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Oakwood: exploring the tangible & intangible resources of a “Black ethnic enclave” in Venice, California–early 1900s through 1960s

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Oakwood: exploring the tangible & intangible resources of a “Black ethnic enclave” in Venice, California–early 1900s through 1960s

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OAKWOOD:
EXPLORING THE TANGIBLE & INTANGIBLE
RESOURCES OF A “BLACK ETHNIC ENCLAVE” IN
VENICE, CALIFORNIA–EARLY 1900s THROUGH 1960s

by

Rita Y. Cofield

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF HERITAGE CONSERVATION

May 2021

Copyright 2021 Rita Y. Cofield
ii

This work is dedicated to my sister Lisa who cared for me during the home stretch more
than I will be able to repay. And to my mother, Willena Boss, who did not make it to see its
completion but with eager anticipation was (and still is) my cheerleader. Through this story, I tell
hers. Like the Black pioneers of Venice, she succeeded in fulfilling the familiar Black American
dream of leaving the racism of the South (with six children), finding a decent paying job (as a
nurse), helping more than one child financially (with college), and owning her own home (in
Watts, California.). Lastly, I dedicate this thesis to all the Black ethnic enclaves still striving for
recognition, respect, and equal access.

“This tract is exclusive and restricted,” circa September 28, 1950, Los Angeles. Photographed by
Irving C. Smith. Photo courtesy of Charlotta Bass / California Eagle Photograph Collection,
Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research; file name scl-mss064-0193~1.tiff
(http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll102/id/889).
iii

Acknowledgements

I am filled with deep gratitude for the support and encouragement received from family,
friends, colleagues, and professors from the moment I began to talk about my thesis topic to the
time I turned it in. Thank you to my circle of encouraging friends / my anchors who didn’t just
pretend to be interested, but really wanted me to finish, to the point that they set daily check-ins
and even bought me a new computer so that there were no interruptions.
I would like to thank Professor Starr who told me to relax, read up on the things I
enjoyed, and I would gain clarity. One week later, I had a more focused topic that I remained
excited about. He gave undivided attention during his office hours and always challenged me to
let the evidence speak for itself. He encouraged me to give purpose to my research beyond the
requirements of my degree and always had time to chat despite his busy schedule. May he rest in
power. Many thanks go to the members of my thesis committee who gave valuable feedback
despite tight deadlines that I imposed upon them. Thank you to my chair, Ken Breisch, who
balanced patience with critique; my committee member Trudi Sandmeier who provided
consistent encouragement and necessary direction; to Diane Ghirardo who added invaluable
feedback despite her busy schedule; and to Vittoria Di Palma for pinch-hitting in the final hours.
Thank you to the Charles E. Young Library and their special collections at UCLA. Thank you to
the librarians at the Santa Monica and Venice library who did what librarians do best: give
valuable information that you didn’t think to ask for and save that information until you return.
Thank you to the library staff of my favorite South Los Angeles library, the Southern California
Library – where valuable social and political resources are housed. They provided me with
several boxes of valuable resources including the notes and compilations by Charlotta Bass.
Special thanks to Venice librarian Rachel Bindman, who saw my distress over irreplaceable
historic journals that were missing from the library and put me in touch with Mrs. Marie Branch
(also special thanks), who right away made calls to residents still living in Oakwood that were
connected to the founding pioneers and set up interviews. Not only did Mrs. Branch join me, but
she made personal inquiries that added to my research, and unknowingly kept me on track during
my interviews. Thank you to Betsy Goldman who passed all her resources to me, including
interviews with Oakwood residents that have since passed away.
iv

I would like to thank most of all the Oakwood family. Thank you to Mr. Chester Powell –
what an amazing journey he took to get here – and his wonderful daughters Patricia, Charlotte,
and Michelle, who generously shared their personal and family histories of living in Oakwood
without hesitation. Thank you to the families of the Oakwood pioneers: to Mr. John Q. Tabor Jr.
for the hours of conversation about Oakwood and things everyone should know about life from
an eighty-year-old (at the time); to Frances Tabor, and Joan and Robert Huff, who without their
details my research would have been simply broad strokes; to Alvin Chrisman for generously
hosting the conversation with his family; and to Sonya Reese Greenland for her confirmation of
information and generous approval to use her family’s photos.

Ubuntu.

x

Table of Contents

Dedication ......................................................................................................................................ii
Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... iii
List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. xii
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................xiii
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................1
“Ethnic Enclaves” vs Other Ethnic Communities ..........................................................................6
Chapter 1. Venice Development to 1960s ................................................................................. 12
Arrival of Spanish ......................................................................................................................... 12
Development of Land Grants ........................................................................................................ 12
Rancho La Ballona ........................................................................................................... 12
Boca De Santa Monica - United States Territory ............................................................. 14
South Santa Monica .......................................................................................................... 16
Ocean Park ....................................................................................................................... 17
South Ocean Park (Ocean Park Heights)/”Venice of America” ...................................... 18
Abbot Kinney’s Death to 1960s .................................................................................................... 25

Chapter 2. Black Los Angeles to 1960s ..................................................................................... 29
Early Migration ............................................................................................................................. 29
Origins and Evolution of the ”Racing of Space” .......................................................................... 34
Slave Codes ....................................................................................................................... 35
Black Codes ...................................................................................................................... 35
Jim Crow ........................................................................................................................... 36
Racial Zoning .................................................................................................................... 37
Racial Covenants .............................................................................................................. 39
Redlining ........................................................................................................................... 40
Urban Renewal and Disinvestment ................................................................................... 42
Gentrification .................................................................................................................... 43
Identifying an “Ethnic Enclave” ................................................................................................... 43

Chapter 3. Oakwood as “Black Ethnic Enclave” ..................................................................... 49
Development ................................................................................................................................. 49
Pioneering Residents ..................................................................................................................... 55
Arthur Reese and Family .................................................................................................. 55
Irving/Irvin Tabor and Family .......................................................................................... 63
Chester Powell .................................................................................................................. 68
Other Pioneering Residents .............................................................................................. 69

xi

Chapter 4. Conservation in the Oakwood enclave ................................................................... 73
SurveyLA Findings ....................................................................................................................... 73
Venice Comprehensive Community Plan ..................................................................................... 75
Current Conservation Challenges in Oakwood ............................................................................. 79
Week Ordinance ................................................................................................................ 79
Strict Preservation Guidelines .......................................................................................... 80
Community Choice ............................................................................................................ 83
Control of Narrative ......................................................................................................... 84
Rebranding/Gentrification ................................................................................................ 85
Solutions to Challenges..................................................................................................... 86
Educate ............................................................................................................................. 86
Stronger Preservation Ordinance ..................................................................................... 87
Equitable Conservation .................................................................................................... 88
Moratorium on Demolitions ............................................................................................. 89
Conservation Districts and Easements ............................................................................. 89

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 90
Summary of Findings .................................................................................................................... 90
Further Research ........................................................................................................................... 93

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 94

Appendices ..................................................................................................................................118
Appendix A – Chart: Venice Housing Stock By Age ..................................................................118
Appendix B – Map: HOLC Security Map for Venice (including Oakwood) ..............................119
Appendix C – Map: HOLC Security Map for South Venice (near canals) .................................120
Appendix D – Map: HOLC Security Map for Santa Monica (including Pico area)....................121
Appendix E – List: Potential Historic Resources in Oakwood by SurveyLA .............................122
Appendix E continued– List: Potential Historic Resources in Oakwood by SurveyLA .............123
Appendix E continued– List: Potential Historic Resources in Oakwood by SurveyLA .............124
Appendix F – List: Oakwood’s Black Residents from City Directory (1907-1933) ...................125

xii

List of Figures

Figure I.1. Map: Current Oakwood Boundaries .............................................................................1
Figure I.2. ca. 1900s Map: “Black Section” of Venice as it Grew .................................................2
Figure I.3. Photo: 1910 Bungalow (renovated exterior) in Oakwood ............................................5
Figure I.4. Photo: 1910 Bungalow (renovated interior) in Oakwood .............................................6
Figure 1.1. Map: Mexican Land Grants (including Venice area) ................................................. 13
Figure 1.2. 1909 Map: Sanborn Fire Insurance Map (Santa Monica area) ................................... 14
Figure 1.3. 1925 Newspaper Advertisement:
Santa Monica/Ocean Park/Venice Development ..................................................................... 16
Figure 1.4. ca. 1909 Photo: “Villa City” ....................................................................................... 20
Figure 1.5. ca. 1900s Photo: Street in Venice ............................................................................... 21
Figure 1.6. 1916 Newspaper Advertisement: “African Dip” Amusement game .......................... 23
Figure 1.7. 1942 Camp Brochure: “Hit the Nigger Baby” at YMCA Camp ................................ 24
Figure 1.8. Photo: 1937 Oil Derricks Behind Venice House ........................................................ 26
Figure 2.1. 1930s Map: Home Owners Loan Corporation Security Map (L.A. area) .................. 41
Figure 3.1 1900s Map: Current Boundaries of Oakwood ............................................................. 50
Figure 3.2. Photo: Arthur Reese Jr. and His Day-worker Crew in Front of Villa City ................ 56
Figure 3.3. Photo: Arthur Reese Jr. and His Day-worker Crew
at Opening of “Venice of America” in Front of Villa City ..................................................... 57
Figure 3.4. Photo: Arthur Reese Jr. and Shoe-shine Crew
in Front of Gordon Day-Work Company................................................................................. 58
Figure 3.5. Photo: Arthur Reese’s First Residence (555 Westminster Ave.) ............................... 60
Figure 3.6. Photo: Small cottage at rear of 555 Westminster Ave. .............................................. 61
Figure 3.7. Photo: Arthur Reese’s Second Residence (541 Santa Clara Ave.) ............................ 62
Figure 3.8. Photo: Cosmo Club and Temporary Housing
for Black Canal Workers Near Canal Number One................................................................. 66
Figure 3.9. Photo: Cosmo Club/Tabor Residence moved to Oakwood ........................................ 66
Figure 3.10. Photo: Oakwood Neighbors/Families Gather together at residence in Oakwood .... 70

xiii

Abstract

Of the three historic Black ethnic enclaves located along the Southern California coast, only
Oakwood – a community tucked away in the planned vacation and exclusively White community
of Venice during the early 1900s – remains. Although there were no racially restrictive
covenants on the properties within the Venice area, strategies of racial separation made a distinct
and indelible mark (both positive and negative) on the “ethnic enclave” of Oakwood. The author
utilizes first person oral interviews, newspapers, and scholarly articles to reinsert Oakwood into
the larger context of early “Black ethnic enclaves” within Southern California and challenging
underlying assumptions about its place in history. This thesis will explore the de facto “racing of
space” in early Oakwood, how its Black residents responded, the tangible and intangible cultural
evidence left behind, and the challenges faced in conserving this place in the face of ongoing
gentrification.

1

Introduction

The neighborhood of Oakwood today is a 1.4 square mile area located in the city of
Venice, California, bounded by Rose (east), Hampton Drive and Electric Avenue (south and
southeast respectively), California Avenue (east), and Lincoln Boulevard (north). (Figure I.1)
Abbot Kinney, a tobacco magnate turned real estate tycoon founded Venice in 1904 and opened
his “Venice of America” on July 4, 1905. Kinney governed the bourgeoning small town with
paternal care until his death in 1920. Venice was incorporated as a separate city in 1911 and
became one of the most popular vacation resorts along the Southern California coast in the early
twentieth century. Kinney’s “Venice of America” developed blocks from an undeveloped (and
un-named), marshy area. This area, free of restrictive racial covenants, would become known as
Oakwood where Black servants, maids, cooks, skilled laborers, and chauffeurs like Irving Tabor
created a community of their own.

Figure I.1: Map of Venice, California with color code for each neighborhood. Base map created by CJ Cole.
Courtesy of Venice Beach Living, The Agency. https://venicedigs.com/neighborhoods/.
2

When the first Black residents moved into Venice around 1904 it was still a part of Ocean
Park, whose boundaries lay north of the Pacific Electric tracks (Electric Avenue), on
Westminster Avenue (previously Fredonia Street) and San Juan and Santa Clara Avenues,
between Fourth Avenue (previously Fourth Street) and Seventh Avenue (previously Ballona
Avenue).
1
Soon, the “Black” boundary expanded to include Brooks Avenue (moving westward),
California Avenue (moving eastward), and a small part of Lincoln Boulevard (extending
westward). (Figure I.2) According to a Los Angeles City Planning Department document, a
small “Negro” community grew as Venice expanded, but always within proximity to its initial
boundaries.
2
It is clear that Blacks came to Venice in the early 1900s for employment and low-

1
Adler, History of the Venice Area, 20; Jacqueline Leavitt and Novelette Tabor, The History of the Naming of Tabor
Courts, (N.p.: Venice Community Housing Corporation, 1996). See Chapter 3 for details on early residents.
2
Patricia Adler, Department of City Planning – Los Angeles, A History of the Venice Area, 1969; Jacqueline Leavitt
and Novelette Tabor, The History of the Naming of Tabor Courts, (N.p.: Venice Community Housing Corporation,
1996).
Figure I.2: Map of “Black section” in Venice as it grew. Adapted from The History of the Naming of
Tabor Courts. Venice Community Housing Corporation, 1996 by Jacqueline Leavitt and
Novelette Tabor.

Author Jacqueline Leavitt with help from Novelette Tabor.
ORIGINAL “BLACK
BOUNDARY”
3

cost housing, but how Oakwood became known as the “Negro” section is still rather vague since
the neighborhood also had a mix of ethnicities.
3

From 1904 to his death in 1920, Abbot Kinney controlled Venice’s development and
made certain that it had a community and pedestrian-friendly feel. Venice was beyond the noise,
pollution, and overcrowding of the city of Los Angeles, yet accessible to its municipal benefits
via electric urban street cars. Its early residents were not commuting to outlying cities for work;
instead, they were summer vacationers, working and living in Venice with and for the Abbot
Kinney Company, or they owned businesses along the pier. The Blacks of Oakwood were
socially, and in some cases financially, equal to their White neighbors despite their positions as
domestic service workers and laborers. They contributed to the life of Venice through their
service, entrepreneurship, homeownership, and citizenry and left behind both tangible and
intangible cultural resources.
4

The following are terms repeatedly used throughout this paper that are generalized or
taken for granted and must be clearly defined in the context of this thesis. “Ethnic enclaves” is a
term borrowed from the work of scholars who continue to debate the origins of communities of
color. For the sake of this paper the term ethnic enclave refers to residential communities built on
social processes cultivated within the constraints of segregation, explained in the paragraphs to
follow.
5
The term “racing of space” is borrowed from authors such as Robert Weyeneth, who use
the term to refer to the systematic exclusion of where people lived based on the color of their
skin and/or their ethnic origin.
6
The terms “Race” leaders, “Race” papers, or “Race” men and

3
Note: the mention of a section being roped off as a “servants” zone in the Tuscaloosa Newspaper, January 16,
1994 could not be verified. Also see Jeremy Divinity, “A Tale of Two Venice’s: Before There Was Dogtown, There
Was Oakwood,” https://knock-la.com/venice-oakwood-black-neighborhood-history-a270785f0a04 (accessed Jan. 1,
2021).
4
San Francisco Planning Department: Cultural Heritage, “Safeguarding our cultural heritage helps sustain the
traditions, businesses, arts, and practices that construct the City's social and economic fabric: Cultural Heritage
Components,” https://sfplanning.org/cultural-heritage (accessed April 10, 2012).
5
John R. Logan, Wenquan Zhang, and Richard D. Alba, “Immigrant Enclaves and Ethnic Communities in New
York and Los Angeles,” American Sociological Review 67, no. 2 (Apr., 2002): 299-322,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3088897 (accessed Feb., 21, 2014).
6
Robert R. Weyeneth, “The Architecture of Racial Segregation: The Challenges of Preserving the Problematical
Past,” The Public Historian 27, no. 4 (Fall 2005):12, doi: 10.1525/tph.2005.27.4.11 (accessed Feb 24, 2014).
4

women refer to Blacks who took outward pride in their ethnic heritage.
7
The author places
racially restrictive covenants under the umbrella of “private” Jim Crow laws.
8
This is to
distinguish it from legislated segregation (“Jim Crow”) which was used to regulate public
transportation, education, marriages, and laws between private citizens when conducting private
property and business transactions. The term “colonial apartheid” is defined as the system of
racial segregation enforced by legislation rooted in racial superiority and cultivated during the
European colonization of the Americas that led to the “racing of space.”
9
Lastly, the use of the
word “racism” refers to the systematic practice of the belief that some races are biologically,
morally, and intellectually inferior to others; and to the institutionalized discrimination of an
entire culture or race based on prejudgments.
10

Oakwood is one of many enclaves created by the "racing of space." Today it is no longer
in decline or controlled by racial prejudices. Today Venice and the Oakwood area are slowly
being transformed by movie stars such as Fiona Apple, Emilia Clarke from “Game of Thrones,”
as well as a host of Hollywood producers, trendy clothing stores, and upscale restaurants.
Architecture by icons such as Frank Gehry and Steven Ehrlich have replaced modest cottage
homes. State-of-the-art million-dollar residences, artists’ studios, and commercial structures
continue to draw the wealthy to the former “Slum by the Sea.”
11
There are a few vernacular
beach cottages that were once owned and built by Black working-class service workers and

7
Douglas Flamming, Bound for freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2005), 26,27; Rick Moss, “Not Quite Paradise: The Development of the African American
Community in Los Angeles Through 1950,” California History, 75, no 3 (Oct 1996): 228,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25177595?origin=JSTOR-pdf (accessed March 26, 2012).
8
Marc Seitles, “The Perpetuation of Residential Racial Segregation In America: Historical Discrimination, Modern
Forms of Exclusion, and Inclusionary Remedies,” Journal of Land Use & Environmental Law (1996), Chapter II,
section D, http://www.law.fsu.edu/journals/landuse/vol141/seit.htm (accessed June 20, 2013); W.L. Fleming,
Documentary History of Reconstruction, vol. 1 (Cleveland, 1906), 281, in Stanley J. Folmsbee, “The Origin of the
First ‘Jim Crow’ Law,” Journal of Southern History 15, no. 2 (May 1949): 235,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2197999?origin=JSTOR-pdf (accessed April 27, 2012); Note: “Jim Crow” was a term
thought to have originated in the 1830s with a White minstrel performer who created a blackface character by the
same name and used to portray Blacks as bumbling fools by the 1850s. As early as 1877, Jim Crow was associated
with the institutionalization of racial separation;
9
A. J. Christopher, “’Divide and Rule’: The Impress of British Separation Policies,” Area 20, no. 3 (Sept., 1988):
233-240, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20002624 (accessed Oct., 22, 2012); Ambe J. Njoh, “Colonial Philosophies,
Urban Space, and Racial Segregation in British and French Colonia Africa,” Journal of Black Studies, 38, no. 4
(March, 2008): 579-599, http://online.sagepub.com (accessed March 12, 2012).
10
Flamming, Bound for freedom, 10.
11
Andrew Deener, Venice: A Contested Bohemia in Los Angeles (Chicago and London: University of Chicago
Press, 2012), 20.
5

laborers left but they are being razed to make room for the aforementioned.
12
Those that are left
are being significantly altered, stripped of their integrity, unrecognizable as contributors to the
most popular beachside vacation resort along the Pacific Coast in the early twentieth century and
to the Black enclave that helped build it. (Figure I.3, I.4, Appendix A) This is a gentrification at
its worst – the lack of integration of culture and values of the existing neighborhood and the
pressure to push out generations of homeowners.
13

