Editing Oakland, California (section)

===1900–1950s===
[[File:Oakland ATSF station 1912 postcard.jpg|thumb|The [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway|Santa Fe]] rail station in 1912.]]
Oakland was one of the worst affected cities in California that was impacted by the [[San Francisco plague of 1900–1904]]. [[Quarantine]] measures were set in place at the Oakland ports requiring the authorities at the port to inspect the arriving vessels for the presence of infected rats.<ref name="QuarantineNYT">{{cite news|title=Quarantine Ordered Against Bubonic Rats|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1925/01/01/archives/quarantine-ordered-against-bubonic-rats-vessels-from-three.html|date=1925|work=[[The New York Times]]|id={{ProQuest|103474660}}}}</ref> Quarantine authorities at these ports inspected over a thousand vessels per year for plague and yellow fever. By 1908, over 5,000 people were detained in quarantine.<ref name="howcommercespread">{{Cite book|title=Contagion : How Commerce has Spread Disease|last=Harrison|first= Mark|date=2012|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780300123579|location=New Haven|oclc=785865143}}</ref> Hunters were sent to poison the affected areas in Oakland and shoot the squirrels, but the eradication work was limited in its range because the State Board of Health and the [[United States Public Health Service]] were only allotted about $60,000 a year to eradicate the disease. During this period Oakland did not have sufficient health facilities, so some of the infected patients were treated at home.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A piece of my mind : a new collection of essays from JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association|date=2000|publisher=AMA Press|editor=Young, Roxanne K.|isbn=9781579470821|location=Chicago|oclc=48003418|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/pieceofmymindnew0000unse}}</ref>

The State Board of Health along with Oakland also advised physicians to promptly report any cases of infected patients.<ref name=":0"/> Yet, in 1919 it still resulted in a small epidemic of [[Pneumonic plague]] which killed a dozen people in Oakland.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Kellogg|first=W. H.|title=The plague situation|journal=American Journal of Public Health and the Nation's Health|volume=25|issue=3|pages=319–322|doi=10.2105/ajph.25.3.319|year=1935|pmid=18014177|pmc=1559064}}</ref> This started when a man went hunting in Contra Costa Valley and killed a squirrel. After eating the squirrel, he fell ill four days later and another household member contracted the plague. This in turn was passed on either directly or indirectly to about a dozen others.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kellogg|first=W. H.|date=1920|title=An epidemic of pneumonic plague|journal=American Journal of Public Health|volume=10|issue=7|pages=599–605|doi=10.2105/ajph.10.7.599|pmid=18010342|pmc=1362744}}</ref> The officials in Oakland acted quickly by issuing death certificates to monitor the spread of plague.<ref name=":0"/>

==== Incorporation ====
[[File:Oakland Chevrolet factory c.1917.jpg|thumb|One day's output of 1917 automobiles at [[Chevrolet]]'s major [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]] plant, now the location of [[Eastmont Town Center]]]]

At the time of incorporation in 1852, Oakland had consisted of the territory that lay south of today's major intersection of San Pablo Avenue, Broadway, and Fourteenth Street. The city gradually annexed farmlands and settlements to the east and the north. Oakland's rise to [[industrialization|industrial]] prominence, and its subsequent need for a seaport, led to the digging of a shipping and tidal channel in 1902. This resulted in the nearby town of [[Alameda, California|Alameda]] being made an island. In 1906, the city's population doubled with refugees made homeless after the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake]] and fire.

In 1908, the lawyer, former miner, and newspaper owner Homer Wood (1880–1976) suggested to his friend Frank Bilger of Blake and Bilger Rock Quarry and Paving Company that he organize a gathering to establish a [[Rotary Club]] east of the bay. On November 27, 1908, Homer took a ferry across the bay in a driving rainstorm and met for lunch with Frank and twenty three other businessmen at the Hotel Metropole at 13th and Jefferson. This gathering became the first meeting of the Tri-City Rotary Club, renamed in 1911 The Rotary Club of Oakland, the third Rotary Club in the world. This group established the tradition of weekly meetings, something most clubs worldwide follow today.<ref>Hamilton, Linda Parker, ''The Rotary Club of Oakland, A Century of Service and Friendship'', Stories to Last. {{ISBN|978-0-615-57936-8}}</ref>

