FRESNO, CA --As African-Americans continue to adapt in the post-Jim Crow law era almost 70 years later, compiled data displays the significant damages that such discrepancies of inequity over decades (also connected with post-slavery inequitable conditions) have caused members of the black community.
According to online encyclopedia, Britannica, Jim Crow laws were any of the laws that enforced racial segregation between the end of the Reconstruction period in 1877 and the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s.
The term "Jim Crow" was the name of a minstrel routine, (Jump Jim Crow) performed beginning in 1828 by its author, Thomas Dartmouth (“Daddy”) Rice, and by many imitators, including actor Joseph Jefferson. The term came to be a derogatory epithet for African Americans and a designation for their segregated life.
It would be because of the mass “great migration” of Blacks from the South, where families looking for work and a better life, that California's small agricultural towns and cities located in the Central Valley increased productivity considerably, as African Americans migrated to California’s thriving agricultural communities.
According to California Black Health Network report, Ethnic Health Assessment for African-American in California, it was in the 1940s where World War II generated a massive growth in California’s industrial employment, along with increasing African-American migration. The wartime economic growth resulted in high wage jobs for both Black and White Californians and resulted in mounting racial bias and segregation.
However the sudden influx of Blacks concentrated in these California communities had a reverse affect economically for migrated African-Americans, according to the report:
With the War’s end and economic contraction, California’s African Americans came to be
increasingly concentrated in poor, segregated communities where formerly available economic
opportunities became dramatically reduced.
The report also detailed the affects of the system of sharecropping that followed slavery and the perpetuated social and economic oppression.
What is an overwhelming reality is that most health disparities today displayed by African-Americans are due to societal pressures, oppression, discrimination and economic inequities relative to one's skin color; even in California.
Ironically, California ranks number two on the most diverse states in America in 2019, according to the Detailed List Of The Most Diverse States In America For 2019 report.
In California's population, 72.9% of the people are White, 6.5% are Black or African American, 14.7% are Asian, 1.7% are Native Americans, and 0.5% are Pacific Islander, according to 2015 US Census Bureau estimates.
Here are the top 10 cities in California with the highest population of African-Americans:
1. Inglewood: Population: 111,006; % African American: 40.94% # Of African American Residents: 45,444 Percent Change Since 2010: -3.45% 2. Compton: Population: 97,847; % African American: 30.38% # Of African American Residents: 29,727 Percent Change Since 2010: -5.57% 3. Oakland: Population: 417,442; % African American: 23.64% # Of African American Residents: 98,681 Percent Change Since 2010: -9.03%
4. Hawthorne: Population: 87,425; % African American: 23.27% # Of African American Residents: 20,340 Percent Change Since 2010: -13.76%
5. Gardena: Population: 60,096; % African American: 23.21% # Of African American Residents: 13,946 Percent Change Since 2010: 7.2% 6. Carson: Population: 92,927; % African American: 22.75% # Of African American Residents: 21,145 Percent Change Since 2010: 1.16%
7. Lancaster: Population: 160,113; % African American: 21.25% # Of African American Residents: 34,026 Percent Change Since 2010: 22.35% 8. California City: Population: 13,495; % African American: 21.19% # Of African American Residents: 2,859 Percent Change Since 2010: 60.35%
9. Suisun City: Population: 29,280; % African American: 20.72% # Of African American Residents: 6,068 Percent Change Since 2010: 6.61% 10. Vallejo: Population: 120,599; % African American: 20.45% # Of African American Residents: 24,667 Percent Change Since 2010: -2.19%
Nevertheless, even with these diverse stats, 24/7 Wall Street reported an appalling fact in statistical article, 15 worst cities for black Americans; Fresno, CA made the list as one of the worst cities for Blacks out of the 15. The same report also noted that the median annual income among black households in the United States is just $36,651, about $24,000 shy of the median income among white households. Black Americans are also less likely to own a home, less likely to have a college education, and five times more likely to be incarcerated than white Americans.
Senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Camille M. Busette, identified causal factors behind these disparities in the cities as a tremendous amount of residential segregation which also caused employment segregation.
Of the 50,000+ Blacks in the Fresno area, the median income is only $25,895 (42.2 percent of white income), and the unemployment rate is 22.3 percent black, 8.9 percent white.
The report noted that Fresno is the only West Coast metro area to rank among the worst cities for black Americans, where 41.2 percent of black residents live in poverty, one of the largest shares of any city and more than three times the 13.0 percent white poverty rate.
The socioeconomic disparities are largely divided along racial lines, along with health inequities:
The black mortality rate of 908 deaths per 100,000 residents is nearly 20 percent greater than the white mortality rate of 750 deaths per 100,000 residents.
Through an open forum discussion about such data, local residents have an opportunity to learn more information about this overwhelming crisis.
The State of Black Fresno County forum to take place Monday, February 25 from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM at the African-American Museum (AAHCMSJV) located at 1857 Fulton St., Fresno, CA, will be live streamed on The ONME Network, also available on its Facebook page, and filmed for later broadcast on ONME TV and CMAC channels: Comcast Channel 93 and AT&T Channel 99 Monday evening 8:00 PM-10:00 PM, Wednesday night, 9:00 PM -11:00 PM and Friday morning.
The forum intends to reveal more important historical stats along with commentary from experts in the fields of education, small business, health, psychology, economics, and media.
The format includes questions from the in-person and online audiences during the live broadcast.
Interested parties are advised to RSVP for a seat; this event is free to the public and will also be live streamed.
