Black Los Angeles

by Hunt, Darnell

• ISBN13: 9780814737354
• ISBN10: 0814737358
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-29
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

Los Angeles is well-known as a temperate paradise with expansive beaches and mountain vistas, a booming luxury housing market, and the home of glamorous Hollywood. During the first half of the twentieth century, Los Angeles was also seen as a mecca for both African Americans and a steady stream of migrants from around the country and the world, transforming Los Angeles into one of the world's most diverse cities. The city has become a multicultural maze in which many now fear that the political clout of the region's large black population has been lost. Nonetheless, the dream of a better life lives on for black Angelenos today, despite the harsh social and economic conditions many confront.Black Los Angelesis the culmination of a groundbreaking research project from the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA that presents an in-depth analysis of the historical and contemporary contours of black life in Los Angeles. Based on innovative research, the original essays are multi-disciplinary in approach and comprehensive in scope, connecting the dots between the city's racial past, present, and future. Through historical and contemporary anecdotes, oral histories, maps, photographs, illustrations, and demographic data, we see that Black Los Angeles is and has always been a space of profound contradictions. Just as Los Angeles has come to symbolize the complexities of the early twenty-first-century city, so too has Black Los Angeles come to embody the complex realities of race in so-called "colorblind" times.Contributors:Melina Abdullah, Alex Alonso, Dionne Bennett, Joshua Bloom, Edna Bonacich, Scot Brown, Reginald Chapple, Lola Smallwood Cuevas, Andrew Deener, Regina Freer, Jooyoung Lee, Mignon R. Moore, Lanita Morris, Neva Pemberton, Steven C. Pitts, Carrie Petrucci, Gwendelyn Rivera, Paul Robinson, M. Belinda Tucker, Paul von Bloom, Mary Weaver, Sonya Winton, and Nancy Wang Yuen.

Author Biography

Darnell Hunt is Director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies and Professor of Sociology at UCLA. He is the editor or author of numerous books, including Channeling Blackness: Studies on Television and Race in America and Screening the Los Angeles "Riots:" Race, Seeing, and Resistance. Ana-Christina Ramn is Assistant Director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction: Dreaming of Black Los Angeles	p. 1
Space
Race, Space, and the Evolution of Black Los Angeles	p. 21
From Central Avenue to Leimert Park: The Shifting Center of Black Los Angeles	p. 60
The Decline of a Black Community by the Sea: Demographic and Political Changes in Oakwood	p. 81
People
"Blowing Up" at Project Blowed: Rap Dreams and Young Black Men	p. 117
Out of the Void: Street Gangs in Black Los Angeles	p. 140
Imprisoning the Family: Incarceration in Black Los Angeles	p. 168
Black and Gay in L.A.: The Relationships Black Lesbians and Gay Men Have to Their Racial and Religious Communities	p. 188
Image
Looking for the 'Hood and Finding Community: South Central, Race, and Media	p. 215
Playing "Ghetto": Black Actors, Stereotypes, and Authenticity	p. 232
Before and After Watts: Black Art in Los Angeles	p. 243
SOLAR: The History of the Sounds of Los Angeles Records	p. 266
Killing "Killer King": The Los Angeles Times and a "Troubled" Hospital in the 'Hood	p. 283
Action
Bass to Bass: Relative Freedom and Womanist Leadership in Black Los Angeles	p. 323
Concerned Citizens: Environmental (In)Justice in Black Los Angeles	p. 343
A Common Project for a Just Society: Black Labor in Los Angeles	p. 360
Reclaiming UCLA: The Education Crisis in Black Los Angeles	p. 382
Bibliography	p. 407
Contributors	p. 425
Index	p. 429
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