Attending a talk by @Centerwest by Dr. Alison Rose Jefferson (PhD from my alma mater @UCSB) “Black Leaders in the Struggle for Freedom during the Jim Crow Era”—public history in action—humanities in action @cuhistorybuffs @CUArtsSciences @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

2/ Her book (where talk is taken from ) coming out with U of Nebraska in Jan—you can preorder now: https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9781496201300/ @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

3/Inspiration for project came from an incident that happened to her family in 1964 at Lake Elsinore near Riverside, CA @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

4/Jefferson begins by talking about the racial-ethnic diversifying of southern CA in 19th and early 20th C — looks at sites of recreation and leisure as places of civil rights activism @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

5/Jefferson’s book looks at Los Angeles black middle class and their relationship to space and leisure as well as provides environmental history of southern CA @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

6/Book is a reminder that the “California Dream” was never only about white ppl—from the time of gold being discovered at Sutter’s mill, ppl from around the globe of all races/ethnicities searched for their “California Dream” @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

7/Jefferson shares a map of SoCal of AfAm leisure sites—Santa Monica and Manhattan beach, Val Verde, Lake Elsinore, Corona Park Ridge Country Club—90 miles from LA to Riverside by horse w/out public road system that we know now @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

8/Jefferson charts AfAm middle class migrating to LA area from Harlem and returning soldiers from WWI demanding equality—important to give fuller truth of racial diversity of California and the West, esp. around concept of “leisure” @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs #CUBoulderCHA

9/Race, power, privilege and wealth informed concepts of “leisure”—non-white minorities prevented from fully experiencing resources of state—leisure as regulatory site of exclusion @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

10/Brochure from 1924-25; targeted to AfAm in LA to find respite outside the metropolis—dev also shows black entrepreneurship and assertion of black community @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

11/Pictures of former Eureka Villa now Val Verde Park—addition of swimming pool in 1940 caused resurgence of interest among black Angelenos to go to Val Verde @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

12/Corona, CA in 1928 home to largest black owned country club—Jefferon’s research important in providing fuller picture of leisure and lives of black middle class in CA @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

13/Jefferson notes that this history of black leisure sites in CA have been erased; important to reconstruct this history for proper understanding as places of commerce, contestation, and civil rights struggle @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder

14/Photo below of AfAm friends at Lake Elsinore, 1946–such a different image of AfAms than one typically sees associated with SoCal history—important corrective to one-dimensional images and one-sided history @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

15/Siden P. Dones an impresario and entrepreneur who helped create Eureka Villa (Santa Clarita valley)—targeted to middle-class black Angelenos—Dones had multiple interests in film and businesses around LA @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

16/Mrs. Willa Bruce opens Bruce’s Lodge 1912; in 1925 white racist power brokers dismantle creation of this black beach/leisure spot and work to prevent AfAm from living along SoCal coast @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

17/NAACP stage a “swim in” to protest racist restrictions trying to prevent AfAm from going to SoCal beaches—civil rights laws of 1894 ensured that AfAm had free access to beaches but some didn’t enforce civil rights @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

18/Jefferson talking about the emergence of Ocean Park in Santa Monica through black churches in coastal area of Santa Monica @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

19/Santa Monica had the oldest black community that developed in SoCal beach area—businesses, like hotels and beach clubs, developed to provide services for black beach seekers—built before 1930 @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

20/Jefferson asks us to imagine what it would mean and what landscape would look like in SoCal today if these black leisure spaces and businesses could have continued/weren’t pushed out by racist power brokers @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

21/I’m reminded of @IanHaneyLopez book “White by Law” and the assertion that the literal complexion of the US changed by racist state practices—legacy of racism in law, de facto and de jure, shaped who we think of as legitimately “American”—need to re-vision this concept

22/Nick Gabaldon (AfAm & Chicano) first documented mixed-race black-Mexican American surfer — died in 1951 at age of 24 in surfing accident @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

23/Nick Gabaldon Day celebrates his life and acts as reminder of multiethnic space that black and Mexican Angelenos occupied in Los Angeles—the beach has always belonged to black Angelenos @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA

24/Last tweet: discussion after talk has turned to how we not only re-write but re-RIGHT history—to make known the erasures due to institutional racism and to tell the truth about how communities of color were displaced @Centerwest @cuhistorybuffs @CUBoulder #CUBoulderCHA