San Leandro was one of a number of suburban cities built in the post-World War II era of California that had restrictive covenants, which barred property owners in the city from selling properties to African Americans and other minorities. As a result of the covenant, In 1960, the city was almost entirely white (99.3%), while its neighbor city of Oakland had a large African American population. The United States Supreme Court, in
Shelley v. Kraemer, later declared such covenants unenforceable by the state. San Leandro was an 86.4% white-non Hispanic community according in the 1970 census. The city's demographics began to diversify in the 1980s. By 2010, Asian Americans had become a plurality population in San Leandro, with approximately one third of the population, with non-Hispanic Whites accounting for 27.1% of the population.