The Urban Experience of Black San Diegans

As San Diego county's first permanent Black resident, Nathan Harrison was a homesteader. It is believed that Harrison was a formerly enslaved man from Kentucky who was brought to California to mine gold by his enslaver. How he obtained his freedom is surrounded by legend. One legend claims that Harrison helped defeat California from Mexico by fighting in the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt. Claiming that Harrison drove the first wagon train over Tejon Pass in 1854, opening the route that connected California's Central Valley with Southern California. However, it is most likely assumed that Harrison acquired his freedom after the death of his enslaver. Soon after moving to southern California, he eventually settled in a small cabin on Palomar Mountain, located in northeastern San Diego County, until he died in 1920 at 100 years old.

In 2004 the Nathan "Nate" Harrison Historical Archaeology Project was established to excavate the site of where Harrison's cabin once stood. The excavation revealed 200 mismatched clothing buttons, liquor bottles from all over the world, and a large number of meat tins. The findings coincide with records from the 1900s that indicate "...the standard kit that you bring to Harrison: a pair of pants, a tin of food, and a bottle of alcohol". As San Diego's most-photographed 19th-century resident, Harrison, was an eminent figure of the region's first tourist destination.

Born in Philadelphia, Allen Light migrated to Santa Barbara, California, in 1835, where he worked as a mariner. In 1839 Light gained Mexican citizenship where he hunted sea otters and guarded the California coastline against poachers. In 1842, Light settled in San Diego, where he lived in a single-story adobe house with another Black man named Richard Freeman. Records indicate that Freeman purchased the four-room, single-story adobe house from Henry Fitch for $96 on February 10, 1847, and lived there with Allen Light. The House was located on the west side of the plaza beside the Casa de Machado and was said to have been a grog house or saloon. After the death of Richard Freeman in 1951, Allen Light’s existence seemed to have vanished. Light and Freeman were the first Black business owners, operating a saloon and dry goods store.

In 1948, while installing a heater in the Machado Chapel of Old Town, workers discovered two documents buried behind two half-sized blocks of the adobe walls. The papers were known as sailor protection papers, similar to "free papers." During the era that Light lived, most states required Black people to carry at the time. In the documents, Allen was described as a 22-year-old colored man. The Freeman-Light House became a part of Old Town State Park in 1967. Today, after over a century of being stashed in various hideaways, the Allen Light papers may be viewed at the San Diego Historical Society's Research Archives.

An African American man named Fred Coleman can be ascribed to discovering gold in San Diego County in Julian, California. Coleman, a Black rancher and an experienced miner, lived in the Julian with his wife and their children when he discovered gold in the creek later named after him. He made the discovery one day while watering his horse during the winter of 1869-70. Coleman immediately began panning in the shallow waters for more gold. In a matter of weeks, over 800 prospectors flooded into what was named the Coleman Mining District in search of gold, ushering in the gold rush of that area. As a result, Coleman was elected the recorder.

In 1872, America Newton arrived from Missouri and settled in Julian. Newton was formerly enslaved, and she worked as a laundress for the local miners.

By 1880, 55 African Americans had resided in San Diego county, with 60 percent of the population living in the backcountry of Julian. The majority of these residents were formerly enslaved individuals who had migrated from the South.

After selling his bakery in Julian, Isaac Atkinson moved to San Diego, where he started The Colonizer in 1892, San Diego's first Black newspaper.

During the mid-1890s, Edward W. Anderson moved to San Diego from Kentucky, where he established a successful laundry business in 1897 at age 25. As the owner of IXL Laundry, located at 546 Seventh Avenue, Anderson managed the most substantial steam laundry company within the region, where he employed 35 workers. His business later relocated to 10th Avenue and Island Avenue.  As one of early San Diego's most successful entrepreneurs and business people, Anderson was also listed as owner-operator of Economy Paper Company, the San Diego Rubbish Company, and a hog farm in Coronado.

 According to the 1890 United States Census, 269 Black Americans resided in San Diego County in 1890.

