States Postal Service employees in Sacramento to advance to a supervisorial position.116

In the 1950s, Sacramento’s Black legal community grew and matured with the additions of attorneys Douglas Greer, Clarence Canson, and L. Archie Harris.117 After completing degrees at the University of California, Los Angeles and Howard University, Dr. Arthur R. Trent, Jr. moved to Sacramento in 1950 to complete his postgraduate studies at Sacramento General Hospital. Like many other Black professionals and business owners at the time, Dr. Trent initially struggled to find anyone willing to rent office space to him. He eventually opened his own medical practice at 1602 8th Street in Downtown Sacramento and became known as a pioneer in the local African American medical community, recognized by the Capital Medical Society and local chapter of the National Dental Association as a trailblazer and role model in his field. He was also an active member of the local chapter of the NAACP, California Medical Association, and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternal club.118 Dr. Leroy Bradford Brown was also among this pioneering group of Black physicians in the postwar period. After graduating with his medical degree from Howard University in 1958, he opened an internal medicine practice in Sacramento at 3031 G Street (extant) in 1962. During the same period, he also served as a physician for the City of Sacramento, staff physician at the Sacramento Community Hospital and Mercy Hospital, and senior aviation medical examiner.119 Dr. Thomas Slaughter II and Dr. Thomas Marshall were early OB/GYN specialists serving Sacramento beginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s period. Slaughter served on the clinical faculty at the UC Davis School of Medicine, on staff at the County Hospital and Chair of Obstetrics/Gynecology at the Methodist Hospital. He maintained a separate office at 801 Alhambra Boulevard (extant) in East Sacramento outside Sacramento’s majority black neighborhoods, presumably, in order to serve an interracial clientele.120

114 “Colorfornia Visits California’s Capitol City,” Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22; City directories, Sacramento, 1956- 1960, Ancestry.com.
115 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 150. 116 Conversation with family of Clarence Craig, Sr., conducted by Carson Anderson, May 2023. 117 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 159. 118 ”Dr. Arthur Trent, Dedicated Physician,” Sacramento Bee, 7 September 2004. 119 William C. Matney, ed, Who’s Who in Black America, 1975-76 , 1st ed, vol. 1 (Northbrook, Illinois: Who’s Who in Black America, Inc., 1976), 74-75.

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Others, such as Anthony Rene Francis, initially found work at the nearby military bases before beginning their professional careers. When Francis first moved to Sacramento from Louisiana in 1947, he worked at McClellan Air Force Base while awaiting an appointment for a job with the State of California. He began his career with the State as a junior clerk, rising to become an analyst. After obtaining a degree from Sacramento State University, he worked as social worker with the Sacramento County welfare department and later in various roles with the State, including with the California Office of Corrections, State Personnel Board, Department of Rehabilitation, and Department of Justice.120

The growth of the Black professional community also benefited neighborhoods such as Del Paso Heights. Born in South Carolina and raised in Georgia, Dr. Clarence Wigfall decided to move to the neighborhood in 1955 after surveying locations throughout Northern California and deciding that it was the area that needed his services the most. He subsequently opened a medical practice at Roanoke Street and Branch Street, becoming only the fifth practicing African American physician in Sacramento at the time. He later relocated his practice to Grand Avenue and Haywood Street.121 Driven by a desire to help the community, Dr. Wigfall often purchased medicine for his patients out of his own pocket and was nearly bankrupted for the first 10 years after opening his practice. He went on to serve for three years as trustee of the American River Health Care Center and as a physician at the Sacramento County well-baby clinic.122

120 Interview with Anthony Rene Francis, conducted by X Pasha, City of Sacramento Oral History Project, December 2021. 121 Del Paso Heights & Hagginwood: Our Roots, People, Places, and Memories (Undated and Unpublished) 122 Walt Wiley, “Clarence Wigfall, Longtime Del Paso Heights Doctor,” Sacramento Bee, 11 September 1998.

Figure 22. The medical offices of Dr. Kenneth Johnson and Dr. Roscoe Brewer (1952). Source: Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

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African American residents also entered into
law enforcement, education, and other fields.

Robert Canson joined the Sacramento police
force in 1947, becoming the city’s first Black
police officer. In 1948, his wife, Fannie Canson,
became Sacramento’s first Black teacher since
Sarah Mildred Jones.123 Edgar J. “Pat”
Patterson worked as a state police officer in
the 1940s. During Governor Earl Warren’s
three terms from 1942 to 1953, he served as
Warren’s personal driver and body guard,
developing a close professional and personal
relationship with Warren that continued for
the rest of both men’s lives. Patterson
became an important confidant of Warren’s
and had a quiet but powerful influence on
shifting Warren’s views on race relations as
several of California’s long-standing
discriminatory laws started to be challenged
and overturned during his terms. Warren
went on to be appointed chief justice of the
U.S. Supreme Court in 1953 and wrote the
landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.124 The infusion of Sacramento’s new class of Black professionals during and after World War II propelled the African American community forward, providing essential services to which members had previously been barred and lending their voices to the fight for more rights that opened up even more opportunities to Black individuals, both in Sacramento and further afield.125

In the 1960s and 1970s, the local Black community challenged discriminatory practices that had limited their job opportunities. Nathaniel Colley, attorney for the Sacramento chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACAP), challenged employment discrimination by labor unions in a case in which he defended African American tile setter, Albert Bacon.126 The Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) campaigned against

123 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 150. 124 Justin Panson, “Governor’s Driver,” Confluence Studios, accessed August 31, 2022, http://www.confluencestudio.com/governors- driver.html; “Edgar Patterson; Driver for Earl Warren,” Los Angeles Times, March 1, 2001. 125 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 159. 126 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 36.

Figure 23. Edgar Patterson (1952). Source: Colorfornia:

The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

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employment discrimination at the Bank of America. Another case in 1964 led the Southern Pacific Railroad to hire six African American workers, including Joe Debbs.127 During roughly the same period, Black employees working for the State of California formed a union, the Black Advocates and State Service (BASS), to bring attention to and address discrimination in State departments. After BASS was formed, similar coalitions were formed by Latinos and Asian Pacific Islanders.128 As a result of these efforts and countless others that remain untold, the African American community progressed increasingly toward employment equality.

BLACK BUSINESSES AND COMMERCIAL DISTRICTS
In the 1940s and early 1950s, the largest number of Black businesses remained centered in the West End, with relatively few other Black owned businesses in outlying mixed-race neighborhoods, such as Oak Park, Highland Park, and Del Paso Heights. However, unlike older cities on the East Coast and Midwest, Sacramento did not have a predominantly Black commercial district.129 Black-owned establishments were interspersed among businesses owned by people of Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, European descent, as well as members of other minority groups, who lived and worked in the racially mixed West End. Sacramento first appeared in editions of the Negro Motorist Green Books in the 1940s, indicating that the size of the local Black population had grown large enough by the postwar period to support a substantial number of businesses. Created by Black mailman Victor Green in New York to compile a list of Black-friendly businesses in an annual guidebook, the Negro Motorist Green Books provided Black travelers with a guide to businesses and services where they would be welcomed in cities across America during the segregated, often physical dangerous, Jim Crow era.130 The Sacramento editions of the Green Books show a concentration of businesses either owned by Black individuals or where Black patrons were welcomed in the blocks around Capitol Avenue between 4th and 7th streets from the late 1940s to the 1950s. These included the cocktail bar the Congo Club at 329 Capitol Avenue, owned by Carl Buckner and Jerlean Colley (wife of attorney Nathaniel Colley), and the Mo Mo Club, a popular jazz club with a hotel on the upper floor located at 600 Capital Avenue, which was owned and operated by brothers Alex and Don “Hovey” Moore. Other Black-owned businesses near the intersection of Capitol Avenue with 6th and 7th streets included the 14-room Crystal Palace Hotel, barber shop, shoe repair

127 Interview with Joe Debbs, conducted by Harvey Jones, City of Sacramento Oral History Project, November 2021. 128 Interview with Frederick K. Foote, conducted by Dane Nicolas, City of Sacramento Oral History Project, November 2021. 129 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 72; Oral History of Vincent “Ted” Thompson, by Clarence Caesar, 1984, Sacramento Ethnic Communities Survey Collection, Center for Sacramento History.
130 The Negro Motorist Green Books, Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, accessed October 27, 2022, https://negromotoristgreenbook.si.edu/virtual-exhibit/; Dr. Gretchen Sorin and Ric Burns, “Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America” [documentary], 2020, accessed October 27, 2022, https://www.pbs.org/video/driving-while-black-race-space-and-mobility-in- america-achvfr/
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shop, and cleaners at 1317-1321 6th Street, which was owned by barber M.L. Vann. The hotel and three businesses were considered the largest Black-owned and operated business establishment in the city at the time. Thompson’s Funeral Home, founded and run by Vincent “Ted” Thompson, was located nearby at Capitol Avenue and 7th Street.131

TABLE 4: SACRAMENTO BUSINESSES IN THE NEGRO MOTORIST GREEN BOOKS, 1948-1967132 Business Address Years in Green Books
Barber Shops

Mrs. Mikes

1350 56th Avenue 1952
Beauty Parlors

Twigg's 421 Capitol Avenue 1952-1954
Leftridge 3102 Sacramento Blvd.
(Broadway/Martin Luther Kind
Blvd.) (poss. extant)
1952-1954
Nannette's 1241 5th Street 1952-1954
Larocco's

1630 7th Street 1952-1954
Drug Stores

Taylors

1230 6th Street 1952-1954
Hotels

Center Hotel 420 1/2 Capitol Avenue 1948-1959
Capitol Inn Motel

Highways 40 and 99 1957-1962
Night Clubs

Zanzibar 6th Street and Capitol Avenue 1952
Capitol 6th Street and Capitol Avenue 1952
Mo-Mo

600 Capitol Avenue 1953-1954
Restaurants

Dunlap's Dining Room

4372 4th Avenue (extant) 1952-1967
Taverns

Helen’s

505 Capitol Avenue 1952
Tourist Home

Mrs. R.C. Peyton 2202 ½ 4th Street (extant) 1953-1956

131 “Colorfornia Visits California’s Capitol City,” Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22. 132 The Green Book, New York Public Library Digital Collections, accessed August 16, 2022, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/the- green-book.

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Figure 24. Map of businesses recorded in the Negro Motorist Green Books, ca. 1948-1967-. Source: Google Maps, 2023. Edited by Page & Turnbull.

Several Black entrepreneurs began their careers in a specific field but expanded and diversified their business ventures into a variety of other commercial endeavors, sometimes under the same roof. Similar to M.L. Vann, Palmer Pinkney owned a building at 1120-1122 4th Street (roughly L and 4th streets) that housed the popular restaurant The Stag, as well as a separate billiard parlor and liquor store. A nationally known hunter, himself, Pinkney’s establishment was popular among athletes and sportsmen who visited Sacramento.133

133 “Colorfornia Visits California’s Capitol City,” Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

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Figure 25.The Stag Café (1952). Source: Colorfornia:

The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

Figure 26. Employees and patrons inside the Stag
Cafe (1952). Source: Colorfornia: The California
Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

Figure 27. Employees inside the Stag Liquore Store
(1952). Source: Colorfornia: The California Magazine
1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

Figure 28. Patrons playing billiards at The Stag
(1952). Source: Colorfornia: The California Magazine
1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

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Figure 29. The Mo Mo Club (1952). Source: Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

Figure 30. Waitresses at the Mo Mo Club (1952).

Source: Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4
(1952): 14-22.

Figure 31. Bartenders, patrons, and owner Hovey
Moore (grey suit) at the Mo Mo Club (1952). Source:

Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952):
14-22.

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For many, the opportunity to purchase property and start a business came as a result of racial mistreatment of Japanese American residents. Executive Order 9066 forced Japanese American citizens living on the West Coast into internment camps. In their urgency to sell their property before relocation, many sold their property at rates that were well below market value. Black individuals, who were otherwise unable to afford the prices to buy commercial property, saw an opportunity to purchase property for the first time and open businesses of their own, in buildings formerly owned by Japanese Americans.134 Among them were Louis Anderson, her husband Isaac Anderson, and their business partner William “Nitz” Jackson, who opened the A&J Liquor store at building that had been vacated by Japanese individuals when they were forced into internment camps during the war. Jackson and Anderson later used the wealth they earned from the liquor store to open one of Sacramento’s leading nightclubs, the Zanzibar.135 Other formerly Japanese-owned businesses that were purchased or managed by African Americans during the war included the Center Hotel at 420 ½ Capitol Avenue, the Lincoln Hotel at 1306 ½ 4th Street, and Greenfront Poolroom at 315a Capitol Avenue.136

A few Black-owned or managed businesses were located in the southern parts of Sacramento’s original street grid in the similarly multi-racial Southside Park and Richmond Grove neighborhoods. A boarding house owned by Mrs. R. C. Peyton was located at a still-extant building at 2202 ½ 4th Street.137 Another Black mortuary, the Morgan and Jones Mortuary owned by Grace Morgan-Jones, opened at 1200 Q Street, also extant, in 1949.138

The redevelopment of the West End, and resulting demolition of the majority of the buildings there in the 1950s, had a devastating impact on the businesses and the men and women who operated them. As a diverse, multi-racial neighborhood, the impacts of redevelopment of the West End fell hardest on the area’s working and middle-class minority groups. Many buildings housing businesses owned and operated by Black individuals were demolished and the businesses forced to relocate. Among them is Thompson’s Funeral Home. Originally opened at 7th and N streets in 1948, it was one of the few Black mortuaries in Sacramento along with the Morgan and Jones Mortuary. Thompson – a graduate of Fordham University, New York University, and San Francisco College of Mortuary Science – moved to Sacramento in 1945 and was considered one of the best morticians in the state of California by the 1950s. After the State

134 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 145-146. 135 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 146-147; Oral History of Vincent “Ted” Thompson, by Clarence Caesar, 1984, Sacramento Ethnic Communities Survey Collection, Center for Sacramento History. 136 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 148. 137 The Green Book, New York Public Library Digital Collections, accessed August 16, 2022, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/the- green-book.
138 “Colorfornia Visits California’s Capitol City,” Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

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of California acquired his property via eminent domain in 1957 to build a parking lot for a new office building, Ted Thompson relocated his business to 3601 5th Street in Oak Park. It took 18 years for him to complete the new building to a comparable standard to what had been lost in the West End.139

Figure 32. Thompson’s Funeral Home (1952). Source: Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-

22. Figure 33. Ted Thompson (right) and his wife, Georgia (left). Source: Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

139 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 47; Oral History of Vincent “Ted” Thompson, by Clarence Caesar, 1984, Sacramento Ethnic Communities Survey Collection, Center for Sacramento History.

