›› BEHiND THE SUN
From the Sun vaults, March 12 - 18, 1965
Ghetto defendants Marinites outraged over state of Marin City, almost do something about it... by Jason Walsh
45 years ago
“[Marin City is] the only community in America where whites and Negroes lived together voluntarily; and that was so, and so wild and joyous a place I’ve
never seen since.” —Jack Kerouac, On the Road, 1951 “No sane black man really wants integration! No sane white man really wants integration!”—Malcolm X, 1965 Marin City’s ‘shopping center,’ 1965.
In 1964, California voters approved Proposition 14, an amendment to the state Constitution, which effectively made it “the right of any person...to decline to sell, lease or rent any part of his property to such persons he chooses.” And, thanks to the two-years this act was the law of the land, the ghettoization of Marin City was all but complete 45 years ago this week. It was March 1965. John Muir’s evergreens were glistening in the sun, and the Tiburon mariposas bloomed their golden blossoms atop Ring Mountain. In between, things were looking far more black and white. Presenting before the county Board of Supervisors that week, Richard Hahn, chairman of the Task Force on Housing, detailed a statistical indictment of housing segregation in Marin on par with the deepest social-justice crevasses in backwater Mississippi. In a 10-year period, he reported, Marin’s non-white population dropped from 4.46 percent to 3.76 percent, while that same population grew across the entire Bay Area by 3 percent. And of the non-military and non-imprisoned “negroes” living in the county, 2,040 out of 2,312 lived in the “remarkable ghetto” of Marin City. “One can only conclude that if one had intended by some diabolical premeditated design to isolate or eliminate the negroes from Marin County...one could not have
Marin City housing, 1965. ‘Is this Mississippi?’ the Sun asked. 8 PACIFIC SUN MARCH 12 - MARCH 18, 2010
hoped for a more successful result,” reported the Greenbrae resident. “A result which could vindicate the most extravagant boasts of the most extreme segregationists.” Hahn’s appearance before the supes was part of an effort by the Marin Human Rights Commission to “challenge the public and their elected leaders” to do something to end the near-total housing segregation that “stains the image of Marin.” Historically, Marin City never “developed” like other neighborhoods in the county, it was slapped onto the swamplands north of Sausalito. Created during World War II for Marinship-workforce housing, the dredge-based infrastructure of the makeshift “city” was built for a five-year lifespan—cheap and purposefully disposable. But in the postwar years, as the white workers fled the scene for the fruits of baby boom America, Marin City’s Southern black diaspora—priced out of the county’s postcard pockets—had little choice but to stay put or leave the county for good. Twenty years later many remained trapped in the vicious Catch-22 circle of diminishing wages and hope. The meeting with the county supervisors, according to the Sun’s story, “The Ghetto: An Outrage to Humanity,” was called to test the waters as to whether the board would endorse a legal challenge to the constitutionality of Prop. 14. The motion received enthusiastic support from Supervisor Byron Leydecker, but no second was forthcoming. Supervisor Tom Storer doubted the board should take action that goes against the will of the electorate; Peter Behr questioned whether a legislative branch should try to influence the judicial. Ernest Kettenhofen urged the Human Rights Commission to join the lawsuit, but not the supes. The supervisors instead suggested asking county neighborhood associations and subdividers to voluntarily declare their properties open to families of all races (as Eichler Homes had done). In the meantime, they agreed, Marin City needs a community center and a shopping center. The supes
›› TRiViA CAFÉ 1. Pictured, right: This animal, which spends its entire life at sea, can be seen from Marin County shorelines every winter and spring. What is it? (two- or threeword name, please) 2. For what reason did the United States and 64 other countries boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow? 3a. What 1455 book was the first ever printed using movable, reusable type and who printed it? 3b. In what language was this book written? 4. Pictured, right: Their website changed the world in strange new ways. Give their names and their innovative web business. 5. The two baseball spring training leagues, located in Florida and Arizona, are known by what names? 6. From 1944-1946 the Academy Awards were held at what Chinese theater? 7. Located in Paris, it’s the world’s largest triumphal arch. What is it? 8. Pictured, bottom right: Born in 1951 in San Carlos, California, she attended the San Francisco Art Institute, and made her first full length feature film, The Loveless, in 1982. Sunday she became the first woman ever to win the Academy Award as Best Director. Give her name and her film, which also won the Best Picture award. 9. Which is greater — the pressure in an automobile tire, or the pressure in a bottle of Champagne? 10. Give the last name of these people named Edgar: 10a. American writer who created The Raven; 10b. 19th-century French artist, painter of ballet dancers 10c. American writer, creator of Tarzan BONUS QUESTION: Each of these word groups shares a three-letter word in common. Find each word. a. tennis, television, prepared b. flu, beetle, annoyance c. spinner, exceed, zenith
by Howard Rachelson
#1
#4
#8
Howard Rachelson, Marin’s Master of Trivia, invites you to a live team trivia contest at 7:30pm every Wednesday at the Broken Drum on Fourth Street in San Rafael. Join the quiz—send your Marin factoids to howard1@triviacafe.com.
then called for a study into the problem. And perhaps even an investigation. “The supervisors are concerned and will, we believe, act further to remove the Ghetto from Marin,” wrote Sun editor and publisher Merrill Grohman in his congratulatory summation of the meeting. “Citizens as of this week are more aware of the enormous extent of our county’s ugliest sin.” Prop. 14 was overturned by the California Supreme Court in 1966, a decision upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court the following year. More than four decades later, Marin City’s population has risen slightly, to around 3,000; more than 2,000 of its residents are minorities. Most of the deleterious Marinship housing was finally razed in the 1970s to make way
Answers on page 32
for apartment and condo developments. The town got its community center and a chain-store-dominated shopping center in the 1990s. Thanks to the intense pride and unfathomable resolve of the community, many things have greatly improved in Marin City. But poverty—along with its drug and crime companions—remain. Racial tensions and class resentment are impossible to ignore in Marin City unless, like many in the county, one chooses to ignore Marin City altogether. Jack Kerouac’s “joyous place” still rests, unsettled and tenuous, on the dredged divides of Marin. ✹ Email Jason at jwalsh@pacificsun.com.
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