In 1917, [[General Motors]] opened an automobile factory in [[Elmhurst, Oakland, California|East Oakland]] called [[Oakland Assembly]]. It produced [[Chevrolet]] cars and then [[GMC (automobile)|GMC]] trucks until 1963, when it was moved to [[Fremont, California|Fremont]] in southern Alameda County.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oaklandhistory.com/files/chev.html |title=Oakland History Room. 1917 promotional photograph of a day's output at the Chevrolet factory |publisher=Oaklandhistory.com |access-date=April 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323180032/http://www.oaklandhistory.com/files/chev.html |archive-date=March 23, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Also in 1916, the [[Fageol|Fageol Motor Company]] chose East Oakland for their first factory, manufacturing farming tractors from 1918 to 1923.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/ca/traveler/2001-09/highway_nostalgia.html |work=The Traveler: The Newsletter of the Lincoln Highway Association—California Chapter |issue=Fall 2001 |author=Wes Hammond |title=Highway Nostalgia. Manufacturing Trucks Adjacent to the Lincoln Highway: Fageol Truck and Coach Company. Oakland, California, 1916–1938 |publisher=Lincolnhighwayassoc.org |access-date=April 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319152907/http://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/ca/traveler/2001-09/highway_nostalgia.html |archive-date=March 19, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://vintagetractors.com/Fageol.html |title=Vintage Tractors. 'Fageol' |publisher=Vintagetractors.com |date=January 7, 1919 |access-date=April 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120609092714/http://vintagetractors.com/Fageol.html |archive-date=June 9, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> By 1920, Oakland was the home of numerous manufacturing industries, including [[metals]], canneries, bakeries, [[internal combustion engines]], automobiles, and shipbuilding.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt7199q9d0/ |title=Photo collection: 'New or greatly enlarged industrial establishments of Oakland and East Bay cities.' by Oakland (Calif.) Chamber of Commerce. ca. 1917. Oakland Public Library, Oakland History Room |publisher=Content.cdlib.org |date=February 24, 2007 |access-date=April 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130723161041/http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt7199q9d0/ |archive-date=July 23, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> By 1929, when [[Chrysler]] expanded with a new plant there, Oakland had become known as the "[[Detroit]] of the West," referring to the major auto manufacturing center in Michigan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newspaperarchive.com/LandingPage.aspx?type=glp&search=oakland%20history%20eastmont%20automobile%20factory&img=\\na0037\6774012\31255565.html |title=Oakland Tribune, May 5, 1929. 'Chrysler plant' |publisher=Newspaperarchive.com |access-date=April 19, 2012 }}</ref>

[[File:Old oakland.jpg|thumb|Old Oakland neighborhood]]
Oakland expanded during the 1920s, as its population expanded with factory workers. Approximately 13,000 homes were built in the 3 years between 1921 and 1924,<ref>{{cite web|title=East Oakland Community Information Book 2001|url=http://www.acphd.org/AXBYCZ/Admin/DataReports/east_oakland.pdf|publisher=Alameda County Health Services Agency|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080910075351/http://www.acphd.org/AXBYCZ/Admin/DataReports/east_oakland.pdf|archive-date=September 10, 2008 }}</ref> more than during the 13 years between 1907 and 1920.<ref>Prentice, Helaine Kaplan, ''Rehab Right'', Ten-Speed Press. {{ISBN|0-89815-172-4}}</ref> Many of the large downtown office buildings, apartment buildings, and single-family houses still standing in Oakland were built during the 1920s; they reflect the architectural styles of the time.

[[File:The Parkway Theater.jpg|thumb|Historic 1920s-era Parkway Theater]]
[[File:Oakland tribune tower detail.jpg|thumb|upright|In 1924, the [[Tribune Tower (Oakland)|Tribune Tower]] was completed; in 1976, it was restored and declared an Oakland landmark. While it is no longer occupied by the ''[[Oakland Tribune]]'', its historic appearance is preserved.]]

Russell Clifford Durant established Durant Field at 82nd Avenue and East 14th Street in 1916.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aerofiles.com/_d.html |title=Aerofiles.com. 'Durant' |publisher=Aerofiles.com |access-date=April 19, 2012}}</ref> The first [[Airmails of the United States#Transcontinental Air Mail|transcontinental airmail]] flight finished its journey at Durant Field on August 9, 1920, flown by Army Capt. [[Eddie Rickenbacker]] and Navy [[lieutenant|Lt.]] [[Bertrand Blanchard Acosta|Bert Acosta]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Government_Role/1918-1924/POL3.htm |title=U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission. 'The U.S. Post Office Flies the Mail, 1918–1924' |publisher=Centennialofflight.gov |access-date=April 19, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106112000/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Government_Role/1918-1924/POL3.htm |archive-date=January 6, 2012 }}</ref> Durant Field was often called Oakland Airport, though the current [[Oakland International Airport]] was soon established {{convert|4|mi|abbr=out|spell=in}} to the southwest.<ref>[http://www.westernaerospacemuseum.org/oakland/oaklandairport.html Western Aerospace Museum. Oakland Airport Timeline.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016081833/http://www.westernaerospacemuseum.org/oakland/oaklandairport.html |date=October 16, 2015 }}</ref>

During World War II, the East Bay Area was home to many war-related industries. Oakland's [[Moore Dry Dock Company]] expanded its shipbuilding capabilities and built over 100 ships. Valued at $100&nbsp;million in 1943, Oakland's canning industry was its second-most-valuable war contribution after shipbuilding. The largest canneries were in the Fruitvale District, and included the Josiah Lusk Canning Company, the Oakland Preserving Company (which started the Del Monte brand), and the California Packing Company.<ref>{{cite web|title=H.G. Prince Employees [1918]|url=http://collections.museumca.org/qtvr_panos/qtvr7.html|publisher=Oakland Museum of California|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030626011504/http://collections.museumca.org/qtvr_panos/qtvr7.html|archive-date=June 26, 2003 |quote=Oakland's location, where rail and water transportation meet, made it an ideal site for canneries. Shippers brought produce from all over California for canning at several large plants—including the Josiah Lusk Canning Company, the Oakland Preserving Company (which developed the Del Monte brand), and the California Packing Company, which took over the H. G. Prince Company between 1925 and 1930. In 1943, the Oakland Tribune reported that the $100,000,000 canning industry in Oakland ranked second only to shipbuilding in value.}}</ref>