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The law office of Nathaniel Colley, Sacramento’s first Black attorney and the recognized leader of the African American community during the postwar period, was originally located at 421 L Street (now the site of the Macy’s department store) in the West End. As a result of redevelopment, the firm had moved to 621 P Street by 1953.140 He opened a third office in the Richmond Grove neighborhood at 1810 S Street in 1967. The building was designed by local African American architect James Dodd.141

The displacement of Black and minority-owned businesses from the West End resulted in the emergence of new concentrations of Black-owned businesses in neighborhoods to the north, south, and east of the Central City, such as Oak Park and Del Paso Heights. In Oak Park, a new commercial district of businesses owned or patronized by Black residents developed on Sacramento Street (now Broadway) from Alhambra to 35th Street.142 Among the businesses to relocate to Oak Park was the Mo Mo Club, which was reopened at 2963 35th Street across from McClatchy Park.143 In 1968, Black real estate agent George Seabron partnered with the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) to purchase a property at 2939 35th Street and convert it into a grocery store. The business not only added a valuable amenity for residents but also provided jobs and career training for members of the community.144

Prior to World War II, North Sacramento and Del Paso Heights, remained mostly agricultural with a very small population. Most residents lived on farms with their own orchards or dairies.

As Sacramento continued to grow outside its original street grid and residents moved into the area in the early 20th century, Del Paso Boulevard developed into the main commercial corridor for North Sacramento, Del Paso Heights, and other subdivisions to the north of the central city.145 By the 1930s, a business district emerged at the intersection of Grand Avenue, Rio Linda Boulevard, and Palmetto Street.146 By 1965, the Sacramento Negro Directory, published by the Sacramento Observer showed that the center of Black commercial activity in the Del Paso Heights neighborhood was centered on of Grand Avenue and Rio Linda Boulevard. Black- owned businesses along the streets included Taylor’s Pharmacy at 1201 Grand Avenue (extant), C.B. Frazier Real Estate at 921 Grand Avenue (extant), Cecil York’s Quick Employment Agency and Barber and Beauty Shop at 1228 Grand Avenue (extant), the general medical practice of Dr.

Clarence Wigfall at 1129 Grand Avenue, the law offices of L. Carter McMorris at 1542 Grand

140 Sacramento City Directories, 1949-1953, Ancestry.com. 141 Cory Quon and Sean de Courcy, “Nathaniel Colley & Associates Law Offices,” California Department of Parks and Recreation Prim ary Record, 2020; Interview with Ginger Rutland, conducted by Danielle Baza, City of Sacramento Oral History Project, December 2021. 142 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 43.
143 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 57; Advertisement, Sacramento Bee, 20 September 1962: 47. 144 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 51-52.
145 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 57.
146 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 59.

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Avenue, Joe’s Barbeque at 3646 Rio Linda Boulevard, and LeBerry’s Professional Barber Shop at 3733 Rio Linda Boulevard. Other local African American businesses included Washington Barbershop, founded by Rev. Eugene Washington at 3804 Fig Street in 1966. The barbershop remained in operation for at least 50 years.147 Willie Hausey, Sr. opened a successful Chevron dealership in the area and later the first African American independent lobbying firm in Sacramento, Willie Hausey & Associates. He went on to become the president of the Sacramento Area Economic Opportunity Council (SAEOC) and was a leader in Sacramento’s local efforts in the War on Poverty in the 1970s.148

Figure 34. Map of Black-owned businesses (red markers) and churches (purple markers) in the Del Paso neighborhood based on the 1965 Sacramento Negro Directory. Source: Google Maps, edited by Page & Turnbull.

The stretch of Rio Linda Boulevard south of Grand Avenue developed into a popular hang-out location called “The Front,” known for its collection of bars, pool halls, gambling houses, and

147 "The 'Barbershop Preacher,'" Sacramento Bee, 10 September 2006. 148 “Willie R. Hausey Sr.,” Sacramento Bee, 24 September 2022; Del Paso Heights Civic Leader Heads Poverty War Council,” Sacramento Bee, 14 July 1970.

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liquor stores. Among the most popular hang-outs were Bill’s Pool Room at 3617 Rio Linda Boulevard and Rock’s Liquor Store at 3601 Rio Linda Boulevard, near the intersection of Rio Linda Boulevard and South Avenue.149 Bill’s Pool Room was opened by Dave Wilburn in 1952, while Rock’s Liquor Store was opened in 1967 by a group of 25 Black investors who together formed Rocks Investment Corporation.150

Figure 35. Men sitting outside a business at 3545 Rio Linda Boulevard, near the intersection of Rio Linda Boulevard and South Avenue in Del Paso Heights (1975). Source: Center for Sacramento History, Sacramento Bee Collection, 1983/001/SBPM04410.

Just as many of these businesses and commercial areas were becoming established, highway construction in the 1960s and 1970s erased much of the progress. Highway 99, running north-

149 "The 'Barbershop Preacher,'" Sacramento Bee, 10 September 2006. 150 “Peacemaker Suffers Injury in Gunfight,” Sacramento Bee, 16 September 1958; Patty Henetz, “City to Evict Liquor Store on ‘The Front,’” Sacramento Bee, 19 October 1989; Bertha Gaffney-Forman, “Black Business – Part 3, No Profanity in Pool Hall,” Sacramento Bee, 1 June 1976.

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south to the east of Oak Park between 31st and 32nd streets was completed in 1961. The highway created a distinct border between Oak Park and Curtis Park and other primarily white, affluent neighborhoods to the west and impeded connections to important commercial amenities, such as the nearest supermarket on Franklin Boulevard. Further exacerbating Oak Park’s isolation from the rest of the city, Highway 50 was completed to the north of the neighborhood in the early 1970s, separating it from East Sacramento. Combined with a series of racial conflicts that shook Oak Park in the summers of 1969 to 1971, the impact on Oak Park’s formerly vibrant commercial district was devastating. Many Black-owned businesses closed during this period and never reopened. Ginger Rutland remembered that when she returned from college “all of the stores were gone. They were boarded up. It was a dead community.”151 Several of the businesses that had been along Oak Park’s thriving commercial strip on 35th Street relocated to Stockton Boulevard, creating a third generation of Black businesses there. By the late 1970s, a popular new Black commercial district had developed along the Stockton Boulevard south of Broadway, including the A Touch A’ Class restaurant and nightclub at 4217 Stockton Boulevard (extant), and Warners’ Mercedes Service at 4411 Stockton Boulevard (extant).152

Highway construction also impacted racially mixed neighborhoods to the west. Highway 50 split Southside Park in two, while Interstate 5, running along the east side of the Sacramento River, between Front and 3rd streets, cut the neighborhood off from the waterfront, destroying much of the industrial district along the river that provided the source of employment for many nearby residents.153

By the late 1980s, the flight of white residents, neglect from local City government, rising drug epidemic, and increasing crime rates resulted in the closure of many businesses along Del Paso Heights’ main commercial corridors on Grand Avenue and Rio Linda Boulevard. Most of the buildings and businesses surrounding Rock’s Liquor Store and Bill’s Pool Room were demolished by 1989, leaving the buildings surrounded by empty lots. The same year, the City of Sacramento initiated eminent domain proceedings against the two properties in order to reduce crime in the area and redevelop the stretch of Rio Linda Boulevard into a new senior housing development.154

151 Interview with Ginger Rutland, conducted by Danielle Baza, City of Sacramento Oral History Project, December 2021. 152 Sacramento African American Experience public meeting, February 3, 2023. 153 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 90.
154 Henetz, “City to Evict Liquor Store on ‘The Front.’” Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

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In spite of these challenges, Black business men and women persevered and continued to establish and lead businesses that enriched the daily lives of Sacramentans. By delivering valuable services to their communities, they demonstrated a business acumen that offered economic development opportunities for the next generation.

Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

Photographs (clockwise from top left): St. Andrews AME at 715 7th Street, Shiloh Baptist Church at its present location at 3565 9th Avenue, the congregation of Shiloh Baptist Church at its former location at 6th and P streets.

RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY
Circa 1839-1980

.

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THEME: AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY IN
SACRAMENTO, CA. 1839-1980
Throughout the United States, churches have been central to the life of African American and Black communities over the course of history. For enslaved Black people in the 19th century, religious expression often served as a means of catharsis, while churches were places of safety and refuge. In addition to being places for spiritual worship, Black churches served an essential role as community gathering places, sometimes acting as performance halls or temporary school buildings until permanent buildings could be completed, as well as centers for social and political organization where protests, marches, and rallies were organized. Black preachers were religious as well as community leaders, frequently leading a variety of organizations and efforts aimed at providing for the health, financial, social, and educational needs of the community.155

Likewise, in Sacramento, Black churches played a fundamental role in the lives of African American residents, where they provided places for spiritual guidance, respite from racial injustices, and community uplift. Many influential civic community leaders also led in these spaces, and the churches played a major role in the movement for racial equality, both at the local and national scale. The influence of the Black church spread outside the walls of the church buildings themselves and into the surrounding neighborhood and homes of parishioners, where meetings, gatherings, concerts, and other events sponsored by the churches were often held. In this way, Black churches influenced every aspect of Black life and were an essential part of the community.

Even as Black churches experienced many of the same impacts of discrimination and redevelopment as Black residential and commercial development, their perseverance and longevity in the city are evidence of their importance to the fabric of the community.

Pre-World War II, ca. 1850-1940
From the 1850s to the turn of the 20th century, Sacramento’s Black community was anchored primarily by two congregations, St. Andrews African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and Shiloh Baptist Church (originally founded as Siloam Baptist Church). Both congregations continue to serve Sacramento residents today and are two of the longest continuously operating Black churches in California.

155 "The Black Church in America, a Story," African American Registry, accessed December 22, 2021, https://aaregistry.org/story/the-Black- church-a-brief-history/.

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Recognizing the large number of Black
miners in the Sacramento area after the
onset of the Gold Rush, several attempts
were made to establish a Black church in the
fledgling city. Those efforts came to fruition
in 1850, when brothers Barney and George
Fletcher began organizing weekly religious
meetings at the house of Daniel Blue on I
Street between 4th and 5th streets. Other
original trustees included James R. Brown,
John Barton, John L. Wilson, and Chesterfield
Jackson.156 By late 1850, the small group of
original church members had gathered
enough support and funding to construct a
wood frame church building on 7th Street
between G and H streets in the West End.

This became the first church building of St.

Andrews AME, the first major visible African
American institution founded in Sacramento
and the first African American church
established on the West Coast. In 1867,
construction began on a new brick building
for the congregation near the site of the original church building on 7th Street. When it was completed, the congregation’s church building was worth $1,000 and could seat up to 150 people. By 1870, the church had been expanded and could seat 250 people. The building served as a meeting place for many social, political, and community groups through the 19th century.157

The spread and establishment of specific church denominations to Sacramento reflected the demographics of the population. The arrival of the African Methodist Episcopal Church appears to be linked to the origins Sacramento’s early Black residents, many of whom came from states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. The African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in Philadelphia in the late 18th century and developed a reputation as a strong force in the fight

156 Patricia Penn, “Historical Summary,” St. Andrew’s African American Methodist Episcopal Church brochure, 2022. 157 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 79, 104.

Figure 36. St. Andrews AME founding member, Daniel
Blue (undated). Source: St. Andrews AME Church.

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for Black rights throughout the northeastern United States. St. Andrews AME continued this tradition and quickly emerged as the political and social leader of Sacramento’s Black community.158 The three of the first four California Colored Conventions were held at St.

Andrews AME in 1855, 1856, and 1865. The conventions brought delegations of Black leaders from across California together to discuss strategies for addressing civil rights grievances and obtaining greater rights. The conventions helped overturn the state law prohibiting people of color from testifying in court in 1863, which allowed Daniel Blue to file and ultimately win the last known slavery case in California in 1864.159

Figure 37. St. Andrews AME Church at 715 7th Street (1938). Source: California State Library.

As the local Black population continued to grow in size and diversity, additional churches were founded. In 1856, Siloam Baptist Church (later renamed Shiloh Baptist Church) was organized by Reverend Charles Satchell, becoming Sacramento’s second Black church. Reflecting the ethnic diversity and collaborative spirit between Sacramento’s minority groups, the church’s small congregation met at the Chinese Chapel on 6th and H streets for its first three years, before purchasing a former synagogue on 5th Street between N and O streets around 1860. In

158 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 37-42. 159 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 4.

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1905, the church purchased a property at the corner of 6th and P streets and built a new church building on the site. By 1934, Shiloh Baptist Church had 800 members and was the largest Black Baptist church in Sacramento. The church remained at the site on 6th and P streets for over 50 years until the 1950s when it was demolished as part of redevelopment of the West End and relocated to its existing building in Oak Park. Many other churches and organizations would spring out of the congregation of Shiloh Baptist Church over the decades.160

Together, St. Andrews AME and Shiloh Baptist Church became the spiritual, social, cultural, and political heart Sacramento’s African American community. From the beginning, the congregations of these churches demonstrated a strong commitment to providing needed services to the community where the city of Sacramento refused. With the state and local governments denying funding for public schools for children of color in the mid-19th century, St.

Andrews AME housed Sacramento’s first ”colored school” for the Black community, and Shiloh‘s pastor Jeramiah B. Sanderson tirelessly petitioned the Sacramento City School Board for years in the late 1850s to include funding for a colored school.161

Figure 38. Rev. Charles Satchell,
founder of the Shiloh Baptist Church.

Courtesy of the Shiloh Baptist Church.

Figure 39. The Chinese Chapel, the site of the first meetings of the Shiloh (Siloam) Baptist Church. Source: Center for Sacramento History, Frank Christy Collection, 1998/722/1709B.

160 Kathleen Forrest and Genevieve Entezari, City of Sacramento, Preservation Office, “Shiloh Baptist Church,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, 2012.
161 Susan Bragg, “Knowledge is Power: Sacramento Blacks and the Public Schools, 1854-1860’,” California History 75, No. 3 (Fall 1996): 215-221.

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Figure 40. Shiloh Baptist Church in its former location at 6th and P streets (1957). Source: Center for Sacramento History, Gunther Grumm Collection, 1991/087/SBPMP1059.

Figure 41. Congregants inside Shiloh Baptist Church (1952). Source: Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

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The influence of Sacramento’s Black churches in civil rights activism and community betterment continued into the 20th century. Reverend Thomas Allen Harvey founded the local chapter of the NAACP in 1916. One year later, he established Sacramento’s third Black church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, or Kyles Temple AME Zion at a building formerly occupied by an Episcopalian church at 36th Street and 4th Avenue in Oak Park. Reverend Harvey used his position of leadership to address racial grievances and bring about positive change for his community. He won the first racial discrimination case in Sacramento’s history and was the city’s first Black political candidate in 1919. Other organizations would spread under his leadership of the church, such as the Crispus Attucks Soldier’s and Sailor’s club in 1921.162

As the African American population grew rapidly during the First Great Migration in the 1920s and 1930s, more churches were established to meet the spiritual and social needs of the community, as well as its expansion into neighborhoods outside the central city. By this time, St. Andrews AME and Shiloh Baptist, as the two most prominent Black churches, had gained a reputation for attracting members of Sacramento’s Black elite and middle class, including doctors, attorneys, engineers, and members of the longest standing Black families in the city.