12
See Chapter 3 for list of properties once owned by Oakwood’s Black residents in the early 1900s.
13
Note: Gentrification grows from the word “gentry”, which means elite, nobility, or upper class. The term
gentrification was first used in the 1960s by Ruth Glass, a British sociologist. She used the word to describe the
haphazard inflow of the upper class into a working-class neighborhood in London’s West End.
Figure I.3: Exterior view of a 1910 renovated bungalow in Venice. 665 Broadway St. before sale. Photo
courtesy of Redfin Real Estate. https://www.redfin.com/CA/Venice/665-Broadway-St-90291/home/6742048.
6

“Ethnic Enclaves” vs Other Ethnic Communities
The work written about “ethnic enclaves” has grown more popular as the causes for their
existence are challenged and/or clarified. In the context of this paper, ethnic enclaves are small
homogeneous communities rooted in the history of segregation, and where legal exclusion, force,
or accepted social mechanisms helped shape the environment for people of color. Although these
homogenous communities may have a sprinkling of other races, they are unlike “ethnic
communities,” “all-Black towns,” “cities of color,” or “immigrant enclaves.”
14

"All-Black towns” and “ethnic communities” were built on a model of self-segregation
and resistance to assimilation. These enclaves created self-sustaining environments and took an
active role in the political and economic development of their area, like the town of Seaside in
Monterey, California post WWII.
15
Other examples of “all-Black towns” include pre-WWII

14
Logan, “Immigrant Enclaves and Ethnic Communities in New York and Los Angeles.”
15
Carol L. McKibbon, “Race and Color in A California Coastal Community: The Seaside Story,” Blackpast,
http://www.blackpast.org/perspectives/race-and-color-california-coastal-community-seaside-story (accessed Nov. 1,
2014).
Figure I.4: Interior view of 1910 renovated bungalow in Venice. 665 Broadway St. before sale. Photo courtesy
of Redfin Real Estate. https://www.redfin.com/CA/Venice/665-Broadway-St-90291/home/6742048.
7

neighborhoods financed, founded, and governed by Race leaders. These townships contained
Black-owned and operated businesses, a school district, post office specifically for their race, and
even their own theater. The first organized all-Black town was in Edwardsville, Illinois. It was
founded by a sympathetic White Virginia migrant, Edward Coles (future governor of Illinois) in
1819. Coles resettled seventeen of the enslaved peoples he freed and gave each male head of the
family 160 acres of farmland. Without tools or the financial resources to sustain themselves the
community failed.
16
There was the all-Black settlement of wealthy Black families who built
homes, erected a school, and organized the first Black baseball and amusement park on land
owned by James Furlong, an Irish landowner in Los Angeles in 1905. The Furlong Tract was
located south of Downtown Los Angeles, between 50th and 51st Streets, and Alameda and Long
Beach Avenue.
17
Some all-Black towns were founded by freed Blacks called freedmen’s towns.
America's oldest freedmen’s town was in Brooklyn (later named), Illinois. The township began
when eleven families consisting of free Blacks and fugitive slaves, led by “Mother” Priscilla
Baltimore, squatted on Illinois soil around 1829.
18
A well-known freedmen’s town was the
Allensworth Colony. It was a middle-class farming community in the San Joaquin Valley that
received financing from Pacific Farming Company, a sympathetic White investment company. It
was founded in 1908 by a former slave, military hero, and former Los Angeles resident, Allen
Allensworth.
19
Another well-known freedmen’s town is the Freedmen’s Town Historic District
in the Fourth Ward in Houston, Texas.
20

“Cities of color” can be biracial communities like the one in New Philadelphia founded
in 1836 by Free Frank McWorter, a former slave who purchased his and his family’s freedom
and started a community where all races were welcomed.
21
“Brick Block” that surrounded Biddy

16
Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, America's first Black town: Brooklyn, Illinois, 1830-1915 (Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 2000), 34.
17
U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Services, National Register of Historic Places: Historic Resources
Associated with African Americans in Los Angeles, February 11, 2009: Section E, 3,
https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/afam/2010/Cover-AfricanAmericansinLA.pdf (accessed February 5, 2013); Cecilia
Rasmussen, “Honoring L.A.’s Black Founders,” Los Angeles Times, February 13, 1995,
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-02-13-me-31591-story.html (accessed March 10, 2013).
18
Cha-Jua, America's first Black town, 1.
19
Quintard Taylor, In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the West, 1528-1990 (New York: W.W.
Norton & Company, 1999), 207; Lawrence B Graaf, Kevin Mulroy, and Quintard Taylor, ed., Seeking El Dorado
(Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2001), 153-173.
20
U.S. Department of the Interior. National Register Department Texas Historical Commission, National Register of
Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form for Freedmen’s Town Historic District, Huston Texas,” Jan. 1984.
21
Cha-Jua, America's first Black town, 34, 35.
8

Mason’s property in the Downtown Los Angeles area in the 1890s also began as a racially mixed
ethnic enclave. White ethnic immigrants and people of color worked and lived within proximity
of one another with little racial tension.
22
The former Avila Family Rancho in Abila, or
“Mudtown,” located south of Watts in Los Angeles was home to various ethnicities. Twelve of
the thirty-seven lots were open to Blacks.
23

“Immigrant enclaves” is another term used to describe all-ethnic or majority-ethnic
neighborhoods. In immigrant enclaves, immigrants are drawn to the familiar in order to prepare
for assimilation. Scholars such as John Logan explain that immigrants who share the same
customs, language, and the same ethnic make-up are drawn together because of “spatial
assimilation,” which involves choice as a means of enhancing economic social, political and/or
cultural development that support an ethnic infrastructure (churches, shops, organizations, etc.);
or economic constraints, as the unskilled and impoverished laborer lacks the social and economic
resources to live elsewhere.
24
People from Southern Italy, Poland, or the Eastern Austro-
Hungarian Empire who settled in dilapidated housing usually near their entry point formed
immigrant enclaves.
25
This is not the case for Blacks who formed ethnic enclaves in America in
the early twentieth century. Blacks living in ethnic enclaves did not choose to live in
homogenous neighborhoods like other enclaves, nor did they lack the resources to support their
choices. Turn-of-the-century ethnic neighborhoods tucked within all-White, Anglo-Protestant
communities in North America were the direct result of housing patterns caused by the “racing
of space,” whether the neighborhoods were organically formed or intentionally designed. In
response to a long history of spatial control, Black ethnic enclaves took shape after slavery was
officially abolished in 1863. The nation’s racially motivated attitudes intensified after the era of

22
Darnell Hunt and Ana-Christina Ramon, ed., Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities (New
York: New York University Press, 2010), 30-34.
23
Josh Sides, LA City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present (Berkeley,
Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2006, 2003), 19; MaryEllen Bell Ray, The City of Watts,
California, 1907 to 1926 (United States: Rising Pub., 1985), 15, 34, 45; Gorden M. Bakken, African American
Communities in California, in Encyclopedia of Immigration and Migration in the American West, vol 1 (Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage Reference, 2006).
24
Logan, “Immigrant Enclaves and Ethnic Communities in New York and Los Angeles.”
25
Ibid.; Leah P. Boustan, “Racial Residential Segregation in American Cities,” National Bureau of Economic
Research (May 2013): 218-339, http://www.econ.ucla.edu/lboustan/research_pdfs/research13_handbook.pdf
(accessed June 30, 2011); Alejandro Portes and Robert D. Manning, “The Immigrant Enclave: Theory and Empirical
Examples,” in Inequality Classic Readings in Race, Class, and Gender, David Grusky (New York: Routledge, 2006)
51-55, http://www.nyu.edu/classes/jackson/analysis.of.inequality/Readings/Portes%20-%20Immigrant%20Enclave-
Theory%20and%20Empirical%20Examples%20-%2086.pdf (accessed November 1, 2014).
9

Reconstruction (1867-1877). It was not until the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and
the Fair Housing Act in 1968 that the effects of spatial separation slowed.
The “racing of space” addressed by scholar Weyeneth sees the separation of space as an
issue that goes beyond schoolhouses, waiting rooms, and drinking fountains to the design of
entire neighborhoods. Neighborhood planning after Emancipation was based on what he calls the
“architecture of segregation.” According to Weyeneth, the architecture of segregation is
characterized by two building types, architectural isolation and partitioning.
26
The spatial
strategies employed by architectural isolation were exclusion – spaces dedicated to one race or
another; duplication – spaces that were racially separated but supposedly equal in quality, like a
delivery room in a hospital or entire schools built for Blacks-only; and temporal separation –
exclusive use during specific days and times, like pools reserved for Blacks just before it was
time to clean them. Where some race mixing was expected and tolerated, architectural
partitioning was used. The spatial strategies employed by architectural partitioning were fixed
and malleable partitions – physical barriers that were either permanent such as separate ticket
booths in train stations, or moveable such as a rope that divided different races at a beach or a
pool. Behavioral separation was also used in partitioning. This tactic was a mental conditioning;
within a shared space, where both races adhered to customs or norms like the acceptance that
White customers would be waited on first.
In the case of the small ethnic enclave of Oakwood there is no evidence of racial zoning
laws or racially restrictive covenants used to prevent Black occupancy in the popular resort town
of Venice in the early 1900s; and it is unclear whether Abbot Kinney set aside the area that
would become Oakwood specifically for the Black service workers of Venice. However, White
residents, realtors, and local vendors used de facto practices in the form of architectural isolation
(showing spatial strategies of exclusion and temporal separation) and partitioning (showing
spatial strategies of malleable partitions and behavioral separation) to limit where Blacks lived
and what activities they participated in. Oakwood is one example of Black ethnic enclaves
throughout Southern California that were created by spatial strategies of segregation. Instead of
creating separate spaces as the ethnic enclaves of Pasadena and Santa Monica did, Oakwood’s
Black community willingly participated in building the infrastructure of Venice; from the very
beginnings when the canals were being dredged, to paving Venice’s sidewalks and leading local

26
Weyeneth, “Architecture of Racial Segregation,” 11-44.
10

civic chapters. Arbitrary yet persistent racial prejudices compelled residents of ethnic enclaves to
create not only ethnic solidarity, but economic opportunities for themselves and their families
which sometimes exceeded those of their oppressor. Oakwood is an example of that.
In Southern California, the physical characteristics of segregated neighborhoods (in older
parts of the city) created by decisions like Plessy v. Ferguson and Corrigan v. Buckley are not
easily identifiable.
27
One reason is that demographics and gentrification shifted the
characteristics of these neighborhoods as more people began to move into these cities to take
advantage of lower housing prices.
28

This thesis identifies the tangible and intangible resources of a pre-WWI ethnic enclave
hidden beneath centuries of de facto practices of segregation, one of many examples of ethnic
neighborhoods shaped as a result of the "racing of space." The author hopes to capture the
historic integrity of Oakwood before it fades into the recesses of Venice’s history unrecorded,
and before its neighborhood becomes completely unrecognizable due to the current gentrification
threatening its ethnic character. Chapter 1 focuses on the pioneering phase of Venice between
1887 (beginning of the California land boom) and the late 1960s (after the fair housing laws were
passed and when Blacks were the largest racial population in Oakwood). The author has utilized
first person oral history interviews, census records, and other primary sources to determine
whether there is significant cultural and architectural value in the community of Oakwood to
create a context statement unique to communities of color hemmed in by practices of
segregation. Chapter 2 explores the journey of Black Americans and their experiences as they
waded through the segregated landscape of Southern California. Because the definition of lived
experiences is varied and the memory of BIPOC (Blacks, indigenous people, and people of
color) is complex and multilayered, Chapter 3 will focus on the individual achievements of
Oakwood’s Black pioneers, discussing how they navigated and subsequently cultivated
community and spaces of their own while arbitrary and de facto discrimination regulated their
freedoms. Chapter 4 summarizes the author’s findings as it relates to inserting the Black
narrative into the broader context of Venice’s (thereby American) history. It also discusses how

27
Note: Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of
racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. Corrigan v. Buckley was a case that began in 1922 and
ended in 1926 and affirmed the constitutionality of racially restrictive covenants. For more info. on segregation laws
search laws at https://www.loc.gov/ (accessed Oct 10, 2020).
28
Logan, “Immigrant Enclaves and Ethnic Communities in New York and Los Angeles.”
11

tangible and intangible cultural heritage can best be managed as we move into the twenty first
century.

12

Chapter 1. Venice Development

Arrival of Spanish
In 1769, Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola was given the task to explore from Baja to
Monterey, and to establish two settlements in order to Hispanicize (convert to Catholicism) and
civilize the indigenous residents and secure the land. A series of missions, presidios (military
outposts), and pueblos (farming communities) were established along the coast of California.
29

One of these missions, Mission San Gabriel Archangel, founded in 1771, helped to establish
Spanish rule.
30
Present day Santa Monica was approximately twenty miles southwest of the
mission. The local Chumash and Tongva indigenous populations became the main source of
labor for the mission. As a result, the tribes moved farther north into the mountains to escape, or
they became absorbed into Hispanic culture through intermarriage, which greatly reduced their
numbers.

Development of Land Grants
Rancho La Ballona
After Mexico achieved independence from Spain in 1821, Alta California became a part
of its territory. Under Spanish rule land was loaned to the presidios and pueblos for a specified
amount of time, but under the Mexican regime, Santa Monica lands were open to private
ownership for the first time in California.
31
The land – except for the former mission properties
haphazardly distributed to the local native groups – was given as gifts by the Mexican
government to a small number of Mexican families and divided into ranchos to encourage
settlement and maintain control of Alta California, by now called California. This was known as
the Rancho era. (Figure 1.1) Venice was formed out of a rancho once known as La Ballona,
which included the territory of Santa Monica (composed of Venice, South Santa Monica, and

29
Luther A. Ingersoll, Ingersoll’s Century History, Santa Monica Bay Cities, bk. 2, Ingersoll’s Century Series of
California Local History Annals, ed. Joy Fisher (Los Angeles: Luther A. Ingersoll, 1908), 9-14,
https://archive.org/details/ingersollscentur01inge (accessed Feb. 25, 2013).
30
Ibid.
31
Ibid., 10.
13

Ocean Park), Culver City, and Mar Vista. The La Ballona Rancho continued to be used for duck
hunting and then grazing by Mexican vaqueros (or cowboys) until the first official private
claim.
32
Their land was declared clear on December 8, 1873, long after the U.S.-Mexico war
ended.
Amusement resorts along the coastal wetlands were a popular investment in the late
1800s to early 1900s. Land was relatively cheap and the practice of linking existing towns or
resorts via rail lines with undeveloped and vacant lands, and then developing at the end of the
line became increasingly common in the decades after the Civil War.
33
Coastal resorts were also
populated with health-conscious tourists and business venturers from all over the country.
Climatologists and settlers alike spread tales of how Southern California’s climate could cure
such ailments as tuberculosis, “functional female disturbances” and even the effects of old age.
34

Life on the ranchos continued as usual until the Gold Rush when the subsequent demand for
cattle made the ranchos even more prosperous. Rancho La Ballona, also known as Rancho Paso
de las Carretas was granted to the brothers Ignacio Machado and Jose Augustin, and brothers
Felipe and Tomas Talamantes in 1839. This rancho extended over what would later become the

32
See f.n. 35.
33
James A. Kushmer, "A Tale of Three Cities: Land Development and Planning for Growth in Stockholm, Berlin,
and Los Angeles." The Urban Lawyer 25, no. 2 (1993): 197-221, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27894819 (accessed
Feb. 22, 2019); Anne F. Hyde, Tourist Travel, in The New Encyclopedia of the American West, ed. Howard R.
Lamar (Yale University Press, 1998).
34
Carry McWilliams, Southern California: An Island on the Land (Gibbs Smith: Utah, 1946), 98-112.
Figure 1.1: Mexican Land Grants, official map of Los Angeles County, circa 1888. Credit to Rowan, V.J. Schmidt
Label & Litho. Co. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress; call number G4363.L6 1888 .R6
(https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4363l.la000023/?r=0.258,0.612,0.219,0.075,0).
14

Ocean Park district of Santa Monica (present day Inglewood, Marina del Ray, Playa del Ray,
Ocean Park, and Venice).
35
(Figure 1.2)
Boca De Santa Monica - United States Territory
The United States declared war on Mexico in 1846 and California became American
territory in 1848, along with western Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, and New
Mexico. The Land Grant Act of 1851, newly levied taxes, and the dying cattle business, gave
Mexican rancheros no choice but to sell their land at low prices in order to meet these new
expenses and foreign policies. As a result, land ownership was transferred to
wealthy American speculators such as Colonel Robert S. Baker, railroad magnate Henry
Huntington, and cigar tycoon turned real estate magnate Abbot Kinney.
36
Colonel Baker was a
cattleman from Rhode Island. Just before he occupied the Santa Monica area it was populated
with wood-sided shanties and tents that accommodated hundreds of guests and vendors of goods
for tourists. Baker purchased Sepulveda’s Ranch (located on the Rancho San Vicente y Santa

35
Ingersoll, Ingersoll’s Century History, Santa Monica Bay Cities, bk. 2, 137-139, 317; Clementia, Marie. "The
First Families of La Ballona Valley," The Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly 37, no. 1 (1955): 48-
55, https://doi:10.2307/41168523 (accessed November 24, 2020).
36
Gates, Paul, “The California Land Act of 1851,” California Historical Quarterly 50, no. 4 (1971): 395-430,
https://doi.org/10.2307/25157352 (accessed Jan. 1, 2021). Note: The Land Grant Act of 1851 required the rancheros
to verify title to their land from American authorities. The rancheros lost their titles when all resources were
exhausted in trying to prove claims to land granted by the Mexican Government.

