Cultural History
Through the early 1900s, North Oakland was a vibrant Italian neighborhood including what is now known as the Longfellow district. Grove Street, renamed Martin Lurther King Jr. Way in 1984, was an active commercial strip including many Italian businesses. Sacred Heart Parish on the corner of MLK and 40th Street was founded in 1876 and a cornerstone of the larger Italian neighborhood.
The Grove Street corridor was also home to the Grove Street #5, a streetcar connecting the community to the greater Key System (Key Route). (The Key System’s F line connected Berkeley to the Bay Bridge and ran down Linden Street in the Longfellow neighborhood.)
The introduction of the freeway in the 1960s divided the neighborhood and both the commercial district along Grove Street and the Sacred Heart Parish suffered as the area fell into decline. Today, this commercial corridor has been revitalized with the introduction of several thriving food related business including Grace Street Catering which host the Pop-Up General Store, Café Dejena, and MLK Café.
In the 1940s and 1950s, the Longfellow and Santa Fe neighborhoods of north Oakland began to transition from a white immigrant population of predominantly Italians and to an African American population. Two significant African American organizations, the African American Museum and Library (AAMLO) and the Black Panther Party, began in part in the Longfellow neighborhood.
The AAMLO's predecessor, the East Bay Negro Historical Society, was founded in 1965 by residents of the Longfellow and greater north Oakland. The society first held meetings at the Church of the Good Shepard, which still stands at 52nd and West streets. The society’s library-museum contained documentation of “the history and accomplishments of black Americans – politicians, educators, religious figures, inventors, cowboys and miners who came to California during the Gold Rush” and was open to anyone, including school groups, that were interested in the contributions of African Americans to the American experience. The society moved to a storefront on Grove Street (MLK) at 37th Street in 1970, and later in 1976 to another storefront on Grove Street (MLK) just above 45th Street. The organization moved out of the neighborhood in the 1980s and currently resides on 14th Street.
The Black Panther Party, an African American leftist organization, also finds its roots in the streets of North Oakland including the Longfellow neighborhood. Founders Huey P. Newton and David Hilliard grew up on 47th Street and West Street respectively, and the Second Black Panther Party Office was located on the 4400 block of Martin Lurther King Jr. Way.
Read more about this topic: Longfellow, Oakland, California
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