Blacks’ Push for Visibility : County’s African-Americans Are Making New Efforts to Get Together

James Porter of Costa Mesa keenly wanted to find other black residents in Orange County.

An outgoing family man born and raised in Los Angeles, the 34-year-old social services worker missed the camaraderie of being with people who shared his cultural heritage.

He decided to reach out by using his favorite social activity--bowling.

“I got tired of looking for and wanting black people to come out,” he said. “I’m an avid bowler, and I wanted to see if there are any black bowlers in Orange County. I’ve never seen them.”

He put the word out about his new Black Bowlers League and got about 15 calls.

While Porter has yet to arrange his first tournament, his effort is part of a growing push among the county’s blacks to become a more visible group in a predominantly white county. They are making new efforts to get together, to find new ways to communicate with each other and to create more social and cultural opportunities.

Making up less than 2% of the county’s population, blacks are few in number and dispersed throughout the area. Consequently, many black residents say they feel alienated and isolated from each other and their cultural roots. While integration is a worthy goal, they say, it’s nice to see themselves as an identifiable community within the general population. It is especially important for their children, they add, who need positive black role models.

But small numbers, long drives and busy lives often keep the county’s black residents apart.

“It’s always tougher for us to create a cultural climate and live here and coexist here and feel comfortable,” said Thomas Parham, director of UC Irvine’s Counseling Center. “If I want my child to grow up with other African-American children, I have to plan activities with other folk. It’s not like half your block is black.”

Census figures show that the county’s black population increased nearly 69% between 1980 and 1990, from about 25,000 residents to about 42,000. However, blacks still make up only about 1.8% of the county’s population, up half a percentage point from 1.3% in 1980. They are thinly spread throughout the county’s 31 cities, with Tustin, La Palma and Los Alamitos showing the highest concentrations of black residents. Even in those cities, however, blacks make up less than 6% of the population.

Santa Ana, with the county’s sixth highest black population at 2.2%, is home to the 70-year-old Second Baptist Church, the oldest primarily black church in the county and one of the first gathering points for black residents.

The Rev. John McReynolds, the church’s senior pastor, said churches have traditionally been a gathering place in black culture, but in Orange County, people may have difficulty finding out where the black churches are and may not have time to be as involved as they want.

“Where are these people and how do we get them engaged when they’re not working in the county?” he asked. “It’s an hour drive here, an hour there, or two hours here and two hours there. Often people are too tired, especially if they’re trying to raise kids.”

To add diversity, people like Porter have been trying to build groups around interests other than the church. Now, in addition to a black bowler’s league, the county has a black singles group, a black Chamber of Commerce, a new chapter of 100 Black Men (a national group dedicated to helping black youth), and an African-American arts commission, among others.

Groups like 100 Black Men have a specific social mission while others, such as the Neighbors, are meant purely for socializing.

“We get together, eat some soul food and play some cards,” said Garilynn Dickson, president of the Neighbors, a group of black South County residents who plan monthly social events. “We try to do family things and adult things. About half (of the activities) include the kids. It’s a great way to let our hair down.”

Dickson, who moved to Mission Viejo from Texas with her husband in 1975, said the group was started in the late 1970s so couples could get together and their children could play with other black children.

“It’s just so spread out,” she said. “You’re really ecstatic if you run into another black family.” Dickson said she met her first black family purely by chance, in a Laguna Hills shopping mall. They are still friends today.

While groups provide the means of socializing, finding out about them is not always easy. That’s why Randall and Joyce Jordan of Mission Viejo launched their magazine, the Black Orange, with their own money last year. About to celebrate its first anniversary, the monthly publication has grown from 500 single-page copies to 2,500 bound copies complete with advertising.

“Judging by the comments of people when they call us for information, we haven’t even begun to tap the market,” said Randall Jordan, a computer network specialist. “People have become accustomed to what we do now, and we think that’s good, because we wanted to be a vehicle for people to be in touch with what’s going on.”