Figure 1.2: Sanborn Fire Insurance Map 1909, Santa Monica (present day Inglewood, Marina del Rey,
Playa del Rey, Ocean Park, and Venice). Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
15

Monica land grant) in 1872 and portions of the Reyes-Marquez property (Rancho Boca de Santa
Monica) to the northwest for his sheep ranch. Later, Baker would purchase 160 acres of Rancho
La Ballona (Ocean Park district of Santa Monica) and begin the American ownership of the
Santa Monica area and adjacent lands.
Baker partnered with Nevada Senator, John Percival Jones, who acquired a three-quarter
interest in Baker’s property in 1874 and founded the Santa Monica Township. The town was
fronted by the ocean, bound by 26
th
Street on the northeast side, Montana Avenue on the
northwest side, and Colorado Avenue on the southeast side. Permanent encampments
outnumbered temporary shanties by 1875, the same year that the Southern Pacific Railroad
began services to Los Angeles and the original town site of Santa Monica was surveyed. Hotels,
a small grocery store, bathhouses, a butcher shop, dancehall, and drinking establishments
followed. Although Baker’s plans to make Santa Monica the major port of entry rather than San
Pedro failed, his efforts helped to transform it into a boomtown by the 1880s. Abbot Kinney had
a summer home there in 1886 which allowed him the opportunity to critique other amusement
ventures as the vision for his Venetian resort was taking shape.
37

The 1880s land boom, boosterism, a rate war with the Santa Fe Railroad in 1885, and the
tame climate of the West brought an influx of people to Santa Monica, including Blacks. The
1880 census of the Santa Monica area indicates that there were a few Black live-in servants, a
baker, a barber, Japanese fishermen and their families (which would eventually become a large
fishing village), and Californios who remained in control of small portions of their land. In the
1920s, Santa Monica emerged as a wealthy tourist attraction and exclusionary beach clubs like
the Jonathan Club that opened in 1895, gained in popularity. Politics would evolve and divide
the Santa Monica area into the distinct communities of Santa Monica, South Santa Monica or
Ocean Park, and Venice. (Figure 1.3, Appendix B)

37
Ingersoll, Ingersoll’s Century History, Santa Monica Bay Cities, bk. 2, 329.
16

South Santa Monica
In 1891, Abbot Kinney and his business partner Francis Ryan established the Ocean Park
Development Company and purchased the Pacific Ocean Casino located in South Santa Monica.
Later, they purchased 275 acres of the marshy “Santa Monica Tract” near the casino from
Captain Hutchinson, who obtained rights to parts of La Ballona when the Machado family
Figure 1.3: Santa Monica, Ocean Park, Venice Development Advertisement, 1925. Courtesy of ProQuest
Historical Newspapers/Los Angeles Times (1881-1989).
17

defaulted on a loan. The area extended 1-1/2 miles south into what would become Venice.
38

Kinney and Ryan understood that competition and partnership with rail lines was crucial to the
development of seaside resorts so they convinced the Santa Fe Railroad to extend its Inglewood
line north into South Santa Monica across Rancho La Ballona, giving visitors access via the Hill
Street depot that began in June 18, 1892. In 1893 Kinney and Ryan sold twenty-five feet by one-
hundred-foot beach lots located on their Santa Monica Tract. These cottages featured piped-in
water for just $100 and competed with the established beach resort of Santa Monica. On the
unsold lots, tents were erected and available to rent for summer campers.
Ocean Park
In 1895, South Santa Monica’s unincorporated land was unofficially named Ocean Park
after the Ocean Park Development Company. Ryan died shortly after helping Kinney establish a
small commercial district along Pier Avenue and after they were granted permission to build a
1,250 foot-long pier over Santa Monica’s city outfall sewer pipes on Pier Avenue.
39
In 1901, the
Los Angeles Pacific Railroad extended tracks along Pacific Avenue into the Ocean Park
Development Company’s club house and the Ocean Park Country Club (where Westminster Park
is now) but stopped its Pacific Palms Division line short of Kinney and Ryan’s development.
40

By this time the area had 200 cottages, boasted a post office, a second pier, a golf course, a
casino, and a horse-racing track. Kinney partnered with the Hook Brothers of the Los Angeles
Traction Company in 1902 to create a miniature railway to make up for the lack of direct access
into the Ocean Park area. Partnership between Kinney and the Hook Brothers was cut short due
to the brothers selling their shares of the land to Henry Huntington.
41
The brothers wanted to
avoid competing with Huntington – owner of the Pacific Electric Railway and railroad cartel – to
develop their land. Kinney’s new partners –Alexander Fraser, Henry Gage, and George Merritt
Jones –were not interested in any of his development ideas so the partnership was dissolved.
South Santa Monica/Ocean Park’s unincorporated land officially became Ocean Park City in
1904.

38
Dale Samuelson and Wendy Yegoiants, The American Amusement, (MBI Publishing Co, 2001), 43.
39
Ingersoll, Ingersoll’s Century History, Santa Monica Bay Cities, bk. 2, 4.
40
Jeffery Stanton, “The Venice Canals: 1850 – 1939,” Venice History Site,
http://www.westland.net/venicehistory/index.html (accessed July 12, 2013).
41
Ingersoll, Ingersoll’s Century History, Santa Monica Bay Cities, bk. 2, 96.
18

South Ocean Park (Ocean Park Heights)/”Venice of America”
With a literal flip of a coin between him and his former partners, Kinney gained control
of the southernmost part of Ocean Park and began implementing his vision for a beach resort
town of Venice that would rival Santa Monica and even his previous Ocean Park development.
42

Up until Kinney gained control of south Ocean Park (also called Ocean Park Heights), his dream
for a Venetian-style resort was often referred to as “Kinney’s folly.”
43

Before Abbot Kinney had a chance to construct his “Venice of America” there were
already several amusement piers in the surrounding area.
44
The first amusement park with a
Venetian theme was started by a group of investors, Moses Sherman and Eli Clark, under the
Beach Land Company. In 1902, they built a colony of villas, grand hotel, and Venetian buildings
and bridges in Playa del Rey called King’s Beach. Sherman and Clark also created the first inter-
urban railroad and made things difficult for anyone who tried to compete with the popularity of
Santa Monica, where they were also heavily invested. Just before Kinney officially began
digging his Venice canals. Henry Huntington and his partner Arthur Parsons of the Pacific
Amusement Company developed a canaled town called Naples near Long Beach.
45

Kinney’s world travels, his visit and enthusiasm for the World’s Fair and the City
Beautiful Movement, his education in Heidelberg, Paris and Zurich, his work with naturalist
John Muir, partnership with Indian advocate Helen Hunt Jackson, and his experiences in
improving and establishing successful municipalities, prepared him for his last, greatest business
venture.
46
Five months after Ocean Park Heights was formed, he put his visionary plans for
“Venice of America” into action.

42
Samuelson and Yegoiants, The American Amusement, 45,46.; Thomas Pleasure and Adrian Maher, “Venice’s
Wild Ride: Quirky Community Considers Another Sea Change in its Tumultuous Existence,” Los Angeles Times
(Oct. 23, 1994), https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-23-we-53592-story.html (accessed Nov. 3
2015).
43
Martha Groves, “Venice Turns 100, but Not Without a Fight. The centennial was seen as a way to unite the
community’s…,” Los Angeles Times, June 24, 2005,
https://latimes.newspapers.com/image/192889818/?terms=Kinney%27s%2Bfolly (accessed Nov 3, 2015).
44
“Early Southern California Amusement Parks,” Water and Power Associates,
http://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_Southern_California_Amusement_Parks_Page_1.html (accessed Jan. 10,
2014).
45
Venice History, “Venice of America: Birth of ‘Venice of America’ (1890-1906),” Westland Network,
http://www.westland.net/venice/history.htm (accessed May 2, 2012).
46
Note: The City Beautiful Movement was created by a group of White, upper-middle class men who considered
themselves social reformers in an age when there was rampant materialism, poverty and tension between classes at
the turn-of-the-century in the United States. Fred Siegel, review of FLO: A Biography of Frederick Law Olmsted,
Civil War History 20, no. 4 (Dec. 1974):376-368, doi:10.1353/cwh.1974.0059 (accessed Oct, 29, 2017).
19

Kinney instructed his superintendent Frank Durham to visit the best examples of beach
resorts on the East Coast and to return with someone who could combine a Chautauqua-style
venue and a family-friendly resort into one; all in the form of Italy’s Piazza San Marco, right
down to the Venetian arches.
47
Durham traveled to a suburb of Boston where he hired one of
Fredrick L. Olmsted’s apprentices to be the landscape and town planner to fulfill Kinney’s dream
of building a Venetian-inspired resort town.
48

Venice’s Pleasure Pier, businesses, amusements, and the canals were built simultaneously
at a feverish rate in competition with the operations of other nearby resorts like King’s Beach
and Naples. The canals, plagued with constant sewage problems from the start, were created by
dredging the marsh and using it to create mounds to build on. The amount of dredging required
to create canals that resembled those in Italy nearly bankrupted Kinney. Despite considerable
setbacks, including huge storms that destroyed the pier just before its first opening, the canals,
the Auditorium and Pavilion, and a few amusements were ready for the July 4, 1905 Opening
Celebration.
49

Many of the early visitors to “Venice of America” were upper- and middle-class day-
trippers who took the trolley or Red Car from Los Angeles just to spend the day at the beach. A
beach line already extended through Santa Monica and Ocean Park along Main Street and
Neilson Way through Venice and Playa del Rey to Redondo Beach; by 1911 all these lines were
part of the Pacific Electric system.
50
In anticipation of its success, Kinney planned 592
residential lots that sold for as much as $2,700. More temporary structures for visitors were
erected shortly after in an area near the beach known as “Tent City.” Some say that the tents
were erected in anticipation of more visitors than there were hotels; others credit Kinney’s
sympathy for the less fortunate because the tents were less expensive and at one point housed
homeless and refugees.
51
As more visitors came and stayed longer, the tents were replaced by
small bungalows and the area was renamed “Venetian Villas” or “Villa City.” (Figure 1.4)

47
Encyclopedia Britannica Online, s.v. “Chautauqua movement,” accessed Sep. 20, 2020,
https://www.britannica.com/
48
Jeffery Stanton, “Construction of ‘Venice of America (1904-1905),’” Venice History Site,
http://www.westland.net/venicehistory/index.html (accessed July 12, 2013).
49
Ibid.
50
Marvin J. Wolf and Katherine Mader, Santa Monica: Jewel of the Sunset Bay (Chatsworth, CA: Windsor
Publications, Inc., 1989), 33; Ernest Marquez, Port Los Angeles: A Phenomenon of the Railroad Era (San Marino,
CA: Golden West Books, 1975), 113; Fred E. Basten, Paradise by the Sea: Santa Monica Bay (Los Angeles:
General Publishing Company, 1997), 59.
51
Venice Vanguard, May 14, 1906.
20

The villas had modern amenities such as electricity, gas for cooking, and laundry facilities. The
perks also included amusements within walking distance.
52
“Venice of America” boasted an
auditorium, a ship restaurant (Ships Café), a dance hall, a hot salt-water plunge, a block-long
arcaded business street with Venetian architecture, and an amusement pier complete with
fantastic rides and concession booths. It was once characterized by the iconic beach vernacular
of one-and two-story wood-framed vacation bungalows. The tightly packed homes built in the
early 1900s were connected by alleyways that played a major role in the architectural and social
character of this planned vacation resort. (Figure 1.5)

52
“Cottages on the Venice Canals,” Santa Monica Outlook, Nov. 3, 1905, 5,
https://digital.smpl.org/digital/collection/outlook/id/32060/rec/3015 (accessed May 12, 2014).
Figure 1.4: Venice’s “Villa City,” circa 1905. Photo courtesy of the USC Digital Library/Los Angeles Examiner
Photographs Collection; file name EXM-P-S-CAL-VEN-BUI-003~1.
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll44/id/73511/rec/1 (accessed June 3, 2017).
21

In the words of the California historian Kevin Starr, Abbot Kinney was "perhaps the most
conspicuous Southern Californian of his type and the entrepreneur-philanthropist in whom self-
serving sagacity and another- worldly, slightly eccentric humanitarianism coexisted in creative
tension."
53
Kinney was a successful businessman, an adventurer, and a man of culture from his
personal and business travels. He worked with Helen Hunt Jackson in her quest for better
treatment of indigenous people. Kinney also organized the Santa Monica Improvement Company
and its first pleasure pier in 1888.
54
Although he wrote several books in his earlier years that
would hint at his beliefs about women, Chinese, and “Negroes,” his future relationships with
those cultures would not be confined to those beliefs in running his “Venice of America.”
55
He

53
Kevin Starr, Inventing the Dream: California Through the Progressive Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1986), 78.
54
Ingersoll, Ingersoll’s Century History, Santa Monica Bay Cities, bk. 2, 173,174.
55
Note: For more information on Abbot Kinney’s books published in 1893 please see Matt Hormann,
“UNCOVERING THE RACISM, SEXISM AND APPARENT REDEMPTION OF VENICE’S FOUNDING
FATHER,” The Argonaut, Jan. 28, 2015, https://argonautnews.com/the-secret-life-of-abbot-kinney/ (accessed Sept.
20, 2020).
Figure 1.5: Residential street in Venice. Postcard property of the Author.
22

was a businessman above all and used his cultural experiences as well as his business acumen to
set the tone for what he hoped to accomplish and the type of people he hoped to draw.” As a man
of high culture and a reformer, he dreamed of a resort that was a center for civic and moral
virtues, art, and a haven for leisure and recreation for the upper-middle class. In the beginning it
seemed as if his ideals were taking hold. The Venice Assembly was inspired by the Chautauqua
movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century which combined adult education
with entertainment.
56
His suburbanized summer resort offered high-class cultural events held at
the Assembly; the 2,500-seat auditorium near the wharf had a great pipe organ and high glass
windows with views to the ocean. The Assembly held lectures by public intellectuals like noted
sociologist Charlotte Perkins Gillman and controversial actress Sarah Bernhardt (1906).
However, just one year after his “Venice of America” opened and plans for a university-level
research institute were unveiled, the popularity of the Assembly plummeted. It was not drawing
as many visitors as the two-headed calf, the hoochie-koochie dancers, or the “African Dodger”
(also known as “Nigger Dip,” or “Coon Dip”).
57
(Figures 1.6, 1.7) His acute need to out-amuse
his competition led him to purchase Seattle’s Yukon-Pacific Exposition Fair Ferris wheel,
skating rink, and dance pavilion.
58
By 1910, “Venice of America” was transformed from a high-
class smorgasbord into a resort/amusement park for the working-class, dubbed the “Coney Island
of the Pacific.”
59
From the very beginning, a series of misfortunes seemed to plague Venice and
its founder. Kinney suffered personal misfortunes (his son’s death, his divorce, and his
mistresses), and financial failures (the canals almost bankrupted him); there was also an
unrealized highway and other resort plans, and a shift away from the Chautauqua resort that he
envisioned.
60
With every setback Kinney resolved to make the most of it. In his own words he
described how he remained unmoved.

56
Kevin Starr. Inventing the Dream, 80.
57
Ferris State University, “The African Dodger – October 2012,” Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia,”
https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/question/2012/october.htm (accessed April 20, 2016). Note: the
African Dodger was a popular amusement game between 1880s and 1950s. Kinney would have likely populated his
amusement pier with popular games. See “Body of Dias in Surf in Venice,” in Santa Monica Outlook Newspaper,
August 3, 1917, Santa Monica Outlook - Santa Monica Outlook Newspaper October 1875 - June 1925 - Santa
Monica Public Library Digital Collections (smpl.org) (accessed Jan 2, 2014).
58
Jeffrey Stanton, Venice of America ‘Coney Island of the Pacific’ (Los Angeles: Donahue Publishing, 1987), 30-
53.
59
Ibid.
60
Jeffrey Stanton, “Venice California – Never Built Projects,” Venice History Site,
http://www.westland.net/venicehistory/articles/neverbuilt.htm (accessed July 12, 2013).
23

Figure 1.6: Advertisement for African Dip, 1936. Popular amusement game between 1880s and 1950s. Courtesy
of Music for Deckchairs (https://musicfordeckchairs.com/blog/2012/01/15/step-right-up/).
24

When we saw the mistake in the lecture course, we conceived of the idea of
making Venice a musical center. We hired the best band in the country - Ellery's -
at a very heavy cost... no less than $1000 to $1500 a week. Well, that was a
failure too. Too expensive…Then we got the idea of having music in a palm
garden…where the people hear good music without being in a constrained and
uncomfortable attitude. It was another disappointment. The midway plaisance
Figure 1.7: YMCA brochure boasting the African Dip amusement game, 1942. Courtesy of Snopes.com
(https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/racist-carnival-game/).

25

then came into existence. I supposed that they would exhibit interesting animals,
perhaps a gold mine, strange kinds of fish, that
sort of thing. I had no idea they would start side shows with "barkers." However it
isn't too bad…A success, of course we shall make it a success. I haven't a doubt of
it. We have to do what the people will.
61

When asked whether he was disappointed by the type of people that were drawn to
Venice, Kinney replied, "Understand, that I never had any idea of making this a resort for rich
people. The devil can attend to the rich without assistance. And I really do think that we attracted
a very decent class of people. My idea now is to combine my original idea of the university town
with that of the popular resort."
62

Abbot Kinney’s Death to 1960s
Kinney kept to his word and continued to run quirky amusements alongside upscale
events like concerts by the Chicago Symphony until his death on November 4, 1920.
63
After
Kinney’s death, his son Thornton took over and a series of events would not see the resort that
Kinney had planned for last much longer. One month after Kinney’s death there was a fire that
destroyed the pier. Thornton quickly reconstructed it, but its hasty design could not support the
many visitors coming to Venice.
64
This, along with the narrow design of Venice’s streets and the
growing use of cars, resulted in the sharp decline in Venice’s popularity and sustainability as an
entertainment destination. In 1925, Venice was annexed to Los Angeles which was followed by a
series of adversities that included failed bond initiatives for civic improvements and Sunday Blue

61
Tom Moran, “Kinney's Memory - Part III,” Venice Historical Society Journal, (May, 2004),
http://www.veniceofamerica.org/vhsjournal.php (accessed May 26, 2012).
62
Ibid.
63
“Los Angeles County – It’s City and Times, Venice Viewpoints,” Los Angeles Times, Apr 22, 1907,
http://latimes.newspapers.com/clip/60613263/abbot-kinney-arranges-chicago-symphony/ (accessed July 22, 2012);
Stanton, “Construction of ‘Venice of America (1904-1905),’” Venice History Site,
https://www.westland.net/venicehistory/articles/construc.htm (accessed July 22, 2013).
64
Historic Resources Group, SurveyLA-Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey, “Historic Resource Survey Report,
Venice Community Plan Area,” March 2015, https://planning.lacity.org/odocument/a0f8a9d9-ac84-4672-a8db-
938835b5e05e/SurveyLAVenice_SurveyReport_.pdf (accessed July 12, 2013).
26

Laws that banned dancing and gambling on the pier.
65
In 1929, the canals were filled in.
According to the city they were too costly to maintain and filling them would provide parking as
more and more people traveled by car.
66
The Depression caused amusement revenue to decline
despite the discovery of oil in 1929. By 1930, there were 375 oil wells in Venice, squatters in the
abandoned cottages along the pier, no new bond issues for improving “Venice of America,” and
sea pollution that resulted in a quarantine from April 1943 to July 1951. (Figure 1.8) The
tidelands lease was not renewed by the City of Los Angeles’ Parks and Recreation Department,

65
Note: Blue Laws were laws to prevent secular activities on a Sunday; Stanton, “Venice Timeline,” Venice History
Site, http://www.westland.net/venicehistory/index.html (accessed July 12, 2013).
66
Arnold Springer, The Venice Canals 1850-1939 vol. 1 of History of Venice of America (Ulan Bator Foundation:
Venice Calif 1994); “The Canals in The Heyday of Venice 1912-1921”, Venice Vanguard, Sep. 14, 1911, 29.
Figure 1.8: Oil derricks in Venice, CA circa 1937. Photo by Herman J. Schultheis. Photo courtesy of the Los
Angeles Public Library/Herman J Schultheis Collection, Los Angeles Photographers Collection; location N-005-
170.
27

so, in 1946 Venice’s pier was closed, and in 1947 it was demolished.
67
Because there was a lack
of investment in the area and the toll that the discovery of oil took on it, it became known as the
“Slum by the Sea.”
68
At this juncture, Venice, and its counterculture atmosphere, attracted
immigrants, elderly Jewish people on fixed incomes (there were six synagogues in 1958 - two in
1973), Blacks from the second Southern Migration, beatniks, and political activists. Throughout
the 1960s, racial tensions exploded between Black and Brown communities and the police all
over the United States, including in Venice.
69
By this time Venice was a mix of Mexican
Americans, Blacks, students, runway juveniles, young professionals and artists, the elderly, and
hip café owners.
70
Also, during this time important laws were enacted that helped break down
discriminatory practices, including redlining and other discriminatory practices that kept
minority communities confined in relatively small areas. This included the Civil Rights Acts, the
Rumford Fair Housing Act, the Voting Rights Act, and the Open House Act.
71
Beach city urban
renewal by way of code enforcement made its way into Venice by the 1960s in order for the City
of Los Angeles to “clean up” and reshape the image of Venice.
72
The renewal was also called
“Negro Removal” because it targeted less affluent neighborhoods where older, more likely to be
dilapidated, housing was located. Houses left over from Villa/Tent City near the beachfront were
also targeted due to their deterioration – Kinney built them to be temporary vacation housing in

67
SurveyLA-Historic Resource Survey Report, “Venice Community Plan Area,” March 2015,
https://planning.lacity.org/odocument/a0f8a9d9-ac84-4672-a8db-
938835b5e05e/SurveyLAVenice_SurveyReport_.pdf (accessed July 12, 2013); Stanton, “Venice Amusement Pier -
(1920-1946),” Venice History Site, http://www.westland.net/venicehistory/index.html (accessed July 12, 2013).
68
Los Angeles Conservancy, “MODERN ARCHITECTURE FROM THE ’70s AND ’80s,” Curating the Modern
Architecture in L.A.,
https://www.laconservancy.org/sites/default/files/files/documents/VeniceEclecticBook_Final4Web_LR.pdf
(accessed Dec. 20, 2020); Deener, Contested Bohemia, 20.
69
Deener, Contested Bohemia, 56.
70
Ibid., 26, 40, 180.
71
Note: these Civil Rights Acts will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 2.
72
Deener, Contested Bohemia, 39-41.
28

the early days of Venice. In 1964, the City of Los Angeles demolished 555 buildings throughout
Venice in the name of “slum clearance.”
73
Thus begins the slow but steady transformation of
Venice from beach cottages, canals, and community-oriented plans, to million-dollar estates,
traffic congestion, and designs supporting the self-segregation of the wealthy.

