Although some African Americans were present in the Fillmore District after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake , it would not be until WWII when the Fillmore District and San Francisco as a whole began to have a large African-American population . Between the years of 1940 and 1950 the African American population of San Francisco grew from 4,836 to 43,460 . The African American population went from 0.5 % of the city 's total population to 4.5 % of the city 's total population . A vast majority of these African Americans went on to occupy the Fillmore District . This large migration of African Americans was largely due to three major factors . The first of these factor is that the Japanese internment in 1942 left a large number of unoccupied homes and businesses within the Fillmore . The second factor was that the shipbuilding industry and wartime economy created by WWII brought a large number of wartime jobs into the city . The third factor was that Many African Americans left the south in the Great Migration in order to escape the Jim Crow laws which existed there
1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
Fillmore District, San Francisco