1. HISTORY OF RICHMOND’S IRON TRIANGLE
By Jeffrey Callen, Ph.D.
* * *
INTRODUCTION
The Iron Triangle Legacy Project has set itself the goal of building “civic unity” through the
“telling, and celebrating of stories” from the Iron Triangle neighborhood that explore the
“issues and meaning of the Iron Triangle’s evolving history and culture.” Through mini-grants
to community residents and organizations, the Iron Triangle Legacy Project is working to
“reclaim history and to illuminate under heard stories of the Triangle.”1
The purpose of this
History of Richmond’s Iron Triangle neighborhood is to set the context for these stories. We
will begin by asking two questions:
1. What is the Iron Triangle?
2. Who is the Iron Triangle?
What is the Iron Triangle? The Iron Triangle neighborhood gets its name and its boundaries
from three sets of railroad tracks. The arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad line in 1899, connecting
Richmond to the transcontinental rail lines was the initial spark for the transformation of the
sleepy, semi-rural community into an industrial city, touted as the “ Pittsburgh of the West” by
the local Chamber of Commerce.2
The southern boundary of the roughly triangular Iron
Triangle neighborhood was set by the abandoned Santa Fe Railroad tracks that ran between
1
East Bay Center for the Performing Arts. 2011. Iron Triangle Neighborhood Legacy Project [Webpage]. East Bay Center
for the Performing Arts 2011 [cited June 30 2011]. Available from
http://www.eastbaycenter.org/ITLP/tabid/169/Default.aspx
2
Johnson, Marilynn S. 1993. The Second Gold Rush: Oakland and the East Bay in World War Il. Berkeley, Los Angeles and
London: University of California Press. p.14; Crouchett, Lawrence, Lonnie Bunch III, and Martha Kendall Winnacker.
1989. The History of the East Bay Afro-American Community 1829-1977. Oakland: Northern California Center for Afro-
American History and Life. p. 17.

2. Ohio and Chanslor Avenues (now being developed as the Richmond Greenway). Another set of
Santa Fe tracks (now the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad) that run parallel to the
Richmond Parkway/Garrard Boulevard forming the northwestern side of the triangle. The
northeastern side of the triangle was formed by a set of Union Pacific Railroad tracks (now also
the route of the BART commuter line).
The Iron Triangle is defined by its geography and formed by a particular history but it also
carries with it a legacy of shifting imageries: the rapid development of the first three decades of
the 20th
century; the bustling 24/7 downtown of the boom years of World War II; the troubled,
uncertain years of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s; the “warzone,” devastated by redevelopment and
plagued by poverty and violence. The final image has become the self-perpetuating image of
the Iron Triangle; it has become a stock image of urban blight. With little attention turned to the
history of the Iron Triangle since the end of the 1960s, the Iron Triangle Legacy Project offers
an opportunity to document the life of the Triangle in the last few decades and images from
within the community of what the Triangle might become.
Who is the Iron Triangle? The story of the Iron Triangle is primarily the story of the people
who have made Triangle their home. Since its earliest days, around the turn of the 20th
century,
the Triangle has been an ethnically diverse neighborhood whose demographics have constantly
shifted with new waves of immigration. The history of the Iron Triangle is a story of the
interaction & separation, blending & conflict of the different cultures that have made the
Triangle their home.
* * *

3. HISTORY OF THE IRON TRIANGLE
THE PREHISTORY OF THE IRON TRIANGLE
The neighborhood known as the Iron Triangle did not exist until after the establishment of the
City of Richmond early in the 20th
century. There is a rich prehistory of Richmond and the Iron
Triangle. This prehistory can be divided into three periods: the Native American and Mission
period (until 1821), the Mexican period (1821–1846) the early American period (1846–1895).
The Native American and Mission Period. The earliest residents of Richmond were an
Ohlone–speaking Native American group known as the Huchiun (4000 B.C.E.). A visit by
Spanish explorers in 1772 led to Spanish occupation and settlement of the region, administered
from Mission San Francisco de Asis (“Mission Dolores” – established in 1776). The Huchiun
were inducted into the mission system, and taught to grow crops and raise stock animals instead
of subsisting from hunting and gathering. Priests from Mission Dolores established a ranch in
Richmond in the early 19th
century and employed Native American laborers to grow crops for
the San Francisco Mission. Native American life was severely disrupted by the mission system:
men and women were segregated; children were often taken from parents to be raised by
priests. Newly introduced diseases decimated the Native American population and, by 1815,
three quarters of the region’s native people had perished; the remainder lived in severe
poverty.3
3
Graves, Donna, and Page & Turnbull. 2009. Richmond Planning Department Project PRISM Historic Context
Statement. Richmond, CA: City of Richmond Planning Department. p. 14-16.

