Focusing on automobile insurance in California, the topic of my current book project, reveals a cultural history of race, redlining, and how those viewed most unfavorably by risk assessment models, from urbanites to farmworkers, worked against great odds to change the game. Of how they sought to shape an invisible infrastructure of the road. As a group whose mobility has been criminalized for much of the state’s history, as demonstrated acutely in recent months, Latinos have often been at the center of these debates. One such example is the California Supreme Court case Escobedo v. the Department of Motor Vehicles (1950) and the laws that brought us there.
First passed in 1929, the state’s “financial responsibility law” essentially required Californians to buy automobile insurance if they wanted to operate a vehicle. Similar laws were being passed throughout the country in the same period. African American critics were the earliest to publicly argue that not all drivers could comply with this so-called “responsibility” law for both prejudicial and financial reasons. That is, they charged, insurers either refused to sell people of color policies or they did so at prohibitively high rates. In 1942, Spanish-language journalist Jose Garduño brought the issue of insurance discrimination to Spanish-language readers. He described a man, Mr. Corona, who purchased automobile accident insurance but had his policy cancelled soon afterwards. Why? Because he was Mexican. The company asserted that in cases where an accident involving a Mexican national was sent to trial, “the judges will likely feel prejudiced towards the nationality of the sued.” In light of the anticipated losses, whether the driver was at fault or not, Mexican motorists were placed on a “prohibited list” of policyholders.[4] That is, they were deemed too risky by insurers.
As concerns with traffic safety increased in the post-World War II era, the California Assembly looked for legislative solutions that, while well intentioned, furthered the strain on drivers who were denied insurance. Specifically, they passed a new bill (AB 1819) that expanded the state’s insurance requirements. Augustus Hawkins, the only Black member of the Assembly, attempted to exempt drivers who were racially excluded from purchasing insurance, but his amendment failed. Despite warnings from the Attorney General that the law risked “an abuse of police power and violated the ‘due process’ clause of the Constitution,” the bill received enthusiastic support and was signed into law.[5] The first test of the law would come from a Mexican gardener.