Hotel Robinson, now named the Julian Hotel, was one of the first businesses in San Diego County, California. The hotel was also owned and operated by African American settler Albert Robinson and his wife, Margaret Tull Robinson. Built in 1897, it is the oldest continuously operated hotel in Southern California. Albert Robinson was born in Missouri in 1845 into enslavement. It is believed that Robinson befriended a military officer during the Civil War and came to San Diego with him in 1868. While living in Julian and working as a cook for a ranch, Robinson met San Diego native Margaret Tull in 1886. Margaret Tull's father was the first African American to serve as a juror in San Diego County. Her mother, Susan Tull, owned property and is thought to be the financial backer for the hotel's construction. The Robinsons opened the Robinson Restaurant and Bakery shortly after their marriage, which endured great success and popularity. However, in 1897 the Robinson Restaurant and Bakery was demolished, and construction for Hotel Robinson began and was completed that year. Ultimately the hotel became famous for its hospitality and cooking and was considered a social center of the community, entertaining visiting senators and congress members and some of the wealthiest and most influential families in San Diego at the time, such as the Scripps and the Whitney. Albert died of an unknown illness on June 10, 1915.

Nevertheless, Margaret continued to operate the hotel until he sold it in 1921. As a result, the hotel was renamed the Julian Hotel by the Jacobs family in honor of the previous Julian Hotel, constructed in 1872 and burned down in 1900. Today, the Julian Hotel is the only hotel in the town and is furnished in an early twentieth-century style in keeping with the original vision that the Robinsons had. The hotel is now a part of the National Register of Historic Places and is a Point of Historic Interest for California.

In 1887 the influence of the Bethel AME Church spread to the west coast when Mr. and Mrs. Solomon and Cordelia Johnson opened the first black church in San Diego, California. The Johnson’s established San Diego Bethel AME Church became a symbol of growth and change for the Black community that was had been previously repressed, making it a pivotal moment in the history of African Americans in San Diego. The emergence of Bethel AME in San Diego made it possible for African Americans to practice Black culture, religion and thrive in San Diego. Because of San Diego’s Bethel AME Church, the African American community was able to independently flourish as a self-defined community in the dominant white environment of San Diego.

According to the 1890 United States Census, a total of 296 Black Ameican lived in San Diego county.

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Henrietta Goodwin was the first African American to graduate from State Normal School of San Diego (now SDSU). Although The San Diego Union did not mention her in their list of 15 graduates, the school failed to include her on its roster of listed graduates. An attendance ledger and her registration record card indicate that Goodwin graduated on Jan. 30, 1913. She has sporadically attended the school since 1908, proceeding her sister in 1907.

Jonathan T. Buchanan was the first Black man to graduate from the San Diego State class of 36. A zoology major, he left San Diego to pursue a career in health care. By 1949, Dr. Jonathan T. Buchanan was advertising his optometrist practice in the Los Angeles Sentinel, which offered eye examinations, prescription glasses, and vision training using new top-of-the-line equipment. 

San Diego established its fire department in 1889. However, it was not until 1919 that the city hired its first Black firefighters. Tim Williams, Sandy Bake, James Cross, and eventually Joe Smith joined them in 1920 at fire station three near Balboa Park. Ten years later, all four men were transferred to the Logan Heights fire station, back then a middle-class white neighborhood just south and east of downtown. As a result, residents publicly complained about what kind of role models the Black men were for the white boys of the area. Ultimately the men were sent to Station 19 on Oceanview Boulevard in Southeast San Diego. 

During the 1940s, when more African-Americans were finally hired, they too were sent to station 19. Station 19 became San Diego's Black fire station since other fire stations did not include Black firefighters. Black men had to wait until another Black fireman retired to fill the space. That all changed in 1951 when San Diego fire chief George Courser decided to integrate the fire department. Black men were continuously seeking positions as firefighters, and the chief decided that if the armed services were integrated, so could the fire department. Courser hired more Black men and chose not to send them all to station 19.

