the very question of whether to allow African Americans who were free to live in the state was only an issue that sparked a contentious debate at California’s Constitutional Convention. At the time, Morton M. McCarver—a Kentuckian— brought a resolution to the table and suggested that Blacks should be excluded from the state. It should be noted that McCarver was inspired by Oregon’s law barring African Americans from the state. “Depending on it, you will find the country flooded with a population of free Negroes,” said McCarver, calling that potential wave of immigration “the greatest calamity that could befall California.” Staying in California was an issue of life and death for the African Americans, and even after the passage of the California Constitution that forbade slavery, there was still some gray line in the question of rights for the African Americans that caused a deep divide in the state. And sometimes, that divide would boil over into personal rivalries. For instance, in 1859, an argument over slavery caused a duel when senator David C. Broderick, an abolitionist was killed by ex-chief Justice of the state of California David S. Terry, a pro-slavery advocate. Throughout his tenure as California Governor, Burnett tried over and over again to exclude Blacks from the state. It did not stop with him, his successor also tried and failed. In addition, Isaac Allen even brought forward a bill that alleged that an association with the white people would lead to fostering the ignorance and pride of the free African Americans “so that he becomes insolent and defiant, and if insufficient numbers, would become dangerous.”
Housing Discrimination in California Even though the civil rights movement ended institutionalized racism in America in 1964, a century after the abolishment of slavery, racial discrimination was still happening openly in many neighborhoods. The law passed then protected the constitutional rights of all Americans and enforced provisions preventing the discrimination of people at the federal level but that wasn’t extended to the housing markets. California however was progressive, passing the California Fair Housing Act of 1963 also known as the Rumford Act (AB1240) because of its sponsor, assemblyman William Bryon Rumford. The bill was one of the most significant and sweeping that saw the rights of the African American and other people of color protected wherein they could purchase a home without discrimination of any sort. The California Fair Housing Act of 1963 was enacted largely in response to ‘failure’ or
For now, the African American community in California was ‘safe,’ however, the issue of whether slavery should be introduced in the state remained incendiary.
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