Los Angeles — African American Migration to the West Coast (1940–1970)

1. World War II defense boom pulls migrants west

   Jan 1, 1940Labels: World War, Southern California, Defense industry

   In 1940, the U.S. began a rapid buildup for World War II, expanding aircraft, shipbuilding, and other defense production in Southern California. These jobs, along with military-related growth, became a major pull factor for African Americans leaving the Jim Crow South. This marked the opening stage of a large migration stream into the Los Angeles region during the broader Second Great Migration.

   • NPS WWII Homefront
   • Second Migration

2. Executive Order 8802 targets defense-job discrimination

   Jun 25, 1941Labels: Executive Order, Franklin D, Fair Employment

   President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, which banned racial discrimination in the defense industry and created a federal Fair Employment Practice committee to handle complaints. While enforcement was limited, the order signaled that defense jobs were officially open to Black workers in a way they often had not been before. This reinforced the idea that moving to war-industry centers like Los Angeles could bring better employment chances.

   • National Archives
   • Second Migration

3. Zoot Suit Riots expose wartime racial tensions

   Jun 3, 1943Labels: Zoot Suit, Los Angeles, Mexican American

   In early June 1943, violence erupted in Los Angeles in what became known as the Zoot Suit Riots, with U.S. servicemen and others attacking young people—especially Mexican American youths—and widespread arrests. The events highlighted how wartime Los Angeles could be both a place of new opportunity and a place of intense racial conflict. For many African American newcomers, the riots were part of the larger reality of discrimination and policing that shaped daily life in the region.

   • AP News
   • Britannica

4. War’s end brings job shifts and housing pressure

   Sep 2, 1945Labels: Postwar economy, Southern California, Housing pressure

   After 1945, many war contracts ended and defense employment changed, but Southern California remained a major industrial region. African American residents who had moved for wartime work faced a tighter labor market and strong barriers in housing. These pressures helped concentrate Black families in specific neighborhoods, shaping the geography of Black Los Angeles in the decades that followed.

   • Second Migration
   • USCCR LA Report

5. Shelley v. Kraemer limits enforcement of restrictive covenants

   May 3, 1948Labels: Shelley v, U S

   The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state courts could not enforce racially restrictive housing covenants. This did not end housing discrimination, but it weakened one important legal tool used to keep African Americans out of many neighborhoods. In practice, other barriers—like discrimination by landlords, real estate agents, and lenders—continued to limit where Black Angelenos could live.

   • Justia
   • Britannica

6. 1950s growth expands Black Los Angeles communities

   Apr 1, 1950Labels: 1950s Los, Black institutions

   During the 1950s, Los Angeles County’s Black population rose sharply as migration continued and families formed new roots in Southern California. Many newcomers sought industrial and public-sector work and built institutions—churches, businesses, and civic groups—while navigating segregated housing patterns. This growth set the stage for more visible political organizing around jobs, schools, and policing.

   • LA Almanac
   • USCCR LA Report

7. Bunker Hill redevelopment plan adopted, displacing residents

   Mar 31, 1959Labels: Bunker Hill, Urban renewal

   Los Angeles adopted the Bunker Hill redevelopment plan in 1959, part of a broader wave of urban renewal that reshaped central-city neighborhoods. Redevelopment often removed older housing and increased displacement pressure on low-income residents, pushing many households to search for housing elsewhere in a discriminatory market. These changes contributed to overcrowding and reinforced residential segregation patterns affecting African American Angelenos.

   • CA Supreme Court
   • New Yorker

8. California Fair Employment Practices Act takes effect

   Sep 18, 1959Labels: California FEPA, State government

   California’s Fair Employment Practices Act (FEPA) took effect in 1959, barring employment discrimination by covered employers and labor unions based on race and other characteristics. For African American migrants and their children, fair-employment enforcement mattered because many of the best-paying jobs were controlled by hiring systems and unions. Even with uneven compliance, FEPA reflected growing state-level pressure to open economic opportunity in places like Los Angeles.

   • CA FEPA
   • USCCR LA Report

9. Civil Rights Act boosts federal job-discrimination enforcement

   Jul 2, 1964Labels: Civil Rights, EEOC

   The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in many areas of public life, and Title VII targeted employment discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) opened in 1965 to receive and investigate job-discrimination complaints. These federal changes strengthened the legal tools available to Black workers in Los Angeles seeking fair access to hiring, promotion, and workplace conditions.

   • EEOC Title VII
   • EEOC History

10. Proposition 14 rolls back California fair-housing protections

    Nov 3, 1964Labels: Proposition 14, California ballot

    In November 1964, California voters approved Proposition 14, which aimed to nullify the state’s Rumford Fair Housing Act and allow property owners to discriminate in housing sales and rentals. The vote showed strong resistance to housing integration even as the region’s Black population was growing. In Los Angeles, the measure reinforced uncertainty about whether African American families could expand into new neighborhoods.

    • Prop 14
    • USCCR LA Report

11. Watts uprising highlights inequality in South-Central Los Angeles

    Aug 11, 1965Labels: Watts uprising, South-Central Los, Marquette Frye

    From August 11 to 16, 1965, the Watts uprising erupted after the arrest of Marquette Frye and grew into a major confrontation between residents and police. The unrest reflected long-standing grievances about policing, unemployment, poor housing, and segregation. The uprising became a turning point in how the nation understood the challenges facing rapidly growing Black communities in Los Angeles.

    • Britannica
    • HISTORY

12. Supreme Court strikes down Proposition 14

    May 29, 1967Labels: Reitman v, U S

    In Reitman v. Mulkey, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Proposition 14 was unconstitutional because it encouraged private housing discrimination and involved the state in discriminatory outcomes. The decision restored momentum for fair-housing protections in California after the 1964 rollback attempt. For African American Angelenos, it was a key legal step toward challenging housing barriers that had shaped where families could live.

    • Oyez
    • Reitman Case

13. Fair Housing Act becomes federal law

    Apr 11, 1968Labels: Fair Housing, Federal law

    On April 11, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. The law prohibited discrimination in housing-related transactions and was intended to reduce segregation and expand access to neighborhoods and mortgages. In Los Angeles, it provided new legal tools to challenge practices that had limited Black movement into many parts of the metro area.

    • Smithsonian
    • AP News

14. 1970 census marks end of 1940–1970 migration era

    Apr 1, 1970Labels: 1970 census, Second Great

    By 1970, the Second Great Migration era (1940–1970) was reaching its endpoint, after decades in which millions of African Americans moved out of the South and significant numbers settled in Western cities, including Los Angeles. Los Angeles County’s population had grown dramatically since 1940, and Black communities had become deeply rooted in neighborhoods shaped by both opportunity and exclusion. The period closed with stronger civil-rights laws on the books, but with segregation and inequality still shaping the region’s housing and economic landscape.

    • Second Migration
    • LA Almanac