Eileen Vazquez

LBS 375
Kristal Cheek
10 May 2017
California’s Greatest Achievements

What greatest achievements have shaped California? There have been many achievements that

influenced the California of today but there is three that have changed the disposition. I will be

discussing the Gold Rush in Sacramento, the agricultural production, and the Watts Rebellion.

These three events changed California's population, economic status, and human rights

awareness, and to me this is what shaped the California we know today.

Today California is known as one of the most populated states and it all began with their first

greatest achievement, The Gold Rush. Even though there was no technology to make the rumor

of gold heard, the news traveled fast around the world. Newspapers used many hyperboles to

emphasize the gold being found in California, and many people believed it, so this began the on

going increase in population. Susan Johnson wrote that the gold rush ranked “among the most

multiracial, multiethnic, multinational event that had yet occurred within the boundaries of the

United States.” (12) As more and more people arrived, people began to create their own jobs as

merchants to sale to those who needed supplies to begin their lives in California. This began the

early stages of industrialization and urbanization in the North. Even after the Gold Rush ended,

many people who traveled to California settled here to begin a new life in the West. The Gold

Rush contributed immensely to beginnings of an urbanized state with a population of many

cultures.

California has been number one in agriculture production since the 1940’s. After the winter

garden was created, a year round land of growing crops, over half of the country’s crops came
from California. Everyone wanted California’s production, and this began an increase in

manufacturing jobs and companies. Railroads were expanding everywhere to allow fast trade,

and transportation led to new creations like refrigeration. As railroads expanded, more

transportation was available for everyone. With easy access, every stop made for the railroads

soon began to be a new city. Railroads impacted the development of California's urbanization

and created many jobs for the mass population the state now has. Agriculture generates

approximately $36.2 billion a year, more than any other state and with the creation of railroads,

California became the number one processor for crop distribution.

In 1946 a protest began for a reason not of poverty, but racial discrimination by real-estate

agents who would not sell African Americans homes in neighborhoods covered by restrictive

housing covenants. The situation was similar in Southern California. In Los Angeles during

1946, African Americans accounted for 7 percent of the city's population, yet filed 46 percent of

all the applications for the city's public housing. This activism caused The Rumford Fair Housing

Act, but even after these restriction protest, people were not given what they wanted. Twelve

years later the Watts Riots took place for miles following south central. People keep calling it a

riot, but it is known as a rebellion to those who were in need of this attention. The community

was damaged, but that revolt was needed to grab the attention of those people who were in the

community trying to exploit and oppress African Americans and others influenced. A man who

participated in this rebellion said, "some people want to know if I think it was really worth it. I

think any time people stand up for their rights, it's worth it." The Watts Rebellion shifted

California to the right direction and erased any restrictions that were made in the past.

California's population, economic status, and human rights awareness are the three things

that make California so different from other states. And I believe that the Gold Rush in
Sacramento, the agricultural production, and the Watts Rebellion are the reasons why California

is shaped this way. It is the state with the largest population till this day, it continues to be

number one in agricultural production, and there is no other state that accepts every ethnicity

better than California because of its diverse population and countless events for human rights.

The last claim is my opinion but I strongly believe it is true at least in the United States.