73
Los Angeles Parks and Recreation, Measure A, Venice Beach, https://www.laparks.org/venice (accessed Dec. 20,
2013).
29

Chapter 2. Black Los Angeles

Early Migration
74

Despite being denied the right to choose where they lived, Blacks helped in the American
expansion westward, as early as its discovery. Although some came as slaves, or chattel, the new
residents included independent laborers, sea navigators and land guides for Spanish explorations.
Africans were part of the exploring parties of Francisco Pizarro and Pedro Menendez de Aviles.
An estimated four hundred Spaniards and three hundred Black slaves accompanied Hernando
Cortes to the western Gulf of Mexico. Black men helped to navigate the explorations of
Christopher Columbus in the late 1400s and early 1500s. Among these we find Pedro (Peter)
Alonzo Nino, a pilot on Columbus’s ship, the Santa Maria, and Diego el Negro (translation,
James the Black), also known as Diego Mendez, was the cabin boy for the Capitana on
Columbus’s last voyage to the Americas. Blacks enrolled among the crews of later explorers
included Peter Mexia, a Black man who joined Juan Ponce de Leon in Florida in search of the
fountain of youth. Thirty Black men accompanied Vasco Nunez de Balboa as he traveled across
Panama in the early 1500s. In addition to being explorers, Blacks were fur-trappers, tradesmen,
and gold miners. Some accompanied early settlers into New England, more than likely as
indentured servants along with others, and only later became possessions to advance British
Imperialism. Blacks were among the Franciscan priests and Indians who accompanied Spanish-
speaking explorers who helped settle Alta California Missions in the late 1700s.
During the California Gold Rush from 1848 to about 1855, they worked alongside their
slaveholders. Some were prospectors on behalf of their slaveholders. Others (both men and
women) defied strict California fugitive slave laws in order to join the gold phenomenon.
Freemen opened Black mining companies like the Sweet Vengeance Mine. Other gold miners
like Mifflin Wistar Gibbs published the Mirror of Times – the first Black newspaper in
California – and went into the business of convincing other Blacks to give up their complacent
lifestyles for fortunes in the mines.
75
Not all were Argonauts. George Washington Dennis and

74
Unless otherwise noted, information in this section was derived from the Public Broadcasting Service, “The
Terrible Transformation Part I Narrative – Map: The British Colonies,” Africans in America,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/map1.html (accessed July, 2012).
75
Kenneth N. Owens, Riches for All: The California Gold Rush and the World (United Kingdom: University of
Nebraska Press, 2002), 167-171.
30

others like him provided services to gold seekers.
76
Enslaved miners, when given the
opportunity, purchased their freedom and the freedom of their families with their good fortunes.
If it was by choice, Blacks came to California for many of the same reasons as others. They
settled in former gold mining towns in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Sacramento, and San
Francisco. They were men such as Peter Biggs who was a slave sold to Captain J.A. Smith from
Liberty, Missouri and arrived in California with his master during the Mexican-American War.
Biggs was left on his own after the war ended. He made his living as a barber – the first in Los
Angeles – and earned additional income from the rental of his wife's property on Spring Street.
Other pioneering African Americans in early Los Angeles included John and Dora Ballard,
Lewis G. Green, Jessie Hamilton, and of course Robert Owens and Biddy Mason. Owens and
Mason were prominent figures and land owners in the early history of Los Angeles at a time
when the choice for real estate was still limited for people of color.
77
Mason owned property in
the Downtown area that became known as the prosperous settlement of "Brick Block," one of the
few areas in Los Angeles where Blacks were allowed to settle and own property. It was said to
be the first Negro community in Los Angeles.
78

Blacks arrived along with others with the help of the Homestead Act, passed in 1862
(repealed in 1976), which was instrumental in further developing the United States westward. It
should be noted that this westward expansion resulted in the pilfering of lands belonging to
indigenous people, further marginalizing them while benefiting the settlers. For Blacks, the
Homestead Act opened up homeownership opportunities because there was no gender, racial, or
ethnic limitations. Following the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution
which outlawed slavery in 1865, newly freed slaves and freed people of color took advantage of
this. The Act covered territory in all but the original thirteen states, as well as Kentucky,
Tennessee, Vermont, Maine, Texas, and West Virginia.
79
Anyone could claim up to 160 acres of

76
Sylvia Alden, Black History Meets the California Gold Rush (U.S.: iUniverse, 2008), 93-120.
77
U.S. Department of Interior, National Register of Historic Places, Multiple Property Documentation, February 11,
2009, Section E, 3; Max J. Bond, The Negro in Los Angeles, (Los Angeles : University of Southern California,
1936), 64, 11,12; Moss, Not Quite Paradise, 226; Delilah Leontium Beasley, The Negro Trail Blazers of California:
A Compilation of Records from the California Archives…(U.S.: Times Mirror Print. and Binding House, 1919), 101.
Note: Mrs. Biddy Mason was a former slave and an important Black pioneer who arrived in Los Angeles in the
1860s.
78
Beasley, The Negro Trail, 64; U.S. Department of Interior, National Register of Historic Places, multiple property
documentation, February 11, 2009, Section E, 3.
79
Jason Portefield, The Homestead Act of 1862: A Primary Source History of the Settlement of the American
Heartland in the Late 19th Century (New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2004), 28.
31

government land by paying an $18 filing fee and meeting certain requirements. Lands set aside
for the indigenous people would later be claimed to ensure enough land was available for eager
Anglo homesteaders.
80
After six months of living and farming the land the settler could then
purchase it for $1.25.
81
With the passing of the Fourteenth (1868) and Fifteenth (1870)
Amendments to the Constitution, the Homestead Act became even more appealing to Blacks
looking to leave the South.
82
Some Blacks, along with other ethnicities, found success under the
Homestead Act.
With or without the Homestead Act and because Reconstruction efforts to alter Southern
attitudes towards people of color failed, Blacks increasingly left the South to set up all-Black
townships in places like Oklahoma (Bailey and Boley), Texas (Houston, Kendleton, and Union
City), and California (Victorville, Abila, and Allensworth).
83
In 1883 at the Third Annual
Convention For the Improvement of the Free People of Color in the United States, a man was
reported to say, “To those who may be obliged to exchange a cultivated region for a howling
wilderness, we recommend, to retire into the western wilds, and fell the native forest of America,
where the ploughshares of prejudice have as yet been unable to penetrate the soil.”
84

Black migration was also influenced by the Pacific Railway Act, passed the same year as
the Homestead Act. It gave permission for a transcontinental railroad to be built that connected
the east and west. By 1876 the Central Pacific Railroad, which later joined with the Southern
Pacific, completed the transcontinental line into Los Angeles and opened opportunities for

80
Note: the U.S. Government and settlers regularly violated treaties previously negotiated with indigenous people.
For more information see “Broken Treaties With Native American Tribes: Timeline,”
https://www.history.com/news/native-american-broken-treaties (accessed November 28, 2020).
81
National Park Service, “FREE LAND was the Cry!” Homestead, https://www.nps.gov/home/index.htm (accessed
Jan 15, 2020); Porterfield, Jason. The Homestead Act of 1862: A Primary Source History of the Settlement of the
American Heartland in the Late 19th Century (Ukraine: Rosen Publishing Group, 2004), 28.
82
Note: the 14
th
Amendment was one of the three amendments to the Constitution ratified after the Civil War in
1866. It guaranteed citizenship to all Blacks, including former slaves recently freed, and expanded civil rights to
ALL Americans. The 15
th
Amendment granted Black men the right to vote.
83
Note: all-Black towns include those established by freed slaves after the Civil War like the Freedmen’s Town
Historic District in Houston. Some all-Black towns existed prior to Emancipation. For more on all-Black towns see
below on Ethnic Enclaves and Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, America’s First Black Town: Brooklyn, Illinois,
Introduction; Henry Louis Gates Jr., Public Broadcasting Service, “What Was America’s First Black Town? 100
Amazing Facts About the Negro.” The African Americans: Many Roads to Cross.
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/what-was-americas-1st-black-town/.
Accessed January, 23, 2014.
84
Quintard Taylor, In Search of the Racial Frontier, 81; Colored Conventions Project, “Minutes and Proceedings of
the Third Annual Convention For the Improvement of the Free People of Color in the United States…,”
https://omeka.coloredconventions.org/items/show/275 (accessed Jan. 10, 2014).
32

anyone who could afford a ticket.
85
The Blacks who had enough savings to take the
transcontinental journey were a part of the upwardly mobile class that W.E.B. Du Bois called the
“Talented Tenth.”
86
While some Blacks came because of their own curiosity, others were
recruited by big companies like the California Cotton Growers and Manufacturers Association.
87

During the land boom of the 1880s, Blacks were recruited to replace Chinese laborers as a result
of Southern California employers reaction to the Chinese Exclusion Act.
88
The Association
brought Southern Blacks to its farms near Bakersfield after a federal ban on Chinese laborers in
1882 created a worker shortage.
89
Competition between the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe
Railroad (which completed a line into Los Angeles in 1885) brought travel costs to an all-time
low so many more Blacks found themselves headed to the Southern California coast or sending
for their families. Blacks also found their way to the Southern California coast as strike-breakers.
In 1903, the Southern Pacific Railroad brought in almost 2,000 Black laborers to break a strike
by Mexican American construction workers, with one stroke doubling the Black population in
Los Angeles.
90

Blacks were also drawn to California because it had less of a history with slavery. Max J.
Bond, in his 1936 dissertation documenting Blacks in early Los Angeles history, tells of a man
who came to Los Angeles in 1883 who reported that, “Negroes lived anywhere they could afford
to live.”
91
For someone who had lived in the Jim Crow South, this statement was truer than not,
even though it was a slight exaggeration. Los Angeles offered a greater chance for success like
many other cities in Southern California, but it also participated in the climate of racial hostility
and the “racing of space.”
92
The same year that W.E.B. Du Bois visited Los Angeles in 1913 and

85
Digital History, “Closing the Western Frontier – Building the Transcontinental Railroad,” 2016,
https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3147 (accessed Feb 10, 2019).
86
Note: Some of the residents of Oakwood belonged to the “Talented Tenth” social class. They will be discussed in
Chapter 3.
87
Southern California Quarterly 70, no. 3 (Fall 1988): 416, https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40052270 (accessed April
10, 2012); Curtis P. Nettels, “British Mercantilism and the Economic Development of the Thirteen Colonies,” The
Journal of Economic History 12, no. 2 (Spring, 1952): 105-114,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2113218?origin=JSTOR-pdf (accessed April 25, 2012).
88
Rick Moss, “Not Quite Paradise: The Development of the African American Community in Los Angeles Through
1950,” California History, 75, no 3 (Oct 1996): 227,228, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25177595?origin=JSTOR-pdf
(accessed March 26, 2012); Quintard Taylor, In Search of the Racial Frontier, 207; Taylor, Seeking El Dorado, 19.
89
Keith E. Collins, Black Los Angeles: The Maturing of the Ghetto, 1940-1950, (United States: Century Twenty
One Pub.), 4-6.
90
Ibid.
91
Ibid., 47.
92
Note: for purpose of this paper, the racing of space is defined as the systematic barriers on where people lived
based on the color of their skin and/or their ethnic origin; Weyeneth, “Architecture of Racial Segregation,” 11-44.
33

gave it a glowing review, other prominent Blacks in the community petitioned the NAACP to
establish a branch in order to address mounting concerns involving incidents of racial
discrimination and unfair treatment – predicted by Jefferson Edmonds (editor of the Liberator)
early on.
93
A NAACP chapter would appear in Venice for the same reasons a decade later.
Varying experiences in the early days of Los Angeles and elsewhere made it seem as if
Blacks were living in a “golden age.” Along with ethnic White immigrants (Polish, Irish, Italian,
etc.), Japanese, and Mexicans, they found plenty of work and decent places to live. The service
workers and laborers who made substantial enough wages to purchase or rent homes located in
middle and upper-middle class White neighborhoods were generally denied access and relegated
to undeveloped parcels in crowded neighborhoods. Although Los Angeles had the largest Black
urban population in the West by 1910, with 7,599 people, they were restricted from living in
places such as Huntington Park, Compton, east of Alameda, and in the West Adams Heights
district (before it became Sugar Hill in the 1940s).
94
Instead, the majority settled in Pico Heights,
on Alameda Street between First and Third, along Central Avenue (north of Frist Street), and
near Azusa and Weller Streets with little to no racial incidents. According to Charlotta Bass, who
operated the California Eagle from 1913 to 1951, "The Negro settlers who were first
arrivals...bought land and built beautiful homes in all sections of the city, free from restrictions,
“[b]ut then came southern [W]hites and the [B]lacks ‘faced the old terror of racial hatred they
had tried to forget.’"
95
There were some Blacks who gained access into all-White or majority-
White neighborhoods simply because they were general laborers and domestic service workers
for the nearby White community, like in Venice. Despite the mixed signals and deflated
expectations, Los Angeles had the highest percentage of homeownership for Blacks than any

93
Emory Tolbert, The UNIA and Black Los Angeles: Ideology and Community in the American Garvey Movement
(Los Angeles: Center for Afro-American Studies, 1980), 33-34; Charlotta Bass, Forty Years: Memoirs from the
Pages of a Newspaper (United States: Bass, 1979) XXVI, 95.
94
Taylor, Seeking El Dorado, 132, 139; Kelly Simpson, “A Southern California Dream Deferred: Racial Covenants
in Los Angeles,” KCET-Departures, Feb 22, 2012, http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/columns/portraits/a-
southern-california-dream-deferred.html, (accessed January 17, 2013); De Graaf, “The City of Black Angels:
Emergence of the Los Angeles Ghetto, 1890-1930,” Pacific Historical Review, 39, no. 3 (Aug., 1970): 323-352,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3637655, (accessed February 16, 2015); Lonnie G. Bunch III, Seeking El Dorado, “The
Greatest State for the Negro,” 129-131 (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2001).
95
Charlotta Bass, Forty Years, quoted in Douglas Flamming, Bound for freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow
America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), 66.
34

other city in the early 1900s.
96
There was housing as well as consistent work for the Blacks in
early Los Angeles who were hired as cooks, maids, and day laborers.
97

Origins and Evolution of the ”Racing of Space”
Even though the “racing of space” (systematic exclusion of certain people from living in
certain areas based on the color of their skin and/or their ethnic origin) began long before there
were actual laws governing race or space, the "racing of space” began to exist formally during
the Norman Invasion in 1066 with the deliberate campaign to conquer and assimilate in order to
merge the national identities of England, Wales, and Scotland into ‘Great Britain.’ The British
government as well as individuals participated in growing their empire for profit, to pull ahead in
national prestige, and to escape conditions of poverty and religious rule. These reasons are what
contributed to the need for colonial settlements to form separate spaces, and gradually establish a
structure for racial superiority.
98
When Colonial settlements began to base their advancement on
Providence and the preservation of European identity there was a natural elevation of one
nationality over all others. Some colonial settlements were justified in creating physical barriers
called cordon sanitaires that separated the conqueror from the conquered. In some cases, there
were real threats of diseases and the barrier was necessary for survival. Sometimes space was
needed to decrease conflicts between what colonizers labeled “barbarous” nations and the
“civilized.”
99
Over time, the settlement patterns of the English were characterized by conquest
and separation instead of assimilation. European colonies preferred and perfected separation just
in time for imperial expansion into the Americas.
100

96
Taylor, Seeking El Dorado, 132, 139; Kelly Simpson, “The Great Migration: Creating a New Black Identity in
Los Angeles,” KCET-History & Society,
Feb. 15, 2012, https://www.kcet.org/history-society/the-great-migration-creating-a-new-black-identity-in-los-
angeles#:~:text=Homeownership%20amongst%20Blacks%20in%20Los,%22great%22%20migrations%20with%20
uncertainty (accessed Oct 10, 2013).
97
1910 U.S. Census records.
98
Curtis P. Nettels, “British Mercantilism and the Economic Development of the Thirteen Colonies,” The Journal of
Economic History 12, no. 2 (Spring, 1952): 105-114, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2113218?origin=JSTOR-pdf
(accessed April 25, 2012).
99
Note: cordon sanitaire is a French phrase which literally translated means “sanitary cordon.” Established under the
aegis of Great Britain and France after the collapse of the Russian empire along the European borders of Soviet
Russia. Steven Legg, Spaces of Colonialism: Delhis Urban Governmentalities (Massachusetts: Blackwell
Publishing, 2007), Preface-Chapter 1.
100
A.J. Christopher, “'Divide and Rule': The Impress of British Separation Policies,” 233-239.
35

Slave Codes
Imperial expansion or the Mercantile Empire Phase gave rise to the American form of
“colonial apartheid.” European powers initially colonized the New World with poor immigrants
of all races who were looked upon as indentured servants. In exchange for an established time of
servitude, immigrants would be transported to the New World, fed, sheltered, and clothed until
they completed their pre-arranged years of service (normally five to seven years). Indentured
servitude was also used to punish crimes. It wasn’t until later that the greatest mercantile nations
introduced Black slaves as part of their strategy to conquer and colonize the Americas –
beginning with Portugal, Spain, England, France, and the Netherlands.
101
As long as slavery
existed there was no need for the separation of space, or neighborhoods for that matter. People of
color were without any rights and were simply excluded. A paternal familiarity and mutual
dependence between slave and slaveholder maintained the status quo of racial superiority and
allowed the two groups to live within proximity to one another with few incidents or laws
regulating where Blacks and Whites lived. By the eighteenth century, slavery was a full-blown
race-based system in the Americas. In 1705, Virginia enacted the first “slave codes” to organize
this new system of free labor; codes varied from colony to colony to adapt to new needs.
Black Codes
At the end of the Revolutionary War (1783), with the fight for America’s freedoms won,
New World colonies continued to spread racial separation as a necessary component of
colonization for the same reasons their colonial forefathers did. Although Vermont was the first
to abolish slavery in 1777, court rulings like Dred Scott in 1857 ruled that Blacks (slave or free)
could not be citizens. This made all previous leaps for equality null and void. It wasn’t until 1865
when the 13
th
Amendment outlawed slavery in all thirty-three states that Whites had no choice
but to adapt to the new reality that Blacks were free – if only to govern themselves at the very
least.
102
Freedom unfortunately brought with it new constraints known as “black codes.”