4. The Mexican Period. Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821 and California came
under Mexican jurisdiction. The Mexican government disbanded the mission system and
redistributed church property. Widespread corruption and an economic system based on
livestock ranching let to the allocation of larger land grants to powerful local families. Rancho
San Pablo, an 18,000-acre property that includes most of present-day Richmond, was granted to
Don Francisco Castro, a soldier at the San Francisco Presidio. Castro established a cattle ranch
on the property and he and his family with the first European residents of present day Contra
Costa County.4
Early American Period. In 1846 following the Mexican-American war, Mexico ceded control
of California to the United States. At the time, numerous Americans had already settled in
Northern California but few owned property. After California came under American control,
more U.S. citizens claimed land ownership and property disputes were common. As was the
case with Rancho San Pablo, theses disputes often slowed development. The ownership of the
parcels within Rancho San Pablo was not resolved until 1894. Prior to the establishment of the
City of Richmond in the early 20th
century, much of Richmond was undeveloped marshland.5
THE CREATION OF THE IRON TRIANGLE
The “Pittsburgh of the West.” The creation of the Iron Triangle was precipitated by two
events that occurred in 1899. The first was the arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad line, establishing
the terminus of its western line in Richmond. The second was the filing by real estate developer
Augustin Sylvester MacDonald of a plan with Contra Costa County for a new city named
4
Graves and Page & Turnbull. p. 18-19.
5
Graves and Page & Turnbull. p. 21-22.

5. Richmond. MacDonald and his partners divided the area into a standard urban grid of
residential and commercial lots along the major thoroughfare of the development, Macdonald
Avenue. The development was the culmination of a vision of Richmond as a transcontinental
rail terminus and deep-water port that MacDonald had pitched to a group of railroad magnates.
Although predominately located outside the boundaries of the Iron Triangle, a number of major
employers quickly located their operations in Richmond, providing jobs for residents of the
developing Triangle. In addition to the large-scale operations of Standard Oil, the Pullman
Company and the Santa Fe Railroad were numerous smaller industrial employers, including
commercial laundries, breweries, factories, and canneries. By 1907, when the Richmond
Chamber of Commerce began too promote Richmond as the “Pittsburgh of the West,” the
transformation of the sparsely-populated area into an industrial city (incorporated in 1905) was
well underway. In 1926, the City contracted developer Fred Parr to create a new deep-water
port in Richmond that would become a significant incentive to in future development. The new
deep-water port and financial incentives offered by the City encouraged Ford Motors Company
to locate an assembly plant in Richmond in 1931.6
The industrial development of Richmond supported the establishment of the Iron Triangle as
the commercial and civic center of Richmond (part of Augustin MacDonald’s plan was for his
new development to replace Point Richmond as the center of the new city). The industrial
development of Richmond spurred the creation of a streetcar system that included a line down
Macdonald Ave. By the 1910s, Macdonald’s Avenue up to 13th
Street was lined with shops,
stores, offices, movie theaters and a skating rink, with other business located on side streets.
The Iron Triangle had become the center of Richmond. It was primarily a residential area with
6
Johnson, 19.

