LACBC is proud to partner with Fat Tire to bring you a ride featuring stories in honor of Women's History Month. This 18 mile ride starts in Downtown Long Beach and takes you north all the way to California Heights then to the Long Beach Airport before heading back through Signal Hill. Not totally flat but not a quad blaster by any means, this ride will take you on a tour of Long Beach that honors and remembers the work women have done to make this world a more incredible place. Many of the neighborhoods you'll be riding through today are part of a legacy of women who put in the work to make Long Beach a place where Black people could live and thrive. In the mid 20th century, Long Beach, like many cities across the country, was experiencing a lot of racial tension. Part of the The Great Migration, many Black people from the south were moving to places like Los Angeles and needing homes to rent or buy. In 1964, Californians approved Proposition 14 with 65% support. Proposition 14 made it legal to discriminate against whoever you wanted when selling your property. The Long Beach Fair Housing Federation was established in 1964 in response to the passage of Prop 14. The organization was made up entirely of Black women who worked for free. They developed a housing listing service for sellers who wanted to participate in equal housing when selling their property. By 1965 they had 180 listings and 80 applicants from Naples to Signal Hill. Within 10 months, the women had helped 25 families of color move into Long Beach - bringing the number of POC families in integrated neighborhoods to 33. In 1967, Prop 14 was ruled unconstitutional, allowing the foundation to take sellers to court for discrimination. They won six cases. The foundation also launched an investigation and found that 114 out of 243 apartment buildings were found to be using racially discriminatory practices. In 1972, the foundation helped lead to a landmark case where a Black couple was awarded $10,000 for dealing with their racist landlord. It was one of the largest awards of its time, and brought local and national attention toward discriminatory housing policies.As we ride, let's celebrate these and other women for what they've done to create a better world.