Post-1980

African American and Black Historic Context Statement Santa Barbara, California FINAL DRAFT Historical Overview

Santa Barbara’s African American and Black community continued to evolve and change after 1980. As different social issues became more relevant, new organizations, including the Food Bank of Santa Barbara County, the Endowment for Youth, and the Martin Luther King Committee appeared.139 Through the advocacy of the NAACP chapter, under the leadership of chapter president Issac Garrett and efforts of Dr. Shirley Kennedy, the City of Santa Barbara adopted the Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a city holiday in 1986 after it became a national day of recognition in the early 1980s.140 Of note, an effort to record and archive the history of Santa Barbara’s African American and Black community started in the 1980s and continued into the 1990s. Ranford Hopkins recorded interviews with 27 prominent Santa Barbara African Americans between 1982 and 1989, including Dr. Horace McMillan, L.S. Spencer, and others.141

The California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives was established at UC Santa Barbara in 1988, including its African American Collection that started to gather and archive the history of Santa Barbara’s African American and Black community.142 Local prominent residents and families who have donated their papers and artifacts to this collection include community member and long-time bell captain at the Hotel Miramar Resort Grover Barnes; newspaper columnists and novelist William (Bill) Downey; social worker and civic leader Anita Mackey; physician and civil rights advocate Dr. Horace McMillan; animator and artist Floyd Norman; professor and activist Dr. Shirley Kennedy, among others.

Through efforts such as the Black Santa Barbara Historical Calendar published by the UC Santa Barbara Black Studies Department and video interviews conducted by Sojourner Kincaid Rolle in the 1990s, the early history and legacy of Santa Barbara’s African American and Black community started to be preserved and recognized.143 Ms. Rolle’s papers are also in the UC Santa Barbara African American Collection.

139 “Organizations and Social Clubs,” Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society. 140 Amanda Burden, “Garrett Retires as NAACP President,” Santa Barbara Independent, 4 October 1990; personal communication with Sojourner Kincaid Rolle. 141 “Guide to the Santa Barbara Afro-American Oral History Project Collection CEMA 42,” Online Archive of California, accessed May 15, 2022, http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt1t1nf0qw/. 142 “California Ethnic & Multicultural Archives,” UC Santa Barbara Special Research Collections, accessed May 15, 2022, https://www.library.ucsb.edu/special-collections/cema/list-cema-guides. 143 “Guide to the Santa Barbara African American Local History Collection CEMA 99,” Online Archive of California, accessed May 15, 2022, http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8m3nf8bx/; “Preliminary Guide to the Sojourner Kincaid Rolle Papers CEMA 55,” Online Archive of California, accessed May 15, 2022, https://oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=c84b323h;developer=local;style=oac4;doc.view=items.