6. most residents living in small single-family houses. Between 1900 and 1925, MacDonald and
other real estate developers, anticipating substantial growth due to the opening of the Panama
Canal, subdivided large parcels of land in Richmond into extremely small lots (25' x 100'). This
created the basis for a number of problems that continue to plague the Iron Triangle.7
It also
meant that cheap land was readily available and that factory wages were usually enough to
enable a White worker to purchase a lot and build a small house.8
However, non-white workers
were routinely denied the opportunity to purchase or rent housing within City limits.
Residents of the Iron Triangle included migrants from the East Coast and immigrants from
Europe, Japan and China. By 1912, the city had quintupled its population, reaching
approximately 10,000 inhabitants. The censuses of 1910 and 1920 show that first or second
generation Europeans outnumbered whites born of native parentage, with a small number of
nonwhite residents. While Richmond was a very multi-cultural community, most profits from
local businesses went to out-of-town interests and the most influential local residents were
native-born Americans.9
The largest ethnic group in Richmond was Italian and the first Italian
neighborhoods appeared in North Richmond and Point Richmond. Small Italian-owned
businesses were then established in the Iron Triangle on Macdonald Avenue, usually with
owner and family living on or near the premises. Japanese immigrants made up more than half
of the workers at the Santa Fe yards and many lived in a barracks on the eastern edge of the
7
Wenkert, Robert. 1967. An Historical Digest of Negro-White Relations in Richmond, California. Berkeley: Survey Research
Center, University of California. p. 65; quotes a 1958 City Planning Commission report that states that the "causes of
down-at-the-heel neighborhoods and blighted houses date from Richmond's early beginnings. Improper drainage,
substandard lot sizes, unbuildable lots and poor street layouts were due, in most cases, to the poor land subdivision
practices current at the turn of the century" Richmond City Planning Commission. 1958. Residential Richmond, Part I,
p. 6.
8
Crouchett, et al., 19.
9
Wenkert, 14.

7. Iron Triangle.10
A few small Japanese-owned businesses were established on Macdonald
Avenue in the Triangle. New restrictions on Asian immigration caused Santa Fe to recruit
Native American and Mexican American workers from the Southwest. The Native American
workers lived in refurbished boxcars on the Santa Fe yards but the Mexican American workers
settled in several areas of Richmond. By 1920, most of Richmond’s Mexican American
residents lived in the northeastern part of the Iron Triangle. Constructed in 1911, St. Mark’s
Church was a central institution of the Mexican community. Local residents also formed a
chapter of Sociedad Guadalupana in 1922 to observe the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe
and to function as a mutual aid society.
Even with the increased employment of non-white workers during and after World War I, City
officials gave little attention to the shortage of housing for non-white workers. This was
particularly true for African American workers.11
A large number of the small population of
African American residents lived in the boardinghouses and residential hotels that helped house
Richmond’s growing working-class population.12
African Americans were also excluded from
movie theaters; they were allowed to shop in the Iron Triangle’s stores but not to try on
clothing.13
Most African Americans employed in Richmond lived outside of the City. The only
nearby area in which African Americans were allowed more permanent accommodations was
the unincorporated section of North Richmond, which soon became the center of Richmond's
small African American community. The Richmond area’s first Black church, the North
10
Ramsey, Eleanor, and Inc. California Archaeological Consultants. 1981. Richmond, California, 1850-1941.
Investgation of Cultural Resources Within the Richmond Harbor Redevelopment Project 11-A, Richmond, Contra Costa County,
Calfornia. Richmond, CA. p. 5:15-5:16.
11
McBroome, Delores Nason. 1993. Parallel Communities. African-Americans in California's East Bay 1950-1963. New York
and London: Garland Publishing. p. 43.
12
Moore, Shirley. 1989. The Black Community in Richmond, California 1910-1987. Richmond, CA: Richmond Public
Library (Monograph prepared as part of the Visions Toward Tomorrow project). p. 19.
13
Moore, 22.

