The East Bay of Northern California has long been the center of the San Francisco Bay Area's Black population in a residential and cultural sense, along with southeastern San Francisco and San Francisco's Fillmore District. The East Bay is about 10% Black today (Alameda County is 10% Black and Contra Costa County is 9%), and the figure is slightly higher including partially-Black people (towards 13% in both counties). This is marginally higher than the general San Francisco Bay Area's Black population of 7%, which is also the proportion in San Francisco. In contrast, San Mateo County (referred to as the peninsula), Santa Clara County (San Jose area), and the North Bay (Sonoma County, Napa County, and Marin County) excluding Solano County and American Canyon in Napa County, have significantly lower Black populations. Oakland, California is 22% Black, and about 25% including partially African-American;

The Vallejo and Fairfield areas are also prominent in Black population. This area is more often regarded as the North Bay, but is easily accessible from the East Bay Area.

Oakland

Oakland, California is 22% Black, and about 25% including partially Black; the city is home to Black rights organizations such as the Black Panther Party, and major African-American civil rights organizations are often based in Oakland. Many Black celebrities grew up in Oakland, such as NFL player Marshawn Lynch and rapper MC Hammer. Vice President Kamala Harris was born and raised in Oakland.

Oakland has always had the largest concentration of Black people in the Bay Area. The Black population originated largely from shipyard workers and railroad workers who came from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas during the early-to-mid 1900s.[1] Oakland was majority White, but started to have a Black population growing in the 1940s.

Students Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party at Merritt College (then located at a former high school on Grove Street, now occupied by Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute), which emphasized Black nationalism, advocated armed self-defense against police, and was involved in several incidents that ended in the deaths of police officers and other Black Panther members. Among their social programs were feeding children and providing other services to the needy.[2]

In 1980, Oakland's Black population reached its 20th-century peak at approximately 47% of the overall city population.[3] The Black population has declined since then, as some of its members have sought residence in other Bay Area cities such as Antioch and Pittsburg, CA and have moved to other states, largely seeking a lower cost of living and sometimes because some other states have more Black-populated communities. However, some Black people from other states and areas populate the East Bay, and African immigrants from Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Nigeria have taken up residence in the Bay Area.

Social issues and violence

The BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Black unarmed man, occurred in 2009; this lead to many protests and riots in Oakland and in the Bay Area.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Tramble, Thomas and Wilma (2007). The Pullman Porters and West Oakland. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub.
  2. ↑ Tyler, Carolyn (October 19, 2016). "Oakland Museum of CA celebrates 50th anniversary of Black Panthers". abc7news.com.
  3. ↑ "Bay Area Census – City of Oakland – 1970–1990 Census data". www.bayareacensus.ca.gov. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
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