Liberty Ships, Closed Doors · Episode 13 of 13 · 40 min
The Door Half-Shut, the Door Held Open (Finale)
When peace came, women were pushed out of factories, boomtowns emptied, and Black families were locked out of the postwar middle class by restrictive covenants, redlining and an unequally administered GI Bill. Marin City became a redlined Black island in a wealthy county, its schools were ordered to integrate in 1964, resegregated, and were ordered desegregated again in 2019.
Who's who
- Xavier Becerra+1 more episodeCalifornia Attorney General whose office forced the 2019 desegregation settlement
Where it happens
- Marin City, California+3 more episodesMixed wartime town that became a redlined Black enclave
- Sausalito, California+3 more episodesShoreline where the series begins and ends
- Mississippi+4 more episodesExample where few VA-backed loans went to Black borrowers
Timeline
- 1944GI Bill enacted; administered to exclude many Black veterans
- 1948Shelley v. Kraemer bars court enforcement of racial covenants
- 1964Sausalito Marin City School District ordered to desegregate
- 2013Bayside MLK created and under-resourced, resegregating schools
- August 9, 2019California Attorney General forces a desegregation settlement
Still debated
The up-to-a-million Black veterans denied GI benefits is a widely cited estimate, and the exclusion came through administration rather than the law's wording. Whether the district was literally first to integrate is not established in the record.
