Black Springs, NevadaA case study of institutionalized racism in Washoe County.

Black Springs, Nevada

What I hope to do today is illuminate how the development of and civic problems associated

with the Black Springs community are a reflection of institutional racism at work in

Washoe County.

Racism: race prejudice

plus power

AN AMERICAN DILEMMAGunnar Mrydal (1944)

American Dilemma

• Commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation, Swedish economist Myrdal travels nation wide to study the “Negro Problem” in American society.

• Reframes the problem of racism in American society as a “moral dilemma” existing within the hearts of white Americans.

• His work establishes a historiographical foundation for the way racism was understood in the academic community and in popular culture.• Historians liken its influence to the Bible. • His findings are cited in Brown v Board, MLK, and influential

historians and journalists of the day.

The Dilemma contended that…

• American thoughts on race exist on two unreconciled planes. • A General Plane: Belief in the American Creed: National Ideals of

democracy, equality, justice and belief a belief that faith in Christian Precepts undergird national life.

• Specific Planes: Where local interests, class, job security, prejudice, prestige and social jealousies override national ideals.

• He recognized factors such as economics, politics, and social norms, but concluded that trends such as returning veterans and democratic rhetoric during WWII, would propel white Americans’ hearts toward the embrace of a racially equal American Society.

An example: Nevada Lt. Governor Paul Laxalt August, 1963

Regarding Civil Rights, Laxalt said he did not feel Nevada has a serious problem and “is certainly no Mississippi of the West. This type of talk will only create a problem,” he added.

I think we should avoid, if at all possible, civil rights legislation as such,” Laxalt said. He said that if there is a problem it should be dealt with through “private persuasion.”

Laxalt said he was opposed to having state agencies use the power of licensing to halt discrimination practices, or do condition licenses on this basis.

A shift in the narrative

Stokely Carmichael, Charles Hamilton and the Black Power Movement

• School desegregation efforts lagged along with housing, vocational, economic and political opportunities.

• Minority recruitment for Vietnam• African Americans grow weary of protests • Urban Riots Ensue

• A reframing of the problem of race in America form one that is primarily a Moral Issue to one that is structural and that penetrates every aspect of American Culture and society (1967)

Yeah, but….

“There is no American Dilemma”

• Carmichael and Hamilton shift the historiographical narrative around racism in three important ways:

1. Introduce the idea of Institutionalized Racism.

2. Call African Americans to take control of their history. • ("Negro” rejected for Afro or African American or Black.)

3. Reject Myrdalian notion that Americans are moral individuals and that race is a moral issue. They critique non violence and defend alternative expressions of protest.

Individual v Institutionalized Racism

Individual Racism

• Consists of overt acts by individuals, which cause death, injury, or the violent destruction of property.

• Displayed through white violence towards protestors at sit-ins, the freedom rides, lynching, marches or despicable events like church bombings.

Institutionalized Racism

• Originated in the operation of established and respected forces in society and receives far less public condemnation than the first.

• Perpetuated through social injustices that pervade black communities such as poverty, discrimination, lack of access to proper food, overcrowded and dilapidated houses, poor medical and educational facilities, and unequal job opportunities.

A STORY OF INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM IN WASHOE COUNTY

MARCH 1967: A 3-DAY FRONT PAGE ARTICLE EXPLORING “BLACK SPRINGS: WASHOE COUNTY’S MOST BLIGHTED AREA”

“… It’s called Black Springs– a predominantly Negro area which developed in the early 1950s to accommodate colored airmen at Stead Air Force Base.”

(NSJ: March 26, 1967)

Going backwards from 1967 to understand

Northern Nevada’s African American Community

• 1880 Black Population • 47 residents in Eureka, 20 residents in Gold Hill, 96 residents in Virginia

City.• No information provided for Reno.

• 1900: 25 African Americans in Reno working as laborers, for the railroad, a few had their own businesses.