101
Elizabeth Lawson, History of the American Negro People 1619-1918, 2
nd
ed. (New York: Workers Bookshop,
1939), 4-5.
102
Public Broadcasting Service, “Time and Place: Land of Liberty,” Slavery and the Making of America,
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/timeline/1776.html (accessed March 14, 2012); Nicholas Boston, Jennifer Hallam,
“The Slave Experience: Freedom & Emancipation,” PBS,
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/freedom/history.html (accessed March 14, 2012).
36

Mississippi and South Carolina enacted the first codes in late 1865.
103
Black codes gave
emancipated Blacks and freedmen certain rights, including the right to buy and own property but
it limited their ability to find work and punished them harshly for breaking labor laws.
Jim Crow
1865 also happened to be the year that “Jim Crow” – the institutionalization of racial separation
– was added to legislation.
104
To some degree the practice of segregation was strengthened once
slaves were emancipated. Their resistance was based on perceived threats to available jobs,
quality of living, local customs, and their persistent views that people of color were inferior –
fortified by significant so-called ‘research’ in the 19
th
century.
105
After the passing of the 1866
Civil Rights Act and the 14
th
Amendment in 1868 – with help from the Freedman’s Bureau, Race
leaders, and “Black sympathizers,” Jim Crow slowly began to loosen its legal grip on people of
color.
106
The case of Gandolfo v. Hartman in 1892 was the first test of equal rights for U.S.
citizens in the courts. In Hartman, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to enforce a restrictive
covenant on housing involving individuals of Chinese descent because it was held to be contrary
to public policy and violated the 14
th
Amendment. Despite victories such as this, and protests
from all nationalities concerning the injustices of racial divisions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that the separation of race was an acceptable practice, as long as
there was equality. The Supreme Court’s rulings on race issues became so ambivalent that each
state had its own interpretation of the law when it came to spatial segregation and racial
equality.
107
The government also declared that legislation was powerless to eradicate those racial
constitutions established long before Reconstruction, voiding the victory of equal rights
previously won by Hartman. Ambiguity, along with the weakening of Jim Crow, left people of

103
PBS, “The Slave Experience: Legal Rights & Gov't – Black Codes of Mississippi 1865,” Slavery and the Making
of America, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/legal/docs6.html (accessed July 20, 2013); History.com
ed., HISTORY, “Passage of the Black Codes,” Black Codes, 2010, http://www.history.com/topics/black-codes
(accessed July 20, 2013).
104
Fleming, Documentary History of Reconstruction, in Stanley J. Folmsbee, “The Origin of the First ‘Jim Crow’
Law,” 235.
105
Michael E. Ruane, “A brief history of the enduring phony science that perpetuates white supremacy,” The
Washington Post, April 30, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-brief-history-of-the-enduring-phony-
science-that-perpetuates-white-supremacy/2019/04/29/20e6aef0-5aeb-11e9-a00e-050dc7b82693_story.html
(accessed December 6. 2020).
106
Ibid.. Note: the Civil Rights Act of 1866 gave all males the right of citizenship and the 14
th
Amendment gave all
citizens equal protection under the law.
107
American Federation of Teachers, “Legislating Jim Crow,” https://www.aft.org/periodical/american-
educator/summer-2004/legislating-jim-crow (accessed January 15, 2021).
37

color exposed to new raced-based tactics such racial zoning. Under Jim Crow, the formerly
enslaved, freedmen and other people of color experienced legislative divisions based on race. To
some degree the practice of segregation was strengthened once enslaved people were
emancipated in 1863. The government of the state of Mississippi had the first Reconstruction
government and enacted the first Jim Crow law in 1865 which forbade Blacks to ride in coaches
used or set aside for Whites.
108

At the end of Reconstruction, because of political compromise and despite a number of
amendments that assured Blacks equal civil and legal rights as citizens, Southern attitudes
towards Blacks remained stubbornly racist. Susan Falck, a research associate at the California
State University of Northridge at the time of this research, stated that there were more than 400
state laws, constitutional amendments, and city ordinances passed between 1865 and 1967,
legalizing segregation and discrimination; 78 percent of those laws came from the South. The
West had 13 percent of the total laws that legalized segregation; the Midwest had 6 percent; and
the Northeast had 3 percent. Falck also stated that between 1877 (end of Federal Reconstruction)
and 1947 (just before the case of Shelly v. Kraemer in 1948 that rendered racial covenants a
violation of the 14
th
Amendment) California enacted seventeen Jim Crow laws that sought to
separate the different races in matters of marriage, employment, and housing.
109
Other raced-
based tactics included, urban renewal, disinvestment, redlining, racial covenants, racial zoning,
and de facto segregation (discrimination not mandated by law).
Racial Zoning
Before zoning ordinances were used to separate people of color, they were used
altruistically by idealist and special interest groups as a tool for social reform and land use
control. In “The Racial Origins of Zoning in American Cities,” Christopher Silver comments on
Yale Rabin's study that stated zoning in the United States was used as a “social mechanism,”
beginning with the noblest of intentions. They were used to control the spread of industrialism
into residential neighborhoods and to improve the blighted physical environment of slums; and

108
Fleming, Documentary History of Reconstruction, in Stanley J. Folmsbee, “The Origin of the First ‘Jim Crow’
Law,” 235.

109
Susan Falck, “Jim Crow Legislation Overview,” found in U.S. History 202, The History of Jim Crow blog,
http://gilberthistory202class.blogspot.com/2011/07/history-of-jim-crow.html (accessed June, 2013).
38

to stop their spread into better neighborhoods.
110
Washington, D.C. adopted the first height
restriction in 1899; other cities followed.
111
This height restriction sought to control the type and
intensity of land use, especially in areas of greater economic and cultural value. Social reformers
such as Charles Mulford Robinson, an urban planning theorist, promoted civic improvements
such as roads, site planning, playgrounds and parks, street plantings, paving, lighting, and
sanitation.
112
In 1908, Los Angeles became the first large city in the nation to adopt zoning laws
to slow the spread of industrialism into residential neighborhoods using “block ordinances.”
113

As a result of these reforms and land use ordinances that could guarantee future residents that no
industries would erode their quiet enjoyment, cities at the turn of the century were encouraged to
advertise, design, and build model homes. These model homes were designed for model citizens
with model incomes but inevitably led to exclusive neighborhoods.
It took little time for banks, developers, and cities to recognize that zoning could also
help achieve political and economic goals, that soon became more important than the early ones.
Individuals began to use them as a way to enforce a newly created system of racial segregation,
racial zoning – a form of de jure segregation enforced by local laws rather than preferences. The
main objective of racial zoning was to protect property values by excluding “undesirables.” In
1910, Baltimore enacted the first comprehensive racial zoning ordinance that regulated all-White
and all-Black neighborhoods. The laws left inter-racial neighborhoods to choose for themselves.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to void Baltimore’s racial zoning ordinance (Buchanan v.
Warley, 1917), a combination of events beginning in the 1920s led to the proliferation of racially
restrictive covenants.
114

110
Christopher Silver, “The Racial Origins of Zoning in American Cities,” in Urban Planning and the African
American Community: In the Shadows, ed. Manning Thomas, June Ritxdorf, and Marsha Ritzdorf (Thousand Oaks:
Sage Publications, 1997), 1.
111
Ibid.
112
Note: Charles Mulford Robinson wrote the first guide to city planning in 1902. “Improvement of Towns and
Cities,” http://archive.org/stream/cu31924014505824/cu31924014505824_djvu.txt, (accessed Jan, 2015).
113
Silver, “Racial Origins of Zoning,” 1.
114
Note: U.S. Supreme Court reversed a previous Louisville, Kentucky racial zoning ordinance that segregated
housing by race. See Library of Congress, “In the Supreme Court of the United States. Charles H. Buchanan v.
William Warley,” African American Odyssey, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-
bin/query/r?ammem/AMALL:@field(NUMBER+@band(mssmisc+ody0720)) (accessed May 20, 2014); Andrew
Wiese, Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century (Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press, 2004), 41.
39

Racial Covenants
Racially restrictive covenants were in play prior to racial zoning (see Gandolfo v.
Hartman, 1892). Racial covenants could be attached to a homeowner’s property deed and
prohibited the sale or rent of that property to anyone who was not White.
115
There were some
deeds that stipulated the buyer also be Protestant. De facto segregation was sometimes not
enforced through written agreements but rather executed through verbal agreements between
White neighbors and their realtors or neighborhood associations, varying from coast to coast and
from neighborhood to neighborhood. People in white communities reacted to perceived threats
such as loss of jobs, or fear of the decline in their quality of living in accordance with local
traditions and the surrounding racial demographics, leading to racial divisions across the country
to be even more defined. Enforcement of segregation laws, previously lax, tightened as more
people of color moved or attempted to move into all-White or majority-White neighborhoods.
This migration was spurred on by the two predominant cultural forces of the Harlem Renaissance
which peaked in the 1920s, the “New Negro Movement” and Pan-Africanism.
116
Blacks who
embraced and spread this movement were those who stood up for the rights they were
systematically denied, including the right to own and live in picturesque neighborhoods, now
almost entirely off-limits. The U.S. Supreme Court sided with those who wanted to reinforce
separate neighborhoods. In the case of Corrigan v. Buckley (District of Columbia, 1922-1926),
racially restrictive covenants were rendered a legally private matter and subsequently each
complaint was handled on a case-by-case basis. As a result, Los Angeles, symptomatic of the rest
of the nation, relied more on racially restrictive covenants and de facto segregation, increasing
tensions between migrating Blacks and Whites who had already settled into neighborhoods. The

115
The Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston, “1920s–1948: Racially Restrictive Covenants.” Historical Shift from
Explicit to Implicit Policies Affecting Housing Segregation in Eastern Massachusetts,
http://www.bostonfairhousing.org/timeline/1920s1948-Restrictive-Covenants.html (accessed May 20, 2012); Bond,
The Negro in Los Angeles, 85; The National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, “The Future of
Fair Housing: Report of the National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, The Leadership
Conference, https://lawyerscommittee.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/The-Future-of-Fair-Housing-National-
Commission-on-Fair-Housing-and-Equal-Opportunity.pdf (accessed May 2, 2012); U.S. Commission On Civil
Rights, Understanding Fair Housing Clearinghouse publication 42, February 1973,
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED075565.pdf (accessed Dec., 18, 2012); Kevin F. Gotham, “Urban Space,
Restrictive Covenants and the Origins of Racial Residential Segregation in a US City, 1900-50,” International
Journal of Urban and Regional Research 24, 3 (September 2000): 617, 621, 625, 626.
116
Sonia Delgado-Tall, “The New Negro Movement and the African Heritage in a Pan-Africanist Perspective,”
Journal of Black Studies 31, no. 3 (2001): 288-310, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2668034 (accessed November 20,
2020); W.E.B. Du Bois, “The New Negro,” The Crisis, 31, (1926): 141.
40

ethnically diverse city of Los Angeles saw the strictest time of segregation that it had ever known
beginning in the 1920s.
117
By the 1940s, restrictive covenants on property deeds burdened eighty
percent of all property in Chicago and Los Angeles. In effect, this meant that only twenty percent
of the real estate was available to people of color.
118
With the ideals of racial separation firmly
rooted in America’s history, the burgeoning west welcomed a vernacular environment of racial
exclusivity.
Redlining
By the 1930s prominent real estate organizations such as The National Association of
Real Estate Boards (NAREB) and government housing policies (FHA) sought to prevent “race
mixing.”
119
The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC), created in 1933, prepared color-
coded security maps that laid out detailed descriptions of a neighborhood’s housing stock, racial
and ethnic mix, class and income, and assigned it a letter and color, this became known as
redlining.
120
Although redlining was not a law, it was a common practice among realtors and
lenders that kept immigrants, many Blacks, and other people of color pinned into stereotypical
neighborhoods and helped to support racial covenants and de facto segregation. The green areas
were “first grade” and given a code of “A.” They represented the most ideal neighborhood for
the market. They consisted of mostly new homes and homogeneous neighbors of (White)
middle-income earners with little to no risk of defaulting on their home loans. The areas colored
blue and given a code of “B” represented neighborhoods that were completely developed but still
in good condition. Lenders assumed that people in this type of neighborhood could not afford to
live elsewhere but were not likely to default on their home loans. The riskiest and most troubling
of areas were colored yellow and red and given a code of “C” and “D.” Yellow areas represented
neighborhoods that lacked homogeneity, had heavy tax burdens, dilapidated housing, and

117
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Understanding Fair Housing 42,
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED075565.pdf (accessed Dec., 18, 2012).
118
Ibid.
119
Terry Gross, “A 'Forgotten History' Of How The U.S. Government Segregated America,” National Public Radio,
Fresh Air, May 3, 2017, https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history-of-how-the-u-s-
government-segregated-america (accessed December 10, 2020). Note: Federal Housing Authority (FHA)
recommended highways as a way to separate Blacks from their White neighbors. The FHA was also responsible for
creating White suburbs by underwriting/insuring homes for Whites and requiring racially restrictive covenants on
their deeds to further keep Blacks out.
120
T-RACES, “Testbed for the Redlining Archives of California's Exclusionary Spaces,” Demo,
http://salt.umd.edu/T-RACES/demo/demo.html (accessed May 13, 2013).
41

inadequate transportation. According to the HOLC, an area that was "red lined" was a
neighborhood of low-wage earning racial groups likely to default on their home loans living in
older housing. In the 1940s and ‘50s, Liquidy Savings and Loan on Pico in Los Angeles red
lined Venice/Oakwood. This middle-class suburb full of working-class people was increasingly
"subversive" according to the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation’s (HOLC) appraisal/security
map.
121
(Figure 2.1, Appendix B) The Federal Housing Authority, supported by all-White
neighborhood associations, block clubs, and real estate brokers encouraged officials not to mix
"inharmonious racial or nationality groups" and "the occupancy of properties except by the race
for which they are intended."
122

121
Robert K. Nelson, LaDale Winling, et al., “Mapping Inequality,” American Panorama, ed. Robert K. Nelson and
Edward L. Ayers, https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=11/34.091/NaN&city=los-angeles-
ca&text=downloads (accessed October 1, 2020).
122
Thomas J. Sugrue, “The Unfinished History of Racial Segregation,” July 15, 2008,
http://www.prrac.org/projects/fair_housing_commission/chicago/sugrue.pdf (accessed Jan 22, 2013).
Figure 2.1: Home Owners Loan Corporation Security Map of Los Angeles. Courtesy of Robert K. Nelson, LaDale
Winling, et al., “Mapping Inequality,” American Panorama, ed. Robert K. Nelson and Edward L. Ayers
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/holc/tiles/CA/LosAngeles1/1939/holc-scan.jpg).
42

Urban Renewal and Disinvestment
The 1949 Housing Act, under the guise of urban renewal, became synonymous with
“slum clearance” and “Negro removal” – a term first coined by James Baldwin in the 1960s.
123

Urban renewal gave federal, state, and local government the power to fix urban blight by razing
entire neighborhoods (made up of mostly poor and ethnic immigrants) through eminent domain,
and replacing them with planned communities where former residents could no longer afford to
live. Slum clearance would happen in Venice on and off starting in the 1960s. Urban renewal
was also used during the construction of California’s limited-access highways in the 1940s. What
was initially envisioned as intercity routes that averted cities, ended up as a tool for city planners
(of the segregationist mentality) to further disenfranchise and separate communities of color
from their White neighbors.
The 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act (or the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of
Interstate Defense Highways) provided projects that addressed the necessity for quick
transportation of supplies, arms, and men, to meet war demands; it provided employment and
infrastructure improvements that alleviated economic depression and improved roads; it also
gave state and local government the power to decide what and where to build and to discriminate
under the guise of urban renewal. Well-established and diverse communities, along with historic
structures and neighborhood businesses were razed to make way for the Santa Ana (I-5), San
Diego (I-405), and Santa Monica (I-10) Freeways.
124
During the post-World War II population
boom, the building of the Civic Center in Downtown Los Angeles, and the extension of the Santa
Monica (I-10) Freeway, forced Black and Latino residents out of the Santa Monica area through
eminent domain and into nearby Venice; de facto segregation and cheap housing confined them
to the Oakwood area. One could argue that neighborhoods are prime candidates for urban
renewal due in part to disinvestment. In order to justify clearing entire communities for freeways
and planned communities and using urban renewal efforts as their salvation, municipalities and
city planners must first prove that the neighborhoods are without hope. Through disinvestment,

123
James Baldwin, “A Conversation With James Baldwin,” interview by Kenneth Bancroft Clark, American
Archive of Public Broadcasting (June 24, 1963), 13:41, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-0v89g5gf5r
(accessed December 15, 2020).
124
Nathan Masters, “Creating the Santa Monica Freeway,” KCET-Departures, Sep. 9, 2012,
https://www.kcet.org/shows/departures/creating-the-santa-monica-freeway (accesses December 11, 2020).
43

landowners and local municipalities redirect necessary resources for a thriving community
elsewhere; much like the City of Los Angeles did after annexing Venice in 1920.
Gentrification
The opposite of disinvestment is gentrification, the new face of segregation. While
disinvestment withdraws support, gentrification brings in a completely different financial
demographic, displacing the former.
125
There is some good when a neighborhood gentrifies;
dilapidated and abandoned buildings are transformed and occupied once more, there are more
cultural activities and less crime, the area garners positive attention and becomes hip, and jobs
are created. Unfortunately, gentrification also raises the cost of living and displaces former
residents no longer able to afford to live in their own homes. The second factor, however, is that
the residents are often offered significant sums of money for their houses – money that buys
much larger homes with amenities such as swimming pools in outlying suburbs.

