THE SUBURBAN WALL Part 2 - "A Middle Class Bedroom Community"
By Brian Copeland

"Despite more than a decade of Civil Rights activity, despite the 1964 Civil Rights Act, despite the 1968 Fair Housing Act, the suburbs remain a locked barrier for most blacks."

So began The Suburban Wall, the documentary on housing discrimination in San Leandro that aired nationally on Thanksgiving Day 1971. After two fruitless years of searching for the film while researching my solo show, "Not a Genuine Black Man", I made the acquaintance of Mel and Doris Desoto, the San Leandro couple who started Fair Housing here in the late 1960s. Their home was used as the base of operations during the filming. The DeSotos provided me with an audio tape of the soundtrack. It's fascinating listening.

Director Paul Altmeyer and his crew spent a month in mid 1971 talking to residents, politicians, homeowners, prospective buyers and realtors in trying to determine why both the 1960 and 1970 censuses showed San Leandro as 99.99% white, while just across the border in Oakland, the black population had grown to nearly 50%. According to the documentary, 1971 San Leandro had more than 68,000 residents. 84 were black. 15,000 whites owned homes. Fifteen blacks did.

Altmeyer wanted an answer to the question, "Who shapes the character of the community?" Was it homeowners, businesses, realtors or the government?

The central focus of the documentary is an unnamed black couple who were trying to buy a home in San Leandro. Their faces and names were not revealed because they feared reprisals. The couple, both professionals with a combined income of $15,000 (about $150,000 today), looked for a San Leandro house for four months before finally giving up and buying in West Oakland. The couple described their experience:

"We didn't see inside any house," the husband said. "We couldn't get any real estate brokers to take us in and show us any property in the city."

"It really gets frustrating," the wife said. "You get tired of hearing the same old excuses. You know the people aren't telling the truth. 'Oh, that just sold.' 'Oh, we forgot to take that out of the book.' 'Oh, that went on the market yesterday and it was sold the day before.'"

According to the couple, real estate agents in San Leandro were more than happy to sell them a home. Just not here.

"There was one by the tracks, where there was defecation in a toilet bowl. Nothing in San Leandro," the husband said. "Not even the dumps in San Leandro."

Throughout the film, local realtors and politicians rationalize the racial disparity. One says that San Leandro really doesn't have anything to offer black people.

"We have a library, we have a city hall, but as far as any real activity the people of certain ethnic backgrounds want, I don't think San Leandro has it."

The black couple wasn't buying it.

"We want to actually go where we want to."

READ PART THREE