The purpose of this document is to provide the resources used while writing about the history of South Los Angeles and to point to more robust resources for understanding this complex, evolving, and important history. If you feel there are important resources missing from this list, please let us know at specialcollections@pepperdine.edu.

1880 - 1900

 

Davis-Hayes, Kenya. “Biddy Mason and the Founding of Los Angeles: From Slavery to Entrepreneurship.” PBS SoCal, 7 Feb. 2020, www.pbssocal.org/shows/lost-la/biddy-mason-and-the-founding-of-los-angeles-from-slavery-to-entrepreneurship. 

Hunt, Darnell M. “From Central Avenue to Leimert Park: The Shifting Center of Black Los Angeles.” Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities, New York University Press, 2010, pp. 60–81. 

Sides, Josh. “African Americans in Prewar Los Angeles.” L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present, University of California Press, 2003, pp. 11-35. 

Resources related to The California Eagle:

Access a list of libraries that have issues of the newspaper: https://www.loc.gov/item/sn82016196/?st=holdings 

Access digitized issues of the California Eagle on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/caleagle?tab=collection 

Read the Finding Aid of the Charlotta Bass Collection at the University of Southern California. Charlotta A. Bass ran the California Eagle starting in 1912. Access the finding aid here: https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf6c60052d/ 

Read the Finding Aid of the California Eagle Photograph Collection, Late 1800s- Late 1950’s at Southern California Library for Social Studies Research. Access the finding aid here: https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf6199n818/ 

Dividing line

1900 - 1930

 

Hunt, Darnell M. “From Central Avenue to Leimert Park: The Shifting Center of Black Los Angeles.” Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities, New York University Press, 2010, pp. 60–81. 

Sides, Josh. “African Americans in Prewar Los Angeles.” L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present, University of California Press, 2003, pp. 11-35. 

Resources related to Golden State Mutual Life Insurance:

Access Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company records at UCLA, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library,  digital collection here: https://calisphere.org/collections/26883/ 

Read the Finding Aid of the Nickerson Family, Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company Papers, 1923-2000 at Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research. Access the finding aid here: https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt4g5020k1/ 

Resources related to the Dunbar Hotel:

“Dunbar Hotel.” LA Conservancy, www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/dunbar-hotel/. 

Meares, Hadley. “The Dunbar Hotel Was Once the Heart of Black Los Angeles.” LAist, 27 Dec. 2019, laist.com/news/la-history/dunbar-hotel-heart-of-black-los-angeles-hidden-history. 

Meares, Hadley. “When Central Avenue Swung: The Dunbar Hotel and the Golden Age of L.A.’s ‘Little Harlem.’” PBS SoCal, 17 Feb. 2015, www.pbssocal.org/history-society/when-central-avenue-swung-the-dunbar-hotel-and-the-golden-age-of-l-a-s-little-harlem. 

Dividing line

1930 - 1960

 

Baird, David W. Quest for Distinction: Pepperdine University in the 20th Century, Pepperdine University Press, 2016. 

Craigg, Elizabeth. A Legacy Cut Short The Impact of Pepperdine University on African Americans and South Los Angeles from 1937-1981. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 270. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/270.

Davis, Mike and Jon Wiener. “Equality Scorned: The Repeal of Fair Housing (1964).” Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties, Verso, 2020, pp. 105-123.  

Hunt, Darnell M. “From Central Avenue to Leimert Park: The Shifting Center of Black Los Angeles.” Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities, New York University Press, 2010, pp. 60–81. 

Sides, Josh. L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present, University of California Press, 2003.

Additional Resources:

Read the Finding Aid of the Hawkins (Augustus F.) Papers at UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles. Access the finding aid here: https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt4t1nb1th/ 

Dividing line

1960 - 1970

 

Baird, David W. Quest for Distinction: Pepperdine University in the 20th Century, Pepperdine University Press, 2016. 

Craigg, Elizabeth. A Legacy Cut Short The Impact of Pepperdine University on African Americans and South Los Angeles from 1937-1981. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 270. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/270.

Davis, Mike and Jon Wiener. Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties, Verso, 2020.

Fogelson, Robert M. Mass Violence in America: The Los Angeles Riots. Arno Press, 1969. 

Horne, Gerald. Fire This Time, The Watts Uprising and the 1960s, University Press of Virginia, 1995.  

Jones, Candace Denise, "White flight? : George Pepperdine College's move to Malibu, 1965-1972" (2003). Theses and Dissertations. 122. https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/etd/122

Kendi, Ibram X. The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. 

Sides, Josh. L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present, University of California Press, 2003.

Dividing line

1970 - 1990

 

Alexander, Michelle, and Cornel West. The New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Tenth anniversary ed., New Press, 2020.

Alonso, Alex. “Out of the Void: Street Gangs in Black Los Angeles.” Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities, New York University Press, 2010, pp. 140–168.

Baird, David W. Quest for Distinction: Pepperdine University in the 20th Century, Pepperdine University Press, 2016. 

Craigg, Elizabeth. A Legacy Cut Short The Impact of Pepperdine University on African Americans and South Los Angeles from 1937-1981. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 270. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/270.

Jones, Candace Denise, "White flight? : George Pepperdine College's move to Malibu, 1965-1972" (2003). Theses and Dissertations. 122. https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/etd/122

Kun, Josh and Laura Pulido. Black and Brown in Los Angeles: Beyond Conflict and Coalition, University of California Press, 2014. 

Sides, Josh. L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present, University of California Press, 2003.

Additional Resources:

Learn more about Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology’s Foster Grandparent Program: https://gsep.pepperdine.edu/foster-grandparent-program/ 

Dividing line

1990 - 2000

 

Kun, Josh and Laura Pulido. Black and Brown in Los Angeles: Beyond Conflict and Coalition, University of California Press, 2014. 

Sides, Josh. L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present, University of California Press, 2003.

“Our Story,” Community Coalition, https://cocosouthla.org/our-story/

Resources on the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and Rodney King:

“Place: Los Angeles Riots, 1992.” Los Angeles Archivists Collective, https://www.laacollective.org/work/place-los-angeles-riots

Access interviews from the Los Angeles Riots in 1992 on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/search?query=subject%3A%22Riots--California--Los+Angeles%22 

Access the University of Southern California’s digital exhibit about the 1992 riots featuring their archival collections, the Mosk, (Richard M.) Christopher Commission records (https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8765d2h/) and Los Angeles Webster Commission Records (https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0580335h/). Access the exhibit here: https://scalar.usc.edu/works/the-los-angeles-riots-christopher-and-webster-commissions-collections/index 

Download a PDF version of the bibliography.