Identifying an “Ethnic Enclave”
Black communities within all-White suburbs in the 1900s were by nature enclaves,
distinct territorial, cultural, and social units enclosed within a foreign territory.
126
These
communities were a direct or indirect result of the racing of space. They are unlike “immigrant
enclaves,” “cities of color,” or “all-Black towns” and “ethnic communities.” Blacks living in
ethnic enclaves in America in the early twentieth century did not choose to be segregated, nor
did they lack the resources for better environments as some scholars argue.
127
Turn-of-the-
century ethnic neighborhoods tucked within all-White communities in North America are the
direct result of housing patterns caused by the “racing of space,” whether the neighborhoods
were organically formed or intentionally designed. In response to a long history of spatial control
Black ethnic enclaves took shape after slavery was officially abolished in 1863, but it is only
recently that they are being recognized as being affected. Examples of “Black ethnic enclaves”
include Val Verde which was once a Mexican mining town before a wealthy White woman from
Pasadena took a stand against Jim Crow in the early 1900s and made lots available to Blacks.

125
Dolores Hayden, The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press,
1995).
126
Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online, s.v. “enclave,” http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enclave
(accessed June 6, 2013).
127
Logan, "Immigrant Enclaves and Ethnic Communities in New York and Los Angeles."
44

The land was later purchased by a group of prominent Los Angeles Blacks in 1924 and
transformed into a self-segregated resort town dubbed Eureka Villa. Other settlements affected
by segregation along the Southland beach included a Manhattan Beach settlement founded by
George Peck in 1912. Peck set aside a portion of his beachfront property for Blacks and funded a
fishing pier along the beach just for them.
128
There was also the two-block neighborhood
between Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Streets on Highland Ave, fronting a portion of
Manhattan Beach, named Bruce’s Beach, developed around 1912.
129
The beach was named after
a Black couple named Charles and Willa Bruce who were the first to purchase lots there. The
Bruces built a bathhouse and lodge on the beach at a time when there were no resorts along the
Los Angeles coast that welcomed Blacks. In 1924 the beach and surrounding neighborhood
consisting of both Black and White property owners was seized by eminent domain by
Manhattan Beach city officials. In 1927 the neighborhood was condemned and leveled, and the
beach was leased to a private owner for a dollar a year. Then there was the Pacific Beach club in
Huntington Beach that was completed in 1926 but burned down weeks later, never having the
opportunity to create a prosperous and vibrant Black ethnic enclave.
130
Perhaps Muchakinock,
Iowa (1875-1900) closely resembles Venice’s development history and formation of Oakwood.
It was one of the largest coal mining firms in the Nation to recruit Black laborers from Virginia
and West Virginia. These recruits and their families subsequently settled in the town. Another
early enclave that resembled Oakwood was in Pasadena. In 1874 Pasadena began as a summer

128
Alison R. Jefferson, Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites During the Jim Crow
Era (United States: University of Nebraska Press, 2020).
129
Flamming, Bound for Freedom, 275; Cecilia Rasmussen, “L.A. Then and Now: Resort Was an Oasis for Blacks
Until Racism Drove Them Out,” Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2002, http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jul/21/local/me-
then21/2 (accessed May 2, 2013); U.S. Department of Interior, National Register of Historic Places, multiple
property documentation, February 11, 2009, Section E, 3; Michael Eissinger, “Growing Along the Side of the Road:
Rural African American Settlements in Central California” (August, 2011),
https://www.academia.edu/1519417/Growing_Along_the_Side_of_the_Road_Rural_African_American_Settlement
s_in_Central_California (accessed May 27, 2015).
130
Ann Scheid Lund, Historic Pasadena: An Illustrated History, 1st ed. (United States: Historical Publishing
Network, 1999), 48-50; Michael E. James, The Conspiracy of the Good: Civil Rights and The Struggle for
Community in Two American Cities, 1875-2000, vol. 30 (New York: P. Lang International Academic Publishers,
2005), 49; Rasmussen, “L.A. Then and Now,” Los Angeles Times; ICF Jones & Stokes, City of Santa Monica
Planning and Community Development Department, Santa Monica Citywide Historic Resources Inventory Update
Final Report, November, 2010,
http://www01.smgov.net/planning/Info_Item_Historic_Resources_Inventory_Update.pdf (accessed June 24, 2013);
Flamming, Bound For Freedom, 351,367,369, 373; Taylor, Seeking El Dorado, 336-37, 415, 441; Sides, LA City
Limits, 100, 415; Alison Rose Jefferson, “African American Leisure Space in Santa Monica. The Beach Sometimes
Known As the ‘Inkwell,’1900s–1960s,” Southern California Quarterly 91, 2 (2009): 180,
https://doi.org/10.2307/41172469 (accessed November 24, 2014).
45

residence for the elite, much like Venice did. It was transformed into a year-round suburb that
necessitated servants and laborers for the nearby wealthy. Those that were not live-in servants
were housed near “Millionaire's Row” on North Orange Grove Boulevard. By the 1900s,
Pasadena’s Black community was a small group of 250 domestic servants, general laborers,
agricultural workers, and a few business owners. Like other ethnic enclaves, early Black
residents of Oakwood responded to the racing of space by creating their own unique identity;
becoming entrepreneurs; establishing their own groups and clubs; forming their own local
churches; and even building their own dwelling units.
Ethnic enclaves are identified by certain physical attributes which give it a sense of
identity and anchors a community to a specific place. Those attributes give clues as to how the
residents responded to the racing of space. According to a paper published by Procedia - Social
and Behavioral Sciences given at the AMER International Conference on Quality of Life in
Malaysia, those physical attributes are outlined below.
131
It is important to note that not all of
these attributes need to be present in order to be defined as an ethnic enclave and that each
community has a unique set of attributes specific to their culture. Also note that although the
study’s focus is on the international case study of Malaysia, the scholar’s work is justifiably used
to identify characteristics unique to ethnic enclaves created by de facto racing of space in
Southern California.
• Location: people of color were relegated to older and less developed areas as part
of the tactic to delineate them from their White neighbors, most often using
physical barriers such as railroad tracks as in Oakwood.
• Settlement Patterns: when Blacks and other people of color found themselves
unable to purchase homes outside of a certain area, they settled either very near to
each other as land became available or built extensions or small cottages at the
rear of their own properties. This settlement pattern has produced cultural districts
distinct to that ethnicity, strengthening a conservation effort.
• Public Realms: residents of an ethnic enclave use elements in the public realm
such as decorations and streetscape in order to enhance their ties to the area. The

131
Aidatul Fadzlin Bakri, et al., “Reviving the Physical and Cultural Attributes of Ethnic
Enclave: A conservation approach,” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 153 ( 2014 ): 341 – 348,
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814055098 (accessed April 9, 2020).
46

use of vegetation is an important aspect of Indian culture and thereby its display
in the public realm anchors their identity. Black ethnic enclaves in U.S. blend
private and public spaces to create anchors for their community. These spaces
create community in an otherwise hostile environment and can even help to instill
a sense of sociability with others outside of the ethnic group.
• Architecture: when people of color moved into a segregated area, they were often
left to build their own homes without any support from local contractors, builders,
or designers. Depending on their skills, their homes were built with materials and
methods that were rudimentary and piecemeal. Those with skills combined their
knowledge with the local building typology and architectural language or style.
Both the skilled and the unskilled may have decorated the interior of their
dwellings with a color scheme as well as signage that reminded them of where
they came from. Although this style is fairly new for mainstream designers, it has
been practiced by ethnicities without much though.
132

• Language: in some cases, ethnic enclaves displayed a variety of dialects as sub-
cultural groups joined together, and at times integrated with the local dialect. One
such example is the vernacular language of Haitian Creole, Louisiana Creole,
and Mauritian Creole that formed from interactions between Africans and E
uropeans that developed on European Colonial plantations in the 17
th
and 18
th

centuries.
133

• Celebrations: people of color who were segregated created opportunities for
congregation using festivals, celebrations and ceremonies. These celebrations
were also an opportunity to disarm racist notions created by ignorance and invite
the dominate race to experience the joys of another culture.
• Predominating Religion: because people of color could not congregate with
Whites of the same religion, they either created off-shoots of that denomination or

132
For more information on ethnic architecture and design see E.G. Naumova and N.V. Naumov, “The pole
nomads’ architecture as a structural component of modern ethnic design (on the example of Kalmykia),” IOP
Science, https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/913/3/032025 (accessed Jan. 1, 2021).
133
For more on the vernacular language of Creole see Salikoko Sangol Mufwene, “Creol Languages,” Encyclopedia
Britannica (2017), https://www.britannica.com/topic/creole-languages (accessed Jan. 10, 2021).
47

separate congregations of the same religion in order to satisfy the need for shared
experiences.
• Attire: within ethnic enclaves some cultures carry traditional attire with them into
new places. Whether on display publicly in celebrations, showcased in private, or
worn everyday depending on the occasion. The attire is a way of recognizing and
connecting with their place of origin. In Asian cultures some have continued to
wear a traditional one-piece clothing called shenyi (deep robe) that can be traced
back to the late Zhou Dynasty (1046–221 BC).
134

• Ritual and Practice: in ethnic enclaves the rituals and practices are the same as
back home. The use of piñatas are as common as balloons for celebrations in
Mexican enclaves. In the Mexican tradition the piñata is a symbol of temptation,
faith, and overcoming temptation.
135

• Food: the tradition of potlucks in communities of color help pass on cuisines that
represent culture, religion, and group attachment. The Mexican fiesta and Black
southern potlucks are a few of cuisines that exemplify this tradition.
• Trade: co-ethnic networking was vital to the livelihoods of those in ethnic
enclaves, as well as an opportunity for the members in the community to purchase
specialized ethnic goods that they were unable to get anywhere else. Co-ethnic
networking was a necessity for Black enclaves in the early 1900s as they were
shut out of basic services such as barbershops, grocery stores, and sometimes
even medical facilities.

Entrepreneurship during the early 1900s was out of necessity for much the same reasons
as co-ethnic networking was. For people of color, even in the bourgeoning Southern California
area, jobs were difficult to secure and were generally service jobs that paid the least (cooks,
washers, maids, etc.). Venturing into business was a matter of survival because it was easier for

134
China Highlights, Fercility, “Traditional Chinese Clothes — Hanfu, Tang Suit, Qipao, Zhongshan Suit,” China’s
Tradition, Jan.15, 2021, https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/traditional-chinese-clothes.htm (accessed Jan.
1, 2021).
135
Rafaela Castro, Chicano Folklore: A Guide to the Folktales, Traditions, Rituals and Religious Practices of
Mexican Americans (United Kingdom: OUP USA, 2001); Alma Flores and Gerardo Rivera, Mexico Ideas, History
& Culture , “History of the Pinata,” Culture and Traditions, https://mexicoideas.com/mexico-pinata-history/
(accessed Dec 1, 2020). Note: the pinata originated in remote China to welcome the seasons of the year.
48

Blacks to sell to Whites (and other minorities) than it was to get a job from them. How some of
these characteristics manifested in the Oakwood neighborhood will be discussed in Chapter 3.
Author William Deverell, in his book Whitewashed Adobe, describes an “urban and
institutional anatomy of prejudice” in Los Angeles where “ethnic others” were placed in cultural
categories.
136
Those categories included labor segmentation, leisure, housing, transportation, and
memory. As previously stated in Chapter One, scholar Robert Wyeneth sees the separation of
space as an issue that goes beyond schoolhouses, waiting rooms, and drinking fountains to the
design of entire neighborhoods.
137
Blacks living in ethnic enclaves in the early twentieth century
were hemmed in by racism and comprised of various economic and social classes; located in
urban as well as suburban areas; functioned as support for vacation/amusement resorts; and
formed industrial satellites and domestic service suburbs. The fact that some neighborhoods had
a sprinkling of other ethnicities does not take away from what defines it as an ethnic enclave.
Oakwood in Venice, California is one example of the many neighborhoods in Los Angeles
affected by racial zoning, de-facto segregation, the architecture of segregation, and other tactics
discussed earlier that have impacted the memory, and physical and cultural landscape of entire
communities. Oakwood and other Los Angeles neighborhoods that are poor, ethnic, and older,
still bear the scars of the racing of space; they also tell a tale of resilience and fortitude in their
response.

136
William Deverell, Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past,
(Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004), 9.
137
Weyeneth, “Architecture of Racial Segregation,” 11-44.
49

Chapter 3. Oakwood as “Black Ethnic Enclave”

Development
Although there were Blacks living scattered throughout Southern California, clusters of
majority-Black neighborhoods along the coast were few. Oakwood is the last of three historically
Black ethnic enclaves located along the Southern California coast. (Figure 3.1) Bruce’s Beach in
Manhattan Beach and Belmar Triangle in Ocean Park (south of Santa Monica ) no longer
exist.
138
The few blocks of parcels occupied by Blacks in Venice consisted of simple bungalows,
owner-built dwellings, multiple buildings on a lot, and communal short-cuts. The Blacks of
Oakwood provided vital support to the “Venice of America” amusement park during its
construction and after. They are likely to have helped to dredge and construct the canals, as many
came to Los Angeles looking for work. They also worked on the pier for the Abbot Kinney
Company.
139
They were active citizens and business owners serving the Venice community as
general laborers, live-in maids, cooks, and laundresses alongside ethnic Whites, Japanese, and
Chinese immigrants at the numerous businesses, hotels, concessions, and amusements that
instantly sprang up after the canals were completed.
140
They worked for places like S.S. Rex
(Tony Cornero’s gambling ship), and exotic entertainment venues like Sebastian’s Café, also
known as Venice Café on Winward Avenue (famous for its jazz and vaudeville acts in the
1920s).
141
All the while, there were circuitous rules that did not allow them to freely

138
For more information on Bruce’s Beach and Belmar Triangle see, Alison Rose Jefferson, “African American
Leisure Space in Santa Monica. The Beach Sometimes Known As the ‘Inkwell,’1900s–1960s,” Southern California
Quarterly 91, 2 (2009): 155-89, https://doi.org/10.2307/41172469 (accessed December 10, 2020). Note: Belmar
Triangle was between Main St. and 4th St., and Santa Monica Blvd. and Pico Blvd., a few blocks from Bay Street
Beach (a strip of beach along the segregated Southern California coastline frequented by Blacks derogatorily known
as the “Inkwell”).
139
Betsy Goldman – Venice California Real Estate, “Venice History: The Story of Venice-of-America,”
http://www.betsysellsvenice.com/venice-history/, (accessed August 2, 2013). Note: According to Betsy Goldman, a
real estate agent and member of the Venice Historical Society, workers for the canal were paid $8 a day, a
substantial amount at that time; 1910 U.S. Census; 1910 Los Angeles/Venice Telephone Directory.
140
1910 U.S. Census; 1910 Los Angeles/Venice Telephone Directory.
141
Bizarre Los Angeles, Photography and Forgotten History, “Venice Beach Photos – Snapshot History,” Los
Angeles: Time Travel, May 6, 2016, https://bizarrela.com/2016/05/venice-beach/ (accessed Jan 20, 2015); Ian Kirk,
“SEBASTIAN’S COTTON CLUB CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA (1926-1938),” Blackpast,
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/sebastians-cotton-club-culver-city-california-1926-1938/
(accessed Dec 30, 2020); Author interviews with the Tabor, Reese, and Powell families (April/June 2013); Jeer
Witter, “The Wild Reign Of Captain Tony And His Floating Casinos,” Los Angeles magazine, March, 1965,
https://www.lamag.com/askchris/tony-cornero-and-the-ss-rex/ (access Jan. 20, 2015).
50

participate in the amusement parks’ amenities or purchase property beyond the “Black”
boundary.
142
There were some exceptions because de facto segregation was arbitrary. Other
exemptions for the early Black settlers of Venice were because some were a lighter complexion
and could go undetected, or because they were well-known in the small beach community and
not everyone was racist. Interviews with Oakwood pioneers, despite their varied experiences,
confirm that homeownership and job opportunities outweighed the cost of moving into sections
of Los Angeles where the racing of space (specifically architectural isolation and partitioning)
were used. By 1912 there were thirty-three Blacks living in the Oakwood section of Venice and

142
Venice History Articles/Research and Lists, “Venice and Ocean Park Businesses 1907 – 1936,” Westland
Network, https://www.westland.net/venicehistory/articles/Venicebusinesses.htm (accessed July 2012).
Figure 3.1: Map of current boundaries of Oakwood. Adapted from The History of the Naming of
Tabor Courts. Venice Community Housing Corporation, 1996 by Jacqueline Leavitt and
Novelette Tabor.
THE
OAKWOOD
NEIGHBORHOOD
TODAY
51

two African American churches.
143
The Tabor and Reese families accounted for a large
percentage of the early residents as they relocated to initially help Reese on the pier. When
Abbot Kinney died in 1920, Venice began its slow decline. After the 1925 annexation by the
City of Los Angeles, the area began its transformation into an “alternative beach community” but
the racial divide remained intact in the Oakwood area.
144
Venice went through a second wave of
disinvestment in the 1930s (continuing to set up for “slum clearance”). The influx of people into
the Los Angeles area during World War II (1939-1945) because of defense building projects,
along with absentee landlords and widespread demolition of “old” and “substandard” housing,
stimulated urban renewal in the Venice area. On the upside Venice had one of the cheapest
housing stocks along the beachfront at that time. This gave anyone, especially the poor and
elderly on fixed incomes, an opportunity to gain ownership, including owning dilapidated
beachfront cottages. During the 1930s the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) assisted by
the Federal Housing Authority and mortgage lenders began to prepare “neighborhood security
maps” and color-code neighborhoods according to their salability, redlining the most undesirable
and at risk for defaulting on loans. This redlining further characterized Venice as a slum. By the
end of the 1930s, racial boundaries in the “colored” areas of Los Angeles, including Oakwood,
were well defined due to the redlining practices. Santa Monica, Venice, and South Venice were
coded “red” for having what the HOLC reports subjectively described as the most “subversive”
elements or showing signs of becoming entirely disrupted or unstable (i.e. non-homogenous,
older and substandard housing, inability of residents to obtain a loan). (Appendix B-D) Cheap
housing and the end of WWII brought more poor people into Venice and Oakwood. By the
1940s there were 346 Blacks living in Oakwood. Manufacturing and war jobs at McDonnell
Douglas, Hughes Aircraft, and North American located on the Westside near Venice increased
the population of working-class Blacks. By 1950, the Black population in Oakwood was
1,157.
145
Further crowding occurred as many Blacks and Latinx were displaced into the Venice
area when the Civic Center in downtown Los Angeles was built in the late ‘50s (destroying

143
Deener, Contested Bohemia, 32.
144
Elsa Devienne, “Urban Renewal by the Sea: Reinventing the Beach for the Suburban Age in Postwar Los
Angeles,” Journal of Urban History 45, no. 1 (January 2019): 99–125, https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144217753379
(access June 2, 2013); Deener, Contested Bohemia, 38-33.
145
Andrew Deener, “The ‘Black Section’ of the Neighborhood: Collective Visibility and Collective Invisibility as
Sources of Place Identity,” Ethnography 11, no. 1 (March 2010): 45–67, https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138109346988
(accessed June 10, 2016); Hunt, Black Los Angeles, 85.
52