These mainline churches had a conservative, formal, and generally more solemn style of worship than other denominations. This did not appeal to the new flood of residents, many of whom had migrated from the South, were from a working-class background, and were accustomed to more lively and enthusiastic styles of worship that were popular in many Southern churches at the time. These new arrivals brought their religious traditions and styles of worship with them, founding “sanctified,” "holiness," or other denominations based on Southern traditions to Sacramento and expanding the city’s religious diversity.163 Similar to St.

Andrews AME, some of these new congregations initially met in the homes of members before enough funding could be gathered to purchase or build a church of their own. One such church was the Del Paso Heights Deliverance Center, founded in the living room of Alabama native Hercules D. Benbow at 1705 Dry Creek Road in 1924.164 The church appears to have relocated to several different locations, including 1216 Roanoke Avenue, 3116 Stockton Boulevard (extant), and 3629 Del Paso Boulevard (extant).165 The church spawned the creation of several other related Black churches in the Del Paso Heights neighborhood. 166

162 Caesar, ”An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 116. 163 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 62.
164 “Sallie Benbow, Wife of Pastor, Dies at 73,” Sacramento Bee, 28 October 1971: 11. 165 Sacramento Ethnic Community Survey, "An Interview with Elizabeth Benbow Johnson Love," ed. Clarence Caesar (Sacramento: City of Sacramento, 1983); Sacramento Negro Directory, 1965 (Sacramento, CA: Sacramento Observer, 1965); and “Spectrum,” Sacramento Bee, 29 September 1973: 43.
166 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 62.

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Post-World War II, ca. 1940-1980
In the wake of increasing violence in the South and the lure of job opportunities in defense- related industries, thousands of African Americans moved to Sacramento during World War II and the years immediately following. Meanwhile, the redevelopment of the West End in the mid-20th century, where the majority of African American residents and institutions had been located since the mid-1800s, forced Black churches in the area to relocate to other neighborhoods. The number of Black churches in Sacramento grew at a corresponding pace to keep up with the growing size, diversity, and displacement of the local African American population. In 1958, the Sacramento Outlook, a local African American newspaper, listed 23 Black churches in Sacramento.167 By 1965, the Sacramento Negro Directory included 35 Black churches. None of the churches were located in the downtown area (formerly the West End neighborhood). Instead, the Black churches were located in Oak Park (16), North Sacramento/Del Paso Heights (9), Glen Elder (3), and Southside Park (2), with one church in Midtown on R Street between 16th and 17th streets and one church just south of Broadway on Burnett Way and 18th streets. The denominations of these churches reflect a shift in the dominant denominations represented by Black churches in Sacramento from the 19th century to the second half of the 20th century. Whereas there had been more parity among denominations in the 19th and early 20th centuries, by 1965, 19 of the city’s 35 Black churches (54 percent) were Baptist or Missionary Baptist churches. Pentecostal denominations made up the second largest group with roughly five churches, followed by two African Methodist Episcopal or Christian Methodist Episcopal churches and two Seventh Day Adventist churches.168

Among the prominent Black churches founded after World War II was the Allen Chapel AME Church in Del Paso Heights. The congregation was organized at the home of Mr. and Mrs.

Walter Rivers at 3712 Belden Avenue (extant) in 1948. In order to attract members, for the first two years of its existence, the church operated solely as a Sunday School. The school was housed at the home of Alfred and Gadra Manuel at 3718 Branch Street (extant), with Mrs.

Manuel serving as superintendent, and Mr. Manuel working two jobs to support his family, as well as the church. The church’s early membership included some of the most prominent and influential residents of the Black community, including pioneering childcare leader and Good Neighbors Club president Minette Smith, beloved Grant Union High School custodian Wendell

167 Caesar, An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 165. 168 Sacramento Negro Directory, 1965 (Sacramento, CA: Sacramento Observer, 1965).

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Echols, eventual City councilman Charles Bradley, and prominent family and childcare advocate and community organizer Auntine Burney. The first church services were held in 1950, when a small building was rented at 1061 Orange Avenue. The following year, the church’s membership raised money to build its own church at 3744 Belden Street (extant). The building was completed in 1953, largely through the efforts of Reverend Howard Walker, Alfred Manuel, and Leon Honeycutt. The congregation grew rapidly over the following decade under the leadership of Reverend Vivian Bowers from 1957 to 1961 and Reverend Piney Pendarvis, who served from 1961 to 1968. Bowers, an Arkansan, made appeals to fellow Arkansans to join the congregation, and is credited with the surge in membership during the late 1950s—just as many Black Southerners from Arkansas, and other places in the Deep South, were relocating to California in search of greater opportunities. To accommodate its growing congregation, Reverend

Figure 42. Allen Chapel AME at its original location
(ca. 1950).

Figure 43. The Building Committee of Allen Chapel
AME (ca. 1960). Front row, from left to right: Hattie
Burnside, Florence Pruitt, Gloria Rowe, Auntine
Burney, James Vinson. Back row: James Pruitt, Layron
Nelson, Louis Brown, and Mamie Johnson.

Figure 44. The Trustee Board of Allen Chapel AME
(ca. 1962). Seated, left to right: Essie Brown, Minette Smith, Beatrice Bryant, Charles Bradley. Standing:

Alfred Caesar, Henry Hailes, Alfred Manuel, Wendell
Echols.

Figure 45. The intermediate Sunday School class of
Allen Chapel AME (ca. 1960). First row, left to right:

Rev. Piney Pendarvis, Dianne Vinson, Gwendolyn
Roundtree, Minnie Banks, Ann Brown. Second row:

Mr. Charles Bradley, Patricia Roundtree, Patricia
Scott, Nolia Rowe, Mr. Essex Foulks.

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Pendarvis acquired the current church property at 1239 Grand Avenue (extant) in 1961, on which a larger, new church was constructed. The Building Fund Committee, including Essie Brown, Auntine Burney, and Wendell Echols, spearheaded the fundraising and design efforts.169

TABLE 5: BLACK CHURCHES IN 1965
Church Address Neighborhood
Allen Chapel AME 1239 Grand Avenue Del Paso Heights
Bircher Temple, Christian Methodist
Episcopal 2812 29th Avenue South City Farms
Christ Temple Apostolic Church 1619 R Street Midtown
Christ Temple Missionary Baptist
Church 3030 26th Avenue South City Farms
Church of God in Christ 4158 4th Avenue Oak Park
First Baptist Tabernacle 1800 Burnett Way Curtis Park
Friendship Baptist Church Odd Fellows Hall, 2471
34th Street Oak Park
Glen Elder Baptist Church Elder Creek Road Glen Elder
Greater Light Baptist Church 3909 36th Street Oak Park
Humble Church of God in Christ 3632 Branch Street Del Paso Heights Kyles Temple CME Church 2940 42nd Street Oak Park
Macedonia Baptist Church 700 Benton Avenue North Sacramento Mt. Calvary Baptist Church 3744 Beldon Street Del Paso Heights Mt. Hermon Baptist Church 940 North Avenue Del Paso Heights Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church 920 Los Robles Del Paso Heights Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church 3779 9th Avenue Oak Park
Mt. Zion Baptist Church 1075 Roanoke Avenue Del Paso Heights New Hope Baptist Church [3700 32nd Street]170 Oak Park
New Pleasant Grove Baptist Church 8017 38th Avenue Glen elder Oak Park Seventh Day Adventist 3841 4th Avenue Oak Park Oak Park United Church of Christ 3308 4th Avenue Oak Park

169 1961-62 Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church Anniversary Booklet, 1962; “The History of Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church 1948-Present,” 67th Church Anniversary Booklet; 2015. All cited materials courtesy of Ms Sheila Roundtree, Evangelist, Allen Chapel AME Church.
170 The address for the New Hope Baptist Church was omitted in the 1965 Sacramento Negro Directory, likely due to the fact that its church building was under construction at the time. The congregation’s church building at 3700 32nd Avenue opened in Dec ember 1965 (“New Hope,” Sacramento Bee, 18 December 1965.)
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Church Address Neighborhood
Prayer Temple Church of God in Christ 4000 8th Avenue Oak Park Rising Star Baptist Church 4201 8th Avenue Oak Park
Sacramento Deliverance Center 3116 Stockton Boulevard Oak Park Capitol City Seventh Day Adventist 2828 33rd Street Oak Park Shiloh Baptist Church 3565 9th Avenue Oak Park
St. Andrews AME Church 2131 8th Street Southside Park
St. John’s Baptist Church 2130 4th Street Southside Park St. Paul Baptist Church 4020 12th Avenue Oak Park
Triangle Church of Christ 3779 9th Avenue Oak Park
Trinity Baptist Church 3120 20th Avenue North City Farms Union Baptist 3737 Branch Street Del Paso Heights
Williams Memorial Church 4495 Sacramento Blvd.
(Broadway/MLK Dr. Blvd.) Oak Park
Church of the Living God 7435 Lemon Hill Avenue Glen Elder Source: Sacramento Negro Directory, 1965 (Sacramento, CA: Sacramento Observer, 1965).

Figure 46. Map showing the distribution of African American churches listed in the 1965 Sacramento Negro Directory. Source: Google Maps, edited by Page & Turnbull.

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Figure 47.The New Hope Baptist Church, ca.
1952. Source: “Colorfornia Visits California’s
Capitol City,” Colorfornia: The California
Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

Figure 48. Drawing of the New Hope Baptist Church's new building at 3700 32nd Street (1964). Source: “New Hope
Church May Move by September,” Sacramento Bee, 20 June
1964: 13.

Research indicates that the locations of African American-led churches throughout Sacramento often changed multiple times over the span of decades as their congregations grew or they were pushed out by redevelopment projects or the construction of freeways in the mid- to late- 20th century. The New Hope Baptist Church, for example, was located at 2540 20th Street and 20th Street and Burnett Way in the 1930s and moved to
2109 X Street in 1948.171 With its church in the path of the planned W-X Freeway, the congregation built and
relocated to a new church at 3700 32nd Street (extant) in 1964. Other churches forced to relocate due to
construction of the freeway included the Church of God
in Christ, then at 8th and W streets.172

Anticipating the arrival of the wrecking ball in the West End, the pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church, Reverend Willie P. Cooke, moved his congregation to a new church
building at 3565 9th Avenue (extant) in Oak Park in 1958.

The building was designed by Sacramento’s first licensed Black architect, James Dodd. Much of the construction of the building, itself, was completed by Reverend Cooke,
who had been an electrician prior to his ordination, with assistance from members of the congregation. The new

171 “Rally is Planned,” Sacramento Bee, 12 July 1934: 11; “Church Services in Sacramento,” Sacramento Bee, 17 August 1935: 25; “Church Will Present St. Louis Gospel Singer,” Sacramento Bee, 21 August 1945: 13. 172 “New Hope Church May Move by September,” Sacramento Bee, 20 June 1964: 13.

Figure 49. Reverend Willie P. Cooke.

Source: Shiloh Baptist Church.

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church reflected the motivation, dedication, and determination the congregation of Shiloh Baptist had to see their church continue to thrive in its new location.173

The arrival of one of the most prominent Black institutions to Oak Park attracted many local Black residents to move to the neighborhood, helping to usher in Oak Park’s transformation into a major hub of the local African American community. The concentration of Black residents and their churches in Oak Park led to the development of church-led food pantries, breakfast programs, daycares, and Sunday Schools to serve the local community, many of which still operate today.174

Although the primary role in leading civil rights efforts on behalf of the community had shifted toward the NAACP over time, the churches continued to be strong forces for progress. Pastors and congregation members joined the NAACP and supported its activities. In the 1950s, a group of pastors from local Black churches formed the Interdenominational Minister’s Conference to cooperate on addressing civic matters related to their communities.175

Figure 50. Members of the Interdenominational Ministers’ Conference (1952). Source: “Colorfornia Visits California’s Capitol City,” Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

173 Forrest and Entezari, “Shiloh Baptist Church.”.
174 Interview with Ginger Rutland, conducted by Danielle Baza, City of Sacramento Oral History Project, December 2021; Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 51.
175 “Colorfornia Visits California’s Capitol City,” Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22.

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In the late 1960s, the United Christian Centers operated multiple community service centers throughout Sacramento, providing meeting places, study centers, recreation opportunities, and personal services for people of all ages, with a special emphasis on youth. The organization was first established at 5th and P streets in the West End in 1921, primarily to assist Chinese immigrants. Locally, the organization remained largely white-led through the early 1960s but began to shift its focus toward providing services to the African American community in the late 1960s under the directorship of African American Reverend Rosenwald Robertson. After gaining experience working in the American Baptist Home Mission Societies Centers in Boston and on the Lower East Side of New York City, Robertson moved to Sacramento in 1962 and became executive director of the local United Christian Centers in 1966. Under Robertson’s leadership, the organization
expanded rapidly into Sacramento’s diverse, underserved neighborhoods.

By 1968, there were three United Christian Centers in the Sacramento area at 2620 21st Street (extant) in Curtis Park, 1445 Nogales Street (extant) in Del Paso Heights, and 5th and Andrew Streets in West Sacramento, with plans to
expand into the Oak Park and Glen Elder neighborhoods.

Likely influenced by the philosophies of Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party, and the Black Power Movement, the
local United Christian Centers’ focus on providing service centers specifically for African Americans in the late 1960s reflected a broader shift in the organization’s approach at the national level, away from integration toward
encouraging Black consciousness and equality with white communities.176

In the latter half of the 20th century, the mission of Black churches thusly evolved from their early goals of providing spiritual and material succor for their communities in the 19th century to organizing and spearheading community
action for civil rights and social justice. Reflecting the politization of African Americans during the civil rights era of the 1960s and subsequent emphasis on providing

176 “Christian Centers Director Says Sacramento Can Forestall Consequences of Urban Unrest,” Sacramento Bee, 30 March 1968: 14.

Figure 51. Reverend Rosenwald Robertson
(1972). Source: Cornel West, “Black
Liberation: Action On Local Level Is
Bringing Progress,” Sacramento Bee, 15
October 1972.

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community services in the 1970s, Sacramento’s Black churches were social and political forces in the 1970s. The most involved Black churches tended to fall into one of two categories: the oldest, most established churches with a long history of community leadership, such as St.

