California

California's Collusion with a Texas Timber Company Let Ancient Redwoods be Clearcut

by Greg King

It wasn't shocking that a Houston-based energy company would seek to liquidate newly acquired holdings of ancient redwood trees and defy California law to do it. It was shocking that state agencies seemed determined to help them do it. 

State Advisory Panel on Reparations Calls for Payments to Black Californians; Legislative Response Unclear

The task force's report has placed a cash value on harms suffered by Black Californians from state policies that excluded them from the Golden State's prosperity, ranging from redlining to the war on drugs and mass imprisonment. 

Historian Kelly Lytle Hernández Teams Up with New LA City Councilors to Review City's History

A historian and two recently-elected progressive city council members teamed up to tour the sites of the city's community of Mexican revolutionaries in exile, asking how the past can inform social movements today. 

California Historians and Writers Remember Mike Davis

Matt Garcia, William Deverell and others share personal reflections on their personal and professional intersections with the mold-breaking historian and activist. 

Mike Davis, 1946-2022

by Jon Wiener

"Mike hated being called “a prophet of doom.” Yes, LA did explode two years after City of Quartz; the fires and floods did get more intense after Ecology of Fear, and of course a global pandemic did follow The Monster at Our Door."

What American Dream did Asian Immigrants Find in the Southern California Suburbs?

by James Zarsadiaz

Asian-American suburbs grew east of Los Angeles in part because developers catered to a growing market and in part because Asian Americans embraced some of the anti-urban tropes common in postwar America. Today conflict still surrounds how much diversity the suburban ideal can accommodate.

The Chicano Moratorium in East LA and Ventura County

by Frank P. Barajas

Chicano Moratorium commemorations continue today in communities in and out of East Los Angeles as they mark a history that centers on the experience of ethnic Mexican and Latinx peoples in the US to inspire and reinspire the young and old, to continue their struggle to realize the ideal of justice for all.

Sociologist Brittany Friedman on the Rise and Endurance of Political Organizing by Black Prisoners

Although it is often linked to the rise of Black Power movements in the late 1960s, evidence shows that state authorities were working to eliminate civil rights organizing among Black prisoners as early as the 1950s. 

Noir Politics in Mike Davis's "City of Quartz"

by Charlotte Rosen

The late Mike Davis wrote his influential and controversial history of Los Angeles as a noir thriller, exposing the greed and corruption beneath the sunny surface. 

California's Ongoing Secession Movement and its Ties to the History of Slavery

by Kevin Waite

Today, more conservative parts of California agitate to separate from the liberally-governed state. In the 1850s, southern California sought to secede from a state constitution that prohibited slavery and build an empire of forced labor. 

Reparations Report Details 150 Years of State-Sanctioned Harm to Black Californians

"It finds that the damage to Black communities is extensive and that a variety of intentionally crafted policy, judicial decisions and racism by private actors has created a widespread exclusion of Black people that has not been sufficiently addressed at any level of government."

John Mack Faragher on California History as American History

John Mack Faragher's new book examines the rise of America's diversity and prosperity – and the conflicts attendant on both – in California. 

California Isn't a Liberal Sanctuary where Asian Americans are Concerned

by Hao Huang

Anti-Chinese racism and violence has always been part of the nightmare underside of the California dream. 

Two Artists Unearth Hidden Histories of LA

Devon Tsuno and Alan Nakagawa discuss the histories and daily life of the Japanese American community in Midtown Los Angeles, an area that has largely been erased from Angelenos' maps of their city. 

Black Family's Success in Recovering California Land Could Spark National Land Return Movement

"Activists and scholars say there are other similar cases nationwide, but proving them — and getting the current property owners to cooperate — will be a different matter."

What Slavery Looked Like in the West

by Kevin Waite

"Historians typically study Black and Native slavery as discrete systems. But America’s wealthiest slaveholders didn’t draw a fixed line."

America's Only LGBTQ Historic District Is Falling Apart

"Because of centuries of general anti-gay sentiment and laws punishing queerness, little queer history has been preserved, and much of it has been erased."

Pioneering Chicano Movement TV Show Reemerges after 50 Years in Garage

On a recent August day, Frank Cruz, now 82, thought to himself as he had dozens of times before: “Pendejo, you better do something about those films. It might be too late.”

Cal State Fullerton Students Develop Public History Archive of Confederate Monuments

The recent movement to reconsider Confederate monuments represents a kind of synthesis of public and academic histories with a moral component, which Benjamin Cawthra encourages his public history students to investigate. 

150 Years Ago, a Mob Attacked Los Angeles's Chinese Community

by Reece Jones

It's essential to understand white supremacy as a national phenomenon that defended the color line against multiple groups and linked white identity to the nation's borders.