Black History of Los Angeles
Twenty-six of the 44 settlers who founded Los Angeles in 1781 were African-Americans. The black population in the city was limited until the post-World War II population boom. Today, 11 percent of Los Angeles' population is African-American.
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1900
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An estimated 2,100 African-Americans lived in Los Angeles in 1900. By 1920, they accounted for just 2 percent of the city's population, according to saje.net.
Home Ownership
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Nearly 40 percent of the 15,000 blacks living in Los Angeles owned their own homes in 1910, prompting W.E.B. DuBois to call Los Angeles a "wonderful place" to live, according to "Racial Frontier."
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Exclusionary Laws
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Restrictive housing covenants were erected in the 1920s, excluding blacks from most middle-class neighborhoods and pushing them to what is now known as Watts, according to saje.net.
Arts Movement
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The African-American population grew eight-fold from 1945 to 1950 as Central Avenue emerged as venue for the West Coast black literature and the jazz movement, according to saje.net.
Civil Unrest
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Mayor Sam Yorty's refusal of federal anti-poverty money and the lack of services sparked the 1965 Watts riots, while the acquittal of white police officers in the beating of a black man in 1992 ignited a citywide riot, according to blackhistory.com
A Voice
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The emergence of Angeleno black politicians Thomas Bradley, Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Diane Watson have given African-Americans a voice, according to saje.net.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit A segregated firefighter unit at the Central Avenue Firehouse, Los Angeles/discoverblackheritage.com