Andrew’s AME and Shiloh Baptist Church, and those that were led by passionate pastors with a personal commitment to making their congregations catalysts for social uplift. In the 1960s, St.

Andrew’s AME was led by the most politically influential Black minister in Sacramento, Reverend Cyrus Keller, who was twice elected president of the Sacramento branch of the NAACP. As part of its commitment to serve the surrounding community, Shiloh Baptist Church, meanwhile, took the ideologies of self-sufficiency, self-determination, and community service popularized by the Black Panther movement to another level under the leadership of Reverend Samuel Cooke, building the Shiloh Arms affordable housing development at 4009 23rd Avenue (extant) in 1970 to ensure the availability of low-income housing for the community.177 As with its Oak Park church building, the housing development was also designed by James Dodd.

Other politically active churches included Allen Chapel AME in Del Paso Heights, with its childcare center and Good Neighbors Club, and St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Oak Park.

Under the nearly 50-year leadership of its founder, Dr. Ephraim Williams, St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church emerged as a leader in political and social action, offering more than 65 community programs and initiatives, including health and fitness programs, reading and tutorial services, clothing giveaways, employment assistance, mentorship programs, and classes on parenting, financial literacy, and homeownership.178

In the 21st century, local historically Black churches continue to serve a fundamental role in uplifting the Sacramento community through their varied and wide-ranging community service activities.

177 Interview with Ginger Rutland, conducted by Danielle Baza, City of Sacramento Oral History Project, December 2021; Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 51.
178 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 66-67; Maria Heeter, “Longtime Sacramento Pastor Ephraim Williams to Retire,” Sacramento Bee, 28 July 2020.

Sacramento African American Experience History Project FINAL Historic Context Statement

Photograph: A Black Panther Party rally in Sacramento in 1973. Source: Center for Sacramento History, Sacramento Bee Collection, 1983/001/SBPM00857.

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT, ACTIVISM & THE FIGHT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS Circa 1850-1980

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THEME: BLACK CIVIC ENGAGEMENT, ACTIVISM & THE FIGHT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS IN SACRAMENTO, CA. 1850-1980
In spite of the small size of Sacramento’s African American community through the mid-20th century, it had an outsized impact on the local, state, and national fight for racial equality, thanks to its location in California’s state capital and resulting access to state legislative bodies, as well as the tireless efforts of numerous remarkable individuals and organizations.

Churches & Individual Residents Lead the Fight, ca. 1850-1916 At the time California became a state in 1850, the Civil War and abolition of slavery were still more than a decade away. The decade between statehood and the start of the Civil War in 1861 were a turbulent time across the United States during which the question of the status of Black individuals was at the forefront of national discourse and politics. In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act as part of the Compromise of 1850, requiring that the U.S. government aid in returning freedom seeking African Americans to their enslavers. The act enflamed tensions between the slave states in the South and free states in the North and led to an increase in abolitionist activity across the country.179 Although California officially entered the Union as a free state, meaning that slavery was not legally permitted within its boundaries, many proslavery individuals held positions of power in the state government – including the California Supreme Court and the state legislature. In the 1850s, proslavery legislators helped pass laws that stripped rights from African Americans and other people of color. During the Gold Rush, white individuals brought enslaved Black men and women by force from other states to California to work for them in the gold mines. By 1852, up to 1,500 enslaved African Americans lived in California. The same year, California passed its own strict fugitive slave law, authorizing white Californians to kidnap and traffic African American individuals to Southern enslaving states.180

The responses of California’s Black communities, including that of Sacramento, to this atmosphere of increasing racist federal and state policies reflected the nationwide growth in anti-slavery activity during the 1850s and 1860s. During this period, the largest Black populations in California existed in the north part of the state in the counties of San Francisco (1,176 free Black residents in 1860) and Sacramento (468), followed by El Dorado (277), Yuba

179 Catherine A. Paul, “Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, VCU Libraries Social Welfare History Project, accessed October 23, 2022, https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/federal/fugitive-slave-act-of-1850/. 180 California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, “Interim Report,” June 20 22, 134-135.

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(233), Tuolomne (166), Nevada (156), and San Joaquin (126).181 The Black communities in these areas – particularly in San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland, and Stockton – frequently overlapped and banded together throughout the mid- to late 1800s to support each other and the overall advancement of California’s Black residents. Many of the state’s early Black civil rights leaders originally came from cities in the Northeastern United States, where they were influenced and empowered by the national abolitionist movement and prominent leaders such as Frederick Douglass. They brought the ideas and strategies from their experiences in Northeastern abolitionist circles with them to California. While many prominent Black leaders were based in San Francisco, including Franchise League founder Miflin Gibbs and Mary Ellen Pleasant, known as the “Mother of Civil Rights in California,” Sacramento became a hotbed for Black organizing due to the size of its Black population and its status as the state capital.

Sacramento had a prominent role in the fight for Black education and in court cases to expand Black rights, several of which were argued in front of the California Supreme Court, which was based in the city.182

During this early period in the Sacramento’s African American community formation and development in the decades following California statehood, the congregations of the city’s first two Black churches, St. Andrews AME Church and Siloam (later Shiloh) Baptist Church, led the local fight to expand the rights of Black individuals. Daniel Blue, one of the key founding members of St. Andrew ’s AME in 1850, was one of the most influential figures in the early history of civil rights activism in Sacramento. He and his wife, Lucinda, opened one of the first schools for Black, Native American, and Asian American children at a time when there was no state or municipal support for schools for children of color. In 1855 and 1856, the first two Colored Conventions to be held in California took place at St. Andrews AME. The fourth convention also met in Sacramento in 1865. Inspired by the nationwide Colored Convention Movement, which began in the Northeastern United States in 1817, the California Colored Conventions aimed to address the conditions of African Americans across the state and develop strategies to challenge discriminatory state legislation.183 The call to hold the first conference in Sacramento was issued in September 1855. Signatories included San Franciscans J.W. Townsend, Peter Anderson, W.H. Newby, and D.W. Ruggles, all of San Francisco. The sole signatory from Sacramento was James Carter.184 When the convention convened in November

181 United States Bureau of the Census, Statistics of the Population of the United States at the Tenth Census (June 1, 1880) (Washington, D.C.:

Government Printing Office, 1882).
182 Susheel Bibbs, “Voices for Freedom: The Hyers Sisters’ Dream, Change, and Legacy,” sponsored by LHF, Inc. (Sacramento, CA: M.E.P Publications, 2022), 5.
183 Herbert G. Ruffin II, “The Conventions of Colored Citizens of the State of California (1855-1865), February 4, 2009, accessed June 6, 2023, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/conventions-colored-citizens-state-california-1855-1865. 184 Lapp, Blacks in Gold Rush California, 211-212.

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1855, Sacramento County was represented by Reverend Jeremiah B. Sanderson, George W.

Booth, John G. Wilson, Emory Waters, Thomas Detter, David Brown, David Nicholas, Clayton Miller, James R. Starkey, and David Lewis. In his early remarks to the convention, Reverend Sanderson neatly summarized the significance and goals of the proceedings:

When first it was announced that this Convention
was to be held, I rejoiced. We are scattered over the
State in small numbers; the laws scarcely
recognizing us; public sentiment is prejudiced
against us; we are misunderstood, and
misrepresented; it was needful that we should
meet, communicate, and confer with each other
upon some plan of representing our interests
before the people of California…it is the most
important step on this side of the Continent.185

The California Colored Conventions attracted
representatives to Sacramento from 27 California counties and became the driving force behind the successful efforts to establish the first schools for “colored” children in San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, and Stockton, and repeal the state law barring people of color from testifying in court in 1863.186

Echoing the nationwide increase in abolitionist activity during the mid-19th century, several important trials were held in Sacramento in the 1850s and 1860s that challenged the hypocrisy of California’s status as a free state with proslavery laws. In the 1857, a young enslaved Black man named Archy Lee was brought to Sacramento from Mississippi by a white man named Charles Stovall. At the time, California state law allowed visiting slaveholders, such as Stovall, to enter the state as long as they did not permanently settle in California. However, after their arrival, Stovall opened a school. When Lee learned of Stovall’s plans to take him back to the South, he fled to the Black-owned Hackett House hotel but was quickly captured and arrested. The local Black community mobilized in support of Lee, holding church fundraisers to

185 Proceedings of the First State Convention of the Colored Citizens of the State of California (Sacramento: Democratic State Journal Print, 1855), 5-6, Colored Conventions Project, accessed June 9, 2023, https://omeka.coloredconventions.org/. 186 Damany Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 4; California Task Force, “Interim Report,” 136; Bibbs, “Voices for Freedom,” 5; Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement,16.

Figure 52. Cover of the proceedings for
the first California Colored Convention,
held in Sacramento in 1855. Source:

Colored Conventions Project.

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collect money for his legal defense. Mary Ellen Pleasant aided in the efforts to free Lee, helping to hire lawyers to represent Lee and arranging hiding for him.187 Prominent white attorney and founder of the Crocker Art Museum, Edwin B. Crocker, defended Lee in front of the California Supreme Court in Sacramento, arguing that Stovall had violated state law because he had established residency in the state when he opened his school. The judge ruled in Lee’s favor, setting him free. Despite later attempts to have Lee rearrested, he ultimately achieved his freedom and resettled in British Columbia.188

The question of the status of Black people brought to
California continued to be raised over the next several years.

Just after people of color regained the right to testify in court in 1863, Daniel Blue seized the opportunity to file a legal case to free the last known enslaved Black person in California, a 12-year-old girl named Edith. Edith had been illegally
purchased by a farmer from Tennessee, abused, and forcibly held at a farm in rural Sacramento County. In 1864, Blue filed a writ of habeas corpus (a petition to “produce the body”) to have Edith brought to court. The judge trying the case found

187 Susheel Bibbs, “Notes on The Archy Trials,” October 6, 2022; Susheel Bibbs, “Mary Ellen Pleasant – A Brief Biography,” October 6, 2022. 188 Mary Beth Barber, “Archy Lee: The Golden State’s ‘Dred Scott’ Legal Case,” California State Library Foundation, June 12, 2020 , accessed August 24, 2022, https://cslf.medium.com/archy-lee-80a41d1ffeda.

Figure 53. A member of the
Sacramento Zouaves. Asher. Source:

Burg, “From The Civil War to Civil
Rights,” The Metropole, April 9, 2018.

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that Edith had been unlawfully detained and granted her guardianship to Blue.189

After the repeal of the ban on Black testimony in 1863 and abolition of slavery with the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, Black activists turned their attention to obtaining the right to vote. A Black militia, the Sacramento Zouaves, was formed in 1867 and made its first appearance at an emancipation celebration on January 1, 1868. In addition to being a paramilitary group, the Zouaves advocated for and encouraged support for Black voting rights and civic participation. Although Zouaves militia members themselves could not vote, they marched in support of the local Republic Party and its pro-abolitionist platform. Known early members include Lieutenants William Gault and William Quinn, Captain Sims Emory, First Lieutenant Isaiah Dunlap, Second Lieutenant Albert Grubbs, Sr., and Captain Robert R. Fletcher, perhaps Sacramento’s first Black medical professional.190 Black men received the right to vote with the ratification of the 15th Amendment in 1870.191

189 Asal Ehsanipour, “How the Founder of California’s First Black Church Fought Its Last Known Slavery Case,” KQED, February 25, 2022, accessed August 24, 2022, https://www.kqed.org/news/11818409/how-the-founder-of-californias-first-Black-church-fought-its-last-known-slavery-case. 190 Burg, "From the Civil War to Civil Rights.”
191 California Task Force, “Interim Report,” 136.

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Figure 54. Portrait of Elizabeth Scott Thorn Flood
taken in the 1850s. Source: African American
Museum & Library at Oakland.

Figure 55. Rev. Jeremiah B. Sanderson. Source:

LocalWiki, Oakland Wiki.

One of the primary causes around which the Black community mobilized during the first decade after the Gold Rush was access to public education for Black and minority children. At the time, Black, Native American, Chinese American, and Japanese American children were not allowed to attend schools with white children, and no other provisions were made for their education.192 As such, the first schools for Black children were segregated, founded by private individuals and organizations, and funded entirely by community donations. The first known school in Sacramento for Black children was founded by Elizabeth Scott Thorn Flood in 1854.

The school was organized at the St. Andrew’s AME church building and later operated out of a house on 2nd Street between M and N streets before closing when Flood left to get married.193 The educational goals of Sacramento’s Black community were carried forward by the 1855 Colored Convention in Sacramento, which produced a mandate to establish schools for California’s Black children. To help enact this mandate, Reverend Jeremiah B. Sanderson, recently arrived from Massachusetts, was invited to reorganize and run Sacramento’s “colored” school at the corner of 5th and O streets.194 Reflecting the close ties between San Francisco’s

192 Wildy, “Mend a Broken Chain,” 122.
193 The Negro Trail Blazers of California, 174.
194 Bibbs, “Mary Ellen Pleasant – A Brief Biography,” October 6, 2022; Bibbs, “Voices for Freedom,” 5.

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and Sacramento’s Black communities, Sanderson’s schools, including the one in Sacramento, were sponsored by prominent Black San Francisco activist Mary Ellen Peasant.

Like other African Americans who arrived in California from the Northeast, Elizabeth Scott Thorn Flood and J.B. Sanderson’s drive to advance the rights of Black residents of California was influenced by their upbringing in Massachusetts, the center for the abolitionist movement in the United States in the 19th century. Sanderson and Flood were both educated in New Bedford, Massachusetts, one of the only cities in the country that supported integrated public schools in the 1850s. Shortly after his arrival in Sacramento, Sanderson successfully petitioned the city school board for financial support for Black schools. Sanderson’s petition led the City Council to pass an amendment to the city charter in 1855, authorizing the creation of free public schools for children of color.195 Sanderson went on to found other schools for children of color in San Francisco and Stockton. He continued to work for the education of Black children across California throughout the 1860s and 1870s. In 1871, as an officer of the District Educational Conventional, meeting in Stockton, he helped petition the state legislature to allow Black children to attend public schools with white children. The petition led to the introduction of bills to the State Assembly and Senate. However, it wasn’t until 1874 that a state law was passed, securing the right of all California children to public education.196

Although the amendment to the city charter allowed for funds to be appropriated to the “colored” schools, this funding was repeatedly denied over the following years. In 1860, a state law passed that permitted racially segregated public schools to receive public funding from local authorities for the first time. These early segregated schools were important predecessors to Sacramento’s first racially integrated schools, which were authorized in 1894.197 Sarah Mildred Jones, who had taught at one of the city ’s colored schools, Ungraded School No. 2 – Colored, was appointed principal of the Fremont Primary School at 24th and N streets, becoming the first Black principal in Sacramento’s history. Upon her appointment, 36 white parents threatened to remove their children from the school unless she was removed. Ninety-

195 Susan Bragg, “Knowledge is Power: Sacramento Blacks and the Public Schools, 1854-1860’,” California History 75, No. 3 (Fall 1996): 215-221. 196 Delilah L. Beasley, The Negro Trail Blazers of California (Los Angeles: Delilah L. Beasley, 1919), 174-182. 197 Bragg, “Knowledge is Power: Sacramento Blacks and the Public Schools,” 215-221.