The Douglas Hotel was built in 1924 by William McClosky, stood on the corner of Second and Market Street, where block H-90, lots E, F, and G are now located. The building included a billiard room, card room, and a restaurant, "nite club." The hotel was later named the Creole Palace, capable of holding up to 200 people. The hotel served as the only place of quality lodging and entertainment for Black audiences and African American visitors to San Diego during America's segregation era. The Douglas Hotel was the only place that served everyone and had a color-blind hiring policy in downtown San Diego. During the 1930s and '40s, famous African-American entertainers such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton, the Mills Brothers, and the Inkspots performed at the Creole Palace and stayed at the Douglas Hotel when visiting San Diego.

The Palace came to be known as "Cotton Club West," or "The Harlem of the West," where patrons could dance the Lindy Hop, the Susie Q, the Shimmy, and the Black Bottom while entertained by the elite Black performers of the time.

The San Diego Race Relations Society was founded in 1924. The association was established in response to San Diego’s racist practices and policies. The foundation sought to terminate prejudice against racial, national, and religious groups. The San Diego Race Relations Society was significant in challenging the denial of jobs because of religion, race, or color and pushing for desegregation in public spaces. Dennis Allen served as president of the association. He also helped expand employment opportunities for San Diego’s Black community.

Dr. Jack Johnson Kimbrough was born in Lexington, Mississippi, on July 26, 1908, to Samuel and Mary Kimbrough. His father worked as a blacksmith. In 1915 the Kimbrough’s fled Mississippi with their seven-year-old son Jack Kimbrough out of fear of the violent Ku Klux Klan. The family settled with relatives in Alameda, California. Kimbrough graduated from Alameda High School in 1926, attended Sacramento Junior College for two years, and later transferred to the University of California at Berkeley. Kimbrough graduated in 1930 as a chemistry major. He earned his dental degree from the University of California Dental School in San Francisco four years later. After his graduation, Kimbrough received the third-highest score on the state’s required dental board examination.

When Dr. Jack Johnson Kimbrough learned there were no African American dentists in San Diego, he hitchhiked to the city in 1935. Kimbrough married schoolteacher Quincella Pearl Nickerson in 1937, and they had four children. He was soon befriended by the only black physician in the area, A. Antonio DaCosta, who lent him office space in a rental unit. Despite the protest and threats of white residents, both doctors transferred their offices to the city’s first black-owned medical building, located in the Golden Hills neighborhood, in 1940. 

However, Kimbrough was more than San Diego’s first Black dentist. He was also a local civil rights activist. Kimbrough fought against racial injustices, pioneered hypnosis dentistry, and co-founded the San Diego chapter of the National Urban League.

In 1938 skilled parachutist Howard “Skippy” Smith moved to San Diego where took a position as a drop tester for Wallace Peck’s Standard Parachute Company. Smith was responsible for testing the factory’s parachutes to ensure that they would open. Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1914, Smith had previously traveled the country aerialist, with fellow Black parachutists as they created Skip and Skippy Entertainment. At Wallace Peck’s Standard Parachute Company, Smith worked his way up to become the company's first African American parachute inspector, making him the highest-ranking black employee at the company. However, Smith had bigger aspirations, with his entrepreneurial driven attitude Smith opened the first Black-owned parachute manufacturing company in the country. 

In 1942 Smith established his own parachute manufacturing company at 627 8th Avenue, which became the first black-owned defense manufacturer in the nation during WWII. The Pacific Parachute Company sewed and packed parachutes for the military, and in 1943 earned the title of “Top Black-Owned Business in the United States” from Time magazine. Smith was dedicated to employing a diverse workforce; he hired Black people, Asians, Latinos, Filipinos, and whites. When the war ended, Smith closed the factory and moved to Los Angeles, where he continued to produce parachutes.

In 1947 John Franklin “Johnny” Ritchey signed a contract with the San Diego Padres as a catcher. At 23 years old, Ritchey broke the Pacific Coast League’s color barrier as the first African-American player in Major League Baseball on the west coast one season after Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball. The San Diego native whose family had resided in San Diego since 1898, Ritchey also played baseball for San Diego High School and was a star baseball player at State College, now SDSU, from 1942 and 1946. Ritchey had previously turned down an opportunity with the Chicago Cubs because of his desire to “play at home.” Ritchey was considered the “Jackie Robinson of the West Coast.”

