Black History in Sacramento Part 3: Redevelopment and Renaissance

This third and final talk covers African American history in Sacramento from approximately 1940 through the 1960s, focusing primarily on the West End and the exodus to Oak Park in the wake of redevelopment.

This era saw dramatic shifts in population and power in Sacramento, including the internment of Japanese Sacramentans, the effects of the Black Migration that brought thousands of people from the American South to Sacramento, nightclubs and nightlife in the West End, the work of civil rights attorney Nathaniel Colley including integration of the New Helvetia housing projects, efforts to resist redevelopment of downtown Sacramento and its resulting displacement, and how the Black community responded to displacement during the Civil Rights Movement, including the story of Sacramento’s Black Panther Party chapter.

Photo Credit: Photo from a collection of pictures taken at the Zanzibar Club, from the collection of Keith Burns.