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eight local educators responded by signing a letter of support for Jones. She remained in the position until her retirement in 1914.198

Because of their small number and shared experiences with racial discrimination, the African American community often banded together with members of other ethnic minority groups, especially the local Chinese American community, to challenge the state ’s racist laws, policies, and practices. Lacking the size and economic and political power to build other large, dedicated buildings for gatherings, few if any known non-religious meeting halls were built specifically or exclusively for Black groups and organizations during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Instead, local African American activists used other existing establishments that were owned or controlled by Black or minority residents, such as the Chinese, to meet and address issues facing the community. With much of the community’s leadership springing from the local Black churches during the 19th and early 20th century, church buildings, especially St. Andrews AME,

198 Burg, "From the Civil War to Civil Rights.”
Figure 56. Sarah Mildred Jones (center) with students at Ungraded School No. 2 - Colored (1882). Source: Center for Sacramento History, Clarissa Hundley Wildy Collection, 2000/061/030.

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became some of the most common meeting places. In the 1850s, Hackett House, a hotel owned by Black abolition leaders Charles Hackett and Charles Parker at 3rd Street between K and L streets, also gained a reputation as a popular gathering place for local abolitionists and civil rights activists. Archy Lee fled to Hackett House to escape capture and transportation back to the South in 1858.199

In the early 20th century, racism toward anyone who was not white and Protestant increased across the United States in reaction to the large influx of immigrants into the country. In 1915, Alabama preacher William J. Simmons revived the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), modeling it after the popular fraternal organizations of the period with a central headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia and a national recruitment structure that allowed it to rapidly spread outside the South to the Midwest and Western states.200 New KKK chapters formed across the country, including cities in California.201 The growing visibility of, and increased participation in, the KKK during the 1910s and 1920s presented a new, growing threat to Sacramento’s Black residents. Between 1908 and 1915, Black residents organized several times to protest local performances of Thomas Dixon, Jr.’s racist play, “The Clansman,” which vilified the Reconstruction era in the South and glorified the rise of the KKK. Protests were held at the Clunie Theater in 1908 and 1910 and at the Deipenbrock Theater in 1911. Due to the small size of the Black community and limited avenues available for Black people to address racial injustice at the time, mounting meaningful protests proved to be initially challenging, and they failed to prevent the performances from going forward. In 1911, Rev. R.H. Herring of St. Andrews AME filed a formal protest with Sacramento Mayor Marshall Beard to halt performances of the play. His appeal was ignored.

After the play was adapted into the 1915 film “The Birth of a Nation,” Black activists, now more organized from their earlier experiences, mobilized again. A delegation of 24 representatives from the city’s Black churches and community groups joined to voice their opposition to City Commissioner Ed Carragher. In response, Carragher granted a limited concession: the film would be shown but with the most offensive scenes edited out. At a time when racism was growing across the country, this was a significant win for the local Black community.202

In spite of efforts such as these, membership in the KKK across the country continued to grow, peaking in the early 1920s. The first known local meeting of the KKK in Sacramento occurred in

199 Burg, "From the Civil War to Civil Rights.”
200 “Ku Klux Klan, Realm of California Collection,” California State University, Northridge University Library, accessed June 14, 2023, https://library.csun.edu/SCA/Peek-in-the-Stacks/KuKluxKlan. 201 Marcia Eymann and Kim Hayden, producers, The KKK in Sacramento - What We Didn't Learn In School [video] (Sacramento, CA: Center for Sacramento History, 2022), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3hyl0O4cyg. 202 Burg, "From the Civil War to Civil Rights.”
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1921 on the Lower Stockton Road (now Franklin Boulevard), just south of downtown Sacramento, when more than 4,000 members gathered. One year later, more than 300 new members, including several City employees, were initiated into the KKK at the organization’s first initiation ceremony in Sacramento at the Masonic Muddox Hall at 3455 5th Avenue (extant) in Oak Park. In the early 1920s, the KKK sought to spread its racist ideals by donating to local Presbyterian churches and by infiltrating the local government and other positions of power.

The Sacramento Bee worked to expose known KKK members. Upon learning of the organization’s growing presence in Sacramento, City Manager Clyde Seavy made several attempts to prevent the organization from gaining a foothold, banning the organization from Sacramento, authorizing City departments to investigate reports of staff joining the organization, dismissing City employees who were found to be members, and passing a local ordinance banning the wearing of disguises or masks in public places. Yet, KKK activity continued, and several KKK-backed candidates were elected to political office in the 1922 Sacramento County elections. The organization declined, although white supremacist views persisted in the second half of the 1920s, in part due to internal corruption.203

Activism & Resistance, ca. 1916-1960

THE NAACP
In 1916, a major new development occurred that would
bolster the local African American community’s ongoing fight for civil rights. That year, Reverend Thomas Allen Harvey arrived in Sacramento as the founding pastor of Kyles Temple AMEZ Church and soon established Sacramento Chapter of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), one of the earliest branches of the
organization on the West Coast.204 One of the later founders of the Negro Women’s Civic Improvement Club (NWCIC) and a
prominent member of Shiloh Baptist Church, Netta Sparks,

203 Eymann and Hayden, The KKK in Sacramento.
204 Burg, "From Civil War to Civil Rights.”
Figure 57. T. Allen Harvey. Source:
“Sacramento NAACP 100th
Anniversary: A Century of Civil
Rights, Sacramento Observer,
2006.

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served as the branch’s first secretary.205 Subsequently, leadership in the local fight for civil rights began to gradually shift from Black churches to the NAACP.

Reverend Harvey served as the bridge between
the churches and the NAACP. He was the local
branch’s first president and became a leading
political and spiritual figure in Sacramento’s
African American community as a result of his
work for numerous causes throughout the city.

In 1918, he won the first known racial
discrimination case in Sacramento’s history
when he successfully sued the W.L. Bigelow
Restaurant at 3008 35th Street for unlawfully
refusing him service. Under Harvey’s leadership,
the NAACP brought Black speakers to the city to
discuss prominent issues facing the community,
bringing greater attention to them. Looking to
gain more powerful means of serving the Black
community, he unsuccessfully ran for the
position of City Commissioner in 1919 and City
Council in 1921, becoming the first Black person
to run for political office in Sacramento.

Undeterred, Harvey continued to organize on
behalf of local Black residents and founded the
Crispus Attucks Soldiers ’and Sailor’s Club, also
known as Crispus Attucks Lodge No. 19, Knights
of Pythias.206 By 1921, the club had its own
community center at 3401 2nd Avenue (extant).207
The club remained active through at least the
1970s.208

205 Forrest and Entezari, “Shiloh Baptist Church,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. 206 Burg, "From the Civil War to Civil Rights.”
207 “Oak Park,” Sacramento Bee, 4 November 1919: 6; “Rev. Harvey Asks City Aid For Center,” Sacramento Star, 1 April 1921: 2. 208 Untitled article. Sacramento Bee, 7 September 1978: 40.

Figure 58. Newspaper article about T.A. Harvey’s
discrimination case against W.L. Bigelow’s
restaurant. Source: Sacramento Star, 25 July
1918: 2.

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With the KKK and racial violence on the rise, the Sacramento NAACP branch aggressively fought discrimination on numerous fronts during the 1920s. The branch pushed back against derogatory representations of African Americans in the Sacramento Bee and Sacramento Union by organizing letter writing campaigns, surveys of local Black residents, and meetings with the newspapers’ administration to force them to publish an apology. The branch also led a successful effort to convince the City of Sacramento to hire Black garbage workers as part of its sanitation force. After a young Black boy was lynched in Oakland in 1923, the Oakland and San Francisco branches of the NAACP asked the Sacramento branch to join them in efforts to get Congress to pass an anti-lynching bill. That April, the NAACP held an integrated mass meeting of Black and white supporters, who pledged to keep the KKK out of Sacramento and drafted a resolution to send to the leading white organizations in the city, asking them to speak out against the KKK.

As efforts to get anti-lynching legislation passed intensified in 1925, several nationally prominent figures came to Sacramento to drum up support by speaking to members of the local branch of the NAACP. On January 19, 1924, renowned Black author and lecturer Dr. W.E.B.

Dubois came to Sacramento, with the intention of speaking to a racially mixed audience.

Unable to find a public hall willing to host the event – and reflecting the strong, interwoven relationship between the local Black churches and NAACP – the event was held at St. Andrews AME to a standing-room only crowd.209 In May of the same year, Missouri Congressman Leonidas C. Dyer, who had earlier introduced the first anti-lynching bill to Congress in 1918, spoke to the Sacramento NAACP about his renewed efforts to get legislation passed. The meeting, held at the Supervisors Hall of the County Court House, attracted a crowd of approximately 120 people.210 In spite of widespread interracial support, opposition from Southern legislators prevented an anti-lynching bill from becoming federal law until the passage of the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act in 2022.211

The Sacramento NAACP branch dissolved in 1930 due to declining membership, likely at least in part as a result of the effects of the Great Depression.212 The influx of a large number of new African American residents from the South into Sacramento during the 1940s and postwar period revitalized the organization. The new arrivals, many of whom had held professional careers in the South and were used to resisting entrenched discrimination, brought a renewed

209 “Sacramento NAACP 100th Anniversary: A Century of Civil Rights,” Sacramento Observer, 2006, 6. 210 Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Volume 65, Issue 2 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. 1918), 297. 211 Louis P. Masur, “Why it Took a Century to Pass an Anti-Lynching Law,” The Washington Post, 28 December 2018; Felicia Sonmez, “Senate Unanimously Passes Anti-Lynching Bill After Century of Failure,” The Washington Post, 8 March 2022. 212 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 96.

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energy and drive to push back against the status quo.

Under the leadership of these new arrivals, NAACP
became the most powerful force for racial justice in
Sacramento during the post-World War II period. New
programs and strategies established by the national
offices of the NAACP bolstered their efforts. Among these were the establishment of the Legal Defense and
Education Fund in 1939, which provided support for local attorneys dealing with civil rights cases across the
country. This was followed by a national conference held by the NAACP in 1945 to discuss racial covenants, entitled “Successfully Challenging the Constitutionality of
Enforcing Racial Covenants at the Supreme Court.” The
conference was attended by many of the leading Black
attorneys involved in restrictive covenant cases and laid out a strategy for combating racist housing policies that was taken up by local Black attorneys and branches of
the NAACP, including those in Sacramento. The strategy
included arguing the unconstitutionality of racial
covenants, increasing the number of legal challenges
against covenant enforcement to inflict economic pain on litigants and show the resolve of the African American
community, and focusing cases on Northern cities, where official policies were non-discriminatory on paper if not in reality.213 Bolstered by a new class of African American professionals and greater coordination with the national office, the Sacramento branch of the NAACP achieved
major victories in the fights for equal housing, education, employment in the 1950s and 1960s that impacted not
just Sacramentans, but African Americans across the
nation, largely through its involvement in major state and federal court cases.214

213 Carson Anderson, “Historical Overview: The Civil Rights Effort to End Segregation Housing In America, 1910-1960,” September 2022. 214 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 139-141.

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Much of the local NAACP’s success and expansion of civil rights achieved during the postwar period were the result of the tireless efforts of one of the newly arrived professionals who settled in Sacramento, attorney Nathaniel Colley. Colley arrived in Sacramento in 1948 shortly after graduating from Yale Law School and established the first known African American legal practice in the city. Colley immediately threw himself into taking up cases that challenged racially discriminatory practices. In 1949, he represented Albert Bacon, a Black tile setter who had not been allowed to join the local trade union, and two young men who had been beaten by police into giving a confession. One year later, he successfully argued a case to integrate the Land Park Plunge, a public swimming pool located on Riverside Boulevard in the Land Park neighborhood that prohibited people of color from using the pool. By 1951, he joined the local branch of the NAACP as legal counsel, and by 1952, he was vice-president of the organization.

The same year, the African American magazine, Colorfornia, dubbed Colley “the undisputed leader in the colored community” of Sacramento.215 Working on cases with local, state, and national reach, Colley became a recognized national leader in the effort to end racial discrimination and achieve equal rights for African Americans across the country.216

215 “Colorfornia Visits California’s Capitol City,” Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952): 14-22. 216 Paula Boghosian, “New Helvetia Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, 2014, 8.16.

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Figure 59. Nathaniel Colley with Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown (right) and Senator Clair Engle (left) (ca. 1962).

Source: Center for Sacramento History.

Spearheaded by Colley, Sacramento became a hotbed for the fight for fair housing. Even after the 1948 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelley v. Kraemer and Banks v. San Francisco in 1953, which declared that racial restrictive covenants were unenforceable, Black individuals continued to be excluded from living in many neighborhoods in Sacramento by real estate agents who steered them away. Homeowner associations and neighbors also pressured homeowners to only sell to white families or intimidated African American and Black residents to prevent them from buying in certain neighborhoods. This included the majority of newly

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constructed postwar subdivisions.217 Racial discrimination persisted in public housing as well. In 1951, the local chapter of the NAACP, under the leadership of Reverend Dr. L. Sylvester Odom, formed a housing committee headed by Clarence Bell to challenge racial discrimination and segregation of Black residents at the New Helvetia public housing project (extant), which was located on Broadway on the west side of the Old City Cemetery and operated by the Sacramento Housing Authority. Of the 310 available units at New Helvetia, only 16 were set aside for African American residents. These units were segregated into two buildings, separate from those that housed white residents. If vacancies occurred in any of the other buildings, Black applicants were not allowed to apply. Realizing the need for a community-wide effort to win the case, Nathaniel Colley organized the Sacramento Committee Against Segregation in Public Housing (Sacramento Committee) with Myra West in December 1952. Other committee

217 SurveyLA, Los Angeles Citywide Historic Context Statement, Context: African American History of Los Angeles, 41-46.

Figure 60. Reverend Sylvester Odom (left) and Alvernon Tripp (right), ca. 1950. Both Reverend Odom and Tripp served as president of the Sacramento Chapter of the NAACP. Source: St. Andrew's AME Church.

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leaders included Virna Canson, who served as committee secretary. The Sacramento Committee included 25 local entities, including churches, political groups, unions, charities, and labor unions who supported an end to racial segregation. The committee met with the Sacramento Housing Authority to challenge discriminatory practices at New Helvetia but, in spite of promises from the SHA, the segregation of nonwhite residents continued. In response, Colley filed a suit on behalf of the NAACP in 1952. A group vote was taken to pursue litigation against the SHA at an organizational meeting of the NAACP which occurred at St. Andrew’s AME.