8. Richmond Missionary Baptist Church, was founded in 1919 and a second church, several
fraternal organizations and a woman’s social club were created during the 1920s to serve the
social needs of the local Black community.14
In 1940, on the eve of World War II, 273 African
Americans lived in the City of Richmond, virtually all of them within four blocks on the
northern edge of the City and most were employed in janitorial, custodial or domestic work.15
New civic spaces were also created in the Iron Triangle: the Richmond Public Library (1910),
several public schools (1910s), an Elk’s Club, the New Carquinez Hotel, and the Winters
Building (current home of the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts). The Winters Building
was completed in 1923 with commercial space on the ground floor and mezzanine, and a
ballroom on the upper floor. Adolf and Elisabeth Winters had arrived from Germany in 1911
and run several flower shops before deciding to “provide a place for people to enjoy flowers,
dancing and music.” Despite opposition from local churches, public dances were held for
decades in the Winters Building ballroom.16
The Iron Triangle also included businesses that
provided less reputable forms of entertainment that also served the needs of surrounding
communities. In 1913, the City of Richmond had 10,000 residents but was home to 73 saloons,
27 hotels with bars, 13 pool halls, 35 gambling establishment, and 8 houses of prostitution.17
The steady development of the Iron Triangle (and the City of Richmond) came to a halt during
the 1930s due to Depression. The start of construction of Yard One of the Kaiser Shipyards in
14
Moore, 17-19.
15
Johnson, 155; Wenkert, 1.
16
Graves and Page & Turnbull, 39.
17
Wenkert, 65.

9. 1940 was a harbinger of the wartime economic boom that would dramatically change
Richmond and the Iron Triangle.
Before the war Richmond, California, was a drab little industrial city sprawled
along a low-lying point on the north-eastern shore of San Francisco Bay.
Twenty-four thousand people lived in one-family houses on the unshaded streets,
chiefly supported by the 4,000 who worked in the Standard Oil refinery, the
Ford assembly plant, and a dozen smaller industries on the marshy waterfront.
Storage tanks dotted the hills of Point Richmond, and the smell of oil hung
heavy in the air. It was not a pretty place. (“Richmond took a beating: From
Civic Chaos Came Ships for War and Some Hope for the Future,” Fortune 31
(Feb.1945), p. 262).18
WORLD WAR II: THE BOOM YEARS
The transformation of Richmond into a World War II boomtown began a year prior to the entry
of the United States into the war with the start of construction on the Kaiser Shipyards that, by
1943, included four shipyards and a prefabrication plant. Kaiser was the largest defense
employer in Richmond but fifty-five other businesses shared in the wartime boom, securing
contracts to supply the government with a wide range of goods. Kaiser, which operated a
centralized hiring hall downtown in the heart of the Iron Triangle at Ninth and Nevin, was one
of the first defense contractors to recruit women and African Americans. At its peak, Kaiser
employed more than 90,000 people.19
From 1939 to 1944, the population of Richmond
18
Quoted in Wenkert, 8.
19
Graves and Page & Turnbull, 73.

10. quintupled to more than 90,000, swelled by migrants looking for work in the defense industries.
The rapid growth stretched city services and the housing supply beyond their limits.
Many migrants found housing in rented rooms, garages, barns, and chicken coops; some rented
“hot beds” eight hours at a time; others slept in all-night movie theaters in the Iron Triangle.
The Federal government stepped in to help relieve the housing shortage, providing loan
guarantees to private developers that supported the construction of 500 single-family homes in
the Iron Triangle between 1940 and 1945.20
The Federal government also funded construction
of temporary and permanent housing projects for the defense workers. Two of the three
permanent defense housing projects were built in the Iron Triangle. Triangle Court, located at
the northern apex of the Iron Triangle, was designed by local architects Narbett, Bangs & Hurd
in a modernist style (it was demolished in the 1980s). Nystrom Village included 51 single-story
stucco duplexes around central open spaces (still in use as low-income housing, most of the
units are currently scheduled for demolition). The most common type of housing for defense
workers were poorly–constructed, two-story apartment blocks that ran along Cutting Boulevard
from Fourth Street to San Pablo Avenue, with about 6000 of these “temporary” units in the Iron
Triangle.21
Founded in 1941, the Richmond Housing Authority (RHA) was, within a few years, overseeing
the largest public housing program in the country, including more than 23,000 units of housing.
About 20% of those seeking work in the shipyards were African American and their search for
housing was particularly difficult. The policy of the RHA was to reserve 20% of its units for
20
Graves and Page & Turnbull, 45-46. Total home construction in Richmond during the war is estimated at between
2000 and 6000; during the 1930s, 104 homes had been built (ibid).
21
Graves and Page & Turnbull, 70-71.

