African American and Latino

Struggle:
Compton California (1970s-1980s)

Domonique Payan
History 301
Professor Namala

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Compton, prior to WWII, slowly began transforming from an all white
community to a multiracial community, due to the migration of African Americans. After
the war had ended, the black population increased significantly to approximately 100
percent, in Compton. Many of the African Americans who migrated to Compton endured
many hardships until the mid-1960s, where things began to slowly change. After the
19960s, the African Americans were governing the city of Compton, along with its school
district. As the time passed, the city of Compton began to take on yet another
transformation, due to the migration of Latinos.
In the 1990s, the city of Compton had contained approximately 90,000 people,
which consisted of 53 percent African American and 44 percent Latinos. As the Latino
population continued to steadily increase, friction between the two races also increased in
terms of who was entitled to have economic opportunities. African Americans in
Compton used racial ideologies as a means to maintain their economic and political
power, and were very reluctant in sharing this power with the now Latino residents
(Straus 508). As a result of the African Americans unwillingness, friction between the
two races continued to grow within the community.
This inter-ethnic battle for power not only segregated the neighborhoods in
Compton, it also segregated the students within the school in this city. The differences in
culture and language as well as the scarcity of resources became the defining distinction
of who gained access to economic opportunities; [and] race became a proxy for the
cultural and language differences within Comptons Community (Straus 515).
Comptons public school system illustrated the communitys inability to work together
and as a result the school system became the center of Comptons racial dispute. The
Latino residents started to blame African Americans for their sufferings, and as a result

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they began to organize. The Latino residents perseverance led them to fight for equality
in employment, education, and power in Compton.
Due to a sudden growth in the Latino population in Compton, many Latino
residents began to find themselves competing with the African Americans for jobs. All of
Comptons employers at this particular time consisted of African American, which made
it very difficult for Latinos to obtain jobs. Due to past and present racial discrimination,
black employers, in Compton, felt that they had more of a right to give all available jobs
to family and friends of their race. During the 70s and 80s, the LA economy was
shifting from a manufacturing hub to a more diverse metropolitan economy- leading to
the loss of 750,000 jobs in Compton. Less jobs and more laborers meant fierce
competition for jobs and higher unemployment rates (The Compton Clash). This
demographic shift in Compton made it extremely difficult for all African American and
Latinos to not only obtain but also maintain high-paying jobs.
As a result to the mass influx of Latinos, many of the town officials tried to
eliminate some of the hardships that surrounded the high unemployment rate by
redeveloping the community, but failed miserably. This failed attempt was one of the
main reasons why African Americans were so reluctant in giving jobs to those outside
their race. In order for African American to maintain control and political power, over
their city, they had to exclude the Latinos from obtaining jobs such as government jobs,
and city jobs, especially jobs within the school district. African American felt that if they
were to give in and lay a helping hand, they will once again be treated unequally and
tossed aside like they once were- when they had first arrived into Compton. As city
councilman Maxey D. Filer said, When I moved to Compton, [Latinos] were running
faster than the whites were running. If Latinos had stayed in the city, they would be

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sharing power now. But they decided to leave (LA Times). As a result, Compton
residents battles over the operation of the school district often came down to fights over
jobs for teachers, janitors, cafeteria workers, and bus drivers (Straus 508). Many African
Americans living in Compton have come a long way and they were not about to
jeopardize all that they have worked hard for (over the last several years) by handing jobs
they need to those who did not share what they had struggled with.
As time pressed on, Compton, as a whole, continue to successfully fail in
becoming a better community. The Conflicts between African Americans and Latinos
began to shift towards schooling and higher education in an under-resourced community.
The city of Compton had over 25,000 students in three high schools, one special
education center, eight junior high schools, and twenty-four elementary schools (Sides).
The percentage of African Americans was steadily dropping while The Latino population
was rising. Approximately 50percent of the children attending school in Compton were
Latino. This significant shift in population started to unfold other issue within Comptons
community, such as higher education.
Many of the Latino parents began to complain about how the black teachers, who
were employed in Comptons school districts, were being culturally insensitive to their
children (LA Times). Latino parents were outraged with the school district because
Spanish-speaking aids were teaching their children instead of certified teachers. Latino
residents felt their children deserve better and should be taught by certified Bilingual
teachers. Parents were upset at the fact that their children were the ones suffering from
this racial battle for power and urged the school district to implement a bilingual program
for their children so that they can have a better education.
Meanwhile, African Americans had a counter complaint; they criticized bilingual
education and complained that the idea of spending enormous amounts of money from

