Through the smoky haze filling the interior of the crowded Ringside Bar in Downtown Oakland, we can see the faces of both black and white patrons of this integrated establishment. Even at the tail end of the Depression in 1939, it seems remarkable that the black and white patrons of the Ringside Bar are sitting down freely to eat Thanksgiving dinner with one another. However, during the Great Depression, Oakland's population was predominantly white. In Oakland and other Bay Area cities blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians, and American Indians all worked in unskilled labor occupations. In both male-dominated and female-dominated occupations, workers of all races often worked together on the job.

The shrinking number of positions during the Great Depression hit all workers hard, and the progress of unemployment caused white labor unions to accuse other races of holding jobs that should be reserved for white workers to support white families and communities. Oakland's black population suffered from racist attacks by white labor unions, but there was often not a large enough group of blacks in any occupation to focus white racist hostility.

In racially diverse Southern California, however, the large numbers of Mexican American workers in unskilled labor occupations did form a target for white racists. Many Mexican and Mexican American workers were eventually deported due to pressure from white racist unions as well as local and state governments. The Mexican American workers who remained organized with Filipinos, other Asian Americans, and a small number of whites and members of other races. This multiracial coalition formed unions to protect their jobs from the influx of white labor from the Midwest willing to work at any price.

In California as in other areas of the country, whites were viewed by white employers as more desirable workers than those of other races. The new desperation of whites to accept work of any kind during the Great Depression meant that on the East Coast, whites were often hired into positions previously held by other races. This was less common in the segregated South, as whites were unwilling to hire other whites for the lower status jobs blacks were forced into.

Higher-class, higher paid positions for blacks, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans across the United States also remained secure as wealthy whites clung to the status and image associated with employing non-white "servants." Black butlers on the East Coast and Mexican American and Asian American "houseboys" on the West Coast were a sign of wealth and status. Oakland's community of Pullman car porters generally remained employed during the Great Depression: Wealthy whites still traveled in the high-class Pullman cars, and the relatively well-paid porter positions were traditionally filled by black men.

In contrast to other parts of the country and even in contrast to other areas of California outside the Oakland city limits, the men in the Ringside Bar most likely had the opportunity to work together and identify with one another based on shared economic circumstances. Black workers in Oakland still bore the burden of racism, including limitations on which jobs they were allowed to work in. Nevertheless, the strong black community that existed provided a solid destination for the influx of black workers during World War II that would cause Oakland's black population to grow over 500 percent.

Standards: 11.6
Students analyze the different explanations for the Great Depression and how the New Deal fundamentally changed the role of the federal government. (11.6.3)

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