The Sacramento County Superior Court ruled in Colley’s favor, finding that segregation was not legal in public housing projects.218

In 1954, Colley teamed up with prominent Los Angeles attorney Loren Miller and San Francisco attorney Franklin Williams to challenge racial discrimination in developments funded by the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and Veterans Administration (VA). Led by Colley, the legal team filed a lawsuit on behalf of Oliver A. Ming, a Black World War II veteran and employee of McClellan Air Force Base, and nine other African American residents, against several of the largest real estate and construction firms in Sacramento County. Collectively, the firms had built or sold nearly all of the FHA- and VA-funded housing in the county over the previous decade, including numerous postwar subdivisions in the area. The plaintiffs alleged that these firms had discriminated against African American residents by refusing to sell any of their housing units to them because of their race. In its Ming v. Horgan decision, the Sacramento Superior Court declared that real estate developers and builders who received federal funds for housing projects could not engage in racial discrimination against individuals who were qualified and wanted to purchase a home.219 Along with the end of the doctrine of “separate but equal” facilities in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, these rulings legally ended racial discrimination and segregation in federally-funded housing.

In spite of these decisions, racial discrimination persisted in private housing in California through the 1960s. In 1964, Colley joined other attorneys to successfully overturn California Proposition 14, which had blocked the 1963 Rumford Fair Housing Act from going into effect.

The Rumford Fair Housing Act eliminated, once and for all, the use of restrictive covenants in California that denied housing to anyone on the basis of ethnicity, religion, sex, marital status,

218 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 37-38.
219 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 240-252.

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handicap, or family status.220 The law was an important forerunner to the 1968 National Housing Act, which prohibited housing discrimination by race, color, creed, or national origin.221

Colley tackled other race issues as well. In 1959, he helped secure passage of the state Fair Employment Practices Act as co-chair of the California Committee for Fair Employment Practices. The law prohibited discrimination in the workplace. The following year, he was appointed to the State Board of Education by Governor Edmund G. “Pat” Brown where he drafted regulations to end segregation in California school districts. In 1961 and 1962, President John F. Kennedy appointed Colley to serve on the Committee on Discrimination in the U.S.

Armed Forces and, where Colley subsequently worked to end racial prejudice in the U.S. military.222

The NAACP’s work to uplift Sacramento’s Black community extended beyond Colley’s efforts. In 1950, the local branch established its own credit union, the first such institution established by any branch of the NAACP in the United States. The credit union provided credit to African American residents at the lowest possible interest rates, giving them access to low-cost loans, savings plans, life insurance, and financial counseling that were otherwise denied to them or financially out of reach. It also provided training, experience, and income for young Black students with an interest in business.223 The credit union was originally located at the same location as the NAACP’s branch office at 621 P Street. Following redevelopment of the West End and demolition of the original branch location in the late 1950s, the NAACP Credit Union was relocated to 2404 21st Street (extant), which also housed the law offices of African American attorney and NAACP vice-president, Clarence Canson.224

220 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 93-94.
221 Herbert G. Ruffin II, “The California Fair Housing Act [The Rumford Act’ (1963-1968),” June 2, 2022, Black Past, accessed August 41, 2022, https://www.Blackpast.org/african-american-history/california-fair-housing-act-rumford-act-1963-1968/. 222 Quon and de Courcy, “Nathaniel Colley & Associates Law Offices,” California Department of Parks and Recreation Primary Record . 223 "Explains NAACP Program," Sacramento Bee, 25 January 1963. 224 Sacramento Negro Directory, 1965 (Sacramento, CA: Sacramento Observer, 1965).

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Figure 61. Leadership of the Sacramento chapter of the NAACP, circa 1950s. The top row includes Palmer Pinkney (far left), Nathaniel Colley (center), John Sims (second from the right), Douglas Greer (far right). The first row includes Virna Canson (far left), Novelyn Sims (third from the left) and her son, and Jerlean Colley (far right).

Source: Virna Canson Papers, African American Museum and Library at Oakland.

The NAACP Credit Union was founded by Reverend David Daniel Mattocks of the Kyles Temple AME Zion church, who served as its secretary until his death in 1954.225 By 1965, leaders of the credit union included president Nathaniel Colley, secretary Gertrude Blackwell, vice president Reverend Joseph Williams, and treasurer-manager Virna M. Canson, Clarence Canson’s wife.

Next to Colley, Virna Canson became one of the most prominent leaders of the NAACP at the local, state, and national levels, earning her the nickname, “Mrs. NAACP.”226 She served as treasurer-manager for the NAACP Credit Union from 1953 to 1965. Under her leadership, the credit union’s assets grew from $35,000 to $400,000. Canson was born in Oklahoma in 1921.

After graduating from high school in Oklahoma at the top of her class, she graduated from the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and the Credit Union National Association for Credit Union Personnel at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She moved to Sacramento in 1940, following her marriage to Sacramento native Clarence Canson, who she had met at the Tuskegee

225 "D.D. Mattocks, ExPastor Of AME Zion, Dies," Sacramento Bee, 26 June 1954. 226 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 149.

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Institute and fellow member of the NAACP. Virna Canson became a consumer education and credit specialist and advocate of statewide significance.

She served on Governor Edmund G. Brown’s
advisory committee to the State Office of
Consumer Counsel, which she lobbied to
establish in 1962 with the support of consumer
education organizations and credit union
organization across the state. In 1965, she left her
position with the NAACP Credit Union to lend her
expertise to the State, where she worked as
Credit Union and Consumer Education Specialist
for the California State Office of Economic
Opportunity until 1967. During this period, she
helped establish the State's first experimental
Service Center Program. She also served as a
member of the National Council of Negro Women
and Racial Justice Task Force of the Northern
California Conference of the United Church of
Christ (Congregation Church), president of the
Democratic Women’s Club of Sacramento, and
was tapped several times during the 1960s by the
California Democratic State Central Committee to
help select candidates for state elective office and rally support for those candidates. In the 1960s and 1970s, Canson continued to rise as a leader within the NAACP, becoming Field Director and Legislative Advocate of the organization in 1969 and Western Regional Director in 1974. As regional director, she was in charge of eight states, spanning from Alaska to California and Idaho to Hawaii. In her role with the NAACP, Canson was involved with several important pieces of legislation and court decisions, including the Rumford Fair Housing Act, the victory against Proposition 14, and overturning the decision in Bakke v. Board of Regents of the University of California, which upheld the use of affirmative action in college admissions. She also helped develop the NAACP Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) to recognize the achievements of Black youth. She retired from the NAACP in 1988.227

227 "Canson, Virna M.," Sacramento Bee, 22 April 2003.

Figure 62. Virna Canson, ca. 1975. Source: Virna
Canson Papers, African American Museum and
Library at Oakland.

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Other prominent local NAACP leaders included Alvernon Tripp, who served as secretary of the local chapter for seven years and president for another six years. Under her leadership, the chapter’s membership increased fivefold. She was chosen as Sacramento’s Woman of the Year in 1968, and, at the time of her retirement in 1970, she was voted the local NAACP Woman of the Decade.228

GRASSROOTS ACTIVISM
Individuals and grassroot organizations in Sacramento’s African American community, apart from the substantial efforts of Nathaniel Colley and the NAACP, joined the quest to expand civil rights and equality of opportunity.

Without support from the City or local officials through much of the first half of the 20th century, the African American community organized to provide needed services and other support for its members. Individual community members confronted both written and unwritten forms of housing discrimination by providing housing options for local African American residents. From at least the 1920s, pioneering Black realtors opened real estate firms to sell property to residents of color in an era when no other realtors would do so. These included L.N. Crawford in the 1920s, J.R. Smith in the 1940s, and George Seabron and Lucille Williams, wife of Reverend Joseph Williams of the Shiloh Baptist Church, in the 1950s.229

Black institutions and organizations also took it upon themselves to provide housing for their members. One such example is the Negro Women’s Civic Improvement Club (NWCIC). Founded in 1936 by a group of women, including Viola Brooks and Netta Sparks, the organization provided safe, comfortable housing for single Black women, who otherwise found their options for housing extremely limited or non-existent. During World War II and the postwar period, guests included women employed at McClellan Air Force Base and Mather Field. The organization was led by elder Black women and initially located at 19th and T streets before relocating to a Victorian mansion at 1219 X Street. This building was demolished during the construction of Highway 50, forcing the NWCIC to move once again, this time to its existing

228 “Capitol Civic Leader Retires,” Sacramento Bee, 1 July 1970. 229 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 33, 51-52; “Colorfornia Visits California’s Capitol City,” Colorfornia: The California Magazine 1, no. 4 (1952):
14-22.

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Figure 63. Viola Brooks (ca. 1920). Source: St.

Andrews AME.

Figure 64. Netta Sparks. Source: Center for
Sacramento History newspaper collection.

Figure 65. Image of the Women's Civic Improvement Club building (extant) from the building’s dedication.

Source: African American Museum and Library at Oakland.

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location in Oak Park at 3555 3rd Avenue (extant). NAACP leader Alvernon Tripp served as executive director of the organization in the 1960s and was instrumental in the relocation effort.230 The organization continued its mission in its new neighborhood. In 1970, the NWCIC joined with the Shiloh Baptist Church to construct the Shiloh Arms, a low-income housing complex at 4009 23rd Avenue (extant) in Oak Park.231

Local Black women also founded and led organizations to help Black families in Del Paso Heights. In 1947, a group of women, including Auntine Burney, Minette Smith, Hattie Thornton, Georgia Leeberry, and Hattie Williams, established the Good Neighbors Club to help Black families relocate from the South to Sacramento during and immediately following World War II.232 The club received support and was headquartered at Allen Chapel AME Church. The club created and operated a state-funded non-profit Food Neighbors Child Care Center on Morey Avenue, which offered childcare to Del Paso Heights children on a sliding scale.233 Families without enough money to pay were offered childcare for free. Some of the club’s other notable accomplishments included receiving funding for the first Head Start program in Del Paso Heights and sponsoring Boy Scout Troup #157.234

Figure 66. The board of the Good Neighbors Club of Del Paso Heights (ca. 1960). From left to right: Mrs. Connor, Essie Brown, Queenola McKnight, Mable Dillard, Gertrude Blackwell, Gladys Luster, Minette Smith.

230 “Capitol Civic Leader Retires,” Sacramento Bee, 1 July 1970. 231 Interview with Ginger Rutland, conducted by Danielle Baza, City of Sacramento Oral History Project, December 2021; Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 51.
232 Sheila Roundtree and Joyce Burney Askia, North Sacramento/DPH Community Meeting, March 10, 2023, notes taken by Carson Anderson, City of Sacramento.
233 "People," Sacramento Bee, 18 April 1991.
234 Del Paso Heights & Hagginwood: Our Roots, People, Places, and Memories (Undated and Unpublished).

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New Approaches to Resistance & Community Uplift, ca. 1960-1980 In the 1960s, new approaches to resistance against racial prejudice and community uplift began to emerge. Until this point, the local African American community’s strategy for addressing racial injustice had been primarily characterized by traditional methods that worked within existing power structures and institutions to affect gradual change. Under the leadership of the NAACP, much of this change in Sacramento occurred through court cases and petitions to local political leaders. By the 1960s, however, members of the local African American community grew dissatisfied by the continuing racial injustices they faced and sought more aggressive, direct means of bringing about real, demonstrable progress. These direct approaches evolved from marches, protests, and sit-ins in the 1960s to the founding of a wide range of community organizations to provide needed community services and increasing direct participation in the local political process as elected officials in the 1970s.

The shift was partially influenced by the influx of new Black residents from Southern states in the 1940s and 1950s. Many initially found their lives in Sacramento to be a welcome improvement from the overt racism they experienced in the South. As California experienced an unprecedented period of growth and prosperity in the postwar period, however, many Black residents became increasingly frustrated by their lack of experiencing a fair share of the state’s successes. Following the lead of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the broader civil rights movement ’s model of enacting change through peaceful civil disobedience, Black residents in Sacramento organized community groups and participated in protests, rallies, and sit-ins to resist and bring awareness to continuing issues of racial injustices that pervaded many aspects of their daily lives.235 By the late 1960s, local responses reflected the growing popularity of the Black Power and Black Consciousness movements nationwide. The Black Power movement was inspired by the teachings of Nation of Islam leader, Malcolm X, who called for combating centuries of oppression through Black self-determination, Black self-reliance, and Black pride.

Malcolm X’s philosophies gained steam following his assassination and the Watts Riots in Los Angeles in 1965. In 1966, Stokely Carmichael, then chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), popularized the term “Black power” during several speeches.

Breaking with the broader civil rights movement, Black power advocates demanded political and socioeconomic power for Black people in their own right, rather than integration into white society, in order to strengthen Black communities and allow them to determine their own futures. The Black Power movement’s expression of self-sufficiency inspired the establishment

235 Fisher, “Far from Utopia,” 226.

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of Black bookstores, schools, clinics, stores, and other businesses and institutions in cities across the United States, including Sacramento.236

COMMUNITY GROUPS & ORGANIZATIONS
Numerous community groups and organizations were founded throughout Sacramento’s history to uplift the African American community and address race issues more broadly. Many of these groups were formed in the 1960s, as Sacramento’s growing number of Black residents continued to experience a lack of housing and employment opportunities. Increased poverty in Sacramento’s ethnic minority neighborhoods, such as Oak Park and Del Paso Heights, also drove the activism. In Oak Park alone, groups such as the Oak Park Neighborhood Council, Oak Park Action and Service Group, Pyramid Club of Oak Park, and the Oak Park Merchants Association were established in the 1960s to address community concerns. In 1968, eight of these groups joined to form the Oak Park Federation of Organizations. The federation aimed to coordinate the actions of the many neighborhood community groups to create a more streamlined and potent force for change in the community. Community groups such as these served as important training grounds for individuals who would become leaders in the African American community, as well as those in the local civil rights movement.237

Organizations such as the Sacramento branch of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Sacramento Committee for Fair Housing (SCFH) also formed in the 1960s and bolstered the legal efforts of the NAACP through more direct actions. At the national level, CORE pioneered the use of nonviolent direct actions – such as sit-ins and bus boycotts – in the civil rights movement, gaining fame for organizing the Freedom Rides in 1961 and providing guidance to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1950s and early 1960s. By the late 1960s, the organization broke from its earlier strictly nonviolent tactics and adopted many of the ideologies of the Black power movement, including Black nationalism and self-determination.238 The actions of the Sacramento branch of CORE echoed those of the national organization. In the early 1960s, the Sacramento CORE organized numerous civil rights protests, including a sit-in in the rotunda of the State Capitol building in 1963 to support passage of the Rumford Fair Housing Act.