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the schools budget, on bilingual education, was outrageous. Comptons school trustee
John Stewards agrees with his constituents and said, I have no respect for the language
issue. This is America. Because a person does not speak English is not a [good enough]
reason to provide exceptional resources at [the] publics expense (LA Time). According
to the LA Times, there are approximately 8,000 children in Comptons school system that
speak little to no English, and about 46 teachers, in total, who have bilingual credentials.
What this means here, is that bilingual teachers are hard to come by, which is only half of
the problem.
The other half of the problem stems from the African community. If they hire
bilingual teachers, then they will need to spend the money required to provide bilingual
education and pay bilingual teachers more than the average teacher. This would also
mean redistributing resources, which they hardly have, away from African American
students and teachers. The counter argument on behalf of the African Americans is that
theres simply not enough money to go around, especially since the African American
community is the one who is funding the school district in Compton.
Despite the ongoing disputes for bilingual education, Latinos began to take
matters into their own hands and began organizing. In 1995, days after the school year
had started, the majority of the Latino students who were enrolled in Comptons,
McKinley Elementary School, did not show up for class. Latino organizers such as John
Ortiz, asked Latino parents not to send their children to school so that they can,
protest what they perceived as school administrators inadequate response to Latino
educational needs (Straus 507). Out of the 431 Latino students attending McKinley
Elementary, only 100 of them did not attend school. Although one out of four students
per class was just slightly over the schools normal-daily absentee rate, this course of

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action on behalf of the Latino community, forced the district administrators to take notice
of the issue at hand.
Later, in 1968, Congress had found that one of the United States major problems
impeding the education system was not having a program that properly educated children
who had limited English- speaking skills. In order to help lessen the issue, congress
ratified the Bilingual Act of 1968, and the federal government began to grant districts
the funds needed to provide services for children with limited English-speaking skills
(Straus 516). Even though the state and federal law help prepare the school district for its
growing Latino population, the leaders of Compton Unified School district failed to
implement an effective/sustainable bilingual education program for its non-English
speaking students. It was not until the State Department of Education got involved that
Comptons school administrators agreed to obey state law and started providing sufficient
bilingual training for some of its teachers.
Even though some issue were on their way of being resolved, African Americans
and Latinos, however, still struggled with the issue of who controlled political power in
Compton. For example, Leticia Vsquez, the current mayor of Lynwoodremembered
people knocking on the door saying we needed to get rid of black city-council members
(Camarillo 2). Comptons issues over representation, as well as having control over
political and educational institutions, are the most common issues that divide the African
Americans and Latinos within this community.
Many Latinos believed they should be ale to benefit from affirmative action just
like anyone else. But many African Americans disagree with this, especially John
Steward. Mr. Steward told the LA times, Affirmative action is reparation to black
Americans for slavery and for being torn from their African homeland It is not based
on going back and forth across the boarder 10 or 15 times a year. Based on these

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comments and point of views from both side, shows where the conflict lies. African
Americans who control most of the public institutions in Compton, such as City Hall,
Comptons Chamber of Commerce, and schools, showed no sign of sharing their power.
Latino majorities began looking for ways to obtain political representation as well as a
voice in local affairs, but failed miserably due to the Citys and school official refusing to
come up with an affirmative action plans to hire Latinos.
These demographic changes, in Compton, have altered the racial structure of this
city. These changing demographics added new demands to an already troubled district
and African Americans and Latinos for the first are finding themselves struggling to
coexist. The problems surfacing in Compton, not only stem from economic problems but
also from striving to obtain political power in the area. African Americans, in Compton,
suffered tremendously and worked hard to build political power from American control.
When Latinos became a significant portion of the population, language and race became
identifiable markers on which to draw the line of resources. Unfortunately, in Compton
these emerging demographic realities were not welcomed or embraced by everyone. This
battle for economic and political power within this city led to ongoing actions within the
community as a whole, trying to rid the segregation that has been formed.

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Works Cited
Cities of Color: The New Racial Frontier in California's Minority-Majority Cities
Author(s): ALBERT M. CAMARILLO Source: Pacific Historical Review, Vol.
76, No. 1 (February 2007), pp. 1-28 Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/phr.2007.76.1.1.
Compton Latinos Say School Board Action Shows Bias
Michele Fuetsch Times Staff Writer: Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File); Aug 26,
1990; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times pg. SE_AJ1
Conflicts Surface in Compton as Latino Population Increases:
Los Angeles Times (1923-current files); May 17, 1990; ProQuest Historical Newspapers:
Los Angles Times pg. SDB8
Josh Sides, L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to
the Present (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 12529; Sides,
Straight into Compton.
Michele Fuetsch Times Staff Writer Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File); May 7,
1990; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angles Times pg. B1
Straus, Emily E. Unequal Pieces of a Shrinking Pie: The Struggle between African
Americans and Latinos over Education, Employment, and Empowerment in
Com[ton, California. History of Education Quarterly 49.4 (2009): 507-29.
History of Education Quarterly. History of Education Society. Web. 27 Feb. 2015.
www.jstor.org.torofind.csudh.edu/stable/40649251.
The Compton Clash: Race Relations in Southeast LA.
http://thecomptonclash.blogspot.com/

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