11. African Americans but they were only allowed in certain area and not in the permanent housing
projects. With widespread discrimination in the private housing market, the 20% quota did not
reflect the true need of African American defense workers.22
North Richmond remained the
only nearby area where African Americans could freely find housing. With its population
swelled by the wartime arrival of a large number of African Americans, North Richmond grew
dramatically and quickly became a significant center of Black entertainment.23
Churches in
North Richmond continued to play a prominent role in the Black community but, during the
war years, two Black churches, Mt. Carmel Baptist and Antioch Missionary Baptist, were
established in the Iron Triangle.24
Black and White migrants from the Southwest also brought
evangelical forms of Christianity with them and, in public housing areas in Richmond;
observers from the Federal Council of Churches (FCC) reported that storefront evangelical
churches had “grown like weeds.” Roughly, half the ministers the FCC surveyed in 1944 were
“worker-preachers who had followed their congregations to the Bay Area and split their time
between the shipyards and the ministry. Itinerant preachers from the Southwest also held mass
tent revivals near migrant housing areas.25
The newcomers from the Southwest also brought
with them blues and country music, southern food, and craft traditions, such as quilt and doll
making.26
Mexican Americans also came to Richmond seeking work in the defense industries.
Like the African American migrants, they mostly came from the Southwest and had heard of
the jobs in Richmond from recruiters or networks of family, friends or church. Richmond’s
22
Graves and Page & Turnbull, 71-72.
23
Callen, Jeffrey Robert. Musical Community: the Blues Scene in North Richmond, California. (M.A.Thesis, University of
California, Santa Barbara, 2001).
24
Moore, 113.
25
Johnson, 321.
26
Crouchett, et al., 52.

12. Mexican neighborhood in the Iron Triangle grew dramatically and Mexican Americans began
to settle in other areas of the City.27
Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI placed restrictions on Japanese
Americans, including their right to own cameras and travel freely, and imposed a nightly
curfew. All Richmond residents of Japanese descent were required to register as enemy aliens
at the main post office in the Iron Triangle and as “enemy aliens” were prohibited to enter any
“defense prohibited zone,” including the entire city of Richmond. In April 1942, all of
Richmond’s Japanese Americans were sent to Tanforan Assembly Center in San Mateo
County. Most were then sent on to an internment camp in the Utah desert. Several Japanese
American families had lived in the Iron Triangle and there were at least three Japanese-owned
businesses.28
The “defense prohibited zone” restrictions also applied to Italian Americans but
only if they had not been granted U.S. citizenship. Many Italian American families in
Richmond were faced with the dilemma of having older relatives who were no longer allowed
to reside in the family home.
The massive influx of wartime workers that overwhelmed City services and housing created a
“second gold rush” for downtown Richmond businesses. Macdonald Avenue from 2nd
to 18th
Streets was lined with clothing stores, banks, nightclubs, restaurants, bars, poolrooms,
dancehalls, and movie theaters. Catering to three shifts of defense workers, downtown movie
theaters and restaurants operated around the clock and customers in bars were usually lined up
27
Washburn, David, “The End of Town: Richmond’s Mexican Colonia and the World War II Migration.” (Berkeley,
CA: 2003), pp. 16, 23-35 cited in Graves and Page & Turnbull, 75.
28
DiStasi, Lawrence ,“Not at Home on the Home Front: Italian Americans in Richmond During WWII” in Graves, et
al. Not at Home on the Home Front: Japanese Americans and Italian Americans in Richmond During World War II, Berkeley, 2004.

