South Los Angeles

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South Los Angeles
Region of Los Angeles County
The junction of the 110 and the 105 freeways
South Los Angeles Location in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area
Coordinates: 33°58′50″N 118°17′10″W / 33.98056°N 118.28611°W / 33.98056; -118.28611
Country	United States
State	California
County	Los Angeles
Cities	Los Angeles Compton Inglewood
Unincorporated areas	View Park–Windsor Hills West Athens Westmont Florence-Graham Willowbrook

South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of downtown. It is "defined on Los Angeles city maps as a 16-square-mile (41 km²) rectangle with two prongs at the south end.” In 2003, the Los Angeles City Council renamed this area "South Los Angeles".^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

The name South Los Angeles can also refer to a larger 51-square-mile (130 km²) region that includes areas within the city limits of Los Angeles as well as five unincorporated areas in the southern portion of Los Angeles County.^[6]

The City of Los Angeles delineates the South Los Angeles Community Plan area as an area of 15.5 square miles (40 km²).^[7] Adjacent communities include West Adams, Baldwin Hills, and Leimert Park to the west, and Southeast Los Angeles (the 26-neighborhood area east of the Harbor Freeway) on the east.^[8]

According to the Los Angeles Times Mapping Project, the South Los Angeles region comprises 51 square miles (130 km²), consisting of 25 neighborhoods within the City of Los Angeles as well as three unincorporated neighborhoods in the County of Los Angeles.^[6]

Google Maps delineates a similar area to the Los Angeles Times Mapping Project with notable differences on the western border. On the northwest, it omits a section of Los Angeles west of La Brea Avenue. On the southwest, it includes a section of the City of Inglewood north of Century Boulevard.^[4][a]

According to the Mapping L.A. survey of the Los Angeles Times, the South Los Angeles region consists of the following neighborhoods:^[9]

The roots of South Los Angeles traces back to the beginning of the 20th Century.^[10]

Until the 1920s, the South Los Angeles neighborhood of West Adams was one of the most desirable areas of the City. As the wealthy were building stately mansions in West Adams and Jefferson Park, the White working class was establishing itself in Crenshaw and Hyde Park. Affluent blacks gradually moved into West Adams and Jefferson Park.^[11] As construction along the Wilshire Boulevard corridor gradually increased in the 1920s, the development of the city was drawn west of downtown and away from South Los Angeles.

In the eastern side of South Los Angeles (which the city calls the "Southeastern CPA") roughly east of the Harbor Freeway, the area grew southward in the late 1800s along the ever-longer streetcar routes. Areas north of Slauson Boulevard were mostly built out by the late 1910s, while south of Slauson land was mostly undeveloped, much used by Chinese and Japanese Americans growing produce. In 1903, the farmers were bought out and Ascot Park racetrack was built, which turned into a "den of gambling and drinking". In the late 1910s the park was razed and freed up land for quick build-up of residential and industrial buildings in the 1920s.^[12]

"By 1940, approximately 70 percent of the black population of Los Angeles was confined to the Central Avenue corridor"; the area of modest bungalows and low-rise commercial buildings along Central Avenue emerged as the heart of the black community in southern California.^[2] Originally, the city's black community was concentrated around what is now Little Tokyo, but began moving south after 1900.^[12] It had one of the first jazz scenes in the western U.S., with trombonist Kid Ory a prominent resident.^[13] Under racially restrictive covenants, blacks were allowed to own property only within the "Slauson Box" (the area bounded by Main, Slauson, Alameda, and Washington) and in Watts, as well as in small enclaves elsewhere in the city.^[11] The working- and middle-class blacks who poured into Los Angeles during the Great Depression and in search of jobs during World War II found themselves penned into what was becoming a severely overcrowded neighborhood. During the war, blacks faced such dire housing shortages that the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles built the virtually all-black and Latino Pueblo Del Rio project, designed by Richard Neutra.^[14]

During this time, African Americans remained a minority alongside whites, Asians, and Hispanics; but by the 1930s those groups moved out of the area, African Americans continued to move in, and eastern South LA became majority black. Whites in previously established communities south of Slauson, east of Alameda and west of San Pedro streets persecuted blacks moving beyond established "lines", and thus blacks became effectively restricted to the area in between.^[12]

The black mutual protection clubs that formed in response to these assaults became the basis of the region's street gangs.^[15]

As in most urban areas, 1950s freeway construction radically altered the geography of southern Los Angeles. Freeway routes tended to reinforce traditional segregation lines.^[16]

Beginning in the 1970s, the rapid decline of the area's manufacturing base resulted in a loss of the jobs that had allowed skilled union workers to enjoy a middle-class lifestyle.^[17] Downtown Los Angeles' service sector, which had long been dominated by unionized African Americans earning relatively fair wages, replaced most black workers with newly arrived Mexican and Central American immigrants.^[11]

Widespread unemployment, poverty and street crime contributed to the rise of street gangs in South Central, such as the Crips and the Bloods. The gangs became even more powerful with money coming in from drugs, especially the crack cocaine trade that was dominated by gangs in the 1980s.^[15]

