African Americans in San Francisco
African Americans in San Francisco, California, comprised less than 6% of the city's total population in the 2010 census, down from 13.4% in 1970.[1] Among the United States' biggest 14 cities, San Francisco is near the bottom in the percentage of black residents.[1] The neighboring city of Oakland, across the San Francisco Bay has been more traditionally associated with African-American culture than San Francisco proper, although blacks have always been a minority in Oakland as well. In the mid 20th century, the African American community in the Fillmore District earned the neighborhood the nickname the "Harlem of the West".[2] About 9 percent of the San Francisco Police Department force was African-American in 2015.[1]
History
African-Americans began coming to San Francisco during the California Gold Rush. During the Great Migration, San Francisco was a destination for African-Americans coming out of the South. War Manpower Commission recruited African Americans from the South to work the recently owned Naval Docks in Hunters Point of San Francisco. Word soon spread that African Americans could find work in San Francisco, thus began the great migration.
Future
In 2016, local pastor Amos C. Brown predicted that San Francisco's African American population would decrease to less than 20,000 in 2026, down from 46,000 in 2016.[3]
Notable people
Politics
- Mary Ellen Pleasant
- Howard Thurman
- Charlotte L. Brown
- Willie Brown (politician), elected 41st Mayor of San Francisco and 1st African American Mayor in 1995. He was re-elected in 1999.
- William Leidesdorff 1845 Businessman, President of the San Francisco school board and also elected as City Treasurer.
- London Breed current mayor of San Francisco.
- Terry Francois first African American member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and a prominent African-American civil rights attorney in the 1960s.
Activism
- Elouise Westbrook, activist
- Sarah Webster Fabio, poet, educator and political activist
- Mary L. Booker, civil rights activist
- Big Five of Bayview, environmental and community activist
- Christopher Muhammad, Bay Area Minister of the Nation of Islam
- Hettie B. Tilghman born in San Francisco, an organizer and secretary for Bethel A.M.E. Church Sunday School
- Bob Slattery was an African American activist and a leader for the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE)[4]
Film
- Jimmie Fails, actor known for the semi-autobiographical film The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
- Danny Glover successful Hollywood actor.
- Terri J. Vaughn, actress born and raised in Bayview–Hunters Point.
- Kevin Epps, filmmaker best known for the documentary Straight Outta Hunters Point.
Literature
Music
- RBL Posse, gangsta rap group from Harbor Road public housing projects in Hunters Point
- 11/5, defunct gangsta rap group from the Oakdale public housing projects in Hunters Point
- Cindy Herron, singer and founding member of En Vogue.
- Martin Luther McCoy, actor, guitarist and musician.
- Larry June, rapper from Hunter's Point.
- Prezi, rapper from Hunter's Point.
- Etta James, moved to San Francisco's Fillmore District at 12 years old.
Medical
- William Byron Rumford, a pharmacist and politician. At 18 he moved to San Francisco.
Sports
- John Nisby
- O.J. Simpson
- Desmond Bishop, professional NFL player
- Stevie Johnson, NFL wide receiver, born and raised in Hunters Point before moving to Fairfield, CA
- Eric Wright, NFL player, cornerback for the San Francisco 49ers
- Donald Strickland, NFL player, free agent cornerback who played for the San Francisco 49ers, Indianapolis Colts and New York Jets
- TJ Ward, NFL player, free agent Pro Bowl Safety who was drafted for the Cleveland Browns, and played for the Denver Broncos, with whom he won Super Bowl 50
Artist
- Sargent Johnson, an artist who studied painting, drawing and sculpting. Moved to San Francisco at 27
- David Johnson, a photographer known for his portrayal of the jazz culture in San Francisco's Fillmore district and figures of the civil rights movement. Moved to San Francisco at age 19, studied with Ansel Adams at the California School of Fine Arts.
- Stanley Greene, artist and photojournalist, known for his coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the genocide in Rwanda, and the Second Chechen War. Studied photography at the San Francisco Art Institute.
See also
Further reading
- Daniels, Douglas Henry (1990). Pioneer urbanites : a social and cultural history of Black San Francisco. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-91114-7.
- Broussard, Albert S. (1993). Black San Francisco : the struggle for racial equality in the West, 1900-1954. Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-0577-0.
References
- "San Francisco's black population dwindling". 2015-05-11.
- Pepin, Elizabeth; Watts, Lewis (2006). Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era.
- Fuller, Thomas (2016-07-20). "The Loneliness of Being Black in San Francisco". The New York Times.
- "History". San Francisco State University.