Oakland was, and remains segregated. Read the sections below, about the Santa Fe Improvement Club, highlighted in yellow. According to Oakland Localwiki, "Santa Fe is a neighborhood of North Oakland near UCSF Benioff Oakland Children's Hospital." The headquarters of the Santa Fe Improvement Club were at 5457 Grove street. It is somewhat fitting that that address is now known as 5457 Martin Luther King Jr Way, and, according to the 2010 census, is a black community. Oakland is infamous for its history of redlining. Neighborhoods remain racially segregated. America remains racially divided. Racial hatred fuels our politics and helps keep the powerful in charge. I was motivated to research and share this following the murder of George Floyd, the protests in Minneapolis and Oakland, the response by the President to those protests, and the disproportionate number of African-American deaths due to covid19.
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| 2010 census data, visualized at https://demographics.virginia.edu/DotMap/index.html |
NEGRO RESIDENTS MEET OPPOSITION Sun, Oct 9, 1910 – Page 11 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) · Newspapers.comNEGRO RESIDENTS MEET OPPOSITION
North Oaklanders Are Making Organized Fight Against Threatened Invasion.
The threatened movement of negroes from West Oakland to choice residential districts in the northern part of the city is to be resisted by the Santa Fe Improvement Club, which has passed resolutions opposing the sale or rental of property to both negro and Asiatic customers.
The tendency of negroes to attempt the gaining of a foothold is most noticeable in the Santa Fe and Poirier tracts in North Oakland. A "special protective committee" of fifty has been appointed by the improvers to interview those owning or handling property and inform them of the opposition. More than 2000 persons have signed an agreement pledging themselves to not sell, lease or rent property to these undesirable people.
SANTA FE CLUB WANTS DIVISION Wed, Jan 18, 1911 – Page 3 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) · Newspapers.comSANTA FE CLUB WANTS DIVISION
Improvers Communicate with Fitzgerald in Important Matters.
SACRAMENTO, Jan. 18. - Assemblyman George Fitzgerald has received several communications from the Santa Fe Improvement Club of 5457 Grove street, Oakland, one of which favored the division of Alameda county. The club holds that such a division would have an economical result, the western part of the county to be retained with all its municipalities. This, it is claimed, would do away with the necessity of moving the county seat, maintaining road districts and providing for other heavy expenditures.
The club also urges the members of the legislature to vote for the repeal of the law providing for voting machines on the ground that those contrivances are not practical, that from them has been obtained an inaccurate expression of the will be the people and that their further use is undesirable.
The club also desires the Alameda county delegation's help in getting some of the benefits of the proposed good roads which are to be built with the $18,000,000 bonds voted by the people for Alameda county. It suggests that the proposed highway ought to begin at the limits of the city of Richmond and be continued in a southerly course along the Foothill boulevard, between the city of Oakland and Hayward, thence in a southeasterly direction toward the town of Livermore, thence in an easterly direction until a connection is made with the public highway of San Joaquin Valley in the vicinity of Lathrop.
Santa Fe Improvement Club Sat, Sep 2, 1911 – Page 19 · The San Francisco Call (San Francisco, California) · Newspapers.com
OAKLAND FORGING AHEAD THROUGH IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS
SANTA FE IMPROVEMENT CLUB A FACTOR IN OAKLAND'S PROGRESS
How One of the Largest Civic Bodies of the State Has Benefited Its Home District And Set an Example of Model Organization and Effective Work
By CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS
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| FIRST MOTOR CHEMICAL ENGINE IN OAKLAND SECURED BY PROGRESSIVE SANTA FE IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION |
During the last five years Oakland's progress has been very pronounced. A spirit of progressive citizenship has been manifested which never before seemed to exist.
Vast plans involving large expenditures of money have been prepared. These have been undertaken with enthusiasm.
Among these enterprises is the expenditure of $50,000,000 for the construction of a harbor. Day and night dredges and barges are working to construct a basin along the water front suitable for dockage and warehouse facilities. A bond issue of several million dollars was voted for the erection of a new city hall, for a municipal auditorium and for playgrounds.
The spirit which has stood behind these movements is exemplified in the Oakland Chamber of Commerce and in such organizations as the Santa Fe Improvement club.
Due credit must also be given to the Mott administration, which has shown itself eager and capable of undertaking any project that is for the best interests of Oakland.
