A People’s History of the Inland Empire Digital Archive

Items

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  David Blackburn Oral History

  David Blackburn discusses his upbringing in the small Valley Truck Farms community in San Bernardino. He describes the collaborative spirit of the community and how it fostered creative, ambitious, and caring individuals. He recalls stories of growing up and the ways he and his friends would play after school, with the rural Valley landscape as their playground, where they would make tunnels and underground clubhouses. He shares his experiences with segregation and stereotyping in school and later in working for the Sheriff’s Department. He also explores how the Valley Truck Farms changed in the 1980s as it was zoned for industry, expressing that he might not recognize the area at all today if he went back. While recalling stories of the good old days with his family, David Blackburn stresses the importance of keeping stories and memories alive.
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  Saville Sisters & Bland Oral History

  The Saville sisters and Robert Bland describe growing up in the Valley Truck Farms community in the 1930s and 40s. The Saville sisters describe their parents' 5 acre property filled with fruit trees and gardens, and the rural landscape of the Valley where they could collect watercress from the creeks and where Robert Bland remembers swimming in the irrigation canals. They tell stories of going to Mill School before Dorothy Inghram taught there, and share memories of neighborhood businesses. Robert Bland describes his time growing up between Kansas and San Bernardino, and how Barbara Saville met and married Robert Bland after WWII. They describe how Norton Air Base changed the community, Barbara Bland’s work at the base, and how the area changed over time.
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  Robert Wilcots Oral History

  Robert Wilcots describes moving with his wife and two sons to the Valley on Norman Road. He explains living on his grandparent’s property where they would garden frequently and attend Saint Mark’s Church routinely. Additionally, he adds stories about his grandparents who gave him life lessons about power and profit. Robert also outlines working for Alfred M. Lewis which was bought by Price Club and later turned into Stater Brothers. He mentions his sons’ educations and professions in Los Angeles. He explains that he lived in the Valley for one year before moving to Rialto, where he currently resides. He describes how the Valley changed as Mill School closed and job opportunities disappeared. Lastly, Robert illustrates what his big family reunions were like in his grandparent’s home, filled with love and closeness.
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  Irma Forward Oral History

  Irma Jackson Forward describes her grandfather’s migration from Alabama to Valley Truck Farms where he operated Bradley’s store in the 1930s and 1940s. She describes how her mother met her father when he was in the Civilian Conservation Corps, and what it was like to grow up in the Valley where her grandfather grew a big garden, raised animals, and had a small orchard of fruit trees in the backyard. She describes fond memories of growing up in the Valley, her path to a career in psychology and becoming a New Thought Minister. She describes how, growing up, the community group called the Excel-All Women's Club and women’s efforts to get people to vote in the neighborhood. Irma Forward discusses going to Miss Luper’s school and Mill School where Dorothy Ingram insisted on excellence. Irma Forward graduated from Pacific High School where she faced a lot of racism and limited job opportunities for Black women.
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  Dennis Green Oral History Nov 2023

  Dennis Green recounts his life in Valley Truck Farms from the 1950s to the early 1980s. Green delves into his experiences, notably his 14-year employment at Kaiser Steel Mill. Despite obtaining a creditable position at just 17 years old, he had to persistently challenge systematic barriers faced by Black men in the hiring process. He talks about his foresight in recognizing that Kaiser would soon close, and his transition to work at Caltrans. He avoided layoffs that affected many people he knew. He also describes his experiences of discriminatory treatment he encountered at Pacific High School in the 1960s. Green explains that when the 215 freeway was built through San Bernardino, the exits diverted people away from West San Bernardino, where people of color lived; he said this was due to ideas about racial containment in the case of uprisings. Throughout his interview, Dennis Green provides a firsthand account of navigating societal barriers and systemic challenges during a pivotal period in Southern California.
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  Dennis Green Oral History Dec 2023

