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.Demographic, Economic, and Spatial ChangesAlthough Southern California s prosperity has always been based on popu-lation growth and land speculation, World War II brought a period of unpar-alleled expansion.2 Los Angeles County s population quadrupled from lessthan one million in 1920 to over four million by 1950.Table 1 charts thecounty s growth before and after the war.Although all decades were char-acterized by phenomenal growth, the greatest increase occurred in the twodecades after the war, as literally millions of people came to the region seek-ing jobs and the California lifestyle.[]thereabouble1rtTaInseWhile the majority of World War II immigrants were white, there was alsoa large influx of African Americans, thus bolstering the small but long-stand-ing Black community.In 1920 there were 15,579 Blacks in Los Angeles,whereas by 1950 there were 170,880.3 Although this influx was relativelysmall given the overall population, it not only resulted in a sizable Black com-munity but marked a transition in Los Angeles s racial hierarchy.Before then,Black Angelenos had often been considered better off than other urbanAfrican Americans, primarily because there were other, larger, nonwhitegroups targeted by white racism.So, for instance, in Southern California,American Indians were lynched and sold into slavery, Chinese American com-munities were destroyed by race riots, Japanese Americans were terrorized bywhite vigilantes, and Mexican Americans were subject to intense policeharassment.4 This is not to deny the discrimination that Black Angelenosfaced but rather to suggest the distinctive nature of Los Angeles s racial hier-archy.In Los Angeles, not only were there other more reviled populations of 36 / RACE, CLASS, AND ACTI VI SMcolor, but there were arguably too few African Americans to pose a threat, eco-nomic or otherwise, to white Angelenos.Consequently, the 1920s are oftenreferred to as the Golden Age of Black Los Angeles.Unfortunately, this wasnot to last.The increase in African Americans, as well as the decline ofAmerican Indians, transformed the racial hierarchy, and over time BlackAngelenos found themselves sharing the plight of other urban Blacks.Regardless of whether they were Okies, southern Blacks, or urbanwhites, Southern California transplants came for similar reasons: jobs, theclimate, and hopes for a better life.The demand for workers during WorldWar II was such that not only were white arrivals absorbed into the work-force, but, with the notable exception of Japanese Americans (who wereevacuated), people of color encountered unprecedented opportunitiesalthough federal intervention was required to end exclusions against Blackworkers.Between 1940 and 1943, employment in Los Angeles County grewfrom approximately 900,000 to 1,450,000, a 60 percent increase.5 Whilemost of this growth was in defense, defense was not the only industry thatpropelled the region into becoming a manufacturing powerhouse.Beforethe war, city boosters attracted industry via the branch plant strategy,which encouraged major industries to establish a West Coast operation.Asa result of these efforts, auto and ancillary industries, such as rubber andglass, invested heavily in the Los Angeles region in the thirties.6 Together,this array of Fordist industry, including auto, shipping, aircraft, and lateraerospace, created singular prosperity, especially for whites.Concomitant with such dramatic changes in population and industry wasthe transformation of the region s geography.While suburbs have a longhistory in the United States, Southern California recast suburbanization asthe new urban model.From early on, elite whites created suburbs and resi-dential enclaves to insulate themselves from immigrants, the working class,and people of color.But beginning in the 1920s the region distinguisheditself by building suburban housing for the working class.Becky Nicolaideshas pointed out that there was actually a diversity of working-class suburbs,including many homemade units for poorer residents
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