BAKERSFIELD—The Fight for Civil Rights: Contesting Discrimination in the American West. Minority Housing Districts in Bakersfield in the 19th and 20th Centuries From China Towns to Mayflower.
This program will include two lectures and will examine the history of housing in Bakersfield, California. The first Sunset Mayflower Progressive Club (SMPC): Community Organization and Self-reliance in the Sunset-Mayflower District will cover the activism and early history of the community-based organization, including details on how they fought for better housing and social conditions from 1930 to 1940s. SMPC protested inferior housing and promoted substandard housing for sale. They lobbied and protested against the city council, when they approved and authorized a variance to allow the selling of substandard homes as a “non-dilapidated alternatives.” The SMPC fought for fair housing, equality, access to city and sanitary services.
The other lecture, Bakersfield: Two Chinatowns with only an Alley Left seeks to give the public a brief historical insight into the history of Bakersfield’s Chinatowns, while simultaneously acknowledging the discrimination the Chinese community was subject to and that arguably led to our Chinatown(s) disappearance.
November 3, 2023 1:00pm – 2:30pm
California State University, Bakersfield
Humanities Office Building Room 1109
9001 Stockdale Hwy
Bakersfield, CA 93311
For more information, go to https://hrc.csub.edu/americas-newest-city/americas-newest-cities-events/or contact Christopher Livingston, Director, Historical Research Center, 661-654-3253, clivingston@csub.edu.
This project is supported by a Humanities for All Quick Grant.
