O'Day Short

O'Day H. Short (February 7, 1905 – January 22, 1946) was an American refrigerator engineer who broke the color barrier in Fontana, California after buying land and constructing a house south of Base Line Road. Short contacted the FBI and the black press after receiving a warning of imminent violence from vigilantes. African-Americans were welcome to live north of Base Line Road but were not permitted to live south of it.

Authorities claimed that the explosion was due to a faulty oil lamp. However, the coroner's jury was skeptical of this conclusion and ruled that the fire was of unknown origin,

Aftermath Black newspapers decried the deaths as an injustice. The ACLU and NAACP organized rallies in Los Angeles and San Bernardino which drew upwards of 6,000 people calling for a full investigation.

The land on which the home stood is now the site of Randall Pepper Elementary School. Grassroots efforts from the community are calling and petitioning for the renaming of the Elementary school or some memorialization of O’Day and the Short family. The official renaming of Randall-Pepper Elementary to become O’Day Short Elementary will be in effect beginning the 2025/2026 School Year.

It would be another 20 years until a black family would again live in downtown Fontana.