Abstract

Stockton, California, underwent spatial restructuring in the decades following World War II. State and local government contributed and responded to these changes by implementing connected freeway and urban renewal programs. Xenophobia and racism placed Asian American communities in their path.A major economic hub for California’s agricultural sector, Stockton and the surrounding region had a racially and ethnically diverse population in the mid-1900s, with people of color restricted to the lowest rungs of society. Asian Americans played a major role in the city’s development but were socially, economically, and politically marginalized. Since the mid-1800s and into the 1970s, Asian Americans were targets of multiple forms of discrimination, some shared by other people of color and others unique to Asians, including xenophobic immigration restrictions, prohibitions against owning land, and mass internment.Residential segregation limited their housing options, forcing many to settle in and around downtown. Despite facing racism and having limited resources, Asian Americans were able to form vibrant albeit low-income ethnic enclaves: Chinatown, Japantown, and Little Manila.Government actions initiated, facilitated, and responded to a postwar restructuring of the urban landscape through suburbanization and the abandonment of the central business district. A dramatic expansion of the freeway system made way for urban sprawl. At the same time, Stockton responded to the commercial decline of its downtown by pursuing urban renewal. These coordinated, massive infrastructure programs were linked through a common agenda of “slum clearance” that sought removal of entire neighborhoods. Tragically, the Asian enclaves lay along the path of destruction of both.