Ouita Harris, activities coordinator for Black Singles of Orange County, said her group’s numbers have grown since they started advertising in the Black Orange. She wishes the publication existed when she moved to the county 29 years ago.

“It would have been nice to have something like the Black Orange around at that time,” she said. “I could have looked through it and found a lot of people. As a club, (the magazine) really helped us to bridge out and learn about Orange County.”

Harris, who lives in Tustin, said her singles group was formed in 1984 by two women who felt it was difficult for black singles to meet and that there were few places for them to socialize within the county. Since then, the group has grown to 100 paid members, and it keeps an additional 350 people on an invitation list for bigger events. The group doesn’t accept anyone under 25, and many of its members are single parents.

Have there been marriages?

“Sure! Yes, there sure have,” Harris said, adding that a good friend was one of several people from the group to marry within the past few years.

Not all groups get together so easily, however. Porter, who scheduled his first bowling league meeting on Jan. 18, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, didn’t get a single person to come. Maybe the heavy rain that fell that day kept people away, or they had other plans for the holiday, but the lack of turnout bothered him.

“I’ve been recruiting since November,” he said. “It was kind of frustrating because people sounded like they were so enthusiastic about it.”

He has since joined a second bowling league, one he says has a mix of races, but has not totally ruled out the possibility of a black bowling league in Orange County.

“Even if this was L.A. County, I would still have a tough time,” he said. “But I would have the numbers, I could get co-workers or other bowlers. It’s kind of like a blind stab in the dark. . . . It’s just a social outlet, that’s all it is. If they enjoy bowling, I want to give them an opportunity to know where to go.”

Scattered Community Blacks make up about 2% of Orange County’s population. And no city has a higher concentration than 5.4%. Here’s a demographic profile of the local black community. Age groups 17 and younger: 29% 18-24: 14% 25-44: 42% 45-64: 12% 65 and older: 3% *

Household status Married couple: 48% Male headed--no wife: 7% Female headed-- no husband: 16% Non-family: 29% *

Household income Less than $25,000: 27% $25,000-- $49,999: 38% $50,000-- $74,999: 22% $75,000-- $99,999: 9% More than $100,000: 4% *

Sex Men: 53% Women: 47% *

Education Less than high school: 12% High school graduate: 22% Some college/no degree: 44% Bachelor’s degree: 15% Graduate/professional degree: 7% *

Occupation Management/professional: 25% Technical/sales: 42% Service: 10% Agriculture: 1% Precision production: 10% Operators/laborers: 11% Military: 1% *

GEOGRAPHIC DISPERSION Santa Ana and Anaheim have the largest black populations in the county. Aside from El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, the cities of Tustin and La Palma have the highest concentration of blacks.

Black % of total City/area population population Santa Ana 6,454 2.2 Anaheim 6,302 2.3 Tustin 2,759 5.4 Fullerton 2,348 2.0 Garden Grove 1,938 1.3 Irvine 1,912 1.7 Buena Park 1,640 2.3 Huntington Beach 1,622 0.8 Orange 1,367 1.2 Costa Mesa 1,140 1.1 El Toro base 1,065 15.5 Lake Forest 1,051 1.6 Cypress 806 1.8 Westminster 795 1.0 Placentia 696 1.6 Mission Viejo 658 0.9 Stanton 650 2.1 La Palma 633 4.1 Laguna Niguel 565 1.2 Yorba Linda 551 1.0 Fountain Valley 485 0.9 La Habra 428 0.8 Laguna Hills 419 0.9 Los Alamitos 337 2.8 Brea 332 1.0 San Clemente 251 0.6 Seal Beach 244 0.9 Newport Beach 215 0.3 Dana Point 170 0.5 Laguna Beach 156 0.6 Rancho Santa 155 1.3 Margarita Tustin foothills 122 0.5 Aliso Viejo 117 1.5 San Juan Capistrano 88 0.3 Rossmoor 43 0.4 Trabuco Highlands 36 1.1 Villa Park 27 0.4 Coto de Caza 17 0.6 Portola Hills 16 0.6

Source: U.S. Census Bureau