1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

African American and Black Historic Context Statement Santa Barbara, California FINAL DRAFT Executive Summary

Santa Barbara has a long and rich history that has included people of African descent since the earliest days of Spanish contact. This historic context statement highlights that heritage as a tool to preserve and designate sites important to Santa Barbara’s African American and Black community. It is not intended as a comprehensive history of this community, which has been and continues to be documented by scholars and community members. Instead, this context draws upon that existing research and re-frames it through the lens of the physical, built environment – buildings, structures, sites, and places that remain to tell the story of that legacy.

Included in this context is a broad historical overview of Santa Barbara and its African American and Black community from roughly the 16th century up to 1980. It is followed by a discussion of several specific themes: Religion and Spirituality, Clubs and Organizations, Residential Settlement and Housing Patterns, and Businesses and Commercial Development. Guidelines for assessing the eligibility of properties for historic designation are included within each theme. Because the project did not involve a field survey, each theme also includes a list of properties that research indicated to be associated with the theme and should be studied further. Not all possible themes associated with Santa Barbara’s African American and Black community were examined, due to time limitations tied to the project’s grant funding. Recommendations for future efforts and next steps are proposed at the end of the document.

The historical overview showed that Santa Barbara’s African American and Black community, though a small percentage of the city’s overall population, grew noticeably in the early 20th century and after World War II. These periods coincided with the periods during which Santa Barbara itself expanded, as well as with the First and Second Great Migrations when African American and Black individuals and families moved from the South to the Northeast and West for greater opportunities. In Santa Barbara, they settled in homes and apartments, found jobs and started businesses, attended schools and churches, and socialized and supported each other through clubs and organizations. They persevered in the face of direct and indirect discrimination that over the 20th century concentrated the African American and Black community in Santa Barbara’s Eastside neighborhood, along with other marginalized racial and ethnic groups. Anchored by two churches, St. Paul’s A.M.E. Church and the Second Baptist Church, the African American and Black community flourished in the area around East Haley Street that became its commercial heart. At the same time, community activists fought for equal access to the rest of Santa Barbara, especially during the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and

African American and Black Historic Context Statement Santa Barbara, California FINAL DRAFT Executive Summary

1960s, by exposing discriminatory housing and employment practices that systematically limited opportunities for the community.

As a result of the patterns described in the historical overview, it appears that many built resources associated with important events, persons, and organizations have already been lost. Blocks of housing between East Gutierrez Street and East Montecito Street just south of East Haley Street were cleared for the construction of U.S. Highway 101/State Highway 2 starting in the late 1940s. The area south of the highway became increasing industrial and replaced what had been part of the Eastside neighborhood. Of the buildings that remained, major alterations over time have changed many to the extent that they no longer appear as they did when they were associated with the African American and Black community.

Already limited due to the relatively small size of the African American and Black community, the remaining built resources possess greater historic importance because of their rarity. The guidelines for historic designation recognize this and offer a broad basis for determining significance. At the same time, properties would still need to retain enough of their physical integrity – that is, their appearance, materials, and overall character – to be designated as historic resources. A basic integrity test for a property associated with an important event or person is whether someone from the period would recognize the property as it exists now. For properties important for their architecture or design, a greater level of integrity is expected, though all buildings change over time and some degree of alterations is acceptable.

City staff will continue to research the properties suggested for further study and bring them forward for Landmark or Structure of Merit designation if they meet the guidelines in this context. Historic context statements can be living documents as well, and as time moves on and more information is found, this context may be amended and expanded to add more themes and time periods to recognize the continued contributions of the African American and Black community to Santa Barbara.