By Eliz Dowdy

I first met Johnson at a Juneteenth celebration in 2008; later when the book “A Different Shade of Orange” was published, I received an autographed copy, which has become invaluable for its historical overview and people histories.

Johnson recently spoke at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Cal State Fullerton, sharing anecdotes from the book, and personal stories from the people he met during the oral interviews.

The first Black person to live in Orange County, as noted by Johnson, was a man known only as Dean, in 1870; he was a barber in Anaheim. According to census reports, there were 97 people of African American descent living in Orange County in 1910. Contrary to popular belief not all African Americans moving to Orange County lived in Santa Ana or Fullerton. According to census data, in 1920 there were 139 Black people in the county; of those, 22 lived in Santa Ana, and 18 lived in Fullerton. Most of the cities/towns of Orange County were “sundown towns,” meaning that Blacks had to leave before the sun went down.

During the period between 1920 and 1960, Blacks moving into Orange County were subjected to the same discrimination that was in vogue throughout America. They congregated together and made a life for themselves in spite of the obstacles they were confronted with. Realtors refused to sell them homes or even to rent to them in certain areas. The Ku Klux Klan was largely in control in Anaheim, having taken over the city council in 1924 and working closely with the police, their goal, according to informed sources, “to drive the Catholics, Jews and N....s out.” According to Connie Duffy, whose life is chronicled in the book, her father, Willis Duffy, who owned a barbecue business, would cook for anyone except the Klan.

Johnson also chronicled the Berkley family of Fullerton. Thomas Berkley was an exceptional athlete and scholar; he attended UCLA and was on the same 1940 track and field team with future Los Angeles Mayor, Tom Bradley. Berkley attended Boalt and Hastings Schools of Law at Berkeley. He opened a law office. His sister, Ruby Berkley Goodwin, was a writer; she gained fame as an author of poetry, a newspaper column. Goodwin would become personal secretary to the late Hattie McDaniels.

Other lives that create different shades of orange include Ernestine Anderson Ransom, who moved with her family to Orange County in 1937. Ransom tells of helping her mother clean homes in Orange, and hurrying to be finished before dusk. Later she would purchase a duplex in Orange.

Because Orange County did not have any manufacturing, the area did not see the unparalleled migration of darker-skinned Americans that most metropolitan areas did during the earlier part of the twentieth century. Although many of the racial covenants that prohibited Realtors from denying Blacks residences outside of the selected areas, the old ways die slowly and when Dorothy and Lincoln Mulkey came from the east coast after completing their tours of duty in the Armed Forces they discovered housing discrimination was still being practiced. They filed a housing discrimination lawsuit that was eventually heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Dorothy Mulkey was the first African American employee at Pacific Telephone's main office in Orange County.

Johnson spoke to the assemblage for over an hour, relating episodes from people some of the audience probably knew, but never knew the inside track of discrimination they had endured as pioneers in Orange County.

There are twenty-six persons whose lives in Orange County during the mid-20th century helped to change the landscape of the area. They include: Adleane Hunter, wife of Dr. Jerry Hunter; Ed Caruthers, Olympian athlete in Mexico in 1968; Connie Jones; and Rev. Dr. James Carrington, pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Yorba Linda.

Robert Johnson is a Caucasian who moved to Orange County in 1961 with his wife Lois and their three children. It would not be long before he was involved in the Orange County Fair Housing Council, becoming chair of the board of directors in 1969. He is also on the board of the Santa Ana Black Historical Society. Johnson has continued to exhibit a very low tolerance for discrimination and has devoted almost fifty years of working to make his adopted land of Orange County truly a mecca for all peoples, to live according to the dictates of their hearts as related to housing, and employment.

“A Different Shade of Orange” was published by the Department of Oral and Public History at California State University, Fullerton; the forewords were written by Dr. Milton Gordon, Chancellor Michael Drake; Chancellor, retired, Dr. Jerome Hunter; and Professor Emeritus Lawrence de Graaf, Cal State Fullerton.