Government-Sanctioned Segregation Still Defines California Cities

However, by the end of the WWII boom, racist federal housing policies eventually led to white flight and disinvestment of West Oakland. Under the guise of “urban renewal”, Oakland city urban planners undertook projects with funding from the Housing Act of 1949 with the goal of “redeveloping” the area. The construction of the Cypress Freeway in the 1950s, the West Oakland BART station in the 1960s, and then a US Post Office Distribution Center. Each of these razed African-American businesses and homes and scattered them from the area. Heavy trucking and industry were purposefully routed through West Oakland along Interstate 880, which rings the outside of West Oakland, but was <a href="https://dot.ca.gov/programs/traffic-operations/legal-truck-access/restrict-route-580" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">banned from Interstate 580 in 1951</a> which cut through neighborhoods that were nearly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/05/07/oakland-freeways-environmental-justice//" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">99% white at the time</a>. The disturbances from these projects shuttered businesses on Seventh Street and a once thriving cultural hub for African-Americans was <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/A-bygone-jazz-club-is-the-forgotten-story-of-14583167.php" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">no more</a>. <a href="https://medium.com/@kevin.ho_78976/government-sanctioned-segregation-still-defines-california-cities-bf541a43f6f4">Visit Now</a>