Yvette Porter Moore started with her own history. When she was 18, she started researching her biological parents and their families. Then, her adopted mother, who raised her, wanted Porter Moore to help with genealogy research for her memoirs (leading to information on a grandmother who was a seamstress for famed opera singer Marian Anderson and a great aunt who played Olivia “Mother Jefferson” Jefferson on the television show “The Jeffersons”).
“In that process, genealogy was very important to me. And, honoring my ancestors. History is something we need to uncover, to explore, because I’ve always been interested in San Diego Black history because I was brought up and raised around people who were always doing good in our community — the lawyers, the doctors, the activists, the educators,” she says. “But, I didn’t see much out there in the media or in articles and things like that, or even in books, about what we were doing. So, I was like, ‘Well, I’ve got to do something about this.’”
Porter Moore is a genealogist and public historian who runs her Root Digger Genealogy Research Services, specializing in African American ancestry and adoption and birth family research. She’s been focused on this kind of work for the past 20 years, attending classes at the Midwest African American Genealogy Institute, learning about Black history, genealogy, and DNA research. She’ll speak on the topic of “Preserving Black History in San Diego” from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Monday at the Shiley Special Events Suite at the Central Library in downtown San Diego. Porter Moore, who grew up in San Diego and whose father was educator Walter J. Porter (Porter Elementary School in Lincoln Park is named after him), took some time to talk about a few of the people and events that stand out in local Black history, and why it’s important to her to continue documenting it. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity. )
Q: When I think about Black history in San Diego, names that come to mind include Nathan Harrison, Willie Morrow, and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber. Can you talk about a couple of people who have made/are still making history from San Diego’s Black community?
A: There are too many to mention; however, when I think about Black history in San Diego, I always think about our culture and our legacy. I think about those who came before us, who contributed to the growth of San Diego. These people blazed trails for us to walk and have provided their shoulders for which we stand upon. A few of our recently departed leaders I think of often include the Rev. George Walker Smith, the first Black person elected to the San Diego board of education, and he was also the founder of the Catfish Club. Then, there’s Leon Williams, who is 102 years old; he became the first Black person elected to the city council and to the county board of supervisors. Sylura Barron was the first Black woman to be a delegate to the national political convention representing California for the Democratic Party’s nomination of Harry Truman for president. Robert Matthews co-founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade, along with the Zeta Sigma Lambda Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
When I think about our history, I think about the individuals and organizations that are keepers of the culture right now, whose main purpose is to save, keep, and present our history and culture. This includes Dajahn Blevins, founder of (San Diego) Urban Warriors and Kuumba Fest; Gaidi Finnie, CEO of the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Arts and a legacy bearer of Shirley Day Wiliams, who founded the Keepers of the Culture, a program that honors culture icons; Francine DeWitt-Haynes, the president of Common Ground Theatre (incorporated by her father, the late Rufus DeWitt, and the late Dr. Robert Matthews), the third oldest Black theater in the United States; Robert Fikes Jr., retired San Diego State University librarian, who has helped many people with their Black history research and is also the author of “The Black in Crimson and Black”; Chuck Ambers, a retired elementary educator and the owner of Casa Del Rey Moro African Museum in Old Town, (sharing) the contributions Africans have made to the world and throughout history; and Makeda “Dread” Cheatom, founder of the World Beat Center in Balboa Park.
Q: What are some moments/events of significant Black history, locally?
A: Recently, I did research on the late Marie C. Wideman, who has a park named after her and was an advocate for arts and culture in our district. She served on various boards and commissions in the city and was recognized for her contributions to the city and to the parks and recreation department. She was a woman of many firsts and I was able to find at least a dozen photos of her and researched her through newspapers and had the opportunity to speak with her son. This was very significant to the newly designated Black Arts + Culture District, which are the nine blocks between 61st and 69th on Imperial Avenue (designated on June 14, 2022).