During the 60s, San Diego experienced numerous sit-ins, protests, and other forms of activism against racism, Black inequality, segregation, and discrimination. 

February 1, 1960, marked the beginning of the Greensboro sit-ins. The nonviolent protest against a segregated lunch counter started in Greensboro, North Carolina, and sparked sit-ins, including San Diego, California. The protests led to the Woolworth Department Store chain ending its racial segregation policy in their stores.

In 1963 Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) members staged a sit-in at SDG&E’s Sixth Avenue and E Street location to protest and change discriminatory hiring practices.

Members of Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) protested the California Real Estate Association’s meeting outside the El Cortez Hotel in Downtown San Diego. CREA was meeting to determine whether or not it would support Proposition 14, the law which would negate the Fair Housing Act of 1964.

After a 24-hour fast to memorialize James Reeb, students from San Diego’s Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) engaged in a rally in Balboa Park in 1965. Murdered by white segregationists in Selma, Alabama, Reeb was a white Unitarian Universalist minister and a civil rights activist.

In 1967 a group of parents citing inequalities for students of all ethnic backgrounds filed a court case against SDUSD. Leading to the Carlin et al v. Board of Education case. The complaint was just one of the various incidents concerning the segregation of city schools since the early 1960s. The San Diego Union School District (SDUSD) had previously received countless objections.

Although the Black Panther Party was established in October of 1966 in Oakland, California, by two college students, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, in reaction to police brutality, the San Diego chapter did not form until 1968. By then, the Black Panther Party had become the most influential revolutionary group in America during the late 1960s, with branches all over the country. The goal of the Black Panther was to fight racism from a militant standpoint as they indoctrinated a “Ten Point Program” aimed to fight for the liberation of Black people, reform education and history, employment, health care, the incarceration of black men, unfair judicial issues, and others forms of disenfranchisement that Black people are subjected to in the US. By 1967 the Panthers began to offer free health care services for black residents and created a complimentary breakfast program for Black children. The San Diego chapter began to serve complimentary breakfast in the parish hall of Christ the King Church, with the permission of Rev. James Gallas. He viewed the program as a positive opportunity for San Diego’s youth. 

Unfortunately, the Panther’s unaccommodating malcontent attitude towards white supremacy threatened the comfort of white people as it also challenged their superior facade. The government labeled the Black Panthers a terrorist group in fear of Black liberation. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover launched COINTELPRO, or Counter Intelligence Program to infiltrate and surveillance the Panthers. By 1969, 79 Panthers had been murdered by the police, 749 were jailed or arrested, and the organization had been earmarked by COINTELPRO. Under Richard Nixon, the harassment of Black Panther members did not slow down as law enforcement continued to harass, arrest, and murder members, including Fred Hampton and Fred Clark, in their apartment in Chicago. (Marable pp. 124). Due to the callousness of the American government towards the Black Panther Party, numerous members were jailed, fled the US, and even lost their lives.

The African American population in San Diego rises to 54,691, according to the 1970 United States Census.

San Diego’s Black Lives Matter chapter was formed in 2016 after 38-year old Ugandan refugee Alfred Olango was shot and killed by El Cajon Police Department officers. In September of 2016, Olango’s sister had called the police, stating concerns about her brother not “acting like himself.” Shortly after, Olango was met by two officers in a parking lot behind a mall. The officers claimed they saw what they believed was a gun. As a result, the officers shot and murdered the 38-year-old.

The San Diego District Attorney’s Office later ruled that the shooting was justified. It was later disclosed that Olango was unarmed, and the object in his hand that officers used to justify his execution was a vaping device.

In 2000, the African American population in San Diego was 161,480 out of a total county population of 2,813,833.

In 2010, the African American population in San Diego was 163,276 out of a total county population of 3,095,313.