  Dennis Green describes his experiences growing up in the Valley Truck Farms, where his father and grandfather owned property and lived. He talks about changes to the community that came from rezoning properties as commercial industrial. Planning officials began this transformation by granting approvals for a truck waste transfer business with very little community input. It started to change the nature of properties around it, which were considered “blighted” and ineligible for new building permits. He describes the construction of big box warehouses in his community, which destroyed schools, homes, and small businesses. He explains how Dorothy Inghram warned his mother about a girl that Dennis had been hanging around with at age 11, who he later married; she passed away in 2020. He also describes the Duffy Street incident, when a train derailed, and plowed into 7 houses. Two weeks later, a gas pipeline broke and caused a huge explosion and more death and damage. Dennis Green worked at Kaiser Steel Mill until 1982, when he began at the California Department of Transportation. He moved through many jobs within CalTrans, from working as a flagman to cleaning rest stops. He was eventually put into a position as a public affairs officer, which he has continued to do as a consultant.
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  Edmund & Greta Greene Oral History

  Siblings Edmund Dale Greene and Greta Greene Mixon describe growing up in the Valley Truck Farms. Their family moved following their grandfather who retired from Bethlehem Steel, and many of their extended family settled on Norman Road. They share stories of a tightly knit community, where kids had freedom to roam the neighborhood, and play and hunt in the Santa Ana wash. Roads weren’t paved and there weren’t a lot of recreation facilities, but they describe how kids played at Mill School and after it closed, how parents organized to get Mill School turned into a recreation center. They reflect fondly the community where everyone knew each other and shared the work and produce from their small farms, where people ran small businesses out of their homes, and older neighbors became close friends and mentors to neighborhood children. They share stories of growing up in St. Mark’s Missionary Baptist Church, and describe how development of the warehouses has made the neighborhood unrecognizable. They end by saying the Valley should be remembered as a great place to be raised.
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  Darlo Murray Oral History

  Darlo Murray’s great grandmother, Ola McDowell, moved to the Valley and settled in a home on Norman Road. Murray says that she raised her 13 children in the area and opened a restaurant with his grandfather called McDowell’s cafe. He fondly remembers his great grandmother’s family reunions, her amazing spaghetti, and her large garden of cabbage, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, and more, which Murray’s family used for groceries. Murray says he was the last person to live in his great grandmother’s property around the year 2000 before it was sold, and he remarks on the changes he saw in the community over time. Murray moved around a lot as a kid, but remembers coming back to the community to see no kids playing in the streets and less local businesses, like there once were. He ends by saying that the Valley was the hub of the Black community in San Bernardino, and reminisces on church barbecues and events growing up where his cool pastor would show off basketball skills.
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  Pauline Aciero Oral History

  Pauline Aciero discusses growing up in the Valley and attending Saint Mark’s church for 40 years. Her dad had moved to California from Mississippi in 1940 when he was 14 years old, following his brother. Her family later moved from Barstow into a house in the Valley on Waterman Avenue when she was just 2 years old. She says that her dad tore down a gas station to build their, which was still standing at the time she was interviewed. She reminisces about the produce and animals that people would grow and raise in the Valley, and how nice the people in the community were. Aciero discusses being drawn to Saint Mark’s by its friendly people, including pastor Freeman Williams, who she says was great. Her son attended Mill School, although she did not. Now living three and a half miles from the church and still attending it, Aciero says she has seen a great deal of change and many properties being sold in San Bernardino. She thinks the Valley should be remembered for the way community members shared with and trusted in one another.
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  George Overstreet Oral History

  George Overstreet describes being born in Los Angeles, but moving to the Valley Truck Farms in the 1940s. Overstreet says that the Valley was better for his family than L.A., since his dad could buy property. His family opened a small cafe in the business development they built on the corner of Central and Waterman which he says became a space for the community to hang out. His grandmother ran the cafe, and he estimates that the business lasted for about a decade. At the time of the interview, Overstreet still lived in the Valley Truck Farms, and describes his experience of living through the community’s changes. He mentions witnessing more and more cement buildings being constructed, and houses being sold, and less and less people coming to visit him. He describes his porch as a once lively gathering place, but many of his friends had passed away in recent years. He ends by saying that the Valley Truck Farms was a good place to grow up, where neighbors were united in community.
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  Rennie Green Oral History

  Rennie Green describes his childhood in the San Bernardino Valley during the 60’s and 70’s, and the schools he attended as he was growing up. His family had a small farm, which everyone tended to. After graduating from San Gorgonio High School, he began to work at Jet Propulsion Lab, where he helped build the jets used in satellites and rovers. He describes the community he was surrounded by in the Valley Truck Farm area of San Bernardino, such as the churches his family attended and the tight-knit neighborhood.