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this is voting day. This, we might say, is a picture of people exercising their democratic freedom. Yet the subject on the ballot is a symptom of a denial of democracy and a contradiction of freedom. The date is April 2nd, 1963. The place. Berkeley, California The issue.

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An ordinance that would ban discrimination in housing for reasons of race, color, religion, national origin or ancestry. And if conciliation fails, it sets up fines and jail sentences for violators by race, color, religion or national origin. The ordinance means Negroes, Negroes, air discriminated against when they

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try to rent or buy a place to live. No one in Berkeley argues these points, and no problem is closer to the voters conscience. As proof a record 82% will go to the polls on this day, the city has split a dozen ways in a municipal

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agony fan by fear, hope, dedication, bewilderment, crusading zeal and outright prejudice. The campaign has been bitter and hard fought, for it is not simply a local issue. It will have echoes from Sacramento to Jackson, Mississippi, from Harlem to the White House. If the ordinance loses. Lawmakers

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in Sacramento have said it will be a signal to go slow on statewide civil rights legislation. And a slowdown in the nation's largest state would have its effect in Washington, where civil rights play a key role in the president's domestic program. Of the 2200 students sent

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to the University of California, Berkeley, campus from foreign lands more than a third or non white some have reported difficulty in finding housing. They will watch the vote carefully, too, and their opinions, which they will carry back to their homelands, may have international implications. Now the

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polls air closed. The vote count is underway. Berkeley and the West await the outcome. But whether or not the ordinance is a solution, it's very proposal brings into the open a problem which can no longer be ignored. BIG DIFFERENCE Assignment for AH Weekly report to the

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West Presented in the community interest by K. R O N T V. TONIGHT SEGREGATION WESTERN style Berkeley The state in the nation watches the vote is tallied on the ordinance that would make housing discrimination of crime. On the eighth floor of the American Trust Building is

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the campaign headquarters of those opposing the ordinance. Real estate groups, business interests, property owners, private citizens working under the banner Citizens League for Individual Freedom. Spokesman for the league is its executive director. Public relations man Robert Weideman. Ah, half mile away in an old storefront building,

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is the headquarters of those supporting the ordinance. Civil rights groups, churches, the League of Women voters, much of the academic community associated with the university, coordinated by an organization called Citizens for Fair Housing. Among its spokesman, Franquin Ah, Berkeley resident who had San Francisco's Council Pacific

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Unity. By 10 30 the trend is established. The balloting is close. A record number of voters have gone to the polls on the housing ordinances, losing by midnight. The outcome is known. The ordinance is defeated by a margin of less than 3%. All Burke Lin's, regardless

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of race, color, creed, religion or national ancestry can be proud of the outcome. Boat. Here in Berkeley today, the whole world has been waiting for the decision of the people of Berkeley to have cast their ballots, and the decision has been made a bad and a

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very vicious law has been defeated. It's a bad law because of the fact that it deprives every individual of their private property rights, which is guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States and eliminates all freedom of choice, which is also guaranteed under the Constitution of

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the United States, as far as individuals disposing of their private property, the ordinance of ours by 2400 boats. Actually, if we've been able to change 1200 minds, we could have had the majority. I think we could have gotten those votes if there had been more understanding

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of what this ordinance really would do, and particularly what it would not do. I think I'm out of dust was thrown into the air that got into the eyes of the voters. Berkeley dusts about constitutional issue, a misdemeanor provision, and I think the Berkeley voters tomorrow

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on in the days coming will sit down and we'll look to see what they really did. Vote against wasn't really so bad. This is the city which considered the housing ordinance and turned it down. A community in one way is cosmopolitan and sophisticated as any on

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Earth and in another way, as conservative and provincial ASU City, Iowa or Mountain Grove, Missouri. It is a city dominated by the largest university in the West independent on this campus, which each year pumps a $70 million payroll into Berkeley's economic arteries. The 3300 members of

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the university staff make this an intellectual center with MAWR Nobel Prize winners than any other American community. But it is also a town of conservative commercial interests, which until just two years ago dominated its civic life. And it's a working man's town, Ah, center of industry,

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in which some 300 factories and manufacturing concerns have a yearly payroll of $44 million. It's a suburban town, the home of thousands of workers who commute each day to jobs on the San Francisco side of the bay and to the embarrassment of Berkeley's Chamber of Commerce.

