The Valley Truck Farms

The Valley Truck Farms was a predominantly Black community tucked into the South-eastern side of San Bernardino that grew from the 1930s to the 1970s. It was vibrant and full of life for almost a century. Now it is mostly gone. The area is covered by warehouses, but its memory lives on mostly through scattered former residents. At its peak, about 500 families lived in the slightly more than a square mile parcel. This tiny allotment of land had a gigantic impact on hundreds of proud, ambitious, families. While this community may have been forgotten, it's important to shed light on this story, as it helps us all take a deeper look into the suburbanization, segregation and community-building of African Americans in Southern California. 

This story map digitizes the  Valley Truck Farms Scrapbook  edited by Alice Eby Hall and created by many participating community members who told their stories. It also tries to piece together more of the story of this community by mapping Census data from 1930-1950 and sharing new stories photos and family stories.

In 1918, roughly a one-quarter square mile parcel of land became available in the eastern corner of San Bernardino in Southern California. This plot of land was subdivided by a Los Angeles property developer and sold in two to five acre lots, that were named truck farms. Many early residents weren't full time farmers but bought land seeking the independence of a more rural life raising their own produce and animals. 

In the 1920s, many communities in the Inland Empire (and across Southern California) excluded African American buyers (Rothstein 2017). The Los Angeles developers planning the Valley Truck Farms subdivision planned to have no racial restrictions and they actively marketed to Black families. This led to some local protest in 1925, as some white residents complained that it would become "a Negro colony" (San Bernardino Sun April 30, 1925). Their protest grew as they saw Black families coming out to visit the tracts, and even one group having a picnic on a property they probably hoped to buy (San Bernardino Sun June 16 1925). Despite protests, the subdivision was approved, and many African American families moved from urban areas, such as Los Angeles, where they faced increasing racial restrictions in housing that escalated throughout the 20s.

Clarence Ennis and Clara Hulbert, Black real estate brokers in the Los Angeles, helped to recruit Black families to the Valley, many of whom had gained a bit of capital and wished to buy land and the independence it offered. For example, Mr. Foisy was an settler in 1926 who left running a restaurant in Los Angeles to start a rabbit farm in the Valley. As property values sky-rocked within the confines of south Los Angeles Central Avenue District, real estate agents promised that the Valley offered affordable land and the opportunity to build new businesses like pharmacies and grocery stores for the growing ranch community. Some Valley streets like Ennis and Foisy are named after these early Black settlers (CA Eagle July 15 1927 p. 5).

The Valley Truck Farms was part of the long history of Black families looking for land and communities where they could pursue the dream of owning a "place of their own" and the independence that symbolized (Weiss 2005).  Dr. T.R.M. Howard, an early Black graduate from Loma Linda University even described the Valley Truck Farms community as a model in southern CA of how Black families had embraced “colonization” and were building independent economically self-sufficient farming communities and businesses.

As early as 1928, California Eagle editor Charlotta Bass was visiting the newly formed St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church and praising the initiative and opportunities she saw in the Valley. Articles celebrated the leadership of Reverend Gordon, the St. Mark's pastor who also owned a local ranch on Waterman Ave.

Early life on this unimproved land was hard. However, these early settlers of the Valley Truck Farms were resilient and created foundation for the community that would grow in subsequent decades. These early settlers faced trials like the Great Depression and the Flood of 1938, but these events only brought the community closer. They were able to grow this rural farming community into a community that African Americans could call home.

One of the first African American families to move to the Valley Truck Farms recorded was the Saville family who moved into the area in 1927 with their five children. This Black family in 1920's California faced growing discrimination and racial restrictions in where they could live. At the time the Valley Truck Farms was one of the few places in the region that would allow them to be home owners.

The Saville children have happy memories growing up in the Valley Truck Farms. Barbara Saville comments that growing up she did not realize they were the first Black family to move to the area, but she did not recall many Black people in the early days of the community.

 The original five acre Saville Property was located on Orange Show Road just east of Waterman. Barbara Saville remembers, “The house was a one story. There were three big pecan trees along the drive off of Waterman. There was an olive tree by the kitchen window. And two big cottonwood trees. My brother Robert was really athletic. He liked to get on the roof of the big shed and jump off. My sisters and I were afraid to jump, so he pushed us.”

Alice Saville remembers when she and her cousins would run barefooted down Waterman Ave. picking wild asparagus along their way to the riverbanks. Other residents remember swimming in the Urbita Springs lake, which now lies under Inland Center shopping mall.

This map shows the early African American residents in 1930 settled mostly on the west side of the community, especially along Washington Ave. The eastern side was predominantly White. In the early days of this community on streets like Washington and Ennis, Black homeowners lived alongside many White and a few Mexican homeowners. Most families owned their own homes. The majority were farmers or laborers, in part because the area was mostly rural and because of the racial restrictions in employment at the time.

You can click on the houses to see what we've learned about the earliest Black residents.

In August of 1929, the Great Depression began in the United States, and everyone fell on hard times. The Valley Truck Farms were not immune, but this was still a period of growth for the community. The Depression brought more families to the community and the need to build more community infrastructure.