Paul Feldman of the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1989:

Leaders of the black community regret the branding of a large, predominantly black sector of the city as South-Central, saying it amounts to a subtle form of racial stereotyping.^[18]

He added that they believed such "distinctive neighborhoods" as Leimert Park, Lafayette Square and the Crenshaw District were "well-removed" from South Central.^[18]

In 1992, this area was at the center of the Los Angeles Riots, also known as the Los Angeles Uprising, which were sparked after an all-White jury acquitted Los Angeles Police Department officers who were on trial for the videotaped police brutality of Rodney King.^[5][10]

By the early 2010s, the crime rate of South Los Angeles had declined significantly. Redevelopment, improved police patrol, community-based peace programs, gang intervention work, and youth development organizations lowered the murder and crime rates to levels that had not been seen since the 1940s and 1950s. Nevertheless, South Los Angeles was still known for its gangs at the time.^[19] After leading the nation in homicides again in 2002, the City Council of Los Angeles voted to change the name South Central Los Angeles to South Los Angeles on all city documents in 2003, a move supporters said would "help erase a stigma that has dogged the southern part of the city."^[20][21]

On August 11, 2014, just two days after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a resident of South L.A., Ezell Ford, described as "a mentally ill 25-year-old man," was fatally shot by two Los Angeles police officers (see Shooting of Ezell Ford).^[22] Since then, a number of protests focused on events in Ferguson have taken place in South Los Angeles.^[23][24]

After the 2008 economic recession, housing prices in South Los Angeles recovered significantly, and by 2018, many had come to see South Los Angeles as a prime target for gentrification amid rising real estate values.^[25] Residents and activists are against market-rate housing as they have concerns that these projects will encourage landlords to sell, redevelop their properties or jack up rents. Under California law, cities can't reject residential projects based on these criticisms if the project complies with applicable planning and zoning rules.^[26] The construction of the K Line light rail through the neighborhood has stimulated the building of denser multistory projects, especially around the new stations. The NFL Stadium in Inglewood also encourages gentrification according to activists.^[27]

Real estate values in South Los Angeles were further bolstered by news that Los Angeles will host the 2028 Olympics, with many of the games to be hosted on or near the USC campus.^[28]

Crime in South Los Angeles has increased significantly with the COVID-19 pandemic. Recession caused by the pandemic sparked gang warfare that rivalled all-time high statistics, with homicide figures similar to those of late 1990s to early-to-mid 2000s.^[29][30]

By the end of the 1980s, South Los Angeles had an increasing number of Hispanics and Latinos, mostly in the northeastern section of the region.^[31]

According to scholars, "Between 1970 and 1990 the South LA area went from 80% African American and 9% Latino to 50.3% African American and 44% Latino."^[32]

Many African Americans from South Los Angeles have moved to Palmdale and Lancaster in the Antelope Valley.^[33] South Los Angeles has received immigrants from Mexico and Central America.^[34]

According to the city's "2014 South Los Angeles Community Plan Area Demographic Profile",^[7] South Los Angeles had a population of 271,040 residents with the following racial and ethnic balance: Race: Asian - 4.9%, White - 21.4%, African-American - 28.7%, Other Race - 39.4%. Ethnicity (Hispanic or Latino Origin by Race): Not Hispanic or Latino - 39%, Hispanic or Latino - 61%. According to the census, for the category of "race", respondents self-identified as one of the following: White, African-American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Some Other Race, or Two or More Races. For the category of "ethnicity", they self-identified as either "Hispanic or Latino" or "Not Hispanic or Latino".

According to the 2000 United States census, Mexican and Unspecified African were the most common ancestries. Mexico and El Salvador are the most common foreign places of birth.^[35]

South Los Angeles is home to the University of Southern California, a private research university in the University Park neighborhood. It is California's oldest private research university.^[36]

The following LAUSD schools fall within the boundaries of South Los Angeles.

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

• Vontaze Burfict

• Rosemarie Allen (born 1950), American academic specialized in diversity, equity, and inclusion

• Frederick K. C. Price (South Los Angeles)—founder and pastor of Crenshaw Christian Center

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the South Health Center in Watts, Los Angeles, serving South Los Angeles.^[39]

• History of Mexican Americans in Los Angeles
• Cholo (subculture)

• Renwick, Lucille. "COVER STORY: THE MYTH OF South-Central: More a Stereotype Than a Place, It Is Defined By Ethnicity and Negative Media Images Rather Than Street Boundaries". Los Angeles Times. January 3, 1993.
• Kotkin, Joel (contributing editor of Opinion section) "COMMUNITY: Latinization of South Los Angeles" (Opinion). Los Angeles Times. May 28, 1995.

• South Los Angeles travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Media related to South Los Angeles at Wikimedia Commons
• Image of the Vessels of Christ Ministry Choir in South Central Los Angeles, California, 1986. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
• Image of South Central residents demonstrating against crime, Los Angeles, California, 1983. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
• Black Experiences of Latinization and Loss in South Los Angeles