Kalama Valley protests facts for kids
The Kalama Valley Protests happened in 1971. People were protesting because low-income farmers were being forced to leave their homes. The land was going to be turned into a fancy resort area. These protests are famous for helping to start the Hawaiian Renaissance, a time when Hawaiian culture and identity became very important again.
Why People Protested
In the 1950s, a man named Henry J. Kaiser moved to Hawaii. He built a planned community called Hawaii Kai on the island of Oahu. Right next to Hawaii Kai was Kalama Valley, where many working-class local families lived.
Before Kaiser's plans, much of this land was a salt-water marsh. The land in Kalama Valley was owned by the Bishop Trust. They rented out land to the farmers living there. Housing in Hawaii was very expensive, so many residents couldn't afford to buy homes. Many families in Kalama Valley had already been forced to move from other areas that were being redeveloped.
In 1968, Kalama Valley's land use was changed from farming to urban development. The Bishop Trust told the residents they had to leave by July 1970. This was because they had given Kaiser permission to build on the land. The Trust started tearing down buildings in early July. However, some families had not yet left the valley. They refused to move, and three protesters were arrested.
People organized rallies at the Hawaii State Capitol building. But these rallies didn't change much at first. Meanwhile, more and more protesters moved into the valley. Soon, there were more protesters than the original families who rented the land.
A resident and protester named George Santos became well-known during this time. He and his hog farm had been forced to move before from other Bishop Trust lands. In 1959, lawmakers had told the City of Honolulu and the Bishop Trust to look into how tenants were being moved. But nothing was done. During the protests, Senator Nadao Yoshinaga spoke out against the Bishop Trust. He even suggested that the State of Hawaii should buy the land.
On May 11, 1971, police arrested 32 protesters in Kalama Valley. The remaining families were forced to leave. The Trust had trouble finding trucks to move the pigs from the farms. So, the families were allowed back into the valley for two days to care for their animals. A few days later, the protests started again in front of the Bishop Trust offices.
What Happened Next
In the ten years after the Kalama Valley protests, other groups were also forced to leave their homes around the island. During evictions at Sand Island, protesters made it clear that the state was removing Native Hawaiians from their lands.
The evictions in Kalama Valley were seen as an attack on the relaxed, Hawaiian way of life. This was especially true by the mostly white landowners. The protests also started important discussions about land rights and the rights of people who rent land. They highlighted the struggle between local people and the growing tourism industry.
The Kalama Valley protests are widely seen as the start of the Hawaiian Renaissance. Haunani-Kay Trask, a famous Hawaiian scholar, called the protests a "dress rehearsal." She meant they were a practice for more successful protests later on. These included the Waiāhole-Waikāne protests from 1975 to 1980, and the protests against the bombing of Kahoʻolawe island.