• 1910: Bethel Afro-Methodist Episcopal (AME) church established

• 1919: NAACP Chapter founded by Bethel members• 1946: Second Baptist Church established

Washoe County’s Racial Climate

• Through the 1920’s Reno maintained a chapter of the KKK.• KKK burned crosses on Peavine during the initiation of 2000 men.

• During the 40s– 60s, Nevada coined the “Mississippi of the West.” • Discrimination and de facto segregation practiced in all public

accommodations, employment and housing.• 1940: VA Hospital integrated only after veteran Alfred Smith

denied service multiple times. • Black performers required to stay in different hotels than those they

performed in. Blacks couldn’t attend their shows. • 1956: Only 17/100 businesses asked said they would serve African

Americans.• 1964: First home loans and sales to African Americans

Washoe County’s Racial Climate

• Nevada passed and enforced Civil Rights Legislation only after the Federal Government and often under pressure from the Fed.• 1964: Federal Civil Rights Act of ... 1965: Nevada Civil Rights Act.• 1968: Jones v Mayer bars racial discrimination in all sale and rental

property under Section 182 of the Civil Rights Act • 1971: Under threat of federal court action, Nevada Legislature

approves legislation effectively ending housing segregation.

• 1974: Dan Dean is the first African American lawyer to begin practicing in Reno.

3 Headlines from the front page of the Reno Evening Gazette: March 21, 1960

There was public awareness of Black Springs’ problem of

no sewer or streets as far back as 1960..

Poor construction,

faulty chimney, distant service

from Sparks Fire Department

Activists testing equality in public accommodations

Black Springs, Nevada

Black Springs before 1950

• A rural setting, unincorporated and away from the city. • White settlement.• Friendly for travelers.• Lemmon [Valley] hosted brothels, bars, cafes, and service

stations.

• By 1926 the area was commonly known as Black Springs• By 1950 Black Springs it was being touted as “Washoe

County’s newest community” replete with a neighborhood association, boys club, plans for a church, and was attempting to get water piped in by Sierra Pacific.

The 1950s and J.E. Sweatt:

• Sweatt, local realtor and President of the Nevada Association for the United Nations, hosted a visit to Reno by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt.• Mrs. Roosevelt influenced him to do something to improve the housing situation for the

local black population. This was his motivation for developing Black Springs.

• He bought land in Black Springs and by the mid 1950s sold parcels to black families who proceeded to move small wooden houses and shacks they had acquired for free or at auction in from various places in Reno.

• Sweatt paid for a water system to be installed.• Electricity accessed from a adjacent subdivision.

Stead Air Force Base

Black Springs’ Problems

• Outside city limits and not incorporated into county government.• No public roads or access or public services such as sewer, trash

collection, gas lines, curbs, gutters, sidewalks.• Frequent Fires: structures were low quality and built piece by

piece or moved from other locations in town.• Residents dug large holes to use as cesspools- homemade rather

than prefabricated- often overflowed • Garbage dumped everywhere (by residents and outsiders)• In 1967 residents, neighbors, the county and others disturbed by

the unhealthy conditions reported on the problem but no official entity was willing do do anything about it.

Housing Discrimination

• Restrictive Housing Covenants: Established who could and could not live in or purchase property in given neighborhoods. • Benefitted builders and brokers through racial

exclusivity.

• The more restricted a neighborhood, the more appealing it was to white buyers.

• Shelly v Kramer 1948 determines that restrictive

covenants are unenforceable. • Strengthened in 1953 when the court ruled that

damages could not be collected from a seller that violated a covenant (they can sell to whomever they want) .

• It wasn’t until 1971, under the threat of federal court action that the Legislature effectively ends housing segregation in Reno and Las Vegas.

Restrictive Covenants in Reno

• University Terrace (West of UNR) 1930:• …the said lot shall not, nor shall any part thereof, or any estate

therein, nor any part of the same, be at any time sold, conveyed, demised, leased or transferred to or be permitted to be occupied or used by any person or person other than those of the Caucasian or white race.

