A Brief History
of African American Business in Los Angeles
This oral history project focused primarily on black businesses in South Los Angeles and Pasadena, including only a handful of businesses outside of those areas. Although African American enterprise can be found throughout Los Angeles County, a geographically focused collection of narratives offers insight into the role business districts have played in African American place-making and enterprise. African Americans who migrated to Southern California during the two waves of the Great Migration, between 1916 and 1970, found solace in established black communities that served their cultural and social needs. Because of segregation and discriminatory practices such as racially restrictive covenants, which prohibited the selling of properties in white neighborhoods to blacks, African Americans were hemmed into specific geographic areas. Commercial districts countered this economic isolation by offering both employment and a variety of services and products. They also bolstered a growing black middle class through fostering the formation of churches, schools, clubs, fraternal orders, and other support institutions. Businesses, too, benefited from having a network of like-minded entrepreneurs who shared resources, advice, and advocacy.
Over the years, as the African American population shifted across the city, some commercial clusters gradually faded away, while others were established in new areas. Businesses that were financially able to do so followed the residential migration of African Americans to new parts of the city. In this project, we hear stories of staying power from business owners whose businesses remain in once-thriving African American commercial centers; we learn of other owners who built strong community relations in current African American hubs; and we learn of some who operate outside the confines of traditional districts but maintain strong ties to their community. Below is a brief history of four significant African American commercial districts to contextualize the eighteen oral histories included in this project.
1850-1920
According to the U.S. census, between 1880 and 1900 the African American population in Los Angeles grew from 102 to 2,131. This small but enterprising group represented one of the largest concentrations of African Americans in California. The “Brick Block” and the Owens Block, both located in what is now downtown Los Angeles, were two focal points of African American business interests. Biddy Mason, a formerly enslaved woman who gained her emancipation through California courts in 1856, owned a block of properties near the “Brick Block” between Spring Street and Broadway and between Third and Fourth Streets. She invested in real estate and other business ventures to become one of the wealthiest African Americans in Los Angeles. She also helped establish institutions and helped fund the First AME Church, which was initially run out of her home.
Robert Owens found his way to Los Angeles in 1853 after purchasing the freedom of his family in Texas. He secured a contract to supply wood to the U.S. Army and established a livery business. Eventually he invested in real estate and purchased properties along Spring Street that would become the Owens business block. The block housed a number of African American establishments and attracted other businesses to the surrounding area, including A.J. Jones’s hotel, the Sun Cafe, Clisby and Henderson’s grocery, and Ramsey’s barbershop, to name just a few. This commercial area helped cement African American standing in the city and aided the transition of newly arrived migrants.
1920-1960
By 1920 the U.S. census indicated that the African American population in L.A. had grown to 15,579. Middle-class African Americans moved toward Central Avenue, developing one of the most enduring black commercial districts in the city. Often referred to as the Harlem of the West, the Central Avenue area was the site of jazz clubs such as the Club Alabam, the Downbeat, and Jack’s Basket Room; music stores such as Spikes Brothers Music Store and Dolphins of Hollywood; and numerous restaurants and food take-out businesses. The period from the 1920s to the 1960s was the era of “race enterprises,” in which black entrepreneurs specifically catered to black consumers. Black-owned institutions such as the Dunbar Hotel, the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company, and the small businesses housed in Sidney P. Dones’ Booker T. Washington Building were important markers of Central Avenue’s success. Collectively these enterprises supported a growing middle class and one of the highest rates of African American home ownership in the country.
Two businesses documented in these oral histories, 27th Street Bakery and Bowers and Sons Cleaners, are among the remaining Central Avenue businesses from this time period. In the clip to the right, Vivian Bowers, of Bowers and Sons Cleaners, talks about the transition westward.
Brief_History_Bowers.mp3Pasadena, too, had small but thriving African American commercial areas. One significant cluster was located in what is now Old Town Pasadena. One of the first African American businesses in Pasadena, Prince Brothers Feed and Fuel (1890), was located at Colorado Boulevard and De Lacey Avenue. Dayton Street, between De Lacey and Fair Oaks Avenue, was a central cluster of African American business and cultural activity. It housed two important institutions: Friendship Baptist Church (founded 1893) and the Francisca Building (1923), Pasadena's first African-American-owned business block. Other businesses in the area included Carrie McAdoo's grocery store at 679 South Fair Oaks, Lundy Shoe Shine on Colorado Boulevard, and, further north, Jones House Cleaning and Floor Service (314 West Mountain Avenue), and McAfee Transfer Service (1126 Sunset Avenue). Woods-Valentine Mortuary, also documented in these interviews, was originally located in Old Town where the Ambassador Auditorium now stands, but moved to its current location on North Fair Oaks Avenue in 1963.
Brief_History_Davenport.mp3After the Supreme Court’s 1948 Shelley v. Kraemer ruling, which made racially restrictive covenants unenforceable, neighborhoods such as West Adams, Leimert Park, and the Crenshaw area became attractive to middle-class and affluent African Americans, who were being squeezed out of an overcrowded Central Avenue area. A new commercial district was formed, as eateries, art galleries, music and performance venues, banks, and insurance and real estate companies opened along Crenshaw Boulevard’s corridor. Some businesses followed the residential shift from Central Avenue to the area. In the clip on the left, Todd Davenport, owner of Angelus Funeral Home, talks about Angelus being one of the first businesses to move into the area and the resistance that African Americans faced. Over the years, Leimert Park and its surrounding neighborhoods (West Adams, Baldwin Hills, View Park-Windsor Hills, Jefferson Park) grew to have the highest concentration of African Americans in Los Angeles, and Leimert Park is currently one of the most important African American cultural hubs in the city. These oral histories include the histories of several long-term Leimert Park businesses: Angelus Funeral Home, First Security Investment Company, and the soul-food restaurant Dulan’s on Crenshaw.