13. three deep. Businesses were crowded and customers waited in long lines for service. A
journalist wrote, “The sidewalks are blocked by gaping strangers in cowboy boots, blue jeans,
and sombreros. Nobody knows anybody.” The pre-war small-town culture was permanently
replaced by urban anonymity. A February 1945 article in Fortune magazine described
Richmond as "a city that looked like carnival night every night every hour for three years."29
.
There were no more weekends or nights. It was just twenty-four hours a day, seven
days a week.30
The bars in downtown Richmond were always full. Local proprietors expanded their operations
and out-of-town tavern owners moved their operations to Richmond. Macdonald Avenue
became a notorious saloon district serving a working-class clientele, its bars known for fights
and occasional bloodshed. Throughout the war years, local newspapers reported on barroom
brawls and shootouts, some which involved dozens of combatants and spilled out onto nearby
streets. More “respectable” piano bars and cocktail lounges also appeared. Boxing matches,
tent shows, and traveling carnivals were also popular.31
Sociologist Katherine Archibald
reported that the tastes of Black and White newcomers alike quickly progressed from dime
stores to department stores to fur and perfume shops.32
The influx of a large number of
southern Whites exacerbated the level of racial tension as crude expressions of racial prejudice
became more common.33
Most downtown merchants continued the restrictive practices that
were common in pre-war Richmond and overt discrimination against African Americans
intensified.34
"Negro Patrons Not Wanted" signs were seen for the first time in the windows of
29
"Richmond Took a Beating: From Civic Chaos Came Ships for War and Some Hope for the Future," Fortune
31:262) quoted in Johnson 1993, 148.
30
Quote from Judith Dunning's interview of Stanley Nystrom in Johnson, 147.
31
Johnson, 147-148.
32
Archibald, Katherine. Wartime Shipyard: A Study in Social Disunity. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California
Press. 1947, p.7.
33
Crouchett, et al., 51-52.
34
Crouchett, et al., 46.

14. stores and cafes. Merchants typically only hired African Americans for the most menial
positions, usually out of sight of White customers.35
Toward the end of the war, City officials were planning for a post-war Richmond with 50,000
residents, about half of Richmond’s wartime peak population.
YEARS OF TRANSITION
Macdonald Avenue in the Iron Triangle remained a thriving commercial area for more than a
decade after the end of World War II in 1945. It was the commercial, civic and entertainment
center of Richmond. Stores stayed open on Friday and Saturday nights and people would come
downtown to stroll Macdonald Avenue or see the latest films at one of the four movie
theaters.36
Although discriminatory practices against Blacks still continued, by the late ‘50s,
some changes were beginning to occur. The previously segregated New Hotel Carquinez was
the site of a daily R&B radio show on KTIM hosted by Ollie Freeman, who also owned
Jazzland Records in North Richmond.37
Most activities of youth in the Iron Triangle were
segregated. During the 1950s and early ‘60s, “dragging the Main” (cruising Macdonald) was a
popular activity of White and Hispanic teenagers. Mexican Americans boys in the Iron Triangle
were also involved in the “Los Chicanos” sports program offered by the Boys Club on 20th
Street.38
35
Wenkert,, 24.
36
Graves and Page & Turnbull, 115-116.
37
Graves, and Page & Turnbull, 116-117.
38
Graves, et al., 118.

15. In 1959, the Richmond Redevelopment Agency was preparing plans to reshape downtown
Richmond. A 1963 study it commissioned reported that there was little turnover and that
merchants were generally satisfied with their location. Still, the report stated that:
Downtown Richmond lacks the bright cheerful air of the new cheerful shopping
centers with which it competes. The lack of good accessibility and adequately
located off-street parking facilities have combined to create an undesirable
situation. Through development, the physical deficiencies can be remedied.
The study pointed out that the Iron Triangle was one of Richmond’s oldest and poorest
neighborhoods and more than one-third African American. Theses statements supported the
claim that the area suffered from “urban blight” under the National Housing Act of 1949, which
assigned penalty points to older neighborhoods with non-white residents.39
In 1950, Richmond had more than 99,000 residents, with over half living in defense housing
projects. More than ¾ of the residents of these projects were African-American because of the
widespread discrimination in the private housing market. Rampant discrimination in the job
market also led to a decline in the economic status of African Americans after the war.
Demolition of the defense housing projects was part of the vision City officials had for postwar
Richmond. By 1956, all of the temporary defense housing projects had been demolished to
make way for future development, including thousands of units in the Iron Triangle.40
The only
replacements were privately developed single-family homes and apartment buildings. There
was a significant decrease in the housing supply in the Iron Triangle. White residents of the
39
Roy Wenzlick & Co., “Land Utilization and Marketability Study CBD Redevelopment Project – Calif. R-56
Richmond, California: Prepared for the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Richmond, California,” ca. 1963 cited in
Graves, et al., 119-120.
40
Graves, et al. 120–123.