• Westfield Village (near Reno High) 1945:• That said lots or an portion thereof shall not be sold, transferred

leased, rented, or mortgaged to any person or persons other than the Caucasian Race, nor shall any person or person other than the Caucasian Race occupy or be permitted to occupy said lots or any portion thereof except as the servant of the occupant thereof.

Housing: Financing/Mortgages

• 1964: Financing Opens Up. Housing is 90% segregated.

Housing, however, is the key problem, as seen by Rev. Mr. Matthews, pastor at the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony.

“If we could provide Negros with decent housing, Reno could attract some of the most talented Negroes in the West. But we can’t with the present housing pattern.”

“We should concentrate our fire on an effort to find desegregated housing in Washoe County. That’s the key to the problem.

Reno Evening Gazette Monday June 8, 1964

Why was Nevada referred to as the “Mississippi of the West”?

“I am appalled at the lack of public support being given to

NAACP branches in their efforts to secure civil rights legislation for the state of

Nevada. It is indeed shocking to find public opinion in Nevada… as

reactionary as that found in our Southern states.”

Tarea Hall Pittman of San Francisco, regional secretary of NAACP

March 9, 1963

“the name was applied to the state at least partly because of the openness of private

discrimination”

“Nevada also earned the title ‘Mississippi of the West’ by its slowness to act against

private discrimination; significant legislation in this area was not enacted until after the major civil rights statues had been

passed by Congress.” Elmer Rusco, political scientist, author and

expert on race relations in Nevada

The Local NAACP

Organized protests, addressed injustice through correspondence with local and statewide business and political leaders, encouraged voter registration.

• 1960: Put pressure on local businesses prior to the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics.

• In a letter to the Mayor of Reno NAACP leaders explained that the US Commission on Civil Rights has reported that Reno and Las Vegas “seem to be the areas of major problems in the general field of denial of civil rights.”

• 1960: Picketed F.W. Woolworth Co. in Reno (First and Virginia St)• 1961: Sit in at the Overland Hotel (2nd and Lake St).• 1961: Picket two Reno Casinos • 1962-5: Intermittent protests at legislature for Civil Rights Bills.

The NAACP and Black Springs

• Fourteen years after Kramer in 1962. the NAACP told members of the Nevada Equal Rights Commission about “Negro” servicemen being discriminated against in housing.

• Three Stead trailer parks promised space but refused to rent it once they saw the color of the serviceman’s skin.

• Servicemen’s families could not find housing in Reno. • In an effort to find an agreeable solution to the problem the base

recommended that the Negro personnel seek housing in Black Springs, which was deemed substandard by the NAACP. • Nevada State Journal, November14, 1962

Political Leadership

• Governor Grant Sawyer (1958- 1966)• First Governor to make Civil Rights an

issue• Did suspend discrimination in public

accommodations during the 1960 Olympics.

• 1961: Establishes the Equal Rights Commission

• 1963: Memorandum to heads of state boards and regulatory agencies reminding them on nondiscrimination policies.

• 1965: State law passed banning discrimination in employment and public accommodations.

1967

1971: Black Springs General Improvement District

• 4 Years after the Feature Article and after housing legislation finally passed, Washoe County was “persuaded” to set up a general improvement district.

• Responsible for • New water system• Drilling wells• Installing a water tank• Putting mains to the houses• Fire Station• Community Building

• Funding from • The Fleischmann Foundation ($65,000)• Washoe County• Reno Kiwanis • HUD Grant

• Additional Projects and Funding • $248,000 HUD Grant for “Home Rehabilitation” • $8,000 HUD Grant to Pave Streets/ Streets named after Civil Rights Leaders

Black Springs Today

(Lemmon Valley)

STUDENT LESSONAvailable Online: PDF File, PPT Slide Show, Stations Worksheets, Last Word Template,

Thank You for Coming! Katie Anderson: kmanderson@washoeschools.net