Piedmont... Our Town by League of Women Voters of P...

Attempts to ethnically and culturally diversify the city and allow for higher density and affordable housing are typically met with resistance from the city's residents. While surrounding Oakland is one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse cities in the United States, Piedmont has a less racially diverse population than Oakland. Loewen identified Piedmont as a 'probable' sundown town, meaning that non-whites were not welcome after dusk and could face violence and intimidation. The American sociologist and historian James W. Ī photograph of the front page of the Oakland Tribune describing bomb threats against the first black homeowners in Piedmont, Californiaīefore 1968, restrictive housing covenants and redlining were used to exclude non-whites in the city for many years. They sold it to the city for $25,000 after a mob surrounded their home and demanded that they leave.

While the Dearings initially refused to leave, bombs were left around their property. They could not count on the city of Piedmont to protect them from violent threats against their lives-the chief of police at the time, Burton Becker, was an active member of the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1924, the city's first African-American homeowners, Sidney and Irene Dearing, got around the city's restrictive housing covenants by purchasing a home using a white family member as a proxy. Like surrounding Oakland, Piedmont has a history of racial segregation. Two elections were held among the citizens of Piedmont in 1907, both of which narrowly upheld the decision for Piedmont to become a separate city, rather than become a neighborhood within the city of Oakland. Residents initially sought incorporation in 1907. The original neighborhood of Piedmont was larger than the current municipality of Piedmont, with the Mountain View Cemetery considered full part of the Piedmont neighborhood. Piedmont and much of the East Bay was part of Rancho San Antonio, granted to the Peralta family in 1820.

Piedmont... Our Town by League of Women Voters of P...