Contact Info Yusef Omowale "Generations" Project Director Ph: (323) 759-6063 Email: archives@socallib.org (put Generations in the subject line)

Telling Untold Stories
The overarching story of South Los Angeles is that it is a place called home to thousands of people. They are born or move here, go to school, make friends, grow up, try to make a living, raise a family, navigate neighborhood life, and participate in community groups and organizations. It is a place that matters to the people who live here or have lived here at different times. These experiences are the basis of South L.A.’s rich and complex history.

The people of South L.A. have created vibrant neighborhoods and have a long history of banding together to find solutions to pressing concerns. But you wouldn't know that from t.v., the movies, or the newspapers. The stories that the mainstream media chooses to show about South L.A. focus on crimes, drugs, and gangs, playing into negative stereotypes.

A multiracial troop of Bluebirds meets at the Evening Star Baptist Church in South Los Angeles circa 1950. From SCL's Archives.

“From Generation to Generation: Making a Life in South Los Angeles, 1940–2005” is a community history project of the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research under the California Council for the Humanities Communities Speak program. “Generations” tells the real story of the area’s distinctive neighborhoods and communities through the voices of several generations of Black, White, Asian, and Latino community members who, together, have created the history of this part of Los Angeles.

In the words of Mike Amezcua, a college student who grew up in South L.A.:

“All I could see down my neighborhood streets were liquor stores and churches, not very many options for an active youth. Now in my early twenties, I realize that the deeper I look into the community that raised me, the more treasures I find. Whether speaking with the elders who have lived here for a lifetime or conversing with young kids on the basketball courts, I started gaining more from my own community.”

The “Generations” project is helping to uncover these treasures and the untold stories of South Los Angeles in the words of the people who live here.

See a guide to the Library's resources on South Los Angeles (PDF)

See a guide to the Library's resources on art and culture in South Los Angeles (PDF)

See the Library's website on Charlotta Bass, a pioneering newspaper publisher and civil rights crusader who lived and worked in South L.A.

About the Project and the Southern California Library
“Generations” is a community heritage project of the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research. It is one of eight projects in the Communities Speak Program, launched by the California Council for the Humanities in April 2003, under its California Stories initiative. In keeping with the Library’s mission of using history to advance social justice, the goal of the project is to engage residents of South Los Angeles in defining and interpreting their own community’s history. The Library’s Director Yusef Omowale is leading the project.

A reading group led by community organizers MY LUCHA meets at the Library

About the Library. The Southern California Library is a vital community resource in the heart of Los Angeles dedicated to education for social change. The Library offers unique and accessible collections and programs on Southern California’s social and progressive history. We engage people across generations in using history to advance social justice. The “Generations” project expands on some of the themes explored in the Library’s Working South Central project, a series of panel discussions in 2000 that examined employment, economic development and other work-related issues in this community, and the 1998 South Central Documentation project, a Library initiative that gathered oral history, yearbooks, church bulletins, photographs, clippings and organizational literature documenting churches, groups, schools, individuals and neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles.

About Communities Speak. The California Council for the Humanities’ Communities Speak projects are engaging a broad range of people in story-based activities designed to strengthen communities. They will take place in different California communities over the next two to three years and address a variety of pressing community issues, including affordable housing, environmental degradation, ethnic and generational tensions, and longstanding unemployment.

Communities Speak grants are made possible by funds provided to the Council from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the James Irvine Foundation, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, and the Wells Fargo Foundation. Four community foundations--California Community Foundation, Marin Community Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, and Santa Barbara Foundation-- are lending significant support to projects in their areas. The “Generations” project is supported in part by a grant from the California Community Foundation. Founded in 1915, the California Community Foundation makes grants to nonprofit organizations serving the communities of Los Angeles County. It is also supported in part by the Diane Middleton Foundation.

Read Press Releases:

• Project Launch
  
• Website Launch
  
• "South L.A. on Film" video and discussion series
  
• Job and a Home Community Dialogue
  
• Arts and Culture Panel
  
• Zoot Suit to Hip Hop Film Series
  
• Fighting for Justice but Forgetting the Poor Community Dialogue

Read an article (in Spanish) on the Library and the project that ran in La Opinión.

Activities and Events
Activities and events in the “Generations” project will take place in 2003, 2004, and 2005 and will bring people together to explore key themes:

• Naming and Claiming the Community
  
• Making a Living
  
• Growing Up
  
• Making Things Better

Current and former community members--those who presently live, work, run a business, or attend school in South Los Angeles or have done so in the past--of all ages and races will tell their stories through community dialogue sessions, panels, and townhall meetings on these themes.

Other activities will include:

• Film series on South L.A. followed by discussions
  
• “Collection days,” where photos, yearbooks, clippings, and other materials on South L.A. will be gathered and preserved at SCL
  
• Oral history interviews
  
• Photo and art exhibits
  

Men from South Los Angeles sign a petition urging the May Company, a Los Angeles department store, to end discrimination in hiring. From SCL's California Eagle photo collection.

“Generations” officially kicked off in August 2003 with the launch of a film series introducing the themes that the project is exploring further. The films showed on Saturdays at the Library. More...

We also had a reading and book signing with Nina Revoyr, author of the acclaimed book Southland. More...

On April 17, 2004, South L.A. youth and elders shared stories about working and living in South L.A. More...

We had a great day of culture on July 31, 2004. The Library hosted a panel discussion about art, film, and other cultural expressions that have reflected and shaped community life in South L.A. More...

From Saturday, August 14, 2004, and continuing every other Saturday through September 25, 2004, we held our Zoot Suit to Hip Hop video and discussion series. More...

We held a dynamic community dialogue on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 featuring stories of what it's like to be poor, homeless, and active but left behind by the progressive agenda.  More...

How to Get Involved
There are several ways you can be a part of this exciting--and important--project.

• Share your story. If you live, work, or attend school in South Los Angeles--or have in the past--and want to share your story, we want to hear from you.

• Share your South L.A. documents. There will be several “Collection days,” where we'll ask people to bring in photos, yearbooks, clippings, and other materials on South L.A.

• Come to an event. The general public is invited to all the events and activities taking place as part of the “Generations” project, all of which will be free of charge.

If you are interested in participating in any of these ways, or would like to sign up to be on the "Generations" update list, call the Library's Director and “Generations” Project Leader Yusef Omowale at (323) 759-6063 or send an email to archives@socallib.org with Generations in the subject line. You can also check this website to find out about events.

Contact Info
Yusef Omowale
"Generations" Project Director
Ph: (323) 759-6063
Email: archives@socallib.org
(put Generations in the subject line)

Community Partners
SCL is working with a variety of community partners to carry out the “Generations” project, including:

All Peoples Christian Center: Established in 1942, a nonprofit, non-sectarian, multi-cultural, multi-service agency located in South Central Los Angeles

Community Coalition: A grass-roots neighborhood organization dedicated to community involvement, advocacy, leadership development, and education and training

KJLH 102.3 FM: A local Black-owned and operated radio station, with a commitment to presenting news and information that affects its audience

Manual Arts High School: Located at 4131 S. Vermont Avenue and established in 1910, one of Los Angeles’ oldest high schools and the oldest school on the same site in the Los Angeles Unified School District

MY LUCHA: (Minds Yearning Lives United through Community History & Arte): A non-profit organization whose goal is to bring educational and artistic programs to South Central Los Angeles youth

Occidental College: A private, liberal-arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles that partners through its Center for Community-Based Learning with SCL to offer a Community History Practicum for its students

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Website created by Alexis Moreno and Michele Welsing. Translation into Spanish courtesy of delia herrera.