African-Americans And African Americans

The California experience of the East Bay African-Americans and the Los Angeles Native-American Indians were similar in terms of opportunity, but culturally unique. This paper will compare and contrast the experiences of Africa-Americans in the East Bay during WWII, based upon the readings of Gretchen Lemke Santangelo’s “Abiding Courage: African American Migrant Women and the East Bay Community”, and American Indians in Los Angeles, as described in the Nicholas G. Rosenthal’s work, “Reimaging Indian Country, Native American Migration and Identity in the Twentieth-Century Los Angeles.”
It will be argued that both African-Americans and Native-Americans, were able successfully able to develop very urbanized communities that were functionally similar, but culturally and ethnically distinct. The various similarities and differences between the two groups East Bay and LA experience will be addressed, including the motivations of such groups to move to California; how both groups were able to discover collectivism and community; how there was a progression from the first generations to the second; and the overall cultural impacts that such groups left in California.
The motivations of both the East Bay African-Americans and the Los Angeles Native-Americans in relocating to California were very much the same. For Native-Americans, the motivation was one of economic opportunity, where during WWII, there existed significant prejudice, discrimination and racism, and where reservation life, offered very little to no upward social or economic mobility. The reservation provided very little hope of obtaining economic or social freedom, and was plagued with alcoholism, poverty, and limitation, all issues that were very well known to those Na...

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...ican Americans in the East Bay were politically active in seeking to create equal opportunity in the work place, housing, welfare, and other social issues. Native-Americans eventually were also active in civil rights matters by participating in “efforts to operate within and transcend or overturn racialized hierarchies.”
Both African-Americans and Native-Americans, were able successfully able to develop very urbanized communities that were functionally similar, but culturally and ethnically distinct. There were various similarities and differences between the two groups East Bay and LA, such as the motivations of such groups to move to California; how both groups were able to discover collectivism and community; how there was a progression from the first generations to the second; and the overall cultural and other impacts that such groups left in California.