Lynn M. Hudson

An exploration of many scenes in Black resistance to the imposition of white supremacist Jim Crow legal and cultural practices in California from 1849 until 1950.

The title comes from the imagined premise of California as a land of great opportunity for Black people, a place "west of Jim Crow." And yet from the beginning of statehood California was a bastion of white supremacy. It did not ratify the amendments granting Black people civil and voting rights. It wished to do all it could to limit the social standing and access for all nonwhite people.

The author begins with a survey of the condition of Black people in California in the 19th century from 1849 until the 1910s: a small black population, at first restricted from local schools until it became too onerous to maintain distinct schools for the nonwhite population. The first episode the author focuses on involved the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, its portrayal of Black people, Black participation in the event, and coverage of the event in Black newspapers. The author also spoke of attempts to suppress showings of The Birth of the Nation which was coming out at the same time.

The next episode featured Allensworth, an all Black town built in the southern part of the Central Valley, exhibiting the promise, the challenge, and ultimately the collapse of the dream of an all Black community which could be self-sustaining. That Allensworth was later made a state park is also explored.

Lynching is then explored, particularly an incident of lynching featuring two white men in the 1930s. It was approved of by the governor at the time as an example of wild west justice, and the author explores how the incident was used by the NAACP and others to promote the antilynching movement and to attempt to pass an antilynching bill through Congress.

The author then explores the powerful influence of the Ku Klux Klan in southern California, especially in Los Angeles and the Inland Empire, not only in the 1920s, but well into the 1930s and 1940s. They were highly entrenched in political leadership and particularly within the police force.

The final episode centered on Pasadena and the struggle to integrate the local city pool. It became a focal point of white anxiety because of the prospect of the intimacy of white and black bodies sharing such a space. Many rounds of court cases came and went; when the pool was to be integrated, city officials closed the pool. When forced to open, they did not provide sufficient maintenance. In this way all the ways white supremacy sought to preserve itself at all costs is made manifest.

Throughout the author does well to focus on the efforts of Black women in writing for Black newspapers, organizing, and other forms of political advocacy. The volume does well to expose the white supremacy prevalent in California for most of its history as part of the United States while keeping the emphasis on the heroic and powerful work done by Black people to advance their interests in spite of it all.

**galley received as part of early review program… (altro)