The story of Omar Stratton shows how the Valley helped some families sustain themselves through the economic crisis. Omar Stratton bought a vacation property in the Valley in the late 1920s where he built a 4 room home. He ran a construction business in Los Angeles that employed 15 people. But when his construction business collapsed in the Depression, he moved to his Valley home. His daughter Lucille Stratton Taylor remembered that he “built chicken houses and Incubators” and “raised fryers and squabs” to sell to  the Bear Market in Downtown San Bernardino.” After he helped built St. Mark’s church, Stratton moved to Riverside where helped found the NAACP in the 1940s. 

The Depression offered the opportunity for some families to acquire property when others went bankrupt. Vera White heard about a property on Central Ave that went into foreclosure and was able to homestead on the property. She built her own home in 1934, then a church next door and another home on the acreage over the next decade. She continued to built property later by buying a hotel in Big Bear.

The Valley Truck Farms formed their own Civic and Business League in August 1930. The farmers formed this league for marketing purposes, but they also organized to gain support for political figures that they thought would benefit the community. George Saville was the Vice President and his wife Eula was Secretary. Other residents helped start the Negro Study and Political Club of San Bernardino in 1934 and regularly held youth club meetings and sewing groups.

The Valley Truck Negro Community Recreation Center opened during the 1930s and quickly became a center of community life. In in 1936, using WPA funding, the community was able to offer adult education and music classes at Mill School.

Later they built a building on Waterman & Ennis where activities were offered. In 1936, they had meetings of a Dramatic Theater club hosted by Juanita Blakely who was a WPA Recreation Center director. They lost funding during the war, but petitioned the county to reestablish the center in 1947. The recreation center also served as a home for St. Mark's congregation as their new church was being constructed. The building continued to community host meetings in the 1950s and 60s.

Despite the depression going on all around them, the Valley Truck Farms flourished during this period because the community supported one another. They were able to rely on the independence that they found through growing their own small amount of food and relying on their close-knit community.

The story of Herbert Sims illustrates the spirit of community that was forged in Valley Truck Farms. Herbert London Sims was born May 16th, 1936 in the two bedroom family home at 836 S. Washington St. His birth was assisted by midwife Espanola Larkin, a fixture supporting children and families in the community for decades. He was cared for by Dr. Inghram, the first Black doctor in the city and taught by Dr. Inghram's sister Dororthy Inghram, who was a teacher, and later principal, and superintendent at the nearby Mill School.

Herb said that growing up in the valley, his family was the poorest of the poor, but they always had a roof over their heads. There was no indoor plumbing until he was about eight, but there was a water spigot in the back yard. They bathed in a big tin tub that they bought at the hardware store at 3rd and E Streets. He remembers a close-knit community where neighbors helped each other through the hard times of the depression. Other neighbors, Donald and Irma Jackson described, "the spirit of the community as one of sharing and caring for each other. Helping each other was a given. There was a generous sharing of crops, and new mothers always received an abundance of support."

Herb went on to live a long and happy life in the Valley Truck Farms. He started a family and became the plumbing foreman for the City of San Bernardino. In 2018 Herb still lived in the Valley on his acre just north of the northeast corner of Waterman and Central that he purchased in the early 1960’s. 

In the map below, you can see that many new families built homes on streets like South Waterman, Norman Rd. and Washington Ave. in the 1940s. These residents had a wider range of employment options, from seamstresses to government workers, as new opportunities opened up because of the New Deal and as the airbase opened in WWII. Once again feel free to click on any of the points below to explore the growing black community in 1940.

When Norton Air Force Base and Kaiser Steel opened during WWII, the community would expand during the second wave of the Great Migration and the post WWII baby boom. Housing segregation meant that Black residents were still largely confined to buying homes in the Valley Truck Farms and in the expanding Black community on the Westside. We are working with family members to document the stories of families who lived here in the 1950s and 60s. Here you see an aerial of the growing community in 1963 and some of the family homes and stories from the 50s and 60s we have documented.

As the population grew from the 1940s-1960s, the Valley Truck Farms could support a growing number of small businesses that provided economic opportunities and independence for more business owners.

The Overstreet family was a prime example of the expanding entrepreneurship possibilities. Laura and William Overstreet “Big Mama and Big Daddy” to the little ones in the family, moved to Valley Truck Farms in the early 1930s and joined St. Mark’s Missionary Baptist Church.

The family owned a mini-mall property at the corner of Central and Waterman, which they developed into a strip mall for growing businesses. The Overstreet property extended from St. Mark’s church to Canaan Temple. The property on the east side of St. Mark’s was initially owned by the Bradley/Jackson families but later sold to the Overstreet family, extending their property.

Ultimately, their development included the Spotlight Café and General Store, a beauty parlor, and a tire shop, where their family members were employees. The Spotlight Café featured BBQ and other tasty meals lovingly cooked by Sidney Overstreet. The general store offered groceries, wine and beer. The beauty salon was later run by Oscar Overstreet's wife Annette. Oscar Overstreet owned the Coney Island Tire Shop when he was only in high school, where he was known as the big man on campus because everyone knew him. One of the most prominent and tragic memories of Valley Truck Farms was when James Overstreet died at the age of 16 during a high school meet. George the youngest son still resides on his family’s property, on the southwest corner of Central and Waterman, though he finally posted a “for sale” sign in 2019. 

