California's post-World War II boom coincided with a center-left political era during which state government became increasingly activist in ways favored more by liberals than by conservatives. Huge federal and state government outlays provided for jobs, flood control, water distribution, highways, new schools, and a world-class public higher education system. The incoming tide of political liberalism peaked during the governorship of Edmund G. "Pat" Brown in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Growth was the mantra of the times. California became the nation's most populous state, boasting the world's most productive farmland. Because of these and related developments, Governor Brown noted that "the balance of the most powerful nation of the world will shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific. . . . The implications are vast" To him and many others, the Golden State would be the epicenter of this Pacific shift that would showcase the economic, political, and cultural prominence of a rising California.
However, the tide on which prosperity and public spending washed over the state also brought with it crowding and continued hardship for many people of color. A major race riot erupted in Los Angeles. With increasing numbers of students, public institutions of higher learning became more bureaucratic and seemingly unresponsive to students' demands for racial equality and a voice in educational policy matters. Nationwide UC Berkeley was viewed as ground zero for the playing out of the heady idealism and mounting tensions that characterized California during its liberal heyday. The conservative opposition that arose is treated in Chapter 13.
Pacific Eldorado: A History of Greater California, First Edition. Thomas J. Osborne. © 2013 Thomas J. Osborne. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Timeline
1955 The Hollywood movie Rebel Without a Cause catapults James Dean and Natalie Wood into stardom The Disneyland amusement park opens in Anaheim
Allen Ginsberg reads his controversial poem “Howl” at San Francisco’s famed Six Gallery arts venue
1958 The New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers professional baseball teams relocate to San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively
Congress passes a law abolishing 41 California Indian reservations
1959 The Unruh Civil Rights Act passes in the state legislature, prohibiting businesses from discriminating on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and medical condition, and providing for redress in the courts when evidence of bias exists
The state legislature passes the Water Resources Development Bond (Burns-Porter) Act authorizing putting before California voters a $1.75 billion bond issue incorporated in Proposition 1
Cross-filing is abolished in California elections
1960 The Minneapolis Lakers professional basketball team relocates to Los Angeles California hosts the Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley near Lake Tahoe
A Master Plan for Higher Education in California, 1960-1975, creating a world-class system of public higher education, is put into effect
Voters approve the Burns-Porter bond issue, marking the beginning of the epic State Water Project
25 percent of America’s defense expenditures and 42 percent of Pentagon research contracts go to firms and universities in the Golden State
1962 Esalen Institute is founded at Big Sur
Cesar Chavez, along with Dolores Huerta, Gilbert Padilla, and others, found the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA)
The electorates in San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa counties pass a measure establishing the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), which becomes operational ten years later
California eclipses New York, becoming the most populous state in America
1963 The state legislature passes the Rumford Fair Housing Act, prohibiting discrimination based on race in the sale and rental of real estate
1964 The American Council on Education ranks UC Berkeley the “best balanced distinguished university,” public or private, in the United States
The Free Speech Movement is launched at UC Berkeley and spreads across the nation Voters pass Proposition 14, repealing the Rumford Fair Housing Act The Los Angeles Music Center, a major performing arts venue, opens and is dedicated The bracero program ends
1965 The Watts riots result in 34 deaths and 1,000 injuries reported, while some 4,000 people are arrested; property damage amounts to $40 million
The Delano Grape Strike is launched
Congress passes the Immigration and Nationality Act that abolishes national origins as a basis for entry for foreigners relocating in the United States, resulting in a large influx of Asians
1966 Largely Hispanic field workers march 300 miles from Delano to Sacramento drawing national attention to their call for boycotts of grapes and wine until their demands for collective bargaining and other rights are recognized
Huey P. Newton and Bobby G. Seale organize the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966 in Oakland
1967 75,000 young people drawn from throughout the nation celebrate the “Summer of Love” in San Francisco
America’s first large-scale popular music gathering of the 1960s, the Monterey International Pop Festival, is held
The nation’s first Trader Joe’s market opens in Pasadena
1968 San Francisco State College appoints linguist S. I. Hayakawa as president; he gains national attention by confronting student protesters and eventually quashing a major student strike on campus
1969 UC Berkeley students and others attempt to seize a block of university property for use as a “People’s Park”
Indians from California and other states occupy Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay
1970 UC Santa Barbara students living in Isla Vista riot and torch a branch of the Bank of America in the college enclave
World History