Foremost among the improvement clubs of Oakland in the battle for civic betterment is the Santa Fe Improvement club. This organization is the largest and most substantial in Alameda county. It has a paid up membership of more than 600. It owes its stability to the fact that it has ever remained absolutely nonpolitical.
The club asks for no patronage, no political favors. It supports no candidates. Its actions are not in any manner shaped by any political bias. Because of its attitude maintained through four years of successful operation, its requests meet with careful consideration and its judgment is respected.
The association was organized in 1907 with a charter membership of 40. F. L. Shaw was elected as the first president and has been unanimously re-elected five successive terms.
The territory of the club extends from Adeline street to Telegraph avenue and from Fifty-first street to Alcatraz avenue.
What this club has done might well be taken as an example of what citizens of any community can accomplish if they will band together and work in harmony for the advancement of their district.
Shortly before the organization of the club the district had a population of about 1,000. Today the population is 8,000. Few, if any, other districts about the bay can show a more rapid growth. In a city Ilke Oakland or Berkeley, where a great many new tracts of land have been put upon the market in recent years, and where great inducements are offered, this growth is remarkable. It is not due to mere chance. The improvement association has been the direct means of making the district safer, more convenient and more attractive to live in.
These features have appealed to homeseekers and have influenced them in the selection of a home site. Increased population has meant increased property values. The experience of this association has been that it pays a property owner to belong to an improvement club.
AUTOMOBILE FIRE APPARATUS
One of the first agitations of the club was the matter of securing fire protection for the district. In a large district composed entirely of frame dwelling houses fire protection is of the utmost importance.
Owing to the fact that the city government was committed to the policy of spending large sums upon certain improvements deemed to be of great importance for the future, there was little money available for improvements in the outside districts. For three years the association fought tenaciously for a firehouse in the district.
It finally succeeded in getting not only a firehouse but also the first automobile chemical engine and hook and ladder trucks provided by Oakland. In a widely scattered district, consisting of beautiful homes the value of motor service fire apparatus can not be overestimated.
The utility of a fire department consists not in its ability to quickly suppress a fiercely raging fire, but in its success in getting to a fire in its incipiency and in extinguishing it with a minimum amount of damage.
The securing of this motor apparatus resulted immediately in a very material reduction in fire insurance rates.
The securing of larger water mains and the installation of many hydrants and fire alarm boxes increased still further the fire protection of the district.
LOT CLEANING
The association waged three lot cleaning crusades with gratifying success. Committees went to the assessors and the tax collector's office and ascertained the names and addresses of all owners of unimproved property.
These were requested to clear their lots of all weeds and rubbish or to permit the association to do it at their expense. The result has been that the entire district has an appearance for neatness that is highly creditable. The spirit manifested by the club has encouraged property owners in general to vie with each other in maintaining beautiful lawns.
Every home possesses a lawn. The district under the jurisdiction of the club is subject to building regulations which, in a measure, make this necessary. These restrictions hold good only for a limited time, however. The influence of the club has been sufficient to compel observance of these requirements, and it is not likely that there will be any deviation from them.
UNDESIRABLES KEPT OUT
Seven distinct attempts at colonizing the district with colored people and Asiatics were headed off by the association. As soon as report would come to any officer of an attempted settlement a special committee would be sent to the owner are real estate agent to inform them that any attempt to locate colored people or Asiatics in the district would be severely resented.
Believing that an ounce of prevention was worth a ton of cure, the association appointed a special "protection committee" of 50 to get all the property owners in the district to sign a "civic agreement" not to sell, lease or rent to colored people or Asiatics.
This system has been wonderfully successful. A few colored people have located in the northern end of the district in the vicinity of Alcatraz avenue. This was due to the fact that the membership of the club in this section was not large and the association was not warned until too late. If the members in this district wish to be protected they should become members of the Santa Fe Improvement club.
Already many of them have done so. As the seriousness of the situation becomes better known to them they, doubtless, will join in greater numbers.
The association has no hostility whatever toward colored people or Asiatics. It is merely guided by a desire to maintain property values and a harmonious residential tone for the districts. There are other tracts and sections of the city where these conditions will not be disturbed and which are equally serviceable for the purposes intended.
