The California experience of East Bay African Americans and Los Angeles Native American Indians was similar in opportunity, but culturally unique. This article will compare the experiences of African Americans in the East Bay during World War II, based on readings of "Abiding Courage: African American Migrant Women and the East Bay Community" by Gretchen Lemke Santangelo, and American Indians in Los Angeles, as described in Nicholas G. Rosenthal's work, "Reimaging Indian Country, Native American Migration and Identity in the Twentieth-Century Los Angeles." It will be argued that both African Americans and Native Americans were able to successfully develop functionally similar, yet culturally and ethnically distinct, highly urbanized communities. The various similarities and differences between the two East Bay groups and the Los Angeles experience will be addressed, including those groups' motivations for moving to California; how both groups were able to discover collectivism and community; how there was the transition from the first generations to the second; and the overall cultural impact such groups have left on California. The motivations of both East Bay African Americans and Los Angeles Native Americans in moving to California were much the same. For Native Americans, the motivation was economic opportunity, where significant prejudice, discrimination, and racism existed during World War II, and where life on reservations offered little to no upward social or economic mobility. The reservation offered very little hope of achieving economic or social freedom and was plagued by alcoholism, poverty, and limitations, all problems well known to those Na...... middle of paper ......ican Americans in the East Bay were politically active in trying to create equal opportunities in the workplace, housing, welfare and other social issues. Native Americans eventually were also active in civil rights issues by participating in "efforts to operate within and transcend or overturn racialized hierarchies." Both African Americans and Native Americans were successfully able to develop highly urbanized communities that were functionally similar, yet culturally and ethnically distinct. There were various similarities and differences between the two East Bay and LA groups, such as those groups' motivations for moving to California; how both groups were able to discover collectivism and community; how there was the transition from the first generations to the second; and the overall cultural and other impact such groups have left on California.