In the Shadows of Los Angeles - Black and Chicana/o Suburban Activism

In the Shadows of Los Angeles traces the multiple struggles of African Americans, Chicanas/os, and white allies for fair housing and ethnic studies and against police brutality in the East San Gabriel Valley from the late 1950s through the 1970s. These groups fought for racial integration, equal access to the American dream, and the promise of Black spaces for community, joy, and love as part of a larger movement working toward change within suburban neighborhoods. In defiance of the historical erasure that posits suburbs as solely white spaces, Gilda L. Ochoa details the often-overlooked efforts of activists, including many women and girls of color, who advocated for their communities against a patriarchal, white supremacist society across generations—and laid the foundation for contemporary struggles for housing justice and resistance to police brutality.