The exclusion of the saloon element has engaged the continual vigilance of the association. Fifteen applications for liquor licenses were defeated through the intervention of the club.
The association believes in maintaining its district as a first class residential district free from the evil influences of the saloons. It has been uniformly successful in carrying out this policy.
OPEN MEETINGS
The meetings of the association are held at 5497 Grove street. They are conducted upon the open forum plan. All civic questions are discussed impartially with the sole idea of educating its membership. The association will not permit the discussion of only one side of a question. It insists upon hearing both sides. The discussions on the Greater San Francisco movement, the constitutional amendments and woman's suffrage drew very large crowds.
The association was one of the prime movers in the agitation for a new charter for Oakland. Its president was elected as one of the freeholders.
Last year the organization leased the Orpheum theater for a night and sold out the entire house, realizing a net profit of over $400.
THE SPECTATOR
The association publishes at its own expense for free distribution to its members a journal called "The Spectator." This periodical appears twice a month. It serves to acquaint the people of the district with what the club is doing and to encourage them in civic work.
At the recent bond election for the new city hall and for the public auditorium 10,000 issues of this paper were circulated. It contained very strong arguments in favor of the bond issue and certainly did all within its power to carry the election for civic progress.
The paper is well edited and is in attractive form. James Gartland is the editor and J. M. Hyland is the business manager.
The officers of the association are: President, F. L. Shaw; first vice president, W. H. Waterhouse: second vice president, Seth Harvey: secretary, L. C. Levy; treasurer, F. C. Rathaus: sergeant at arms, F. Burger; collector, A. Van Baggan.
Committees and chairman - Fire, police and water, W. H. Waterhouse; street and light, A. Wessell; arbor and parks, W. H. Waterhouse; school and playground, Frank Burger; sanitary and humane. W. E. Holcomb; auditing and finance, J. M. Hyland; membership. first district, C. E. Davis; membership, second district, Charles Jump: press and publicity, L. C. Levy; statistician, G. H. T. Mahneke.
IMPROVERS PREPARE FOR ANNUAL THEATER PARTY
Santa Fe Improvement Club Sat, Apr 6, 1912 – Page 21 · The San Francisco Call (San Francisco, California) · Newspapers.com
IMPROVERS PREPARE FOR ANNUAL THEATER PARTY
Proceeds Will Be Used to Beautify Tract
OAKLAND, April 5. - The second anmual theater party of the Santa Fe Improvement club, scheduled for Easter Monday evening, at the Oakland Orpheum, has been extended to include nearly all the booster organizations of northern and central Oakland. It will be known as "civic night."
Mayor Frank K. Mott and Commissioners Baccus, Turner, Anderson and Forrest have engaged a box, and the same indication of loyalty has been shown by the progress and prosperity committee of the Chamber of Commerce, the Oakland baseball team, County Clerk John P. Cook and friends, and the Vernon Rock Ridge Improvement club.
The proceeds of the party will be used in cleaning lots, planting trees and otherwise beautifying the Poirier and Santa Fe tracts.
SANTA FE CLUB MEETS
persons considered undesirable Fri, Aug 24, 1917 – Page 22 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) · Newspapers.com
SANTA FE CLUB MEETS.
There will be a meeting of members of the Santa Fe District Improvement Club in Santa Fe hall, Fifty-fifth and Grove streets at 8 o'clock tonight to decide on some action in protest of the sale of property in the district to persons considered undesirable,
"Jim Crow" District Refused by Council
Santa Fe Improvement Club Fri, Nov 2, 1917 – 1 · The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) · Newspapers.com"Jim Crow” District Refused by Council
On the advice of Deputy City Attorney H. L. Hagan, the Oakland City Council yesterday refused to pass an ordinance creating "Jim Crow" restrictions on the negro population in certain sections of Oakland. The ordinance, as proposed by Orville B. Caldwell of the Santa Fe Improvement Club, would prohibit a mixed population on any one street.
Hagan advised the commissioners that the measure, which was modeled after the Baltimore act, was unconstitutional. He said:
"This is not a valid exercise of police power. It is unconstitutional because it assigns separate residence solely on the basis of color; denies certain persons the equal protection of the laws, and is contrary to the inherent right to acquire and dispose of property at will."
Thanks for your research on this and for adding to the white supremacy page of the Oakland local wiki.
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