California

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  5/2/2021
  

  L.A.’s History is Often Whitewashed, Romanticized and Censored. A New Push to Tell the Truth

  Christopher Hawthorne leads a Civic Memory Working Group convened by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, that works to reverse the city's tendency to boost myths in the place of public history. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/2/2021
  

  What Manhattan Beach, Calif., Says About Reparations

  "When a wealthy, liberal California town can’t bring itself to even apologize for seizing land from Black residents a century ago, it underscores what a long road lies ahead for justice and reconciliation."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/15/2021
  

  A Gold Rush Town Removes a Noose From Its Logo

  Council members said objections to the noose element of the logo, designed in the 1970s, had been made before.

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• SOURCE: JStor Daily
  4/19/2021
  

  How the LAPD Guarded California’s Borders in the 1930s

  Los Angeles's conservative establishment used tropes of cultural inferiority to justify efforts to stop poor white Dust Bowl refugees from entering the state in the 1930s, 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  3/8/2021
  

  What the Election of Asian American GOP Women Means for the Party

  by Jane Hong

  The success of Asian-American Republican women candidates in Orange County suggests that the parties' efforts to appeal to a multiracial electorate must focus on the distinct histories and concerns of ethnic communities. 

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• SOURCE: NBC Los Angeles
  2/22/21
  

  New Exhibit Reckons With Glendale's Racist Past as ‘Sundown Town'

  The suburban city of Glendale, CA has initiated a series of public programs confronting its legacy as a "sundown town" where minorities, particulary African Americans, were able to work but barred from living or socializing. 

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• SOURCE: Valley Public Radio
  12/11/2020
  

  UC Merced Acquires Photo Collection Documenting Farmworkers In The 1960s

  Historian Mario Sifuentez discusses the photographs of Ernest Lowe and the activism of Central Valley farm workers. 

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  12/13/2020
  

  Are Republicans Serious about a Secession Movement?

  Richard Kreitner, author of "Break It Up," argues that calls for secession have been a regular feature of American political life, though they usually amount to criticism instead of action. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/16/2020
  

  Liberals Envisioned a Multiracial Coalition. Voters of Color Had Other Ideas

  Since the dawn of the 21st century, it has become commonplace for party leaders to talk of a rising demographic tide that is destined to lift the Democrats to dominance. The party should look at the defeat of California's affirmative action referendum as a caution that things won't be so simple. 

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• 11/15/2020
  

  Affirmative Action Goes Down to Defeat in Deep Blue California

  by James Thornton Harris

  The defeat of California's Proposition 16 exposes some significant fault lines in the multiethnic coalition the Democratic Party hopes will support its future success. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/27/2020
  

  California Tax Revolt Faces a Retreat, 40 Years Later

  Mr. Jarvis, who died in 1986, framed his campaign as a way to make the tax system more equal, but Proposition 13’s legacy has been the opposite.

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• 10/11/2020
  

  Corporate Money Turns Democracy Upside Down in California Initiative Process

  by James Thornton Harris

  Intended as a tool to circumvent the power of big business in the state legislature, California's ballot initiative process has become yet another channel for the political influence of big money.

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  9/20/2020
  

  California finally sweeps away most of its tributes to the Confederacy. What took so long?

  by Kevin Waite

  California was home to a substantial secessionist community in the 1850s, and white migrants to the region in the early 20th century brought the Lost Cause mythology with them. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/16/2020
  

  52 Years Ago, Thelonious Monk Played a High School. Now Everyone Can Hear It.

  Digitally restored and widely available for the first time on Friday, “Palo Alto” captures a band hitting a high note, even as Monk battled personal and professional turmoil. Historian and Monk biographer Robin D.G. Kelley puts the gig in context.  

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• SOURCE: City of Glendale (CA)
  9/15/2020
  

  Glendale, CA City Council Debates Resolution Acknowledging History as a "Sundown Town"

  HNN contributor Jim Loewen encourages readers to watch the Glendale, CA City Council discuss a resolution acknowledging the city's history as a "sundown town." 

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• SOURCE: CAPRadio
  9/13/2020
  

  As Newsom Weighs Reparations Bill, A Scholar Has A Word Of Caution For California

  An economist and leading scholar of the racial wealth gap urges California legislators to consider the bill as an effort at atonement, because full and proper reparations require a national and federal response from Washington. 

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• SOURCE: Slate
  9/14/2020
  

  Where Kamala Harris’ Political Imagination Was Formed

  by Tessa Rissacher and Scott Saul

  A Black cultural center in Berkeley introduced Kamala Harris to activism and the connections between culture and politics. 

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• 9/13/2020
  

  Prop 16 and the "Chinese Virus" Bring Two Views of Asian American History into Conflict

  by Hao Zou

  Many Chinese Americans oppose California's Proposition 16, which would reinstate race-based affirmative action in state university admissions. This support stems from a meritocratic interpretation of Chinese American experiences that is challenged by the xenophobic "Chinese Virus" discourse around COVID-19.

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• 9/6/2020
  

  Will California Voters End a 24-Year Ban on Affirmative Action?

  by James Thornton Harris

  Voters in November may reverse California's constitutional ban on affirmative action, which was passed by ballot measure in 1996. The state's electorate has changed considerably in a quarter century and passage seems likely.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  8/20/2020
  

  For Japanese Americans, Housing Injustices Outlived Internment

  After enduring internment, Japanese Americans were forced to resettle in a changed society with a dire housing shortage. The government's response was grossly inadequate.