10/6 AFam

Key concepts

  • Sun down towns

  • ousting Discrimination in Orange County

  • Little Texas

  • Reitman v Mulkey

  • Proposition

  • Pacific Beach club

Brief History of Orange County

  • Original Inhanitants: Tonga and the Achaemenid tribes

  • Settlers Arrive; missonaries colonize the area in the early 1800s

  • Late 1800’s: OC transformed into an agricultural economy

  • Post WWII: Development of free ways (I-5 Santa Ana Fwy) links OC to major urban centers like Los Angeles

  • 1950’s -60’s : population begins to grow; suburban sprawl develops

  • White flight from Los Angeles contributes to O population growth

  • 1970’s today: population becomes exponentially more diverse

  • Immigrants from Asia, Latin America expand OC’s demographic and electorate

Suburbanization and Privatization

  • Some of the first planned, unincorporated gated communities in the U.S built in the Orange County

  • First Hoemowner’s Associations pioneered after World War 2

  • In the 1980s construction of California’s first privatized toll roads took place in Orange ounty

  • Neoliberal privatization: based on the premise that individuals with the means could access exclusive amenities and infastructure without having to share it without having to share it with the general public public

Orange County Politics

  • Orange County viewed as a bastion of conservative politics

    • Since 1936. Republican presidentialnominees captured the majority votes in Orange County (until 2016 and 2020)

    • At a 1988 Republican campaign rally at Cal state

    • Fullerton, Ronald Reagan quipped: Orange County Is “where good Republican go before they die”

    • In 1976 political scientist Karl Lamb declared,”As Orange goes,” so goes the nation, expecting that Orange County would lead the nation politically rightward.

Housing Discrimination in OC

  • City of Fullerton and the nearby cities intentionally created as majority white suburbs

    • Orange County views as an “escape”

    • From urban and racially diverse Los Angeles

    • A landing spot for post WWII “white flight”: Migrationof white people from areas becoming more racially and socioeconomimy diverse

    • Sundown towns: towns where it was illegal from Black peoples to be outside on public after sundown

    • Brea, Orange, Yorba Linda,most of Fullerton

  • Many housing deeds in Orange County included prohibitions against Blacks, Latinos, Asiansand Native Americans, permitting them only if they were gardeners, servants, or nannies.

  • Relegated African Americans,Latinos, and Asians to segregated neighborhoods

Little Texas

  • Historically Black neighborhood in Orange County, located in Santa Ana

    • Formed due to redlining and housing disrimination in OCmrelegating most black residents to one neighborhood.

      • With job availability during WW2, Black pop.grew through 1940’w and 50’s

    • Bistrioll Street acted as a “color line”

    • Hub of Asian American community,culture , churches, and Black owned businesses

  • Called Little Texas bcasuse many residents migrated form Texas and other parts of the South

  • The Great Migration: mass movement of African Americans form the rural Southern United States to urban areas in the North, Miwesr, and Wesr, Primarily between 1916 and 1970

Reitman v. Mulkey 1967