African Americans in San Francisco

African-Americans began coming to San Francisco during the California Gold Rush. During the Great Migration, San Francisco was a destination for African-Americans coming out of the South. War Manpower Commission recruited African Americans from the South to work the recently owned Naval Docks in Hunters Point of San Francisco. Word soon spread that African Americans could find work in San Francisco, thus began the great migration.

Much of San Francisco's Black community is concentrated in Bayview-Hunters Point, Fillmore District, Oceanview, Potrero Hill, Tenderloin, and Visitacion Valley. Hunters Point has the highest percentage of Black residents (56%).

A small, but existent community of African Americans were present in the Fillmore District after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but it would not be until WWII when the Fillmore District and San Francisco as a whole began to have a large African-American population. Between the years of 1940 and 1950 the African American population of San Francisco grew from 4,836 to 43,460.[4] The African American population went from 0.5% of the city's total population to 4.5% of the city's total population.[4] A vast majority of these African Americans went on to occupy the Fillmore District. This large migration of African Americans was largely due to three major factors. The first of these factors is that the Japanese internment in 1942 left a large number of unoccupied homes and businesses within the Fillmore. The second factor was that the shipbuilding industry and wartime economy created by WWII brought a large number of wartime jobs into the city.[5] The third factor was that Many African Americans left the south in the Great Migration in order to escape the Jim Crow laws which existed there.[4][5]

The large Influx of African Americans during and after WWII created a large amount of racial tensions. Many African Americans were forced to live in certain neighborhoods of the city.[5] The Civil Rights Movement succeeded in making significant legal gains for African Americans and many other ethnic groups. However, there are still significant social tensions which still exist today. After the war, the African American population contributed significantly to the growing jazz culture in the Fillmore, with clubs, such as Jimbo's Bop City (ca 1950-1965),[6] flourishing there. In addition, the trend of African American migration to the city and the district continued at a fast pace until it reached a peak of about 13 percent in the 1970s.[4][7]

The city's African-American community has had a mixed-opinion relationship with the San Francisco Police Department and law enforcement in the Bay Area. Instances of race riots, concerns of police brutality and mass incarceration were considered a concern for many African-American leaders, pastors, and civilians. In 2013, a San Francisco Chronicle article's statistics showed that 56% of the San Francisco County Jail's inmates are Black, which is 9-10 times higher than the city's African-American residence percentage, which was 6-7% during this time period. Those who were considered to be in need of specialized mental health help, rose from 56% in 2008, to 71% in 2013, which accounted for inmates of all races.[8] People who were Black and Hispanic American made up a higher proportion of officer-involved fatalities in the Bay Area, which African-Americans making up 27% of the 110 deaths from January 2015 to July 2018. This is roughly four times higher than the Bay Area's 7-8% Black community.[9]

On September 27, 1966, a riot broke out in the proximity of the housing projects of Griffith and Oakdale Avenue in the Hunters Point neighborhood when Matthew Johnson, a 16-year-old Black boy suspected of stealing a car, was shot and killed by White SFPD officer Alvin Johnson. Three warning shots were fired towards the car Johnson was driving, and a fourth shot struck Matthew's back. The riots lasted for four days, and 359 arrests were made, and 51 people were injured as a result of the unrest. Riots occurred at the Bayview Community Center, where Molotov cocktails and rocks were thrown at police and civilians, as well as riots and violence at Mission High School. The National Guard and California Highway Patrol were deployed by Governor Pat Brown during the violence until October 1, when the riots became less destructive. On October 20, 1966, Alvin Johnson was declared by the San Francisco County District Attorney's office to have committed a justifiable homicide, and did not face charges as a result.

The Peoples Temple in San Francisco was headquartered in San Francisco during the early to mid-1970s. The temple, based in Indianapolis, Indiana and founded by Jim Jones, which would later be involved in a mass suicide and murder in Guyana in 1977, recruited and appealed to many lower-class and working-class African-Americans throughout the U.S.[10]

On December 2, 2015, five SFPD officers shot and kill 26-year-old African-American Mario Woods on Keith Street in Bayview. Woods, a suspect in a stabbing and wounding of a man, was confronted by officers on a sidewalk and was armed with a kitchen knife. The shooting, recorded by at least two bystanders, showed Woods being shot with a beanbag gun four times in the chest and hips, and then slowly approaching an officer who stepped into Woods' path before Woods is fired upon. The shooting led to protests in the city.[11] An autopsy indicated that Woods had 20 gunshot wounds, in the head, back, abdomen, buttocks, legs and hands, and was under the influence of meth and marijuana. Mario Woods Day was declared an unofficial holiday in the city on July 22, Woods' birthday.[12]

On November 23, 2020, in the first time in San Francisco history, a police officer was charged with an on-duty killing. Chris Samayoa, who was on the force for four days at the time of the incident, shot and killed Keita O'Neal, 42, an assault and car theft suspect, in Bayview-Hunters Point, on December 1, 2017. O'Neal allegedly assaulted a female California State Lottery employee, and then stole a vehicle owned by the lottery company. Samayoa, who had ended his job with the department, was charged with manslaughter and assault by a police officer and with a semi-automatic firearm in connection with the case. O'Neal was allegedly unarmed during the incident, and was walking away from Samayoa.[13] This is the second time in 2020 that a police officer in the San Francisco Bay Area was charged with an on-duty death; on April 18, 2020, San Leandro Police Officer Jason Fletcher Tasered 32-year-old African-American Steven DeMarco Taylor twice in a San Leandro Walmart, and then shot him once in the chest while a backup officer had just arrived several seconds prior to the shot being fired. The incident was caught on body cameraas; Taylor was suspected of stealing items in the store or causing a disturbance, and started swinging or handling a metal baseball bat. Taylor was still armed with the bat, but did not advance towards Fletcher as he was being Tasered and then shot. On September 2, 2020, Fletcher was charged with voluntary manslaughter and was arraigned on September 15.[14]

San Francisco and the general Bay Area's Black community has dealt with street and prison gangs, drug-related crime and other crimes over the decades.