In 1948, Dr. Jack Johnson Kimbrough, who was San Diego’s first Black dentist, organized sit-ins to desegregate hotels, such as the US Grant Hotel, and restaurants throughout the city. He was also involved in organizing the first chapters of the San Diego Urban League and the NAA. He also had, possibly, the largest collection of African and African American art in San Diego.
There’s the introduction of the reparations bill (AB 3121, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, establishing a task force to study and develop proposals for reparations for Black Americans) by former Assemblymember and current Secretary of State Shirley Weber. The United Domestic Workers of America was founded by the late Fahari Jeffers, Ken Msemaji and Greg Akili in 1977. They were mentored by the late, great Cesar Chavez. This was the first domestic workers’ union in America.
Q: According to the 2020 U.S. census, the Black population in San Diego County is at 155,813 (or about 4.7% of the county’s total of nearly 3.3 million people). Having grown up here, I don’t think I can a time when the Black population ever managed to reach even 10%. Why don’t we tend to see a larger Black population in San Diego? What do you think has kept the Black population so small here?
A: Our percentages have always been small, but I think it’s because of the redlining that happened back in the day, and maybe some of the things that are still happening (redlining is a practice that started with the Federal Housing istration in the 1930s, in which mortgage lenders drew red lines around neighborhoods that already included, or could include, Black people to deny them loans and lower property values in those areas). Because redlining is not supposed to happen, I believe that we have spread out to different areas of the county and a lot of is we’re being pushed out of certain areas. You can look at the rise (in the cost) of housing, the cost of renting and the cost of being able to purchase a home. Lately, I believe that we’re moving up toward Temecula and Menifee and some other areas. If you look at the history, we were in downtown San Diego, then we went to the Logan Heights area, then Valencia and Emerald Hills. We’ve been slowly pushed out of the areas we’ve traditionally lived in because, at one point, we had businesses on National Avenue and Imperial Avenue. Back in the early days, our businesses stopped thriving in those communities. Now, we have the Black Arts + Culture District and there’s some movement that’s happening on Imperial Avenue. There are people who have purchased property and starting to build and fix up the storefronts.
Q: Can you talk about why it’s important to know who your community consists of, and what you’ve accomplished?
A: As a person of color, as a Black person, we go to school and we’re taught certain things and, usually, it’s not . We don’t know how to relate to the full picture of what we’re being taught, especially when it comes to history. It’s important because how can you have pride in yourself if you don’t know who you are and what your people have accomplished, and the struggles that they have gone through to make it to where we are today? Just as an example, voting. It’s interesting how young, Black folks may decide that they don’t want to vote, like, ‘Oh, that doesn’t mean anything,’ but it does mean something. When you have had your own family , who you’re not aware of, who died in order to give us the right to vote, to fight against the racial terror that we had to deal with in the stripping of our land and properties, that’s a big thing.
Q: When you think about our history, our contributions, what do you want people to know/understand about this area’s Black history?
A: San Diego’s Black history is rich, and we have been here since before the statehood of California. We, as a people, have contributed to the fabric of America and San Diego. Our history is important and I want our people to know that we must save our history by ensuring that our organizational papers and artifacts are contributed to institutions that are willing to preserve our history. What good is it if we do not document our history and share it with the world? We have lost photographic archives to the dumpsters; we must not let this happen and we must have a succession plan as to where we want our papers and artifacts to go.
Currently, I am working on a project with the San Diego History Center and it is their mission to collect items for the Missing Pieces project. My goal is to also get for the Delilah L. Beasley Historical Society so that we can begin to work on projects, such as ing the Black Arts + Culture District in building a cultural center and having an extensive repository so that the Black community has a place to donate their papers. We want to have Black cultural tours and work with the city and the county to recognize areas around San Diego with historical markers to display the significance of our contributions from downtown San Diego to Logan Heights, Valencia Park, Emerald Hills, and other areas within our districts. Even though our numbers are small, we are here and we are staying.
