The largest Santa Barbara KKK parade was [124 cars, 2,000 Klansmen, and 400 initiates] held on State Street and led by Kleagle Hughes, local equivalent of a Grand Dragon Santa Barbara KKK was organized in 1923 by Kleagle E.L. Hughes, a retired businessman from Modesto, California.  

On the 1500 block of Garden Street a group of Santa Barbara Klansmen mobbed a Latino man and threatened to tar and feather him.  The would-be victim brandished a gun and the assualters fled.  They were never brought to justice and the Latino was charged with carrying a concealed weapon. 

Many Santa Barbara police officers and well-known citizens belonged to the local KKK. Clan meetings were held in a skating rink on Castillo Street.  As a group their immediate goal was to rid the town of Jews, Blacks, and Catholics. Several horseback parades along State Street were held with members carrying huge burning crosses.  The parades began on upper State Street and ended in Walker Canyon.  

The Gauchos Basketball team was invited to participate in the 5th Annual National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball Tournament but Santa Barbara’s leading scorer and team captain Lowell Steward was not allowed to play because he was African American,  the rest of the team continued on and attended the invitational. 

June 17, 1957

The first Sambo's Restaurant opens in Santa Barbara on 216 West Cabrillo Blvd started by Sam Battistone Sr and Newell Bohnett.  Although the name was taken from portions of the names of its founders, the founders were knowingly capitalizing on the association with Helen Bannerman's racist children's story book The Story of Little Sambo. Sambo was a racist term used for East Indians long before the book was written and as a racist term used for African Americans originating in the U.S. South. The Santa Barbara location is the only remaining Sambo's Restaurant in the United States.

 

The first reported IV Halloween event occurred in 1962, but it wasn’t until the late 1970s that students took it to a whole new level. According to a Daily Nexus article, as more than 35,000 people piled into the streets of IV in 1986 there were reportedly 1,096 arrests, the highest in the event’s history.

In addition to sexual privilege, many of the revelers also appear to be invested in defending racial and/or class privilege. This is made apparent through the practice of ethnic stereotyping and mimicry.  The presence of blackface [both literal and figurative] on Del Playa, throws up a red flag regarding race and class relations within Isla Vista.

A remarkable number of costumes witnessed on Del Playa are essentially walking ethnic jokes:  Caucasian men seem particularly predisposed to don, for example an exaggerated sombrero and poncho, Japanese "ninja" gear, a Hawaiian shirt with fake grass and plastic lei, a Hollywood-style "Indian" loincloth and headdress or, perhaps most disturbingly within the context of the current political climate, a Middle Eastern tunic and turban with faux Osama Bin Laden style beard. 

Even more prevalent are ethnic stereotypes of non-white stereotypes of non-white cultures from within the United States. In 2004, the streets of Isla Vista were awash with Caucasian boys dressed as jive-talking "Homeys", Chicano gangsters, and blaxploitation-style, Afro-sporting pimps. Another fairly ubiquitous costume piece, for both men and women, was a Bob Marley style hat, complete with attached dreadlocks.  Some simply wore the hat, while others actually went so far as to walk the length of Del Playa in blackface.  Shockingly, this was not the only instance in which white students painted themselves "black": in 2001, for example a Caucasian man used charcoal to blacken his face, arms, legs, and midriff and, sporting a white skirt and stuffed tank top, and jovially bandying a racket, declared himself African-American professional tennis star Venus Williams.  Another young man, witnessed that same evening, had painted his entire body dark brown before donning war paint, a loin cloth, and tying a bone into his hair. 

A young African American woman named Julie Ann Stephens won a housing discrimination case in Santa Barbara against real estate broker Don Quinn.  Judge Frank P. Kearney ruled in favor of Ms. Stephens; granting her the cost of the suit but not the $750 in damages.  