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It's a city of declining population while the rest of the Bay Area is booming. Berkeley, like San Francisco, has declined in population during the past decade, and although Berkeley's total population slipped by over 2000 between 1950 1960 the Negro population gained 64%. Most of the Negro

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population of Berkeley lives here in the southwest corner of the city, a tight little island of segregated housing and often well kept and tidy ghetto that has reached its saturation level and is gradually expanding north and east. This is the borderline Shattuck Avenue, with extremely rare

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exceptions. It is simply understood that Negroes do not move beyond this line here, where the homes begin to climb into the hills and well tended gardens looked down on the thickly settled flatlands, it is virtually impossible for a Negro to rent or buy a home. The

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average Negro population here is only 3/10 of 1%. Part of this segregation is, to be sure, economic. Most Negroes simply cannot afford to live here. But even those who can find themselves effectively shut out in a home overlooking the bay at 11 59 King Court in

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El Cerrito lives an attorney who moved to the Bay Area 15 years ago. A graduate of Columbia Law School, he is the father of five Children. His wife, also a college graduate, is a former librarian at the University of California. It might seem that this family

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would be a welcome addition toe any neighborhood, but such is not the case, for Charles Wilson is a Negro. Yes, we moved to Berkeley in 1954 from San Francisco, mainly because I was practicing law in the city of Berkley. Um, we had difficulty getting a house

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then that we were moved to 14 33. Hurst's, uh, it just happened that we knew the owner of the property who was a lawyer and was friendly taught me. Therefore, he agreed to sell MBIA's home. There were some objections from the neighbors, but it blew over.

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My family increased in the last two years. There was need to get a larger place we looked for for over a year in Berkeley because we were interested in moving in, living in Berkeley. We look for over a year and could not find a place to

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live. We got the same old excuses that would be unfair to our neighbors. We just sold the house. You wouldn't be happy here. The owners overseas and won't be back until next year. All of the all of these excuses were given. Finally, reluctantly, we had to

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move out of work to a place in l. Serena. I hear again the only reason we got the place in Elsa reader thing because the owner was a friend of the family of our family knew me and agreed to sell to me. How Charles Wilson's story

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illustrates not just a Berkeley problem, but segregation throughout the West is a matter we should look into next. How widely is segregation practiced in the West? Some indication, Maybe gain by visiting the classified advertising department of the Metropolitan newspaper. This is the classified department of the

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San Francisco Chronicle. The story you'll find here could be repeated in almost any Western daily. This girl is an ad taker. Eight hours a day. She takes calls from people wishing to rent or sell homes or apartments by listing them in the classified ad pages. Oh,

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Mrs Brown, I Sorry, I can't put that in no color. Your note, Oriental. You see, that's discriminating on. Now. That's against the policy of the Chronicle. Hi. My plan. All right? Oh, yes. But see, this I'm on The Chronicle is only trying to help you. If

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you see, you would be violating a civil and a state and a civil law are Democrats. Now we act what's important? My and Miami, you know I'm sorry. Thank you. Bye. What? You've just heard is not an isolated case. It happens many times every day. How

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often do people try to place racially discriminatory ads and who tries to place them? Those air questions Assignment for ask of Mrs Alice Albert, manager of the classified advertising Telephone Sales. We get approximately 200 requests for advertising with Discriminatory Statement weekly. Most of the advertisers would

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like to put in such terms as no color, no Oriental, UH, exclusive white neighborhood exclusive location, neighborhood. They're generally quite Casey. However, they find many ways to try to beat it. When we tell them we do not accept these expressions or any of these statements. Many

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times I think this is to true. It hurts to say it. I think the trouble is the neighbors, people surrounding the house on the market the minute they see a nice family, whether it be colored Oriental approaching the property or if they see these people are

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interested in purchasing the property. I think the neighbors themselves put the pressure on the seller, and I do know that there are certain circumstances right here in my own office to circumstance to prove this statement we've had. This happened to a girl here in our office,

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where the neighbors themselves have put the pressure on the seller so that the seller has refused to sell the house to the girl. Mrs. Joseph Goudeau takes hundreds of classified ads for The Chronicle each week, but has been unable to buy a suitable home from among

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these ads. Her husband is white, she is a Negro. Well, I've had two very unfortunate experiences. Absolutely one. We've been looking for a home for some time. I'd say about three months on my husband and I chose the home out in the Sunset District about a

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month and a half ago. Here we made this way, signed up for the home and made the offer, which was accepted. Only two find that we couldn't get it because of my nationality. There is one place Negroes have no trouble finding. A place to live. The

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black ghetto. Ah, painful symptom of segregation. Western style. It could be in any Western city. It happens to be in San Francisco. Get a life, and it's frustrating. Zehr all too familiar to the executive director of youth for service, or if ilustres work with young people

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takes him through familiar streets, but it reinforces all the frustrations that you may have by living how close to people identifying with people who have several problems. You have lost hope and trying to motivate themselves and trying to come up out of something like this. You're

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a damn damn! You could go in into the ghetto by the thousands, but you can only escape by the score, so I think that this is very difficult. When it comes down to the motivation. Thing is quite, it's almost impossible. How does one help motivate another

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individual? How does one have self motivation when you see no hope? No. It's a very, very depressing deliver together. What do you do when you find yourself trapped in this type of living? The fact off school segregation has, I think, really bearing on on motivation and

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that here again you have just reinforced with people who I have the same level of intelligence as yourself a lot of times, because you are throw it into a situation because of housing. One of our problems values one of low motivation of our adults. Are kids

