Segregation of Public Places in Redlands

American History in grade school teaches us to see racism as a problem of the south. We rarely talk about history of racism on the west coast. But California had its own history of segregation and discrimination, and we need to begin to examine what racism looked like closer to home. Imagine living in a town where you own a house, pay taxes, and have a job yet you aren’t allowed or welcomed in many businesses or recreational facilities in the town. Right here in Redlands, many people of color faced discrimination in public spaces in the first half of the 20th century.

Living as a person of color you had to have a map in your own head knowing where you were welcome and where you were not welcome. You would even have to keep track of a complex calendar for when you could go into normally segregated spaces. Drawing on the rich archive of Mexican American histories compiled by Antonio Gonzalez Vasquez, this story map makes visible the different forms of segregation Mexican Americans faced in public accommodations in Redlands in the 1920s, 1930s and sometimes all the way up to the 1960s.

Neighborhoods right around downtown Redlands were racially diverse in the early 20th century. This map shows where every person listed as non-white in the census lived in 1910. Diverse communities grew up in these same spaces in the 1920s and 1930s circling the center of town and extending into the racially diverse north side. Racial exclusions in deeds and discrimination by real estate agents kept the south side largely white through the 1960s (Alvarez 2019).

From the 1920s through 1940s , people of color in Redlands had to navigate through a complex landscape of exclusion just to get a haircut, shop for clothes or see the movies. But Mexican Americans also found more welcoming places, sometimes in businesses owned by Japanese and Jewish residents and they also occasionally found allies among powerful Anglo residents as well. This tour takes us through some of these places of exclusion and solidarity mentioned in the Mexican American oral histories.

Some public and private recreational spaces didn't categorically exclude Mexican Americans or control where they sat, but instead only allowed Mexicans in one day a week. So people of color would have had to keep both a map and a calendar in their heads of when and where they would find a welcoming reception or might face exclusion.

In the 1950s, baseball would play an important role in overcoming some of the racial divides in Redlands' public culture. The city had long been divided between the more racially diverse north side and the white south side, where many properties were racially restricted (Alvarez 2019). Carl Sepulveda, who grew up on the city's north side and attended St Mary's church, had always had a passion for baseball, even though it wasn't offered when he attended high school in the 1930s. St. Mary's sponsored a softball field built on an empty lot on Tribune and Brockton, donated by the Manzano family in the 1940s (Sepulveda Oral History, p. 30, Antonio Vasquez personal communication).

Building on these roots, Carl Sepulveda and his brother built the first Little League in Redlands during the 1950s. They began with 4 teams backed by local sponsors: the St. Mary’s Padres, Stockton Sporting Goods Stars, Gaugh Plumbing, and Mentone Variety Store. The Sepulveda brothers hosted fundraisers so the league would be open to any child, not just those from higher income families.

They had to overcome some barriers to begin the league. As Carl Sepulveda explained, "It was rough going because the city wouldn't help us with nothing, the city wouldn't cooperate at all. The schools were against us" because they thought baseball would distract them from school. But "luckily there were enough people from the south side of town... well-to-do business people that had sons that like to play. So they told us, if you need any help let us know." Carl Sepulveda explained that that first little "league we had was the first time in the history of Redlands that the kids from the south side mixed with the kids from the north side as a unit" (Carl Sepulveda Oral History, pg. 31).

Desegregation came slowly and relatively quietly in Redlands without the big protests that characterized many other cities. As the years went on many businesses downtown became more welcoming, the most explicit forms of housing discrimination disappeared, job opportunities increased, and new integrated neighborhoods and recreation facilities developed. In fact, today right on the site of the old Sylvan pool, such a symbol of segregation for many Mexican families, the city has built a skate park where multiracial groups of teens hang out largely unaware of the historic land they stand on.

But this history of discrimination is important to remember because it continues to shape our everyday lives in the present. Though Redlands is much more integrated today than in the 1960s, white families continue to predominate on the wealthier south side of town, while people of color cluster on the poorer north side. The patterns we see in our schools, home values, wealth and poverty continue to follow many of the geographic patterns set in the early to mid 20th century. Redlands has made significant steps to removing racial barriers, but we need to confront racism in the past to build a truly inclusive future.