page_title: History of African Americans in Los Angeles
section_title: 20th Century
hierarchical_section_title: History of African Americans in Los Angeles / 20th Century
caption_attribution_description: Tom Bradley speaking at en:AIDS Walk LA at the Paramount Studios lot
context_page_description: The History of African Americans in Los Angeles includes significant contributions in the arts and culture, science, education, architecture and politics.
context_section_description: The presences of the Southern Pacific and Transcontinental railroads meant that Los Angeles had a relatively high African-American population for a city in the Western United States; in 1910 it had 7,599 African-Americans. The first branch of the NAACP in California was established in Los Angeles in 1913.
  Housing segregation was a common practice in the early 20th century. Many private property deeds explicitly banned owners from selling to anyone but caucasians.
  The African-American population did not significantly increase during the first Great Migration. From approximately 1920 to 1955, Central Avenue was the heart of the African-American community in Los Angeles, with active rhythm and blues and jazz music scenes.
  Jazz legend Charles Mingus was born in Los Angeles in 1922. Raised largely in the Watts area of Los Angeles, he recorded in a band in Los Angeles in the 1940s.
  Central Avenue had two all-black segregated fire stations. Fire Station No. 30 and Fire Station No. 14 were segregated in 1924.  They remained segregated until 1956 when the Los Angeles Fire Department was integrated. The listing on the National Register says, "All-black fire stations were simultaneous representations of racial segregation and sources of community pride." In 1928, World War I veteran William J. Powell founded the Bessie Coleman Aero Club.  In 1931, Powell organized the first all-black air show in the United States for the Club in Los Angeles, an event that drew 15,000 visitors. Powell also established a school to train mechanics and pilots.
  World War II brought the Second Great Migration, tens of thousands of African American migrants, mostly from Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas, who left segregated Southern states in search of better opportunities in California. The African-American population significantly increased in the Second Great Migration of the 1940s as area factories received labor for the effort in World War II. In 1940 the black population was 63,700.
  William Parker became police chief in 1952. He largely refused to hire Black police officers. During most of his tenure, those already on the force were prohibited from having white partners.
  The 1965 Watts Riots were triggered by the arrest of a 21-year-old black man named Marquette Frye at 116th Street and Avalon Boulevard for driving drunk. A torrent of built-up rage erupted in the streets of Watts and South Los Angeles. An investigating commission found that the African American citizens felt they had been denied respect and endured substandard housing, education and medical care. The King-Drew Hospital in Willowbrook opened in 1972 as a response to the area having inadequate and insufficient hospital facilities.
  In 1972, Wattstax, also known as the "Black-Woodstock," took place in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Over 100,000 black residents of Los Angeles attended this concert for African American pride. Later, in 1973, a documentary was released about the concert.
  In 1973, Tom Bradley was elected as Mayor of Los Angeles, a role he'd hold for 20 years.  L.A.'s first African American mayor, Bradley served over five terms, prior to the establishment of successive term limits, making him the longest-serving mayor of Los Angeles.
  In 1991, Rodney King was beaten by police officers. His videotaped beating was controversial, and heightened racial tensions in Los Angeles.
  Just 13 days after the videotaped beating of King, a 15-year-old African-American girl named Latasha Harlins was shot and killed by a 51-year-old Korean store owner named Soon Ja Du. A jury found Du guilty of voluntary manslaughter, an offense that carries a maximum prison sentence of 16-years. However, trial judge, Joyce Karlin, sentenced Du five years of probation, four hundred hours of community service, and a $500 fine.
  When four Los Angeles Police Department officers were acquitted of charges associated with the beating of Rodney King, the decision led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
  The trial of the O. J. Simpson murder case took place in 1994.
caption: Tom Bradley speaking at AIDS Walk LA at the Paramount Studios lot in 1988
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