[5] According to Stanford University historian Albert Camarillo, the Peralta family struggled to keep their land after the incorporation of California into the United States after the Mexican–American War.

He writes in Chicanos in California, "They lost everything when squatters cut down their fruit trees, killed their cattle, destroyed their buildings, and even fenced off the roads leading to the rancho.

The various streetcar companies operating in Oakland were acquired by Francis "Borax" Smith and consolidated into what eventually became known as the Key System, the predecessor of today's publicly owned AC Transit.

[39] At the time of incorporation in 1852, Oakland had consisted of the territory that lay south of today's major intersection of San Pablo Avenue, Broadway, and Fourteenth Street.

Their young men encountered hostility and discrimination by Armed Forces personnel, and tensions broke out in "zoot suit riots" in downtown Oakland in 1943 in the wake of a major disturbance in Los Angeles that year.

Tensions between the black community and the largely white police force were high, as expectations during the civil rights era increased to gain social justice and equality before the law.

[69] Brown's plan and other redevelopment projects were controversial due to potential rent increases and gentrification, which would displace lower-income residents from downtown Oakland into outlying neighborhoods and cities.

In June 2019, the City Council passed the resolution in a unanimous vote ending the investigation and imposition of criminal penalties for use and possession of natural entheogens.

Between January 2020 and March 2022, Oakland suffered a disproportionate death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic and Delta cron hybrid variant within the San Francisco Bay Area.

[102] The majority of Hispanics self-identify as Some Other Race (69.3%) with the remainder choosing White (5.4%), Multiracial (19.2%), Black (1.6%), American Indian and Alaskan Native (3.8%), Asian (0.7%), and Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (0.1%).

[104] The greater Oakland area[specify] has the fifth largest cluster of "elite zip codes" ranked by the number of households with the highest combination of income and education.

[117][118][119] These trends and cultural shifts have led to a decline among some of Oakland's long standing black institutions, such as churches, businesses and nightclubs, which had developed during the growing years of the 1950s through 1970.

[120] In the 2010 census African Americans maintained their status as Oakland's single largest ethnic group, with 27% of the population, followed by non-Hispanic whites at 25.9%, and Hispanics of any race at 25.4%.

[122] An analysis by the Urban Institute of U.S. Census 2000 numbers showed Oakland had the third-highest concentration of gays and lesbians among the 50 largest U.S. cities, behind San Francisco and Seattle.

[126] Big tech companies have continued to transform the communities and culture of Oakland as modern apartments have appeared, housing prices have spiked, and many prior working-class residents have moved to suburbs further inland.

[127] According to 2015 data compiled by the Bay Area Equity Atlas, 91% of low-income households of color were either in neighborhoods that were gentrifying or were at risk of gentrification at the time.

Prior to 1960, there had been successful government-funded social programs whereby rebellious teens were enrolled in youth centers that would teach them proper values and improve their behavior.

[144] In 2012, Oakland implemented Operation Ceasefire, a gang violence reduction plan used in other cities, based in part on the research and strategies of author David M.

[171] The city is a renowned culinary hotbed, offering both a wide variety and innovative approaches to diverse cuisines in restaurants and markets, often featuring locally grown produce and international styles such as French, Italian, Portuguese/Spanish, Ethiopian, Asian, Latin American, as well as Caribbean, Southern United States/Louisiana Creole, etc., all of which reflects the culinary traditions of the city's ethnically diverse population.

Artists who come out of Oakland include Green Day, Tower of Power, Mistah F.A.B., E-40, Too Short, Tupac Shakur, Raphael Saadiq, MC Hammer, Keyshia Cole, Kehlani, G-Eazy, Del the Funky Homosapien, Edwin Hawkins, Tony!

The Warriors, whose primary owners reside in Southern California, announced in April 2014 that they would leave Oakland once their new arena was built across the Bay in San Francisco.

[190] On November 27, 2023, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Israel's war on Hamas,[191] after hearing more than 500 residents speak on the topic.

The result from these donations has given teachers from 20 additional Oakland- area schools the ability to participate in an eight-hour professional development workshop, and receive music education instruction from Little Kids Rock.

[212] According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2011 American Community Survey, Oakland came in seventh place out of the 100 largest cities in the nation by percentage of people that chose to commute by bike in 2011.

[213] In July 2019, the City of Oakland Department of Transportation announced that it had issued official permits for the deployment of shared e-scooters to four companies: Bird, Clevr, Lime, and Lyft.

[216] This was facilitated in part by the sudden decrease of vehicle traffic that resulted from the state-wide stay-at-home order and school closures in response to the spread of the COVID-19 in California.

[216] While the primary goal at the time was to encourage socially distanced outdoor physical activities like biking, walking, and jogging, the long term implementation of the Slow Streets Program contributed to the city's traffic calming measures and promoted alternatives to car use as well.

[220] The disproportionately low number of responses from residents of East Oakland—a largely Black and Latino and low-income area—revealed both the oversight of city officials as well as the shortcomings of urban planning systems' ability to equally benefit different social groups, which consequently perpetuates inequalities like the transport divide.

After the flaws of the feedback forms were brought to light, city planners made concentrated efforts to meet with representatives from different community groups who in turn stressed that simply closing streets to through traffic was not enough to protect pedestrians from dangerous driving.

[220] In response the city expressed its commitment to its local residents calling for road traffic safety by rolling out Slow Streets: Essential Places, a phase of the program which installed cones and signage at dangerous traffic areas in order to make grocery stores, COVID-19 test sites, and food distribution sites easily and safely accessible.