African Americans in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area)

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The East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area has long had a significant Black population, especially in Oakland. The two East Bay counties, Alameda and Contra Costa, are estimated to be 11% and 10% Black, respectively. Oakland, the largest city in the East Bay, is about 22% Black in 2022.

Many Black residents moved to Oakland during the Second Great Migration from 1940 to 1970, fleeing Jim Crow laws in the South. Jobs in World War II shipyards and railroads helped Black families gain middle‑class wages. Oakland’s Black population grew from 3% in 1940 to 12% in 1950, 23% in 1960, and 34.5% in 1970. The city’s Black population later declined, peaking at 47% in 1980 and falling to about 27% by 2010 due to people moving away and new immigrant communities moving in.

Oakland has a long history of Black institutions and leadership. The First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Oakland, founded in 1858, was the city’s first Black church and hosted the first Black school led by Elizabeth Scott Flood. The Brooklyn Colored School opened in 1867 in Brooklyn (which later became part of Oakland in 1872). The North Oakland Missionary Baptist Church was founded in 1904, and Beth Eden Baptist Church began in 1890, both among the area’s early Black churches.

Oakland was a center for Black rights activism, including the Black Panther Party, founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale at Merritt College. The party promoted Black nationalism and self‑defense and ran community programs to help families.

From 1968 to 1979, Bayviewer was a Bay Area Black‑focused magazine. Its collection can be found at the Oakland Public Library’s African American Museum and Library. Marcus Books, founded in 1960 in San Francisco’s Fillmore District as one of the country’s earliest Black bookstores, later moved its main location to Oakland.

Famous people from the area include Marshawn Lynch, MC Hammer, and Kamala Harris, who was born and raised in Oakland. Russell City, an unincorporated community in Alameda County, existed from 1853 to 1964 and housed many Black residents and Latino workers during World War II before being cleared for industrial development.

In 2009, the BART Police shot Oscar Grant, an unarmed Black man, in Oakland, triggering protests and a legal settlement. The East Bay’s Black community has profoundly shaped local culture, politics, and history.