Basic Information
- Type of Place
- Independent City or Town
- Metro Area
- Politics c. 1860?
- Unions, Organized Labor?
Sundown Town Status
- Sundown Town in the Past?
- Probable
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Don’t Know
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Surely Not
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | ||||||||
| 1940 | ||||||||
| 1950 | ||||||||
| 1960 | ||||||||
| 1970 | ||||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | ||||||||
| 2000 | 247,057 | 152,849 | 22,641 | 10,708 | 3,454 | 80,170 | 46,151 | |
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Violent ExpulsionPrivate Bad Behavior
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
- Asian
- Other
Comments
Bakersfield expelled its Chinese population in
1893.
During the Dust Bowl era of the Great
Depression, Bakersfield was very hostile to “Okies” and
other poor white migrant laborers. A copy of John
Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath “was burned on the
courthouse steps in Bakersfield because many
established residents did not care for the way
Steinbeck portrayed them.”
-graduate student, 2002
In 1957, Bakersfield opened a fouth high school,
called South High School. Students were organized
into groups to chose the school colors, team names,
mascot, and other such things. The students chose
blue and gray, CSA colors, as the school colors, named
one of the teams the Rebels, and chose Johnny and
Jody Reb as mascots. The Confederate flag was
also used. The school newspaper was called the Rebel
Yell and the yearbook the Merrimac (the name of a
CSA ironclad).