There are several resources that were invaluable in the researching of this book. To get a handle on the political situation and machinations that allowed San Leandro to segregate its community, I consulted Robert O. Self’s book American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Post War Oakland and Self’s essay “Black Power City, White Power Suburb.”
San Leandro resident Don Magnifico wrote a term paper for a Cal State Hayward sociology class in 1969 that detailed the power of San Leandro’s ten homeowner’s associations in keeping the city all white. This work provided me with several quotes from contemporary residents.
For San Leandro’s beginnings, Cindy Simons of the San Leandro Library provided me with her essay, “A History of San Leandro.”
Filmmaker Paul Altmyer’s 1971 documentary, The Suburban Wall, allowed me to actually hear the rationalizations for keeping blacks out of San Leandro from the mouths of the city fathers themselves. It provided crucial context.
Several periodicals were also of great use including Newsweek, The Morning News, The Call Bulletin, The Hayward Daily Review and the San Francisco Chronicle. It is the Chronicle ’s archives that follow and detail the revelations of the James Ware/Virgil Ware story.
The records of San Leandro Fair Housing were of tremendous value in getting a feel for what the advocates of an open housing policy were up against in the early ’70s.
Finally, the generosity of Mel and Doris Desoto, Glennie Noste and Mimi Wilson in taking the time to submit to numerous interviews with their recollections of the fair housing fight had an immeasurable impact on this work.