Policies of the past continue to impact the present.
Tomorrow’s story will be determined by how today’s generation handles yesterday’s truth.
Conquest
The definition of conquest is taking over a place and people by use of military force. The San Gabriel Valley region shares the same story of conquest as every other part of Alta-California. Conquest by the Spanish, Mexicans, then Americans mark the start of the State of California as we now know it..
Colonization
The definition of colonization is defined as the act of settling in a geographic area then taking control over the indigenous people. Like conquest, colonization has redefined the San Gabriel Valley several times over. The colonial imposition of new laws, social classes, and rights continue to define the SGV.
Apartheid
Also known as segregation or separation is the institutional separation of people based on race. SGV is defined by redlining, racial covenants, white flight, and income and mortgage discrimination that excluded minorities from certain areas, especially Black Americans, that continues today.
Racist U.S. Policies in SGV
Segregation (1865-1917)
There was a natural segregation that occurred in the colonization process where European colonizers were preferred over the Kizh indigenous people. Then, Mexicans joined Europeans in their land grants throughout the SGV, privileges bestowed upon them from Spanish colonization. The war and treaty resulted in American and European settlers being preferred through a legal structure that extorted minorities and less wealthy for their land.
Colonization in SGV resulted in the enslavement of the indigenous and the exploitation of native-born minorities by denying them ownership of land. Legal mechanisms like redlining were further put in place to prevent land ownership of minorities, once segregation was no longer legal. Racial zoning was ended by Buchanan v. Warley in 1917, but exclusionary policies continued.
Restrictive Covenants (1920s-1948)
When the government was no longer allowed to deny funding to developers on the basis of racial discrimination, the government permitted private discrimination by allowing restriction on non-white people purchasing housing in certain areas. When this was no longer legal, they restricted non-white individuals from occupying housing in certain areas. These covenants were written right into the housing contracts and therefore worked to create white-only areas of SGV. This practice was ended by Shelley v. Kramer in 1948.
Redlining (1934-1968)
Redlining is the federal and local governments and the private sector denying products or services or raising the price for said products and services for certain groups of people. Redlining practices resulted in a denial of funding for developers to build housing that could be occupied by non-white individuals.
Redlining made it impossible for developers to develop and for individuals to gain mortgages in certain parts of SGV if they were not white. Redlining was ended by the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
Rumford Act and Proposition 14 (1963-1964)
The Rumford Fair Housing Act was passed in 1963 by the California Legislature to help end racial discrimination by property owners and landlords who refused to rent or sell their property to "colored" people. It was drafted by William Byron Rumford, the first African American from Northern California to serve in the legislature. The Act made it illegal for landlords to discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, religion, sex, marital status, physical handicap, or familial status.
In response, the California put on the ballot for consideration Proposition 14, which states: "Neither the State nor any subdivision or agency thereof shall deny, limit or abridge, directly or indirectly, the right of any person, who is willing or desires to sell, lease or rent any part or all of his real property, to decline to sell, lease or rent such property to such person or persons as he, in his absolute discretion, chooses." It passed overwhelmingly with 65.39% approval. Proposition 14 was challenged and ruled unconstitutional by the California (1966) and U.S. Supreme Court (1967) in Reitman v. Mulkey.
Blockbusting and White Flight (1970 - Current)
When minorities did overcome the restrictive covenants, they would endure harassment, violence, and discrimination. If minorities continue to live in the white areas, then real estate agents would do what is called blockbusting. The real estate agents would convince white owners to sell their properties at lower prices out of fear that minorities were moving in. This resulted in white flight, which is the phenomenon of white people moving out of an area, usually urban, to another area, usually suburban.
Examples of white flight can be seen in SGV from 1970 to present day. In 1950, Monterey Park was 99 percent white. In 1960, Monterey Park was 85 percent white. By 1970, white Americans made up 51 percent, 34 percent were Latino, and 15 percent were Asian. In 2000, Monterey Park was only seven percent white, 41 percent Chinese, 21 percent other Asian (Japanese, Vietnamese, Filipino, and other Southeast Asians), 30 percent Latino, and one percent Black.
Mortgage and Lending Discrimination (1968-Current)
Another form of keeping certain areas white is housing price and mortgage discrimination. Minorities having to pay higher prices for their mortgages means less are able to afford them. By increasing the cost of mortgages or the price for the houses for minority buyers in white areas, various pockets of SGV have been able to slow the diversification of their cities.