The gang Westmob, associated with Oakdale Mob and Sunnydale housing project gangs from the southeast area of the city, was involved in a gang war with Hunters Point-based Big Block from 1999 to the 2000s. Its current status of activity is unknown.[15] and is linked to rap and drugs. They claim territory from West Point to Middle Point in San Francisco's notoriously dangerous Hunters Point projects.[16]

In 2004, Westmob member David Hill, then 21, fatally shot SFPD Officer Isaac Espinoza, 29, and wounded his partner with an AK-47, on a Bayview street. In 2007, he was found guilty of the crime and sentenced to life without parole.[17]

In April 2009, two Westmob members were involved in a West Point Road shooting of a man they suspected was a snitch of a case involving Westmob members. The bullets missed the intended victim, and almost struck his 5-year-old brother. Two weeks later, the two gunmen shot the intended victim nine times in front of his home as he was cutting his younger brother's hair. He survived. In 2013, both gunmen, who were 23 and 25 during this year, were convicted of two counts of attempted murder, and were facing life sentences.[18]

In January 2015, four young Black men (ages 19 to 22) were shot to death while sitting in a car at Laguna and Page Street in the Fillmore District/Hayes Valley area. An arrest of a 27-year-old man was made in July 2016. The motive remains to be debated or undetermined, although the suspect was charged with gang enhancements. He had alleged ties with the Black Guerilla Family.[19][20]

The Black population is mainly concentrated in San Francisco and the East Bay, and the northwest Bay Area (i.e. Fairfield, Vallejo). Cities that over 20% African-American include: North Richmond (33% Black), Oakland (25% Black), Richmond (27%), and Vallejo (23%). Cities that are over 10% Black include Berkeley, East Palo Alto, Hayward, and Vacaville.

The 41st Mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, a Texas native who came to San Francisco to attend San Francisco State University, served two terms from January 8, 1996 to January 8, 2004, being the first Black person to hold that office. After the death of Ed Lee, the city's first Asian American mayor, on December 12, 2017, San Francisco-born London Breed took his place as the city's acting mayor. She was officially sworn as an official mayor on July 11, 2018, being San Francisco's first female African-American mayor.

• Mary Ellen Pleasant
• Howard Thurman
• Charlotte L. Brown
• Willie Brown (politician), elected 41st Mayor of San Francisco and 1st African American Mayor in 1995. He was re-elected in 1999.
• William Leidesdorff 1845 Businessman, President of the San Francisco school board and also elected as City Treasurer.
• London Breed current mayor of San Francisco.
• Terry Francois first African American member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and a prominent African-American civil rights attorney in the 1960s.

• Elouise Westbrook, activist
• Sarah Webster Fabio, poet, educator and political activist
• Mary L. Booker, civil rights activist
• Big Five of Bayview, environmental and community activist
• Christopher Muhammad, Bay Area Minister of the Nation of Islam
• Hettie B. Tilghman born in San Francisco, an organizer and secretary for Bethel A.M.E. Church Sunday School
• Bob Slattery was an African American activist and a leader for the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE)[21]

• Jimmie Fails, actor known for the semi-autobiographical film The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
• Danny Glover successful Hollywood actor.
• Terri J. Vaughn, actress born and raised in Bayview–Hunters Point.
• Kevin Epps, filmmaker best known for the documentary Straight Outta Hunters Point.

• Maya Angelou

• RBL Posse, gangsta rap group from Harbor Road public housing projects in Hunters Point
• 11/5, defunct gangsta rap group from the Oakdale public housing projects in Hunters Point
• Cindy Herron, singer and founding member of En Vogue.
• Martin Luther McCoy, actor, guitarist and musician.
• Larry June, rapper from Lakeview
• Prezi, rapper from Hunter's Point.
• Etta James, moved to San Francisco's Fillmore District at 12 years old.

• William Byron Rumford, a pharmacist and politician. At 18 he moved to San Francisco.

• John Nisby
• O.J. Simpson
• Desmond Bishop, professional NFL player
• Stevie Johnson, NFL wide receiver, born and raised in Hunters Point before moving to Fairfield, CA
• Eric Wright, NFL player, cornerback for the San Francisco 49ers
• Donald Strickland, NFL player, free agent cornerback who played for the San Francisco 49ers, Indianapolis Colts and New York Jets
• TJ Ward, NFL player, free agent Pro Bowl Safety who was drafted for the Cleveland Browns, and played for the Denver Broncos, with whom he won Super Bowl 50

• Sargent Johnson, an artist who studied painting, drawing and sculpting. Moved to San Francisco at 27
• David Johnson, a photographer known for his portrayal of the jazz culture in San Francisco's Fillmore district and figures of the civil rights movement. Moved to San Francisco at age 19, studied with Ansel Adams at the California School of Fine Arts.
• Stanley Greene, artist and photojournalist, known for his coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the genocide in Rwanda, and the Second Chechen War. Studied photography at the San Francisco Art Institute.