The Official Los Angeles (County) Discussion Thread

[calixprynce]

found out a few years back about the Jazz scene on Central Ave

looking for books on the history and can't find shyt
i'm disgusted with myself

yup right in the 43s . jazz murals all on the walls . Also had the 41st Street Black Panthers in the area
#CentralSide

 

[gogogubari]

I'll be here in a few weeks. Y'all gonna show me around or what?

 

[Ol’Otis]

I'll be here in a few weeks. Y'all gonna show me around or what?

@King Poetic @calixprynce @Cali_livin

i can't ma i'm in central cali at the moment

 

[Ol’Otis]

yup right in the 43s . jazz murals all on the walls . Also had the 41st Street Black Panthers in the area
#CentralSide

i gotta start digging deeper in the history of blacks in LA

but that central ave shyt really got me hype

 

[Biscayne]

I've researched LA's black history just for fun. I'm not even from Cali, but I know all about Central Ave "Historic South Central" and the Jazz scene. There's so much rich Black history in LA and CA in general.

 

[calixprynce]

There is the African American Firefighter Museum in DTLA on Central Ave, off the 10 Freeway. It's right across the street from the Coka-Coke facility.

HOME

Yup right on Central .
If yall havent been , the African American Cultural Center on 48th is pretty cool too . been hella times
and the Pan African museum on King

 

[Ol’Otis]

Yup right on Central .
If yall havent been , the African American Cultural Center on 48th is pretty cool too . been hella times
and the Pan African museum on King

i used to go to the museum on King all the time

 

[charmander]

mexicans

traffic

that's really all you need to know

 

[Ol’Otis]

mexicans

traffic

that's really all you need to know

naw breh i was there before the mexican invaded heavily
back when they was in East LA
and certain small areas of South LA and Compton

 

[Oceanicpuppy]

naw breh i was there before the mexican invaded heavily
back when they was in East LA
and certain small areas of South LA and Compton

wasn't there a part of la founded by blacks? I vaguely remember hearing something of that nature.

 

[calixprynce]

wasn't there a part of la founded by blacks? I vaguely remember hearing something of that nature.

i think you may have heard LA was founded by Afro Latinos

 

[the cool]

los angeles is really like dallas but just bigger imo

ive been to both, mexicans and lots of driving everywhere. some nice areas and some poor areas

its really no different

 

[Ol’Otis]

writing a story and i want it to take place in south central

 

[calixprynce]

los angeles is really like dallas but just bigger imo

ive been to both, mexicans and lots of driving everywhere. some nice areas and some poor areas

its really no different

are u currently in d town?

 

[Arithmetic]

All the big time performance halls were on the strip, but The Dunbar Hotel on Central was the focal point, and where it all went down. Whenever Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday came into town, they would stay or lounge at the Dunbar Hotel and perform next door at the Club Alabam or at the Downbeat Club on the same block in addition to performing on the strip.

The 17th Central Avenue Jazz Festival


I found this interesting to read about John Somerville, the builder and original owner of the Dunbar. He originally built the hotel for the NAACP west coast convention because other places were still deeply segregated. The real MVP.

Dunbar Hotel | Los Angeles Conservancy

Doctor John Somerville built the hotel for the first West Coast convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1928. The hotel provided first-class accommodations for African Americans in segregated Los Angeles, who were denied comparable lodging elsewhere.

Although the hotel was also known for top notch musical performances in its dining room area, the owners didn’t receive a cabaret license until 1931, well after Somerville had sold the hotel to Lucius Lomax. Somerville sold the hotel due to financial difficulties after stock market crash of 1929, and the name was changed to the Dunbar in honor of the poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar.

Dr. John A. Somerville himself was a leader in the fight for full civil rights for African Americans in Los Angeles during the early twentieth century. Jamaican-born, in 1907 he became the first African American student to graduate from USC’s School of Dentistry. In 1918 his wife, Vada Watson, whom he had met while she was an undergraduate at USC, became the second African American to graduate from USC with a degree in dentistry.