Tarea Hall Pittman (1903–July 31, 1991) was an American civil rights leader who served as President of the California State Association of Colored Women’s Clubs from 1936 to 1938 and of the California Council of Negro Women from 1948 to 1951, and as Director of the West Coast Region of the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

from 1961 to 1965.

Biography

She was born in

Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...

, California in 1903, the second of five children born to William Hall and Susie Pinkney. Her father had moved from Alabama to Bakersfield in 1895 and made his living as a farm laborer. He helped his brothers found the Bakersfield Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Tarea Hall attended integrated public schools in Bakersfield and enrolled at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1923. Because Black students were not allowed to reside in campus housing at that time, she used her personal connections to find accommodations. In 1927, she married William Pittman, a dental student and dropped out of college to support him. Eventually, she enrolled in

San Francisco State College San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

and received her A.B. in social service in 1939. Tarea Pittman organized protests to force

Kaiser Shipyards The Kaiser Shipyards were seven major shipbuilding yards located on the West Coast of the United States, United States west coast during World War II. Kaiser ranked 20th among U.S. corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. The s ...

to hire African Americans in 1941 and 1942, helped desegregate the

Oakland Fire Department The Oakland Fire Department (OFD) provides fire protection and emergency medical services to the city of Oakland, California. The department is responsible for with a population of 406,253. History The Oakland Fire Department was initially sta ...

in 1952, and lobbied successfully for the

California Fair Employment Practices Act The California Fair Employment Practices Act (FEPA) was a statute passed and enacted in 1959 that barred businesses and labor unions from discriminating against employees or job applicants based on their color, national origin, ancestry, religion, o ...

in 1959. She also helped with the passage of similar laws in Arizona, Alaska, and Nevada. Throughout her career, Pittman continued to broadcast the ''Negroes in the News'' radio program into the late 1970s. Pittman was the Director of the West Coast Region of the NAACP from 1961 to 1965 and retired from the NAACP in 1970 and she died on July 31, 1991. She was said to have been an "integral part of the civil rights and social welfare movements in the Bay Area and the West Coast for much of the 20th Century." In 2015 the

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

city council voted to rename the city's South Branch Library in Pittman's honor after a community petition.

References

External links

Earl Warren Oral History Project: Tarea Hall Pittman, NAACP Official and Civil Rights Worker

Guide to the Tarea Hall Pittman papers, ca. 1951-1970

''All-American Newsreel'' episode showing Tarea Hall Pittman broadcasting on KLS, Oakland, California, from Library of Congress
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pittman, Tarea Hall 1903 births 1991 deaths People from Bakersfield, California People from Berkeley, California San Francisco State University alumni African-American activists Activists for African-American civil rights Activists from California 20th-century African-American women American women civil rights activists