California Voice, warned that when the shipyards pulled out, the "good
jobs" would be filled with "women and Chinese boys." ³²

The postwar employment reality for African-American men and
women, however, was different. The majority of black workers were
compelled to settle into a cycle of low-paying domestic work or seasonal
factory and cannery employment. Yet, a few African-American women
waged their own personal battles against racial, gender, and class
limitations by employing the experience and money that they had gained
as club operators. They were able to upgrade their work and educational
skills in this way. For example, on the strength of experience as an after-
hours club manager, one black Richmond woman was hired as a
"bookkeeper" for a chain of brothels that operated throughout California
and the Pacific Northwest. She later opened her own "legitimate book-
keeping service and made a good living." Similarly, a Richmond mother
and daughter team challenged the constraints of race, class, and gender
when they put themselves through nursing school with the money they
earned operating an after-hours club. They were among the first black
nurses in Richmond. Residents recalled that "they're good nurses, some
of the best Contra Costa [County] ever had too, and their husbands didn't
have a word to say about it." ³³

Thus, the blues clubs of North Richmond that flourished during World
War II afforded a number of African-American women the opportunity
to achieve a measure of economic and personal autonomy. These female-
owned and -operated enterprises were sustained by the influx of black
southern migrants who came to California in the Second Great Migration
looking for an economic shift upward and cultural continuity. Although
the clubs were anchored firmly in black working-class culture, they
helped erode the racial, gender, and sexual proscriptions that kept most
African-American women at the bottom of the socioeconomic hierarchy.
Not only did the clubs provide a cultural and economic bridge that
facilitated African-Americans' transition from rural agrarian laborers to
the urban industrial arena, but they also helped some black women gain a
measure of power and influence at a time when most black working-class
women had little access to either.

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