Migrations, Urban Crisis, and the Roots of Multiracial 1960s and 70s Radicalism in the San Francisco Bay Area

Although the San Francisco Bay Area has long served as a locus for both migrations and radicalism, scholars have yet to examine the full breadth and implications of their relationship. This paper examines the nexus of migrations and radicalism in the postwar Bay Area and argues that the dynamics between these migrant streams, the responses of the dominant host society, and the experiences of these migrants during and after World War II laid the foundation and shaped the future radicalization of prominent members of the local Left in the 1960s and 1970s. Migrants (primarily migrants of color) flowed into the Bay Area via separate currents but often eventually faced similar struggles within the area's multiple urban crises, such as police brutality, infrastructural divestment, and circumscribed employment and educational opportunities. Coming of age in this urban environment drove 1.5 and second-generation migrants to seek avenues of reform that would alleviate their dire straits, and numerous migrants—including but not limited to African Americans from the U.S. South, American Indians from various reservations, Central American immigrants, and Japanese American return-migrants from internment camps—turned to radical ideologies and tactics as a result.

This paper uses memoirs, oral histories, racial formation theory, and urban studies theory to also explore the ways in which cross-racial interpersonal relationships from these radical migrants’ early lives influenced their future advocacy for interracial coalitions and solidarity. A recent strain in Sixties historiography has highlighted the preponderance and importance of alliance-building efforts within Sixties radicalism, especially across ethnic and racial lines. Thus, rather than assume a priori the emergence of these alliances, this paper aims to locate the roots of multiracialism in the formative stages of these radicals’ lives.