Seeking El Dorado: African Americans in California

Lawrence Brooks De Graaf, Kevin Mulroy, Quintard Taylor

University of Washington Press, 2001 - History - 537 pages

From the 18th century, African Americans, like many others, have migrated to California to seek fortunes or, often, for the more modest goals of being able to find work, own a home, and raise a family relatively free of discrimination. Not only their search but also its outcome is covered in Seeking El Dorado.

Whether they settled in major cities or smaller towns, African Americans created institutions and organizations -- churches, social clubs, literary societies, fraternal orders, civil rights organizations -- that embodied the legacy of their past and the values they shared. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, African American leadership in the state consistently focused on achieving racial justice. The essays in this book speak of triumph and hardship, success, discrimination, and disappointment.

Seeking El Dorado is a major contribution to black history and the history of the American West and will be of interest to both scholars and general readers.

Contents

• The Early African Heritage of California: 73
• Development in California 18481900: 98
• African American Boosterism Agriculture: 149
• The Evolution of Black Music in Los Angeles 18901955: 249
• Deindustrialization Urban Poverty: 343
• African American Suburbanization in California: 405
• Suggested Readings: 475
• Contributors: 487

About the author

HISUS

Bibliographic information

• Title: Seeking El Dorado: African Americans in California
• Editors: Lawrence Brooks De Graaf, Kevin Mulroy, Quintard Taylor
• Contributor: Autry Museum of Western Heritage
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of Washington Press, 2001
• ISBN: 0295980826, 9780295980829
• Length: 537 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / General; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies