Feb. 13, 1947: Dorothy Bradley becomes the first African American cashier hired at the Safeway grocery store in Watts. She was hired as the result of a campaign by the Watts Citizens Welfare committee protesting Safeway’s refusal to hired black people as cashiers or clerks.
Isabel Crocker in an archival photograph from the Los Angeles Times.
Feb. 13, 1947: Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ruben S. Schmidt ordered Isabel Crocker and her three daughters were ordered to vacate their home at 435 N. Westbourne Drive because they were Native American. Crocker’s husband, Harry, was allowed to say because he was French-Canadian, and white.
Judge Schmidt died Feb. 23, 1947, shortly after issuing this decision. I was unable to find any final outcome on this case.
The covenants in old California real property deeds are horrifying. Our house in BH was built in 1927 and its original grant deed unfairly excluded ethnic and/or religious groups. Anyhoo, the courts and/or legislature invalidated them many years ago.
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It was an ugly period. This is one of the few instances I can recall of a judge ordering someone out of the neighborhood. The real estate ads of the 1950s had code words to indicate that the developments were “whites only.” And, as you say, all overturned by the courts.
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