L.A. City Limits
African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present
302 pages, 6 x 9 inches, 15 b/w photographs, 8 maps
January 2004, Available worldwide
Categories: History; African American Studies; Californian & Western History; California & the West
January 2004, Available worldwide
Categories: History; African American Studies; Californian & Western History; California & the West
Downloadable eBook version available:
Adobe E-Reader at ebooks.com, $15.95
Adobe E-Reader at ebooks.com, $15.95
"An exceptional book. . . .[Sides] mixes pioneering research with good writing, sharp analysis and the moving stories of everyday people. His work deserves a place on the bookshelves of all serious students of Los Angeles and the rest of urban California."—Bill Boyarsky, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"[This is] source material for planners of tomorrow's multiracial citiesÉ[and a] counter-narrative to the historic narrative of crime, violence and poverty." — Michael T. Jarvis, L.A. Times Magazine
"[This is] source material for planners of tomorrow's multiracial citiesÉ[and a] counter-narrative to the historic narrative of crime, violence and poverty." — Michael T. Jarvis, L.A. Times Magazine
In 1964 an Urban League survey ranked Los Angeles as the most desirable city for African Americans to live in. In 1965 the city burst into flames during one of the worst race riots in the nation's history. How the city came to such a pass—embodying both the best and worst of what urban America offered black migrants from the South—is the story told for the first time in this history of modern black Los Angeles. A clear-eyed and compelling look at black struggles for equality in L.A.'s neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces from the Great Depression to our day, L.A. City Limits critically refocuses the ongoing debate about the origins of America's racial and urban crisis.
Challenging previous analysts' near-exclusive focus on northern "rust-belt" cities devastated by de-industrialization, Josh Sides asserts that the cities to which black southerners migrated profoundly affected how they fared. He shows how L.A.'s diverse racial composition, dispersive geography, and dynamic postwar economy often created opportunities—and limits—quite different from those encountered by blacks in the urban North.
Challenging previous analysts' near-exclusive focus on northern "rust-belt" cities devastated by de-industrialization, Josh Sides asserts that the cities to which black southerners migrated profoundly affected how they fared. He shows how L.A.'s diverse racial composition, dispersive geography, and dynamic postwar economy often created opportunities—and limits—quite different from those encountered by blacks in the urban North.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. African American Los Angeles Before World War II
2. The Great Migration and the Changing Face of Los Angeles
3. The Window of Opportunity: Black Work in Industrial Los Angeles, 1941–1964
4. Race and Housing in Postwar Los Angeles
5. Making the Modern Civil Rights Movement in Los Angeles
6. Black Community Transformation in the 1960s and 1970s
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
List of Captions
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. African American Los Angeles Before World War II
2. The Great Migration and the Changing Face of Los Angeles
3. The Window of Opportunity: Black Work in Industrial Los Angeles, 1941–1964
4. Race and Housing in Postwar Los Angeles
5. Making the Modern Civil Rights Movement in Los Angeles
6. Black Community Transformation in the 1960s and 1970s
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
List of Captions
Index
To Place Our Deeds: The African American Community in Richmond, California, 1910-1963, by Shirley Ann Wilson Moore
The City: Los Angeles and Urban Theory at the End of the Twentieth Century, by Allen J. Scott and Edward W. Soja, editors
The Second Gold Rush: Oakland and the East Bay in World War II, by Marilynn S. Johnson
Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past, by William Deverell
Street Meeting: Multiethnic Neighborhoods in Early Twentieth-Century Los Angeles, by Mark Wild
Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles, by Eric Avila
Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America, by Mary C. Waters
The City: Los Angeles and Urban Theory at the End of the Twentieth Century, by Allen J. Scott and Edward W. Soja, editors
The Second Gold Rush: Oakland and the East Bay in World War II, by Marilynn S. Johnson
Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past, by William Deverell
Street Meeting: Multiethnic Neighborhoods in Early Twentieth-Century Los Angeles, by Mark Wild
Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles, by Eric Avila
Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America, by Mary C. Waters














