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It’s Monday, and the news over the weekend was dominated by the horrifying violence in New Zealand.

The massacre at two mosques — in which at least 50 people were killed, apparently by a white nationalist who posted a racist manifesto online — was the latest somber reminder that violence against specific religious or ethnic communities has been persistent throughout history, though it takes different forms.

Recently, my colleague Simon Romero wrote about new efforts to remember the lynchings of people of Mexican descent throughout the American West. In doing so, advocates say, we may be able to better avoid repeating them. He wrote about such killings that took place in California:

An Anglo mob in Bakersfield went on a killing spree in 1877. Their victims: five men of Mexican descent.

About 100 men, some wielding axes, broke into the county courthouse and overpowered the jailer. In their rampage they snatched the men from the jail, held an impromptu trial with mob members as jurors, declared them guilty of horse theft and hanged them on the courthouse lawn.

The case was just one of thousands of lynchings of men, women and children of Mexican descent, a period of racist terror lasting from the mid-19th century until the 1920s. Lynchings of Mexicans, many of whom were American citizens, often faded into history, attracting less attention than the horrific mob violence targeting African-Americans around the United States.

But descendants of lynching victims and historians are now campaigning to publicly remember these episodes in an effort to cast scrutiny on the atrocities and draw parallels at a time of resurgent anti-Hispanic hate crimes. California was second only to Texas in the grim ranking of mob killings of people of Mexican descent, according to the historians William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb.

Many of California’s lynchings of Mexicans took place during the Gold Rush from 1848 to 1855, when Anglos chafed at having to compete with Mexicans for mining claims. Never mind that California was part of Mexico just a few years earlier; after the Mexican-American War, the United States annexed California and other Mexican lands that form what is now the American Southwest.

Example of such lynchings in California abound.

A mob accused Carlos Esclava of theft and hanged him in Mokelumne Hill in 1852 before a crowd of 800. Also in 1852, an especially bloody year for mob violence against Mexicans, a so-called vigilance committee in Santa Cruz hanged Domingo Hernandez after he was accused of theft. In 1853, an unidentified Mexican was hanged at Angel’s Camp for giving aid to an “outlaw” — Joaquin Murrieta, the Sonoran forty-niner known as the Robin Hood of the West.

Lynchings of people of Mexican descent continued in California through the 1890s. By then, episodes like the Bakersfield killings of 1877 had provoked claims of racism against Mexicans.

“Several Mexicans or native Californians raided a station or two, in the Vasquez style, and five of them were subsequently arrested and lodged in jail,” said The Lyon County Times of Silver City, Nev., one of several newspapers around the West to report on the Bakersfield lynchings.

The victims of the Bakersfield lynch mob were not lost to history. They were identified as Antonio Maron, Francisco Encinas, Miguel Elias, Fermin Eideo and Bessena Ruiz.

Here’s what else we’re following

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• Meet William Singer, known as Rick, the so-called pied piper of the college admissions scandal. His message was confident and concise: He knew the secret to getting into college. [The New York Times]

• Even for students who have the means and the help to spend years preparing for college, an honest application process is nerve-racking and filled with uncertainty. [The New York Times]

• Hundreds of school staff members, including library workers, in Oakland schools will get layoff notices as district leaders say they have been forced to trim the budget. It’s still unclear, however, how many jobs will be cut; the notices are a necessary preliminary step. [The San Francisco Chronicle]

• “I just saw the writing on the wall.” As living costs and taxes in the Bay Area continue to rise, conservatives are fleeing for other states, like Texas and Arizona. That’s making Democrats’ stronghold on Sacramento even stronger. [The Mercury News]

• With iPhone sales starting to show signs of fatigue, Apple is making a billion-dollar bet on entertainment, taking on the likes of Netflix and HBO. [The New York Times]

• U.S.C.’s athletic director, Lynn Swann, said he’s in it for the long haul. But given the scandals that have plagued the department, a Los Angeles Times columnist writes, that seems like a long shot. [The Los Angeles Times]

• Canyons and hillsides throughout Southern California are still in full “super bloom.” But the flip side of the stunning display is the crowds. In Lake Elsinore, “Disneyland-size” crowds have created a public safety crisis. And on Sunday night, city officials shut down access to poppy fields in Walker Canyon entirely. [The Press-Enterprise]

More California stories

• Dick Dale, the king of surf guitar, has died at 81. He was born Richard Monsour in Boston and was influenced by the musical traditions of his Lebanese father and Eastern European mother. [The New York Times]

• A luxury housing developer is in talks to try to lure the Los Angeles Angels from Anaheim to Long Beach. But the talks, observers say, are still very much just that and significant hurdles remain. [The Long Beach Post]

• The Painted Lady butterfly migration continues to captivate Southern Californians. [The New York Times]

• Sorry, Lakers fans. The team — led by the great LeBron James — keeps finding new ways to lose. [The New York Times]

And Finally …

The rise of journaling apps may be helpful for a lot of reasons: You can better organize your thoughts, you can sign up for prompts and thought exercises, and you don’t have to worry about anybody snooping. (Well, anybody besides the app itself.)

But journals have also led to serendipitous moments of connection like the one Sarah Williamson, an author and illustrator, wrote about here.

Some of her sketchbooks from her early 20s turned up in the possession of a man named Will in Los Angeles. He asked her if she wanted them back. And although Ms. Williamson initially found the drawings a bit embarrassing, she’s come to value them as mementos from a formative time in her life.

Now, she just has to figure out how to get Will a pecan pie.

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected].

Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

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