Home » California » Bakersfield

James W. Loewen (1942-2021)

We mourn the loss of our friend and colleague and remain committed to the work he began.

Bakersfield

California

Basic Information

Type of Place
Independent City or Town
Metro Area
Politics c. 1860?
Unions, Organized Labor?

Sundown Town Status

Sundown Town in the Past?
Probable
Was there an ordinance?
Don't Know
Sign?
Don’t Know
Year of Greatest Interest
Still Sundown?
Surely Not

Census Information

The available census data from 1860 to the present
Total White Black Asian Native Hispanic Other BHshld
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000 247,057 152,849 22,641 10,708 3,454 80,170 46,151
2010
2020

Method of Exclusion

  • Violent ExpulsionPrivate Bad Behavior

Main Ethnic Group(s)

  • Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black
  • Asian
  • Other

Comments

Bakersfield expelled its Chinese population in
1893.

During the Dust Bowl era of the Great
Depression, Bakersfield was very hostile to “Okies” and
other poor white migrant laborers. A copy of John
Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath “was burned on the
courthouse steps in Bakersfield because many
established residents did not care for the way
Steinbeck portrayed them.”
-graduate student, 2002

In 1957, Bakersfield opened a fouth high school,
called South High School. Students were organized
into groups to chose the school colors, team names,
mascot, and other such things. The students chose
blue and gray, CSA colors, as the school colors, named
one of the teams the Rebels, and chose Johnny and
Jody Reb as mascots. The Confederate flag was
also used. The school newspaper was called the Rebel
Yell and the yearbook the Merrimac (the name of a
CSA ironclad).