16. Iron Triangle were able to take advantage of new federal programs, such as the G.I. Bill, to
facilitate home ownership. The typically purchased homes outside the Iron Triangle because
Federal Housing Authority regulations ruled out issuing mortgage insurance in areas of “blight”
such as the Iron Triangle and used race as a significant factor in assessing property values in an
area. African Americans and other nonwhites found they could only purchase homes in areas
that local realtors had selected to become nonwhite neighborhoods. Some realtors used
“blockbusting,” selling to African-Americans to create a climate of panic selling in a white
neighborhood, to turn a quick profit. Such discriminatory practices led to an increased
concentration of African Americans in the Iron Triangle. Local African American realtors, such
as Neitha Williams, worked to help African Americans buy and rent property in Richmond,
saw their work as aligned with the civil rights struggle. They were most often able to secure
property for their clients in “Black” areas, such as the Iron Triangle. Through a combination of
black influx and white flight, the Iron Triangle became 60% African American by 1960
(African Americans made up but only 20% of the population of the city as a whole).41
During the late 1940s, Richmond residents began to organize campaigns against
discrimination. The NAACP organized several successful campaigns against “Negro Patrons
Not Wanted” signs on Macdonald Avenue in the Iron Triangle. Otis Cotright, the owner of
Cotright Grocery Store (one of a number of Black owned businesses that opened in the Iron
Triangle during the 1950s) organized an association of Black businesses to work to elect
African Americans to local positions. Richmond residents also became active in the national
civil rights struggle. African-American ministers Encouraged members of their congregations
to participate in the national civil rights struggles. A local chapter of the Congress of Racial
41
Graves, et al. 125-130.

17. Equality (CORE) was formed in the Iron Triangle in 1962 and became active in protesting
employment discrimination by local employers. CORE also staged a sit-in at the offices of the
Richland Housing Authority to protest discrimination in the allocation of public housing.
On June 25, 1968, Richmond police responded to the report of a stolen car at Ninth and
Macdonald. They chased the vehicle from the Iron Triangle into North Richmond, where they
shot the 15 year-old African American driver. Word of the incident quickly spread and resulted
in confrontations with police in North Richland and scattered vandalism in the Iron Triangle,
primarily along Macdonald Avenue between 2nd
and 15th
Streets. Arrests were about evenly
divided between White and African America juveniles and adults but it was widely perceived
as a “race riot” and the City Council authorized the police chief to take all necessary actions to
restore order. The worst damage from the riots was to Travalini’s furniture store, which was
completely destroyed by a fire that was later found to have been set by a white patron who was
taking advantage of the unrest to destroy the store’s records of what he owed. A week after the
riots, developers filed an application with Contra Costa County to rezone 112 acres for the
construction of a regional shopping center just north of Richmond adjacent to Interstate 80.
Hilltop Mall opened in 1976 and quickly became a regional destination. Downtown Richmond
declined as a destination, at least partly due to its reputation as a more dangerous location.
“REDEVELOPMENT” AND DECLINE
There is little documentation of the history of Richmond since the 1960s and the attention
given to Richmond during the World War II years dwarves that paid to any other period. Still,
an overview of another transformation of Richmond is clear. The chain of events that began

18. with “white flight” and “redevelopment” of the 1960s and 1970s resulted in a decimated
downtown. The creation of “urban blight” in cities across the United States was not an unusual
event during those decades the effects on Richmond were particularly deleterious. The Iron
Triangle, which had been the city’s heart, was at the epicenter of the transformation. By the
1980s, the Triangle, no longer a shopping or entertainment destination had a reputation as an
urban war zone, known primarily for its poverty and violence. With 27% of the City’s
population, it suffers more than 40% off the City’s violent crime and more than half of its
homicides.42
It had become a poster child for the consequences of urban neglect with its glory
days and historical significance firmly placed in the past. But there are other stories to be told
and other histories to be written.
Shifting demographics have again changed life in the Iron Triangle. The White population is a
shadow of what it once was. The 2010 U.S. Census shows the Triangle as more than 60%
African American, with the remainder mostly Mexican America newcomers (who began
arriving in the 1960s) and refugees from Southeast Asia (who began arriving in the 1980s).
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