Reflecting its wide range of activity, in 1969 the organization partnered with real estate agent George Seabron to purchase a grocery store at 2949 35th Street with the intention of using it to

236 “The Foundations of Black Power,” Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, accessed October 26, 2022, https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/foundations-black-power. 237 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 60.
238 “Congress of Racial Equality (CORE),” Martin Luther King Jr. Encyclopedia, The Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, accessed October 27, 2022, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/congress-racial-equality-core.

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provide food, jobs, and employment training to members of the Oak Park community.239 The SCFH’s purpose, meanwhile, was more focused, seeking to ensure equal housing opportunities for all residents of Sacramento, regardless of their race, religion, or national origin. Its membership included a range of professional, academic, civic, and religion leaders, such as Dr, Leonard Cain, Jr., Dr. Paul F.C. Mueller, realtor Ed Bussey, and CORE president Robert Tyler.240 In 1961, Dr. Cain published a report titled Housing Discrimination in Metropolitan Sacramento, which provided a detailed analysis of residential segregation in Sacramento. They distributed pamphlets to white property owners and published a follow-up paper in 1962, Successful Integration in Sacramento, to show that there was no loss in property value when Black residents moved into predominantly white neighborhoods. These efforts were accompanied by more direct actions, such as demonstrations to protest housing discrimination in South Land Park Hills and conducting experiments to assess differing experiences of Black and white residents when looking for housing.241

Other groups sought to address the root of race issues by confronting prejudice on a person- to-person basis. In 1964, a group of local African American residents – including James Morgan, Dr. Thomas Slaughter, John Braxton, Oliver Sims, Lois Printz, Peggy Matheson, and Jessie Theard – formed the Interracial Home Visiting Committee to welcome white residents into the homes of Black residents. According to chairman, Dr. Thomas Slaughter II, the goal was to promote “racial harmony [and offer] a concrete way for men and women of goodwill to participate in the urgent and necessary task of reducing the misunderstanding which develops when people are isolated because of race.”242 In one such event in 1964, 23 Black families hosted 230 white visitors into their homes.243

Such community organizations provided coordinated strategies and a platform for local Black residents to respond to racial injustice in their neighborhoods, as well as the wider city, and played a significant role in the multi-faceted fight for racial equality.

STUDENT ORGANIZING
Much of the direct actions taken by members of the African American community to address racial injustice in the 1960s and 1970s revolved around the issue of educational inequality. A major turning point was the destruction of Stanford Junior High School at Martin Luther King Jr.

239 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 52.
240 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 254.
241 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 254-258.
242 “Home Visit Publicity,” Sacramento Bee, 15 May 1964: 72. 243 “Home Visit Publicity,” Sacramento Bee, 15 May 1964: 72.

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Boulevard and 10th Avenue, the only middle school in Oak Park, in a fire in 1963. At the time, over half of the school’s student body were Black, while Latinos, Asian Americans, and white students made up an additional 30 percent, reflecting the changes that had occurred to Oak Park’s demographics since the 1950s.244 Due to the high percentage of students of color, the City of Sacramento considered the school to be segregated. As part of its efforts to integrate the city’s school system, the Sacramento City Unified School District decided not to rebuild Stanford Junior High, leaving the Oak Park community without a nearby middle school for its children to attend. However, the City School District did not provide transportation for students.

As a result, children had to walk several miles to the nearest schools, California Middle School in Land Park, Sutter Middle School on the border of Midtown and East Sacramento, Kit Carson Middle School in East Sacramento, and others.245 Local residents who were children at the time described having to travel in groups for safety and cut holes in fences along the railroad tracks to reduce the walking distance to school. Children living in the “Four Corners” intersection of 4th Avenue and 42nd Street were sent to different public school in spite of being neighbors.246 The destruction of Stanford Junior High School brought into sharp focus the de facto discriminatory educational conditions experienced by Sacramento’s students of color and catalyzed efforts to address inequalities in the local education system over the following decade. The demographics of the city’s schools reflected the shift of the city’s minority residents from the West End into other neighborhoods. By the 1960s, the student populations of elementary and junior high schools in Oak Park, Glen Elder, Del Paso Heights, and others were predominately Black and Latino.247

In the late 1960s, local students organized to expose these unequal conditions and the lack of representation in school curriculums. On March 22, 1968, approximately 200 Black and Mexican American students walked out of an assembly at Sacramento High School, just a few weeks after similar walkouts (known as the Chicano Blowouts) at five high schools in predominately Latino neighborhoods of eastern Los Angeles garnered national attention. The Sacramento students held a rally to bring awareness of the underrepresentation of their cultures and histories in the school’s curriculum. The same year, a visit by Black Panthers Party co-leader Eldridge Cleaver inspired students at California State University, Sacramento and Sacramento City College to form branches of the Black Student Union (BSU). By 1969, the

244 Fisher, “Far From Utopia,” 275.
245 Princetta Purkins, interview by Deacon Dan Fontenot, Shiloh Baptist Church [transcription], December 17, 2022, African American Experience Oral History, Center for Sacramento History and Community Development Department; Joe Debbs, interview by Michael Benjamin at the Oak Park Community Center [transcription], February 3, 2022, African American Experience History Project, City of Sacramento Community Development Department.
246 Public comment, Sacramento African American Experience Project Partners Kickoff Meeting, Oak Park, June 7, 2022. 247 Caesar, “An Historical Overview of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1850-1980,” 181-182.

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university had a BSU chapter. Early officers of the City College BSU included president Emile Palmer and officer Frederick K. Foote. 248

The BSU organized a sit-in at the City College administrative offices, resulting in the formation of the Oak Park School of Afro American Thought, the first Black ethnic studies program in the city. Students appointed an administrator for the school, chose the classes that should be taught, and selected teachers for the program. The school was initially given a room the size of a janitorial closet at the American Legion Hall in Oak Park for classes. The students held a press conference to express their dissatisfaction with the facilities. In response college officials arranged for trailers to be stationed at the former site of Stanford Junior High School, until a permanent building was found.249 By July 1969, the program had a permanent location and theater, the Uhuru Theatre, at 3545 Sacramento Boulevard (now Broadway, possibly extant).250 The school had relocated to 3635 4th Avenue (extant) by the summer of 1970.251

Figure 67. A rally held by Black and Mexican American students of Sacramento High School on March 22, 1968.

Source: Center for Sacramento History.

248 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 63.
249 Interview with Frederick K. Foote, conducted by Dane Nicolas, City of Sacramento Oral History Project, November 29, 2021. 250 “Afro-American School Slates Talent Show,” Sacramento Bee, 29 July 1969: 34. 251 “SCC Again Offers College Classes In Oak Park School,” Sacramento Bee, 29 September 1970: 21.

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In 1969, the BSU issued a list of demands to Sacramento City College administrators, including the creation of a full Black Studies Program under the control of the school’s minority students and that Black history instructor James Fisher, who also taught at the School of Afro American Thought, be named chairman of a new Black Studies Department. The BSU’s demands inspired the college ’s Mexican American Youth Association (MAYA) to present a similar list of demands to the school.252

The effort to expand ethnic studies locally extended to grade school age children, as well.

According to Bertha Gorman, an early Black female writer for the Sacramento Bee, the Saturday School, also known as Shule Jumamose, taught nearly 100 local children to have pride in their Black identities every Saturday during the 1970s by providing classes about African American history and culture. The school, located at the Alpha Kappa Sorority Clubhouse at 3500 Second Avenue (extant) in Oak Park, organized and reportedly hosted the first Kwanzaa celebration in Sacramento around 1970.253

Figure 68. James Fisher (center) teaching students at the Oak Park School of Afro American Thought (1969).

Source: George Williams, "Oak Park Facility Sponsors Black Studies,” Sacramento Bee, 13 July 1969: 30.

252 “City College Nears Confrontations Over Negro Controlled Black Studies Program,” Sacramento Bee, 7 February 1969: 29-30. 253 Conversation with Bertha Gorman, conducted by Carson Anderson, August 7, 2022; “Kwanzaa Festival,” Sacramento Bee, 30 December 1978: 11.

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These student actions and ethnic studies programs helped to uplift the local African American community by bringing awareness to unequal conditions in the education system, closing the gap in educational representation, and fostering a sense of cultural pride in the city ’s African American youth.

UNREST IN OAK PARK & THE BLACK PANTHERS IN SACRAMENTO
Despite the ongoing efforts of community groups and organizations and progress in the fight for equal treatment in many sectors of daily life, frustration with employment opportunities and living conditions continued to grow, particularly among young Black people in Oak Park.

The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968 marked a significant turning point for many in the Black community, as it showed that tactics of peaceful organization could still be met with violence and a lack of progress. McClatchy Park became a popular gathering place for Oak Park’s restless youth and developed into a hotbed for social unrest that exploded into a series of conflicts with law enforcement in the late 1960s.254 The arrival of the Black Panther Party and growing police surveillance in the neighborhood in response to fears by white residents as the local Black population grew added fuel to the embers.

The Black Panther Party was founded by community college students in Oakland in 1966 with a goal of uplifting Black communities by dismantling entrenched systems and institutions that suppressed them and providing necessary community services. The party adopted a doctrine of self-help, providing essential services such as youth breakfast programs and health clinics, as well as self-defense in order to protect the community against police brutality.255

The Black Panther Party first became a major force in Sacramento on May 2, 1967, when a group of approximately 30 Panthers – armed with pistols, rifles, and shotguns – marched from Oakland to the floor of the Assembly Chambers at the State Capitol building to protest passage of the Mulford Act. The law proposed to prohibit open carrying of firearms on city streets and was perceived as a direct attack against the activities of the Black Panthers, who had begun conducting armed patrols of Oakland to monitor police activity. The event led to a spike in Black Panther membership among Black youth attracted to the group’s expression of militancy and support for a Black person’s right to self-defense but also increased perceptions among government officials and the media that its members were violent and dangerous.256 The

254 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 61.
255 Jasmine Senegal, untitled term paper, History 281C, University of California, Sacramento, 2021-2022, 5; Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 61-

62. 256 Justin Honeycutt, "The Effects of Adopting Militant Ideology for Social Justice: A Look at The Black Panther Party for Self D efense," term paper, History 281C, University of California, Sacramento, 2021, 10-14; Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 63.

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following year, a Sacramento chapter of the Black Panther Party was founded by Charles Brunson with offices located at 2941 35th Street in Oak Park. Members were recruited from BSUs at local high schools, colleges, and universities, while others were disillusioned Vietnam War veterans. The organization provided tutoring, legal aid, and a free breakfast program for schoolchildren at the United Church of Christ at 3308 4th Avenue worked with other local community groups; and organized rallies and demonstrations.257

During the summers of 1969 to 1971, however, growing unrest in Oak Park and the presence of the Black Panther Party erupted in conflict. In June 1969, members of the Black Panthers placed a lacquered sign with professionally painted white painted letters reading “Brotherhood Park” over the park sign at McClatchy Park. After the police removed the sign on June 12, a group of individuals cut down and burned the official park sign.258 The incident enflamed tensions in the neighborhood. On Jun 15, the police were called to Oak Park to respond to complaints from residents about disruptive behavior in the park. Gunfire broke out, and more than 100 shots were fired by the police and civilians, injuring between 15 and 20 people.259 In the aftermath, 40 people were arrested, and the Black Panther Party office was ransacked and destroyed.260 In response to property damage, many businesses on 35th Street, one of Oak Park’s main commercial corridors, closed and never reopened.

The following summer, on May 9, 1970, seven young Black men were arrested after police officer Bernard Bennett was shot while patrolling Oak Park and died. Three of the men were eventually released, but four – artists and Black Panther Party members Mark Teemer and Jack Strivers and BSU members Booker T. Cooke and Ceariaco Cabrillo – were tried.261 The men were represented by three newly minted local Black attorneys, James L. Long, Joseph Cooper, and Douglas Grier.262 In 1971, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Joseph A. DeCristoforo dismissed the case against the four men, labeled the Oak Park Four by the media, due to a lack of evidence and credible witnesses.263 The case and preceding summers of conflict united Sacramento’s Black community and brought increased attention to the issue of police brutality against the local Black community and helped spur progress in Black representation on the police force and in local politics.264

257 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 63.
258 “Vandals Burn McClatchy Park’s Sign,” Sacramento Bee, 13 June 1969: 30. 259 “Oak Park Violence Erupts; Police, Snipers Trade Shots,” Sacramento Bee, 16 June 1969: 1. 260 Senegal, untitled term paper, 10-12.
261 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 65-66.
262 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 42-43. 263 Steve Gibson, “’Oak Park 4’ Go Free As Bennett Death Case Ends,” Sacramento Bee, 28 January 1971: 1. 264 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 65-66.

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Figure 69. Members of the Black Panther Party on the steps of the State Capitol in 1967. Source: Chapman University, Frank Mt. Pleasant Library of Special Collections and Archives.

RACIAL VIOLENCE & SOCIAL JUSTICE
Racial violence, such as the events in Oak Park, spurred other community actions to push back against racial discrimination and violence. In 1972, Raymond Brewer, a standout student and athlete at Grant Union High School, was walking through a neighborhood in North Sacramento that had few non-white residents, while carrying a large stick to ward off the neighborhood’s aggressive dogs. Undercover police officers, patrolling the area in response to a sting of armed robberies at nearby bars, assumed Brewer was a suspect and shot him as he ran away. One of the police officers involved in Brewer’s death was indicted by the County Grand Jury on a charge of involuntary manslaughter, but the charges were later dismissed by the 3rd District Court of Appeal.265 In response to Brewer’s killing, Mayor Richard H. Marriott formed a 25-member Advisory Citizens Committee on Police Practices, including residents of Del Paso Heights and

265 “Sgt. Somers’ Grand Jury Indictment Is Struck Down by Court of Appeal,” Sacramento Bee, 15 June 1973: 1.

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local Black organizations, to probe the incident and overall police practices in dealing with minorities.266 Seven months later, the committee issued a report with a series of recommendations, including the establishment of a police review board, psychological testing of officers, changing the rank of captain from an appointed position to a civil service classification.267 Although the Sacramento Police Officer’s Association did not agree with all of the committee’s findings and recommendations, they admitted their fault in the tragedy and agreed to cooperate by implementing some of the committee’s recommendations. The aftermath of Raymond Brewer’s murder reflected a rare instance at that time in which Black voices prevailed in Sacramento’s political hierarchy.

