During the Great Depression, many Americans were out of work. Some people felt angry and frustrated. This led them to blame immigrants for the country’s poor economy. And California had plenty of immigrants.
In California, government officials and other groups deported Mexicans and Filipinos. Hundreds of thousands of them. Many of the people deported had been born in the United States.
But after World War II, California’s population grew even more diverse. Activists spoke out on behalf of groups that had been discriminated against. People began to recognize the many ways that people of different cultures had been treated unfairly.