Belmar Triangle), and when Interstate 10 cut through Santa Monica’s Pico district in the late
‘60s (destroying Sugar Hill).
146
By 1960, the Black population in Oakwood tripled to 3,191. By
1970 Blacks were the largest single population group at 45%.
147
In the 1960s, the Community
Redevelopment Agency, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning, and the Haynes
Foundation conducted studies about the renewal potential of Venice in order to create a new
coastal identity and beach renewal that had been brewing in Los Angeles since the 1930s,
starting west of Lincoln Blvd.
148
The agencies came to the same general conclusion that Venice
was in need of slum clearance. The city introduced code enforcements that condemned
approximately 446 buildings between 1960-1965. These code-enforcement programs mostly
affected bohemian groups along the Canals and along the boardwalk, Blacks in Oakwood, and
elderly Jewish residents bordering Ocean Park.
149
Groups like the Peace and Freedom Party who
formed the Free Venice movement to fight against development and the code-enforcement
programs, formed other anti-development groups like the Canal Emergency Action Committee
and Save the Canals Committee.
150
The entire Venice community banded together and prevented
the widespread demolition of what characterized Venice Beach at the time – shanties and quaint
beach cottages along with Venetian-style storefronts. Local activists renovated buildings when
they received word they would be demolished. One such building was transformed into the
Venice Canals Community House with permission from the owner.
151
Under the leadership of
new mayor, Sam Yorty, local property-owning groups continued to rally for dramatic changes to
the Venice environment thus attracting middle income residents that would be able to enjoy
pleasures usually reserved for the very wealthy. Unlike Santa Monica who added more than

146
Nathan Masters, “Creating the Santa Monica Freeway,” KCET-Departures, Sep. 9, 2012,
https://www.kcet.org/shows/departures/creating-the-santa-monica-freeway (accessed December 11, 2020); Hunt,
Black Los Angeles, 85.
147
Hunt, Black Los Angeles, 82-84; Deener, Contested Bohemia, 32; Rosemary Lord, Los Angeles, Then and Now
(Thunder Bay Press, 2007).
148
Deener, Contested Bohemia, 40. Note: for more information on beach modernization and Venice see Elsa
Devienne, “Urban Renewal by the Sea: Reinventing the Beach for the Suburban Age in Postwar Los Angeles,”
Journal of Urban History 45, no. 1 (January 2019): 99–125, https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144217753379 (accessed
June 2, 2013).
149
Ibid.; Earl Caldwell, “The Poor of Venice, Calif., Struggle to Save Their Beachside Slum,” The New York Times,
November 9, 1973, https://www.nytimes.com/1973/11/09/archives/the-poorof-venice-calif-struggle-to-save-their-
beachside-slum.html (accessed Jan 10, 2020).
150
Hillel Aron, “HOW VENICE BECAME THE MOST EXPENSIVE NEIGHBORHOOD IN LOS ANGELES,”
LA Weekly, Jan.18, 2017, https://www.laweekly.com/how-venice-became-the-most-expensive-neighborhood-in-los-
angeles/ (accessed Dec 10, 2020).
151
Deener, Contested Bohemia, 133-138.
53

10,000 dwelling units between 1960-2010, Venice was successfully able to fend off developers
up until the late ‘90s. Since the housing supply stayed the same while demand increased, the
value of properties soared.
There was a less unified community of black and brown neighbors when the second wave
of Latinx immigrants arrived in Oakwood from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Scholar
Andrew Deener credits this to the difficulty in establishing social connections between the
groups due to the variety of Latinx moving in.
152
This social disconnect, along with the war on
drugs in the ‘80s and ‘90s, caused an increase in turf wars between black and brown residents in
Oakwood.
153
By this time land values were still moderately cheap compared to other beach
properties so it attracted the young and adventurous middle-class home-owner who
unintentionally revitalized the area and gradually altered the environment. It also moved the
needle towards displacing long-time residents as well as provided them with an opportunity to
escape the concentrated crime in the area and cash out, causing a decline in Oakwood’s people of
color. Today the Black population is 12%.
154

The “Black section” of Venice did not officially become labeled Oakwood until the
1960s, according to former resident and pioneering family, John Quincy Tabor Jr. A scan of the
archives of the Los Angeles Times begins to use the name Oakwood starting in the late 1940s.
The naming of the Oakwood neighborhood coincides with racial tensions and Urban Renewal
throughout the city of Los Angeles beginning in the late 1940s. As stated earlier, in a document
published by the Los Angeles City Planning Department, the Oakwood area was recognized as a
small “Negro” community that grew as Venice expanded, but always within proximity to its
initial boundaries.
155
There was no evidence of racial zoning laws or racially restrictive
covenants used to restrict Black occupancy in the popular resort town of Venice, nor is it clear
whether Abbot Kinney roped off a “servants zone” for Blacks when building his resort.
156

Census records and first-hand accounts show that Blacks were not welcomed outside of the
boundaries mentioned earlier (see figure I.2), especially south of the Pacific Electric tracks

152
Hunt, Black Los Angeles, 85; Deener, "The 'black Section' of the Neighborhood,” 45-57.
153
Deener, “The ‘black Section’ of the Neighborhood,” 55.
154
“Mapping Segregation,” The New York Times, July 8, 2015,
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/08/us/census-race-map.html (accessed Dec 10, 2020).
155
Adler, History of the Venice Area, 20; Jacqueline Leavitt and Novelette Tabor, “The History of the Naming of
Tabor Courts,” Venice Community Housing Corporation, (Nov. 1996).
156
Note: Tuscaloosa Newspaper, January 16, 1994 supposedly names the area a “servants’ zone.” The information
could not be verified at this time.
54

(Electric Avenue) in the early days of Venice. One columnist in the Santa Monica Weekly
Interpreter told the Black population in nearby Santa Monica: “Negroes, we don’t want you
here; now and forever, this is to be a white man’s town.”
157
Venice Vanguard was also very
vocal in their support of racial segregation. In one issue it challenged anti-Black occupancy laws
from St. Louis and Louisville that prohibited Blacks from occupying predominantly White
neighborhoods. It read, “The mixing of people…of decidedly opposite colors is not at any time
desirable.”
158
White residents and realtors used de facto practices in the form of architectural
isolation (showing spatial strategies of exclusion and temporal separation) and partitioning
(showing spatial strategies of malleable partitions and behavioral separation) to limit where
Blacks in Oakwood could live and what activities they could participate in. Oakwood is an
example of a Black ethnic enclave in Southern California that was created by spatial strategies of
segregation (whether organic or by design). The following is an account of community resilience
and determination as well as how the Blacks in Oakwood navigated the racing of space in Venice
– unlike other Black ethnic enclaves that created parallel cultures.
159
The Blacks in Venice
responded to the racing of space by creating unique family structures: tightly interwoven kinship
through marriage and childbirth, social groups and clubs, businesses and bartering, religious
denominations, and of course shared living arrangements and generational wealth through real
estate.

157
Santa Monica Weekly Interpreter, 1922 quoted from Robert M. Fogelson, The fragmented metropolis: Los
Angeles, 1850-1930 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 200.
158
Free Venice Beachhead #126, June 1980 found in Mark McIntire, “Minorities and Racism,” Virtual Venice
1914-1916 Part 5, http://www.virtualvenice.info/print/1914-1916pt5.htm (accessed June, 2014).
159
“Blacks Create a Parallel Culture,” Santa Monica’s Evening Outlook, May 17, 1975.
55

Pioneering Residents
Arthur L. Reese and Family
160

(1883 - 1963)
New Orleans, Louisiana

555 Westminster Avenue (first residence)
541
st
Santa Clara Avenue / 1221 6
th
Avenue (Reese-built)
600 San Juan Avenue (Joseph Reese)

Many claim that Arthur L. Reese’s was one of the first to take up residence in Oakwood.
There is evidence that he was one of a handful to secure his own living quarters in Venice at the
start of “Venice of America.” The Reese family was originally from New Orleans, Louisiana and
lived near a bayou. Reese was a Pullman Porter who came to Los Angeles in 1902 with his wife
Gertrude and son, who were also from Louisiana; another son was born just after they moved to
the Venice area. Reese was operating a shoeshine stand in the Santa Monica/Ocean park area in
1903 when he heard that Abbot Kinney was planning his themed amusement park. Looking for
more business opportunities he took the Red Car into Venice in 1904 and found the resort town
full of potential business opportunities. It was not long before Reese was shining shoes on the
Venice pier and later operating a towel concession business, employing his cousins, the Tabors.
(Figure 3.2) When Abbot Kinney noticed Reese and his industriousness, he offered him a job
working as a janitor for his Abbot Kinney Company.
161
The 23-year-old Reese would soon
oversee a janitorial day-work service on the pier for Abbot Kinney’s Villa City.
162
(Figure 3.3)
Abbot Kinney, impressed by Reese’s entrepreneurial spirit, convinced him to combine his
janitorial company with Kinney Enterprises and become head of maintenance. Reese continued
to operate and expand his own business.

160
Unless otherwise noted, information in this section was derived from the Author interviews with the Tabor,
Reese, and Powell families (April/June 2013).
161
Marguerite Ross Davy, “Novel Concessionaire,” Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life XXI, 1, (Jan. 19, 1943),
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Opportunity/SqIqAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=arthur%20reese
(accessed June 2, 2020).
162
Adler, History of the Venice Area, 4.
56

Figure 3.2: Arthur Reese with his day-worker crew pose in front of Venice’s Villa City. Photo from Sonya
Reese archives in Arthur L. Reese. The Wizard of Venice: Venice of America, 1905-1920. Permission courtesy
of Sonja Reese Greenland.
57

Reese in turn convinced Kinney that he should hire Blacks because there were many that needed
and wanted to work; the men could do the janitorial work and the women could work in the
hotels.
163
However, Reese could not successfully convince Blacks living in Los Angeles to work
in Venice because no one would rent or sell to them. It was much easier for them to work in
Downtown Los Angeles where there were neighborhoods open to people of color and closer to
jobs like along Central Avenue and in Watts. Based on the 1910 census and telephone
directories, there were seven Black families living in the Oakwood area by then.
164
To help
supply the Kinney Company with labor, Reese convinced more of his family to come to Venice.
The Reese and Tabor families all moved to Venice by the end of the 1920s. Reese’s other
businesses included a garage business where he washed cars, and a janitorial company with a

163
Juan Devis, “Farewell to a Venice Legend: Navalette Tabor Bailey,” KCET-Departures, July 22, 2010,
https://www.kcet.org/shows/departures/farewell-to-a-venice-legend-navalette-tabor-bailey (accessed June 20, 2016).
164
1910 U.S. Census; 1910 Los Angeles City/Venice Telephone Directory.
Figure 3.3: Arthur Reese with his day-worker crew pose in front of Villa City. Photo from Sonya Reese
archives in Arthur L. Reese. The Wizard of Venice: Venice of America, 1905-1920. Permission courtesy
of Sonja Reese Greenland.
58

partner called Gordon Day-Work Company. (Figure 3.4) He also bought Kinney’s boathouse
where he and his brother Edward operated the Venice Boat and Canoe Company until 1929.
They rented gondolas, motorboats, canoes, and row boats for

the Venice canals.
165
After discovering his natural decorating abilities, the Kinney Company
hired Reese to decorate the Dance Pavilion, the amusement pier, and other buildings in Venice.
He was asked to decorate for a big event to take place at the grand ball room in the auditorium on
the Venice pier with $16,000 worth of decorations supplied by Hamberger’s Department Store

165
“Alison Rose Jefferson: An Interview with Navalette Tabor Bailey (Oakwood Resident and cousin to Arthur
Reese)”, by the City of Santa Monica Beach Stories Initiative Interview Transcripts, June 10, 2009, [00:19:53:02].
Figure 3.4: Arthur Reese’s shoe-shine workers pose in front of his janitorial business (with partner), Gordon Day-
Work Co. Photo from Sonya Reese archives in Arthur L. Reese. The Wizard of Venice: Venice of America, 1905-
1920. Permission courtesy of Sonja Reese Greenland.
59

(which is now Macy’s). With a crew of eighteen it took a year and a half to put it together.
Unfortunately, fire would consume his effort and the pier in 1908.
166
He continued to take
classes in decorating to complement his natural skills, opening his own decorating and
contracting business. He also designed and made parade floats and gondolas to use in the canals.
He received awards and accolades for his designs. In 1910, Reese came up with the idea to have
a Mardi Gras because the Venice pier was losing customers to other amusement piers nearby. He
was from New Orleans so he was very familiar with festivals, especially the Mardi Gras that was
highly popular in Louisiana then, as it is now. In August, the first Mardi Gras Festival in Venice
was held. Reese was the head decorator every year it was held until 1941. The parade often
featured his spectacular cartoon-like papier-mâché Mardi Gras heads. In the 1919 City Directory
Reese is listed as “chief decorator” for the Abbot Kinney Company.
167
Joseph Reese, Arthur’s
brother, became the first mail carrier in early Venice who began his career as a volunteer. He
lived at 600 San Juan Avenue, just down the street from his brother Arthur. The Reese Family
married into Black families already settled into Santa Monica. His wife Gertrude Circy’s family
may have already been in Venice upon his arrival.
168

After several attempts to purchase from other White landowners in the Venice area were
unsuccessful, Reese is said to have paid cash for his first parcel at 555 Westminster Avenue
(formerly Fredonia Street) with the help of a Jewish gentleman in 1910 while he still lived in Los
Angeles. (Figure 3.5) His cousins, the Tabors, helped to build a small cottage at the rear of the
property, using wood from the old Venice piers. (Figure 3.6) The Tabors lived there and shared
in the abundant workload that “Venice of America” provided until they purchased homes of their
own and started their own businesses.
169
There were many homes in the Oakwood area that had
“granny flats” at the rear of the property for family members moving to Venice. In 1913 Reese
built a craftsman home on 541 Santa Clara Avenue.
170
(Figure 3.7)

166
Ibid; Stanton, “Venice Timeline 1890-1909,” Venice History Site,
https://www.westland.net/venicehistory/articles/1890.htm (accessed May 29, 2015).
167
1919 Los Angeles City Directory, Santa Monica/Venice area.
168
U.S. Census 1910 and Author’s in-person interviews.
169
Sonja Reese, Arthur L. Reese. The Wizard of Venice: Venice of America, 1905-1920, ed. Jewell Lupoma, 5; Farai
Chideya, “The Evolution of Venice, California,” National Public Radio, Diversions, July 4, 2005,
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4728758 (accessed Dec. 10, 2020).
170
Author interviews with the Tabor and Reese families (April/June 2013); Historic Resources Group, SurveyLA-
Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey, “Venice-Individual Resources,” March, 2015,
https://planning.lacity.org/odocument/f8aeda1c-cde8-4c6c-b538-
5a535d7e792d/Venice_Individual_Resources_0.pdf (accessed June 2, 2018).
60

Figure 3.5: Arthur Reese’s first residence at 555 Westminster Ave. (formerly Fredonia Street) in Oakwood,
Venice. Photo from Sonya Reese archives in Arthur L. Reese. The Wizard of Venice: Venice of America, 1905-
1920. Permission courtesy of Sonja Reese Greenland.
61

Figure 3.6: Small cottage built by the Tabor cousins at the rear of Arthur Reese’s first residence at 555
Westminster Ave. (formerly Fredonia Street) in Oakwood, Venice. Photo from Sonya Reese archives in
Arthur L. Reese. The Wizard of Venice: Venice of America, 1905-1920. Permission courtesy of Sonja Reese
Greenland.
62

Reese was well respected as an entrepreneur and a businessman. He was also civically
engaged in the affairs of Oakwood. He was the founding member of the Crescent Bay Lodge
Number 19, a masonic lodge formed in Santa Monica in 1910. He was also a member of the
Venice Chamber of Commerce in 1920, when it was uncommon for an African American to be a
member of a White organization of this type. He and his brother Clarence formed the local
NAACP chapter in Venice in the 1930s because they saw Black women being harassed on the
corner of Rose Ave and Lincoln Blvd. every time the circus came to town. When the circus left,
the brothers decided to start a branch of the NAACP in Venice. In the 1940s Reese served as the
Venice lodge’s charitable and benevolent activities organization leader and Worshipful Master.
The lodge still exists at Seventeenth Street and Broadway.
171
Reese also owned lakefront
property on Lake Elsinore near Riverside where he rented cottages.
172
He was also an investor in
Lake Shore Beach Co. with Sallie Taylor Richardson and Charles S. Darden (1878-1943).
173

Reese was head of the building committee that hired Paul R. Williams to design the First Baptist

171
Carolyn Elayne Alexander, The Golden Years: 1905–1920, vol. 1 of Abbott Kinney’s Venice-of-America. Los
Angeles: Westside Genealogical Society, 1991.
172
“Alison Rose Jefferson: An Interview with Navalette Tabor Bailey (Oakwood Resident and cousin to Arthur
Reese)”, by the City of Santa Monica Beach Stories Initiative Interview Transcripts, June 10, 2009: [00:18:49:12].
173
Jefferson, Living the California Dream, 117.
Figure 3.7: Arthur Reese’s second residence at 541 Santa Clara Ave. that he built. Courtesy of GoogleMaps, 2021.
63

Church of Venice in 1927 (founded in 1910) at 510 San Juan Avenue.
174
The community of
Venice has attempted to honor Reese by giving him the moniker, “The Wizard of Venice.”
175

Irving (or Irvin) Tabor and Family
176

(1893-1987)
Morgan City, Louisiana

605-607 Westminster Avenue (Tabor Courts - sold
177
)
615, 617 Westminster Avenue (owned by Tabor’s nephew, Alvin)
1310 Sixth Avenue (Abbot Kinney/Tabor Residence - sold)
613 Westminster Avenue (Charles Tabor – demolished 1960)

Irving Tabor was also from Louisiana. He was the first one of the cousins to join Arthur
Reese in 1910. When no one would sell land to Tabor, he built a small cottage at the rear of
Reese’s property at 555 Westminster Avenue.
178
Irving began working alongside his cousin
Reese as a janitor on the Venice Pier. He is listed in the 1910 Census Directory as an auto
operator and in the 1920 Directory as an Amusement Decorator. Irving Tabor became Abbot
Kinney’s chauffeur and personal assistant when Kinney approached Tabor while he was cleaning
the pier. Kinney was having a Model T shipped from Chicago and needed a driver, so he asked
Tabor if he wanted the job. Tabor said yes without knowing how to drive but quicky learned
from a mechanic named Joe Lane from Heinickle Ford. Abbot Kinney and Tabor became friends
according to the Reese and Tabor families. He had a room in the Kinney House while he worked
for him. Kinney is said to have never slept where Tabor was not welcomed, sometimes sleeping