President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] called on defense industries with government contracts to integrate their workforces and provide opportunities for all Americans. Tens of thousands of laborers came from around the country, especially poor whites and blacks from the Deep South: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas, as well as Missouri and Tennessee. [[Henry J. Kaiser]]'s representatives recruited [[sharecroppers]] and [[tenant farmers]] from rural areas to work in his shipyards. African Americans were part of the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] by which five million persons left the South, mostly for the West, from 1940 to 1970. White migrants from the [[Jim Crow]] South carried their racial attitudes, causing tensions to rise among black and white workers competing for better-paying jobs in the Bay Area. The racial harmony Oakland African-Americans had been accustomed to prior to the war evaporated.<ref name="sfgate.com">{{cite news| url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/26/MNFUSA80E.DTL&hw=Betty+Reid+Soskin&sn=003&sc=552 | title=WWII meant opportunity for many women, oppression for others | first=Carolyne | last=Zinko | date=September 26, 2007 | work=The San Francisco Chronicle}}</ref> Also migrating to the area during this time were many [[Mexican Americans]] from southwestern states such as [[New Mexico]], [[Texas]], and [[Colorado]]. Many worked for the [[Southern Pacific Railroad]], at its major rail yard in West Oakland. Their young men encountered hostility and discrimination by Armed Forces personnel, and tensions broke out in "[[zoot suit riots]]" in downtown Oakland in 1943 in the wake of a major disturbance in Los Angeles that year.<ref>Ruben Llamas, ''Eye from the Edge: A Memoir of West Oakland, California''</ref>

[[File:Merrittview.jpg|thumb|left|View of [[Lake Merritt]] looking southwest toward the [[René C. Davidson Courthouse|Alameda County Courthouse]]]]

In 1946, [[National City Lines]] (NCL), a General Motors [[holding company]], acquired 64% of [[Key System]] stock; during the next several years NCL engaged in the [[General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy|conspiratorial dissolution]] of Oakland's electric [[streetcar]] system. The city's expensive electric streetcar fleet was converted to cheaper diesel buses.<ref name="7th">[http://www.altlaw.org/v1/cases/770576 UNITED STATES, v. NATIONAL CITY LINES, Inc., et al.—186 F.2d 562—AltLaw] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091116082744/http://www.altlaw.org/v1/cases/770576 |date=November 16, 2009 }}</ref> The state Legislature created the Alameda and Contra Costa Transit District in 1955, which operates today as [[AC Transit]], the third-largest bus-only transit system in the nation.<ref name="journalism.berkeley.edu">{{cite web |url=http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/actransit/conis_feature.html |title=From Horses to Hybrid: A Century of East Bay Transport |author=Elena Conis |date=2002 |publisher=Journalism.berkeley.edu |access-date=April 19, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309112953/http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/actransit/conis_feature.html |archive-date=March 9, 2012 }}</ref>

After the war, as Oakland's shipbuilding industry declined and the automobile industry went through restructuring, many jobs were lost.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Walker |first=Richard |date=2005 |title=Oakland Rising: The Industrialization of Alameda County |url=https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Oakland_Rising:_The_Industrialization_of_Alameda_County |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=FoundSF}}</ref> In addition, labor unrest increased as workers struggled to protect their livelihoods. Oakland was the center of a [[1946 Oakland General Strike|general strike]] during the first week of December 1946, one of six cities across the country that had such a strike after World War II.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://libcom.org/library/oakland-general-strike-stan-weir |title=1946: The Oakland General Strike |first=Stan |last=Weir |publisher=libcom.org |date=November 22, 2005 |access-date=December 31, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111230100145/http://libcom.org/library/oakland-general-strike-stan-weir |archive-date=December 30, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The [[Mary's First and Last Chance]] in Oakland was a lesbian bar, once the focus of the 1950s [[California Supreme Court]] lawsuit Vallerga v. Dept. Alcoholic Bev. Control, when the bar challenged a state law for the right to serve gay patrons and won in 1959.<ref name=":22">{{Cite web |title=Vallerga v. Dept. Alcoholic Bev. Control - 53 Cal. 2d 313, 347 P.2d 909, 1 Cal. Rptr. 494 - Wed, 12/23/1959 |url=https://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/vallerga-v-dept-alcoholic-bev-control-29822 |access-date=June 21, 2023 |website=California Supreme Court Resources, Stanford Law School}}</ref><ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Boyd |first=Nan Alamilla |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xZ4lDQAAQBAJ |title=Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965 |date=May 23, 2003 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-20415-7 |pages=182–183 |language=en}}</ref>