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trying to, you know, do different banks, and it's gonna happen to have a sort of a social revolution to a certain extent and trying to declare war on disease, probably it so forth and open up the channels of communication. So what we're gonna have to do

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in our society, we have a tremendous stands for head. Any time that you living in the ghetto and you've been denied many, many things, you feel that this is a way of life to a certain extent, not everyone but those who have felt so much hostility

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and despair. They feel that here I am, living the midst of a plenty. So why shouldn't I have some of the good things? I thought coming to California was going to be a better place. It has been. But I think that once you wake up one

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morning, you look out and you see the Pacific Ocean and you see well, there's no place else to go. I must take a stand now. And so this is what has happened to a lot of Negroes who come to the West Coast. There's any place else

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to go. There are ways to escape the Negro ghetto, but it takes a rare combination of financial means nerve, tenacity and willingness to circumvent the suspicion and hypocrisy which sustained segregation Western style. James Stratton, the vice president of the San Francisco Board of Education, has done

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just that. This former teacher, athletic coach, member of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and graduate of Columbia University sometimes found it necessary to masquerade as a chauffeured a house, hunting white couples in order to even look at homes outside of ghetto area for the place that

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when I was looking for a place before I got the place I'm living in now six 615th Avenue I went all over the Richmond district. Sometimes I went as a chauffeur to a white couple, and sometimes I went with my with my family, and when I

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went with my family on many occasions I could not see the house. I attempted to buy a little home on 15th Avenue. Now you know that's not pretentious at all, and I never was able to see it. I never was able Thio talk to the owner

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about it. The real estate people didn't want to show it to me, except that I got another friend of mine, a couple, and they bought the home for me. I gave him about $6000 and told to go by. They went body five. Well, I thought this

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was okay. Pretty sad commentary. Because as I looked down the street of my neighbors, there were it could have been, um, or integrated community. Aside from Negros to see, there were Chinese, some Japanese, Filipinos and etcetera. When I found this to be true, Then I start

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trying to wonder if what was making it possible for them to, uh turned me away. And I've begun to hear that the real estate people are interested in establishing certain parts of the Richmond district for Orientals, Japanese, Chinese and Filipinos that they were restricting the area

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in which I was in on keeping It grows out. So if I had wanted to buy a house around Third Avenue, Fourth Avenue, so they would have gladly sold it to me. And then after you get way out in the avenues, they had hoped that the

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far reaches of the Richmond district toward Ocean would be occupied by white people. Well, I think it's ridiculous. I have heard of nothing along this line myself, and I don't know of anyone who would actually propose such a thing. I think it's ridiculous. This denial comes

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from the executive vice president of the San Francisco Real Estate Board, representing 97% of the real estate brokers in the city. Daniel Klein feels that responsibility for discrimination lies with the seller, not the Realtor. I don't really know whether the real estate profession, the rial tours

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and they're salesmen have played a part in this or not. I'm inclined to think that they have not because after all the real estate broker works on commissions and he is anxious to sell property, he doesn't really care who he sells it to. This is what

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leads me to believe that the real estate broker is not a responsible factor in perpetuating segregation. The your broker is as acting under instructions from the owner. If the owner some reason claims that he will not sell the minority groups, this place is the broker in

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quite a bind. He he's not discriminating in the administering of his services. He's happy to show these people anything that's available to them. But if a piece of property is simply not available to them, there's no point in trying to show it to segregation. Western style

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is not simply a city problem. This is suburban Marin City, a community just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. The county is 97% white, but Marin City is an integrated community. Built during the war Years is a temporary housing project. The original buildings have

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long ago disintegrated into a suburban slum, but new apartments and houses are rising to take their places. But despite the fact that there is little friction between white and Negro neighbors in Marin City, it seems to be moving closer and closer to becoming a segregated community.

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The reason. As the old buildings air condemned, white families were able to find other housing in Marin County and Negro families or not. Thus, even as the bulldozer scraped from the earth the side of new housing in Marin City, the Western style segregation which surrounds it,

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threatens to turn a community that has been successfully integrated for 20 years into a suburban ghetto. Dressed in modern architecture's. The span of a continent separates California from Mississippi in Georgia, and often the white Californian indulges himself in the comfortable fiction that racial segregation is exclusively

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a phenomenon of the South. Yet the black ghetto, the product of segregation, Western style. It's an ever growing thorn in the conscience of the West. We have not presumed to suggest a panacea for no solution will be easy, but it would seem self evident that an

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answer must be found. For this is a voice growing stronger, one which will not go unheeded. I thought coming to California was going to be a better place. It has been. But I think that once you wake up one morning, you look out and you see

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the Pacific Ocean and you say, Well, there's no place else to go. I must take a stand now. So this is what has happened to a lot of Negroes who come to the West Coast. There's any place else to go Assignment for is presented each week

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in the community. Interest by Koron TV be with us again next Monday at 6 30 for another report to the West on Assignment four. Yeah,