Many other Valley Truck Farms residents built businesses to serve the growing community throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Click on the map below to explore some of the Black entrepreneurs of the era that were documented in the Valley Truck Farm Scrapbook. Some of the highlighted businesses include:

The Valley Truck Farms was a place where Black children could thrive and receive all the attention and education to achieve amazing things in the adult life.

Zoie Green Colman a long time resident of the Valley Truck Farms explained, "Our young people went to college and became attorneys, doctors, teachers, principals, administrators, supervisors and more. The Valley had a big part in this from our way of life - our "churches on every corner", or our "neighborhood child watch and the ambition, energy, ambition and dedication of our young people finding and doing something with their lives."

This success can be attributed to the leadership of many people in the community, but certain key players really made this dream possible.

Espanola Larkin also known as Mother Larkin was one of the oldest members of the Valley Truck Farms community. She moved to San Bernardino in 1929, where she lived for 83 years. She was a well-known in the community as a pianist, poet, writer, and quilter. She quoted her slave father who taught her that “intelligence does not stoop to ignorance.” 

From 1947 to 1960 Mrs. Larkin typed up and distributed door to door with the help of her children The Valley Scroll  a monthly one to three-page Valley Truck Farms newspaper. Her son Billy, started a neighborhood jazz group and eventually started a professional band called “Billy Larkin and the Delegates.” She was very active in the Allen Chapel, and her son Delmus John Larkin replaced his mother at the organ of the Allen Chapel when she passed and is the music minister of the church.  

But Espanola's true passion in the community was the children. She formed the Excel-All club, a local club that raised money to help schools, the recreation center, and churches within the community. They were able to organize the first Black parade in San Bernardino in 1957. The club also sponsored Saturday night children’s plays and other entertainment. This club did so much for the children of the community, and it was community members like Espanola Larkin that helped the youth of Valley Truck Farms achieve their bright futures.

Charity Luper ran a private Black school in the Valley Truck farm area in San Bernardino in the late 30s and 1940s. She was a widow, born in Colorado, and in 1940 when she was in her early 50s, she lived on Central Ave with her mother. Bobby Bivens remembers Black and Mexican kids gathering around a wood burning stove in a one room schoolhouse from the ages of K-6th grade.

She had a big old car and would pick up kids to bring them to school and keep close contact with families. He described her as "a stern disciplinarian" "If you acted up, she'd take you out to the woodshed and warm your butt up. Very simple." She was also an extremely effective teacher for many children in the Valley and from the Westside. Many kids left her school working at least a grade ahead of their peers.

The Mill school played a vital role in the success of the community's children. Originally built between 1856 and 1867, it became the center of the community as the community grew through the 1930s and 40s. The Mill School district was formed in 1942 with only one school, and in that same year, they hired the first Black teacher in San Bernardino county, Dorothy Inghram. 

Dorothy Inghram became a major educational leader in Valley Truck Farms (and later in the county). When Dorothy Inghram started teaching at the Mill School, she was one of three teachers the other two were elderly and white. Soon Dorothy Inghram was promoted to principal and later superintendent of the school district.

Dorothy Inghram transformed the school. She brought in new teaching methods, hired more Black teachers, demanded excellence and helped pave the paths to higher education for many students. Ms. Inghram resisted the implicit limitations placed on too many Black children in schools of that era. 

“We were being taught how to clean houses. Now, that was what ticked her off in big time. So eventually she got everybody together, and it was kind of like,... “You are going to learn. You will read. You will not tell me "No." You know, and so it was just kind of a big deal.”

By 1945 the Black student population was rapidly increasing, and the remaining White teachers left. The growing Black student population upset White parents, who petitioned the San Bernardino School District to let them transfer out of district to the mostly White Burbank School until the mid 1960s when the school district began to refuse transfers as they faced growing desegregation pressure. This white flight did not diminish the education Mill School offered. With Dorothy Inghram's leadership, teachers that loved and invested in students, and the entire community backing their youth, the Mill School thrived for many years.  

Ultimately Mill School was closed in 1968 as noise pollution escalated from Norton Air Force Base and officials worried that the flight path put the school at risk. Students from the Valley would be transferred to schools across San Bernardino, as young participants in the efforts to desegregate the public schools that escalated in the late 1960s and 70s.

Community leaders continued to organize to build more resources for the community through the 1960s and 70s, demanding that the city create a recreation center and invest in building infrastructure for the Valley community. Ultimately, they successfully reopened Mill School as a Recreation Center and Head Start program.

Now that we have put all of the pieces together it is easier to see exactly what the Valley Truck Farms looked like. Where people lived. Where children went to school. Where families went to worship. Where people shopped. Everyone in the community relied on one another and they all thrived together. This inter-dependence created a vibrant sense of independence for the community.