The Subdivision and the Restrictive Covenant in Oakland, California, 1900-1930

This article analyzes how the rapid urban and suburban development of Oakland, from 1900 through 1930, occurred through the expansion of racially restrictive subdivisions in the Oakland hills and Berkeley. By analyzing urban and suburban environments, it becomes clear how real estate corporations developed the use of racial covenants as part of their city planning enterprise, a project which occurred between 1900 and 1930 while also influencing the rise of restrictive covenants in Los Angeles. The article intervenes in urban and suburban history by considering how racially restrictive covenants offered a flexible form of racial and class segregation in California, where the state’s multiracial population—with a significant Chinese, Japanese, and Black population—sought new housing in a discriminatory and antagonistic market.