L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present (George Gund Foundation Book in African American Studies)

304 Pages·2004·2.9 MB·English

by  Josh Sides

L.A. City Limits
   
    
The George Gund Foundation has endowed
this imprint to advance understanding of
the history,culture,and current issues
of African Americans.
L.A. City Limits
African American Los Angeles from
the Great Depression to the Present
Josh Sides
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley / Los Angeles / London
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
Portions of chapter 5 appeared in “‘You Understand My Condition’:
The Civil Rights Congress in the Los Angeles African-American Commu-
nity, 1946–1952,”Pacific Historical Review67, no. 2 (May1998): 233–257.
© American Historical Association, Pacific Coast Branch.
Portions of chapter 3 appeared in “Battle on the Home Front: African
American Shipyard Workers in World War II Los Angeles,” California
History75, no. 3 (fall 1996): 250–263. © California Historical Society.
© 2003 by the Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sides, Josh, 1972–.
L.A. city limits : African American Los Angeles from the Great Depres-
sion to the present / Josh Sides.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–520–23841–9 (alk. paper).
1. African Americans—California—Los Angeles—Social conditions—
20th century. 2. African Americans—California—Los Angeles—
Economic conditions—20th century. 3. Los Angeles (Calif.)—Race
relations. 4. Los Angeles (Calif.)—Social conditions—20th century.
5. Los Angeles (Calif.)—Economic conditions—20th century. I. Title:
LA city limits. II. Title: Los Angeles city limits. III. Title.
f869.l89 n4 2003
979.4(cid:2)9400496073—dc21
2003003888
cip
Manufactured in the United States of America
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication is both acid-free and totally
chlorine-free (TCF). It meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO
z39.48–1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper).(cid:2)(cid:3)
To Henry and Sudie Sides, my first and best teachers

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1. African Americans in Prewar Los Angeles 11
2. The Great Migration and the Changing Face
of Los Angeles 36
3. The Window of Opportunity: Black Work
in Industrial Los Angeles, 1941–1964 57
4. Race and Housing in Postwar Los Angeles 95
5. Building the Civil Rights Movement in Los Angeles 131
6. Black Community Transformation in the 1960s and 1970s 169
Epilogue 199
Maps: The Historical Geography of African American
Los Angeles 209
Notes 217
Bibliography 255
Index 279

Illustrations
1. African American and Mexican children at Lincoln Park,
ca. 1930 22
2. Leon Washington of theLos Angeles Sentinel, ca. late 1930s 31
3. A city inspector documents slum conditions in Bronzeville/
Little Tokyo, 1944 53
4. An African American woman employed as a clerical worker,
1957 92
5. A white mob opposes the sale of a home to African
Americans, 1949 102
6. A home owned by African Americans is bombed, 1952 103
7. Children at the Jordan Downs housing project in Watts,
1950 117
8. Compton Community College graduation, 1956 128
9. African American students attempt to transfer to an
all-white school, 1962 161
10. Protesters oppose school segregation at the Board of
Education offices, 1963 164
11. Anti-integration protesters, 1963 165
12. Congress of Racial Equality protests segregated housing in
Torrance, 1963 166
13. Firefighters attempt to put out a building fire during the
Watts riot of 1965 170
14. Black youths wait in line for job applications in Watts, 1967 187
15. Odessa and Raymond Cox, ca. 1955 188
ix