The murder of 17-year-old Milton Baker, Jr. in 1979 produced a similar reaction after the two men responsible for killing Baker were not arrested. Black residents and activists responded by forming the Milton Baker, Jr. Community Coalition for Justice, which organized residents and held meetings, rallies, demonstrations, and other events throughout Sacramento County to scrutinize the policing practices of the county sheriff’s department and develop a series of demands. The County eventually adopted three of the coalition’s five demands, including reopening the investigation into Baker’s murder, directing the district attorney to property investigate the incident and carry forward a prosecution if warranted, and demanding the Board of Supervisors to open a grand jury investigation into the case.268

Racial violence also touched members of the Nation of Islam. In 1974, a series of shootings took place in Sacramento around the same time as the so-called Zebra murders in San Francisco.

Police in San Francisco alleged a link between the murders and members of the Nation of Islam.

Assuming the shootings in Sacramento to be connected, the Sacramento Police Department organized a sting operation around the Nation of Islam Mosque (Temple 73) on 35th Street in Oak Park in which the mosque was broken into and ransacked during the search for evidence.269 Individuals such as Dale McKinney were entrapped during the raid, wrongfully imprisoned, and later exonerated.270 Enraged by the disrespect shown to a Black place of worship, the Black community, most of whom identified as Christian, organized to support their Muslim brothers and sisters to demand apologies and restitution from the City. Incidents of racial violence such as these in the 1960s and 1970s united Sacramento’s Black population,

266 “Mayor Fills Police Study Vacancies,” Sacramento Bee, 30 December 1972, 8. 267 Lee Moriwaki, “Kinney, Citizens Unit Chairman Disagree,” Sacramento Bee, 13 October 1973, 5. 268 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 50. 269 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 49-50. 270 Dale E. McKinney, interview by Carson Anderson and Kristen Y. Ross [transcription], December 7, 2022, African American Experience History Project, City of Sacramento Community Development Department.

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bringing members together of all religions, classes, and backgrounds to fight for the rights of all.271

THE WAR ON POVERTY
The civil rights era and Black Power movements politicized African Americans across the United States more than any other events in history to that point, inspiring a new generation of Black leaders to use politics and community organizing to uplift their communities. The War on Poverty provided a government supported outlet for African Americans to work toward these goals and achieve meaningful change. Rooted in legislation passed by President Lyndon B.

Johnson in 1964 to address the nation’s growing poverty rate, anti-poverty programs inspired by the War on Poverty became the focus of national, state, and local political agendas.

The Sacramento Area Economic Opportunity Council (SAEOC), Sacramento’s overarching anti- poverty program, was founded the same year as President Johnson’s legislation. Neighborhood Councils and Federation of Neighborhood Organizations (FONOs), were established, in turn, to enlist the participation of the Black and brown communities at the neighborhood level, with the operational costs of those neighborhood groups funded through the SAEOC. In 1971, SAEOC’s priorities included employment development and job training, family health and planning, childcare, consumer education, and program coordination and improving community knowledge of SAEOC programs.272

Other programs and organizations inspired by the anti-poverty movement and Black Capitalism approach to the ideals popularized by the Black Power Movement were established in Sacramento in the late 1960s and 1970s, including Head Start, Legal Aid, Planned Parenthood, summer job programs, and drug addiction recovery efforts. Among these were the Greater Sacramento Urban League, which was established in 1968 by Sacramento Observer owner William Lee, Oliver Sims, Howard Harris, and Marion Wood, who later became director of SAEOC.273 The organization is a local chapter of the National Urban League, which was originally founded in New York City in 1910 to help Blacks migrating to the city assimilate into urban life and evolved into a national organization that works for the economic empowerment of underserved urban communities.274 Seeking to increase employment opportunities for Black youth in Sacramento, the Greater Sacramento Urban League established youth mentorship

271 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 49-50. 272 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 30-36. 273 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 38. 274 “National Urban League,” Black Past, accessed April 4, 2023, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/national-urban-league- 1910/.

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programs and other programs to connect Black youth to jobs. In the 1960s, Woods and other League founders worked to expose discrimination in State employment. After walking through 35 State agencies and counting fewer than 10 Black employees, the League took its findings to a state legislative committee. In 1974, the League successfully fought to integrate the Southern Pacific Railroad, opening new job opportunities there for Black men and women.275 The Urban League continues to work to uplift communities through encouraging civic engagement, working to increase educational opportunities, providing job training and leadership development opportunities, and working to eliminate health disparities and build healthy and safe communities.276

Another example is the Valley Area Construction Opportunity Program, led by director W.L.

Woodfin and founded in 1969. The program, located at 2910 35th Street in Oak Park, offered training in a variety of construction industry trades to enable minority youth from 17 California counties to obtain well-paying jobs in the construction industry.277 Together, these anti-poverty programs were instrumental in forming a powerful structure of Black community activists and leaders throughout the local Black community and building connections within the local Democratic Party.

African Americans throughout the United States, many of whom lived in impoverished neighborhoods, adopted the War on Poverty and its many manifestations as their own. Unlike many other cities in the United States, Sacramento did not have any neighborhoods with a homogenous or majority Black population. Rather, by the 1960s and 1970s, African Americans lived in mixed-race neighborhoods, scattered across the city. Anti-poverty programs and initiatives focused on these areas. Despite not being the majority demographic in many of these neighborhoods, African Americans participated in anti-poverty efforts to a greater degree than any other racial demographic. In Del Paso Heights, for instance, a survey found that although the area was majority white in the 1970s, almost three times the number of Black residents knew of the Neighborhood Councils than white residents. Meanwhile, 80 percent of those who participated in the Neighborhood Councils were Black, while only 20 percent white.

No individuals surveyed were of Asian or Latino descent.278

275 Stephen Magagnini, “Troubled People Get a Leg Up,” Sacramento Bee, 22 December 2008. 276 “About Us,” Greater Sacramento Urban League, accessed April 4, 2023, http://www.gsul.org/about-us/. 277 Dale E. McKinney, interview by Carson Anderson and Kristen Y. Ross [transcription]; “Funds Will Provide Minority Groups with Apprenticeships,” Sacramento Bee, 10 October 1969.
278 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 29-32.

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This participation spilled over into leadership roles within anti-poverty organizations. Black residents felt it was their right to run these organizations and reap the benefits. They operated them as Black spaces that not only served Black residents but also hired and contracted members of the
Black community to complete the work. The most
prominent members of the anti-poverty movement were
the leaders of the SAEOC. The organization’s first executive director was Marion Woods. A graduate of Morehouse
College in the same class as Martin Luther King, Jr., he was considered the “MLK of Sacramento” by members of the
Black community.279 After serving in the Air Force at Mather Field, Woods decided to permanently settle in Sacramento in 1956. Woods parlayed his experience leading the SAEOC to a role leading the state’s poverty initiatives as director of the California Department of Benefit Payments, director of the California Department of Social Services, and director of the Department of Human Resources for the District of
Columbia.280 Following Woods, SAEOC’s next three directors – Naaman Brown, Essie Brown, and John Robinson – were also Black. Other local community leaders who arose from the War on Poverty included Willie Hausey, board president of the SAEOC; O.W. Clanton, chair of FONO; Callie Carney from Oak Park; George Heard from Glen Elder; and Charles Bradley from Del Paso Heights.

Margarette “Mama” Marks offers a particularly notable example of an individual citizen who took it upon herself to address poverty in her community. Marks arrived in California from Louisiana in 1941 and worked as a shipyard welder in Oakland before moving to Sacramento in the 1950s, where she joined the WCIC.281 In 1970, she started a lunch program called the Arms of Mercy with 50 cans of Campbell’s soup, which she had persuaded the company’s managers to donate to feed the hungry, and turned it into meals for 200 people. Shortly afterward, Marks convinced the Asbury United Methodist Church to let her use its church as the location for her lunch program. The church provided its kitchen for Marks and her assistant, Helen Bell, to cook

279 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 33. 280 “Champion of Social, Economic Justice in California Dies at 87,” Sacramento Bee, 5 May 2019; Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 38.
281 Norman D. Williams, "'Mama' Marks' spirit Won't Die, Friends Vow," Sacramento Bee, 7 April 1991.

Figure 70. Willie Hausey, president of
SAEOC (1970). Source: “Del Paso
Heights Civic Leader Heads Poverty
War Council,” Sacramento Bee, 14 July
1970.

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the meals, as well as space for community members to eat. Food was supplied by donations from local bakeries, food manufacturers, private organizations, and private residents. At every meal, Marks and her assistants served roughly 60 to 100 people. Every weekday, she prepared 125 lunches for children at McClellan Elementary School as part of the SAEOC’s children’s feeding program. On holidays, she and her assistants served an estimated 500 to 600 people.282

In addition to her work providing food for those in need, Mama Marks also fostered as many as 50 children during her lifetime. In recognition of her herculean efforts to aid Sacramento’s poor and hungry, U.S. House Representative Robert Matsui wrote a letter to the Speaker of the House in 1986, describing Marks as “one of Sacramento’s most outstanding humanitarians.”283 Marks received other honors for her service to her community, including being honored at a

282 Sigrid Bathen, “Angel of Asbury," Sacramento Bee, 26 May 1974. 283 Del Paso Heights & Hagginwood: Our Roots, People, Places, and Memories (Undated).

Figure 71. “Mama” Marks distributing lunches to preschoolers and kindergarteners (1974). Source: Harlin Smith for the Sacramento Bee, Sigrid Bathen, Angel of Asbury," Sacramento Bee, 26 May 1974.

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ceremony at the State Capitol by the Older Women’s League, the NAACP’s community service award, the National Enquirer’s Good Samaritan Award. In 1982, the State Senate passed a resolution honoring Marks as “a distinguished Sacramento resident and civic leader (who) through her civic accomplishments, has contributed extensively to the improvement of the community.”284 At time of her death in 1991, the headline in the Sacramento Bee called her a "Sacramento legend."285 Del Paso Heights Park on Roanoke Avenue in Del Paso Heights was renamed Mama Marks Park in 1992 in her honor.286

Together, Sacramento’s anti-poverty programs and initiatives provided the training ground for Black community leaders, some of whom became some of the city’s earliest Black elected officials.287

AFRICAN AMERICAN ELECTED OFFICIALS
Over a century of activism, community organizing, and grassroots efforts by members of the African American community laid the groundwork for the election of the first Black individuals to local political office, starting in the late 1960s. Through determination and hard work, these individuals often worked for decades prior to achieving political office to overcome discrimination and seemingly insurmountable odds to prove they were the most qualified individuals for the job.288

In 1967, attorney Milton McGhee became the first African American person elected to City Council. The conflicts in Oak Park in the summers of 1969 to 1971 increased awareness of the lack of representation that local Black residents had on City Council and in other elected positions. In 1971, Sacramento’s city charter was amended to shift its election system from at- large elections to district elections. The change allowed Sacramento residents to directly elect their council members and mayor with the goal of increasing City Council representation from predominately ethnic minority neighborhoods, such as Oak Park, Del Paso Heights, South Sacramento, and others.289

The same year, Councilman McGhee came within 800 votes of being elected mayor of the city.

He later served as vice-mayor under Mayor Richard H. Marriott. One year later, William Lee,

284 Jon Ralston, "Capitol Honors, 'Mama Marks,'” Sacramento Bee, 25 June 1982. 285 “Sacramento Legend Buried,” Sacramento Bee, 7 April 1991. 286 Maria E. Camposeco, “Gathering Honors ‘Mama’ Marks,” Sacramento Bee, 12 April 1992. 287 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 33-34. 288 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 9. 289 Burg, Sacramento Renaissance, 67.

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founder of the Sacramento Observer newspaper, organized a meeting of Black community leaders at his newspaper’s offices to establish a council that could speak with a united voice for all of Sacramento’s Black residents. The council became the Sacramento Area Black Caucus.

Empowered by participation from Black leaders and organizations throughout the city, the caucus became a powerful force in Sacramento politics. Among its early accomplishments were protests against the lack of Black appointees on City boards and commissions, pushing Sacramento County to establish an office of affirmative action, and appointing one of the caucus’ members to the commission to investigate the murder of Raymond Brewer.290

Figure 72. Sacramento's first Black city councilman, Milton McGhee (right) next to Mayor Richard H. Marriott (center) in 1971. Source: Center for Sacramento History, Sacramento Bee Collection, 1983/001/SBPMP05521.

After McGhee, other Black men were elected to City Council. Reverend Rosenwald “Robbie” Robertson, pastor and executive director of United Christian Centers, was elected as the councilman for District 2 in 1971. After his untimely death in 1973, an adult day care center at 5400 Elvas Avenue and a community center at 3525 Norwood Avenue (extant) in Del Paso

290 Covin, Black Politics After the Civil Rights Movement, 51.

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Heights were built and named in his honor.291
World War II veteran and member of the
Tuskegee Airmen, Herman Lawson, was
appointed to replace him, becoming the third
Black man to serve on the City Council.292

The first African American woman was
appointed to serve on the City Council in the
mid-1970s. In 1975, Phillip Isenberg, city
councilmember for District 5 (Oak Park, Tahoe
Park, Curtis Park, and part of the Fruitridge area)
was elected mayor. In a closed-door meeting,
the remaining City Council members
unanimously appointed Callie Carney, an
Alabama-born Oak Park resident and
community activist, as his replacement. Initially
considered an underdog for the appointment
due to her outspoken and candid nature,
Carney convinced the council members that she
was the most qualified individual for the
position. An active and highly regarded
community leader who had worked with people
from low income and minority backgrounds
from at least 1960, her background included
work with the Oak Park Neighborhood Council;
the Upward Bound program for minority
students at the University of California, Davis;
the Sacramento Urban League; National Council
of Negro Women; and the Women’s Political
Caucus.

At the time of her appointment, she served as
community services coordinator for the

291 Sue Boylan, “Health Center to Open,” Sacramento Bee, 18 July 1985: 40. 292 “Setting It Straight,” Sacramento Bee, 11 May 1995: 24; “Capital Activist, Decorated WWII Flier Lawson Dies,” Sacramento Bee, 10 May 1995:
13; “Vigorous Leap Toward Oblivion,” Sacramento Bee, 28 December 1975: 61.

Figure 74. Callie Carney and her husband Jim
(1977). Source: Center for Sacramento History,
Sacramento Bee Collection,
1983/001/SBPMP00548.

Figure 73. City councilman Herman Lawson (1968).

Source: Center for Sacramento History, Sacramento
Bee Collection, 1983/001/SBPMP04896.

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PAGE & TURNBULL 127 June 2023

Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA), which was created to provide affordable housing for the City and County of Sacramento. She resigned from the position at the time of her appointment to City Council to avoid any accusations of a conflict of interest.293 She served as the councilmember for District 5 until 1979, when she was beaten by another member of the African American community, Dan Thompson.294 Her long-term residence at 3288 9th Avenue remains standing in Oak Park.