Two cases filed with the Stat Fair Employment Practices Commission by UCSB African American students who alleged discrimination in housing.  In another case, a local White woman filed a complaint against her landlord who evicted her and her family for allegedly having African American visitors in an all White apartment complex.  [News Press 12/16/67]

October 4, 1988 

A.S. Commission on Minority Affairs and former Delta Tau Delta fraternity members began a dialogue to discuss the fraternities lack of respect towards people of color and first steps towards ending ill feelings students of color have harbored toward the former fraternity. [Nexus 10/5/88]

UCSB Math teaching assistant Jacob Neal Sarvela physically assualted Tom Tieu after a disagreement in San Raphael Hall lounge about access to the lounge television.  Tieu suffered multiple contusions to the face, one requiring stitches and a broken nose.  UCSB's Asian Student Coalition urged Tom Tieu to go public with his assault.  Tieu and members of the Asian community felt that the incident was racially motivated. 

Asian Student Coalition [ASC] held a rally at Storke Plaza and press conference at San Raphael Hall to bring attention to the beating of UCSB student Tom Tieu.

The Santa Barbara's Elk lodge in Goleta twice denied Jeremiah Garrett to be the first black man to become a member of the group.  [SBNP 4/22/90]

Beta Theta Pi fraternity members [5 members] who were part of an intramural football team named the "Running Reggin's" ["reggin" spells "nigger backwards"] drew anger and concern from intramural officials and Black students.  BSU president James Staten filed a complaint with the Greek Affairs Office and with the UCSB dean of students. 

Coinciding with the beginning of an African-American high school outreach program at UCSB sponsored by 100 Black College Men and Akanke, UCSB student Belinda awoke to the words, 'BELINDA IS A FAT NIGGA" carved in to three restroom doors on the Multicultural Interest Hall of San Nicolas Hall. 

And escalating through the Spring quarter of 1999, UCSB student Daniel Magpali was the victim on "homophobia-free zone" signs continuously being ripped from his San Nicolas Hall and homophobic vandalism on his door stating, "Daniel SUCKS DICK", "QUEER FAG", and "DANIEL IS GAY". 

June 2, 1999

Student Commission on Racial Equality at UCSB organized a noon rally at the Arbor to protest the racist and homophobic hate crimes that occurred in San Nicolas Hall.  8pm the same evening S.C.O.R.E. hosted a teach-in at San Nicolas Hall to dicuss the reality that hate crimes are not isolated incidences only committed by neo-nazis but that hate crimes are part of the everyday experience of people of color, women, the LGBTQIA community and all other marginalized groups.

The phrase "Fuck Niggers" was written on the female bathroom on the Black Studies Hall in the Santa Rosa Residence Hall.  About 25 of the 44 residents were away at a regional African American conference at U.C. Davis and only 10 residents were around the time when the incident occured.  A police report was filed on Monday, May 1st but there were no leads as to who wrote the racial slur.

Campus Response:  Several community meetings took place in Santa Rosa to process feelings and to organize a response.  A letter drafted by the Chancellor, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, and Dean of Students was published in the Nexus for one week and distributed to students in all of the residence halls.  The "Educate to Stop Hate" campaign was organized by several members of the UCSB campus community who sought to discuss diversity and tolerance for all groups.  It consisted of a march through campus with students ending the event with an open mic program that addressed community issues and concerns with the incident. 

2006

UCSB student and Ghanian native Eric Frimpong was charged with the rape of a 19 year old female UCSB student.  There remains a lot of doubt amongst African-American students and Santa Barbara community members as to the truth behind those allegations.

Several men outside the Pi Kappa Alpha [PIKE] house verbally assaulted and violently beat UCSB student Thanh Hong and Paul Elekes, screaming 'gook', 'ching-chong-ching', and other racial slurs throughout the assault. 

2010

A “Gangster” themed party, advertised on Facebook with a monkey holding a gun. The event was met a silent protest, with protesters standing in front of the with mouths taped, wearing all black.