174
Cultural Heritage Commission, Los Angeles Department of City Planning Recommendation Report, First Baptist
Church of Venice, Dec. 6, 2018, https://planning.lacity.org/StaffRpt/InitialRpts/Item%2006%20CHC-2018-5305-
HCM.pdf (accessed Dec. 10, 2020). Note: the (1927) original First Baptist Church designed by Williams was moved
to 11205 S. Vermont Ave. in Westmont. Currently the 1967 church occupies the lot and is being threatened with
demolition for housing. For ongoing battle to save the 1967 First Baptist Church see Chapter 4 Ongoing Struggles.
175
Save Venice, VENICE, CA BLACK HISTORY GALLERY, https://savevenice.ca/black-history/gallery/
(accessed Dec. 11, 2020).
176
Note: unless otherwise noted, information in this section was derived from the author’s in-person interviews with
the Tabor, Reese, and Powell families conducted between April and June, 2013.
177
Hotpads apartment search engine, https://hotpads.com/605-westminster-ave-venice-ca-90291-sswtrv/pad
(accessed Jan. 10, 2020).
178
Farai Chideya, “The Evolution of Venice, California,” National Public Radio, Diversions, July 4, 2005,
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4728758 (accessed Dec. 10, 2020).
64

in his car. When they met, it had been at least fifteen years since Kinney wrote his reflections on
Chinese, women, and “Negroes.”
179
Perhaps the hard-working people he employed and
intelligent women he hired to speak at his Chautauqua events convinced him that his beliefs
about the superiority of White men (as a race and gender) were wrong. From all accounts,
Kinney treated the Reese and Tabor families with respect, unlike the intolerant environment they
navigated in Venice. Navalette Tabor (daughter of Irving Tabor) reported that she did not think
of Kinney as a prejudiced man and “…certain things he had no control over…and we didn’t
force, force the issue at that time.”
180
Irving’s older brother, Charles Tabor, went into commercial
fishing and supplied the Venice markets with fresh fish. Charles was listed as a teamster in 1910
and as workman for the shipyards in 1920. Tabor’s other brother, Clarence, was listed as a
carpenter. Charles Tabor and his brother John Quincy both ran a trucking business and had a
contract to haul materials and debris out of the Santa Monica Canyon. John Quincy was also a
master carpenter. When the larger trucking companies took over in the 1929, Charles turned to
his carpentry skills to support his family. His sister, Jenny Tabor, with her husband Alphonse
Henry, started a cement contracting business (the first Black cement contractor); they built some
of the sidewalks in Venice on Rose, Main, and close to the beach. As other cousins arrived, they
worked on the pier as well, some were gondoliers on the Venice canals, others helped Reese with
his shoeshine business or towel business on the pier. The Tabor and Reese families started their
own businesses and were held in high esteem by the community, becoming leaders not just in
Oakwood but in Venice as well. Tabor later became Chief Messenger and Guard for the Santa
Monica office of the Bank of America and founded Tabor’s Bay City Maintenance Company,
the first African American-owned maintenance company in the area. Tabor passed away in
1987.
181

Irving Tabor’s granddaughter, Jataun, described her experience on the pier as a young
person whose family worked for Abbot Kinney. “My family could use the pools and baths that
Blacks were not allowed to use at the time.”
182
The Tabors tell of the time the Ku Klux Klan

179
Note: beginning in 1883 Kinney published racist and misogynistic books, Op-eds, and columns. For more info
see f.n. 49.
180
“Alison Rose Jefferson: An Interview with Navalette Tabor Bailey (Oakwood Resident and cousin to Arthur
Reese)”, by the City of Santa Monica Beach Stories Initiative Interview Transcripts, June 10, 2009: [00:38:43:05].
181
Los Angeles Conservancy, “Irvin Tabor Family Residences,” Historic Places,
https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/irvin-tabor-family-residences (accessed Dec. 10, 2020).
182
Free Venice Beachhead, “Venice Community Activist Whose Story Goes Back to Abbot Kinney: Jataun
Valentine,” Interviews, https://freevenicebeachhead.com/2014/03/ (accessed Aug. 2, 2017).
65

burned crosses on their (or their own) front lawns to intimidate the Black families and how their
family would get together and take turns watching each other’s houses, sometimes carrying
loaded guns. Eventually the Klan left them alone. John Quincy Tabor Jr. remembers not being
able to go to the salt plunge with his boy scout group at twelve years old. The attendee (who
knew the Tabor family) made him go get a health certificate from the Surgeon at City Hall. He
returned with the certificate and was able to swim that day. He also says that he did not
experience the racism that his older (or darker complexioned) cousins did. He was never turned
away from a movie or had to sit in the balcony. He also stated that it was “easier when people
knew you.”
Before the Cosmos Club was made into an eight-room home for the Abbot Kinney
Family (located at One Grand Canal – the central and most luxurious waterway in Venice), it
was a bunkhouse for canal workers.
183
This is where Black canal workers could stay because
they could not find housing in Venice. The Cosmos Club was remodeled into the Kinney home
in 1916, (Figure 3.8, 3.9) The house was given to Irving Tabor by Abbot Kinney’s widow after
she died in 1927.
184
Even though the house officially belonged to Tabor, the Kinney heirs owned
the land. White Venetians relentlessly protested the possibility of Tabor and his family moving
into the neighborhood, so Tabor and his brothers John and Charles cut the house into three pieces
and moved it to 1310 Sixth Avenue, the “Black section” of Venice, using their hauling trucks. It
was seamlessly reassembled and currently stands at 1310 6
th
Avenue as a historic cultural
monument.
185
The Venice community has attempted to honor Tabor by remembering him as
Abbot Kinney’s trustworthy personal assistant and driver. He also has a small alleyway named
after him and his cousin Reese – Tabor and Reese Courts.
186

183
“In the Old Days: Canals and Bridges,” Virtual Venice, http://www.virtualvenice.info/visual/canals.htm (accessed
Jan 1, 2020).
184
Ibid.; Author in-person interview with Tabor Family on April 30, 2013; Cultural Heritage Commission, Los
Angeles Department of City Planning Recommendation Report, Kinney-Tabor House, Feb. 21, 2008,
http://cityplanning.lacity.org/staffrpt/CHC/2-21-08/CHC-2008-521.pdf (accessed Dec 1, 2020).
185
Tabor and Reese Courts Interview; See city planning doc, Los Angeles Department of City Planning
Recommendation Report, Kinney-Tabor House, Feb. 21, 2008, http://cityplanning.lacity.org/staffrpt/CHC/2-21-
08/CHC-2008-521.pdf (accessed Dec 1, 2020).
186
Betsy Goldman, “COURTS NAMED AFTER EARLY AFRICAN AMERICAN RESIDENTS,” The Argonaut,
Feb. 25, 2009, https://argonautnews.com/the-secret-life-of-abbot-kinney/ (accessed Dec. 12, 2020).
66

Figure 3.8: Cosmos Club in its temporary location before it becomes the Kinney Residence, circa 1907. Photo
Courtesy of Virtual Venice (http://www.virtualvenice.info/visual/canals.htm).
Figure 3.9: Irving Tabor Residence in Oakwood area. Credit to FLICKR: THE CITY PROJECT:
KNOXIUM. Photo courtesy of Atlas Obscura (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kinney-tabor-house)
67

Many residents in Oakwood owned multiple properties in the area and in the surrounding
Beach community. Blacks in Oakwood kept their properties in the family by passing them down
to the next of kin as most family’s intent on leaving legacies did. Irving Tabor also owned a
beach lot in Marina Del Rey which he sold for a large profit.
187
His older brother Charles Tabor,
who worked in the shipyards, lived four blocks over at 613 Westminster Ave in 1931.
188
John
Quincy Tabor’s mother-in-law bought property right in the center of the Marina before it became
a marina, and later sold it for a nice profit. As the story goes, Francis Tabor’s grandmother
secured a loan made by a local banker (Mr. Hurtle from Security First National) with his oil-rich
property that fronted the canals. When the banker could not repay the loan, Tabor’s grandmother
took control of the property until she eventually sold it. Charles Tabor could not read or write but
was a master carpenter who used his skills to build homes and additions for his family during
their time in Venice. Irving Tabor purchased property located at 605-607 Westminster Avenue
between 1916 and 1922, now called Westminster Place or Tabor Court. Initially, there was at
least one building on the property. In 1922, Tabor relocated two California-style bungalows to
the property from Abbot Kinney's St. Mark's Island. He constructed several other buildings using
salvaged materials from the Venice pier boathouse and amusement park.
189
Tabor sold the
property and moved into the house that Kinney's wife left him which was relocated to the
Oakwood area due to racism. The bungalows were priced at 5.8 million in 2017.
190
Jenny Tabor
(Irving Tabor’s sister) and her husband Alphonse Henry lived at 709 Vernon Ave, the first
family to move outside of the original “Black” section. Navalette remembers her father (Irving
Tabor) going over to the Henrys house to help “protect it.” Their White neighbors had no choice
but to accept them as did other sections of Venice when they saw the influx of Blacks increase in
the 1920s.

187
“Alison Rose Jefferson: An Interview with Navalette Tabor Bailey (Oakwood Resident and cousin to Arthur
Reese)”, by the City of Santa Monica Beach Stories Initiative Interview Transcripts, June 10, 2009: [00:35:43:01].
188
City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, “Search Online Building Records,”
http://ladbsdoc.lacity.org/idispublic/ (accessed July 2, 2017).
189
Dan Weikel, “Locals question remodel of historic home of Irvin Tabor, the chauffeur of Venice founder Abbot
Kinney,” Los Angeles Times, March 18, 2017, https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-tabor-home-
20170318-story.html (accessed June 2, 2017); Los Angeles Conservancy, “Irvin Tabor Family Residences,” Historic
Places, https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/irvin-tabor-family-residences (accessed Dec. 10, 2020).
190
Scott Garner, “Venice compound with historic past hits the market for $5.8 million,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 5,
2016, https://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/hot-property/la-fi-hp-venice-irving-tabor-20160806-snap-
story.html (accessed Dec. 16, 2020).
68

Chester Powell
191

(1916 - 2018)
Hope, Arkansas

540 Westminster Avenue
*owned multiple properties in Oakwood

Chester Powell moved to Oakwood in 1948. His sister was already renting the rear
property of Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes on Westminster in Venice before she convinced her brother to
buy a house there instead of in Watts. Mr. Rhodes sold him the house next door to his. Powell’s
journey, albeit exciting, is common for those leaving the South around WWII. His mother
wanted him to leave Hope, Arkansas because she was afraid for his life as a young Black man in
the South. The twenty-year-old Powell and a few other young men traveled in a beat-up car that
his father gave him as far as they could. When the car broke down in a Sundown Town in
Arizona they barely made it out before nightfall.
192
They abandoned the car and slept in an
abandoned house, picked cotton, and jumped trains aided by a Pullman Porter, until they made it
to Santa Monica, California. Powell settled in Venice in Venice and worked on a gambling ship
owned by Tony Cornero that only allowed Blacks onto the ship if they worked there.
193
Like
many pioneering Blacks of Oakwood, Powell amassed enough wealth to send his kids and
grandkids to college as well as purchase real estate for future generations. His civic contributions
included joining the NAACP at Calvary Church on 20th and Delaware because of the moving
story of the Scottsboro Boys.
194
Powell helped to maintain Black homeownership in Oakwood by

191
Unless otherwise noted, information in this section was derived from the Author interviews with the Tabor,
Reese, and Powell families (April/June 2013).
192
James W. Loewen, Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (United States: New Press, 2005),
70; Loewen, “Sundown Towns and Counties: Racial Exclusion in the South,” Southern Cultures (2009): 22-101,
http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed Dec 14, 2012). Note: Sundown Towns were all-White communities where
Blacks and other people of color were not allowed to be after dark for fear of being jailed or lynched. They often
posted racist and threatening signs at their city limits that read, “Nigger, don’t let the sun go down on you in (insert
name of town).”
193
Jeer Witter, “The Wild Reign of Captain Tony And His Floating Casinos,” Los Angeles magazine, March, 1965,
https://www.lamag.com/askchris/tony-cornero-and-the-ss-rex/ (accessed Jan. 20, 2015). Note: Tony Cornero was an
Italian who ran two notorious gambling ships off the coast of Santa Monica. The Rex and the Lux.
194
Note: the Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenagers falsely accused of raping two white women aboard a train
near Scottsboro, Alabama, in 1931. The series of trials and retrials were the most heinous executions of racial
injustice in a court of law.
69

quietly amassing multiple properties according to his daughters Patricia, Charlotte, and Michelle
before his death in 2018.
Other Pioneer Residents
The following residents of Oakwood have been identified through the 1910 and 1920 Census
Data as well as through interviews with the Reese and Tabor families unless otherwise noted.
Regina Stanton is said to be among the first residents in Venice, arriving in 1905. I wanted to
acknowledge her participation in the founding of Oakwood despite limited information on her as
the first to take up residence in the “Black section” of Venice.
195
Rev James A. Stout was pastor
for the First Baptist Church of Venice when it was established in 1910. Other Black pioneers
included the Sheffields, H.H. Rhodes, and the Kelso family. Rev Kelso served as pastor for First
Baptist Church of Venice in 1912. They all owned property in Oakwood and were good friends.
(Figure 3.10) The Wheelers were employed as maids at the Waldorf Hotel.
196
John B. Fant from
South Carolina was a pioneering resident of Oakwood and friend of the Tabor and Reese
families. He was a drugstore porter who lived with his wife Bessie from Massachusetts. Bessie
was a servant for a private family. They lived just one block east of the Reeses on San Juan. Mr.
Fant used his house to rest Black workers who worked on the pier in shifts. Edward Newell, a
Jamaican-born U.S. citizen and his wife Victoria from Louisiana lived at the rear of Fant’s
property. Newall was a laborer doing odd jobs and his wife was a cook. Beulah Brown from
Missouri was a washerwoman who lived with her daughter Jennie on Vernon Avenue. C.J.
Middlebrook lived on Westminster. He was a boxer on the pier. James Thomas, a long-time
resident of Oakwood, recounts his experience living in Venice. “See, you wasn’t accepted cross
Lincoln. You wasn’t accepted too much south of California [Blvd.]. And you didn’t cross
Washington [Blvd.]. Never! We just knew we were outside of where we was supposed to be.”
197

In a recorded interview, Pearl White, who moved to Venice during WWII stated that [B]lacks
“couldn't live beyond Flower”

until after Prop 13 was passed.
198

195
Hunt, Black Los Angeles, 85.
196
Patricia Adler, and Los Angeles City Planning Commission, 1969, A History of the Venice Area: a Part of the
Venice Community Plan Study, Los Angeles: Dept. of City Planning. 20, 31, 32.
197
“James Thomas: Audio cassette tape recordings of interviews with Venice activists and from Power Politics:
Environmentalism in South Los Angeles 1989-2001,” Karen Brodkin research files and recorded interviews,
box 4, Nov. 28, 2012.
198
Ibid., Pearl White.
70

Today, Blacks can live anywhere in Venice that they choose, but they are being pushed
out of the very place to which their families had been relegated. Instead of falling prey to
disinvestment, Oakwood is experiencing a common phenomenon that is taking over older and
mostly neighborhoods of color everywhere, gentrification. Gentrification grows from the word
“gentry”, which means elite, nobility, or upper class; a new way of separating people not based
on race but class. The solution is to protect those neighborhoods whose importance lies in their
people and their stories; not only to preserve the tangible but the intangible as well. This is a
difficult concept when it comes to the preservation of resources belonging to people of color, but
change is possible through community-centered action.
As discussed in Chapter 2, ethnic enclaves are identified by a unique set of attributes
specific to their culture. The Blacks who moved to Oakwood were responsible for triggering a
Figure 3.10: Sheffield, Boyd, Rhodes, and other Oakwood families and neighbors. Photo from personal collection
of John Quincy Tabor Jr. Permission granted by the late John Quincy Tabor Jr. April 30, 2013.
71

specific way of responding to the racing of space.
199
Although not as prevalent as their Black
neighbors in Santa Monica, Black-owned mom and pop stores in the neighborhood may have
also been a way to service the needs of their community while combating racism.
200
Oakwood’s
Black population in the early 1900s was “not allowed” to live outside of Oakwood’s boundaries
unless they were live-in help. There were a few that broke that barrier but not without
harassment and threats.
201
With restrictions as to where in Venice they could settle, Blacks used
proxies (sometimes of Jewish heritage) to purchase property in the area. As Black families
moved into Oakwood, some built small cottages at the rear of their homes for family, creating a
settlement pattern and a port of entry. This pattern can still be seen in Oakwood where properties
have yet to be demolished or significantly altered. Oakwood residents blended private and public
spaces to interact with one another daily. The first wave of Latinx neighbors joined them in this
practice, creating a close-nit neighborhood. They found they had a lot in common despite their
ethnic differences, especially when it came to being mistreated because of their ethnicity. The
Tabor and Reese families were skilled craftsmen and artisans who drew upon their experiences
from their New Orleans upbringing. They built boats, cabins, furniture for their families back
home. These skills came in handy when no one would sell them homes or local support from
contractors and builders was scarce because of segregation. They built homes in the architectural
language and style in Venice at the time – small wood and stucco bungalows, some in the
craftsman style; and because of their skills, there was nothing piecemeal about their work.
Although Reese and his crew designed, built, and decorated the pier for Venice’s festivals, they
were not welcomed to participate. They were not only extricated from entertainment on the pier,
but they were not allowed to congregate in White churches; the city directory in the early 1900s
distinguished Black churches as “colored.” The formation of separate religious institutions in
ethnic neighborhoods like Oakwood’s First Baptist Church, were formed out of necessity. As far
back in America as slavery, places of worship were the only places where Blacks were relatively
free from discrimination – aside from the places that they called home.
With each barrier, Blacks found ways to deal with the racing of space out of necessity,
from homeownership to co-ethnic networking. These ways show up in the physical environment

199
Deener "The 'black Section' of the Neighborhood,” 45-67.
200
Hunt, “Black Los Angeles,” 88.
201
Author interviews with the Tabor, Reese, and Powell families (April/June 2013). See info on residents above.
72

of Oakwood as well as the patterns of settlement, traditions, and festivals. The conservation of
ethnic neighborhoods depends on recognizing every aspect of a community’s narrative in order
to reveal their unique characteristics. In doing so, the demolition and alteration of designated and
potential historic resources can be tempered with cultural diversity and environmental
sustainability.

73

Chapter 4. Conservation in the Oakwood Enclave

Survey LA Findings
SurveyLA completed their historic resource survey of Venice in 2015. Oakwood was
identified as a Planning District (“a rare example of an early-20
th
century African-American
enclave in Venice”) instead of a historic district due to its lack of integrity.
202
Research
conducted for this paper can confirm that seven of the resources listed in the 2015 survey – two
bungalow courts, two homes, and three churches – were owned and/or built by the early Black
residents. (Appendix E) It should be noted that the bungalows identified in their survey are
clearly constructed and/or lived-in after the Black ethnic enclave of Oakwood had been
established. Non-parcel resources such as 18
th
Avenue Brick Street and the Mildred Avenue
Canal Bridge may also be associated with Blacks who did the labor or owned businesses that
hauled the material for construction.
203
Since the 2015 survey, several of the resources associated
with the early Black residents have become historic cultural monuments such as the Irving Tabor
Family Residences and the Bethel Tabernacle Church of God in Christ/Monday Women’s Club.
204

Further investigation may reveal even more resources associated with the Black pioneers of
Venice. A fourth Church in the neighborhood, the First Baptist Church of Venice built in 1967
(685 East Westminster Avenue), is also associated with the Black population in Oakwood but
did not meet any of the criteria of the Cultural Heritage Ordinance to be considered a potential
resource.
205

SurveyLA’s Citywide Historic Context Statement of African American History in Los
Angeles has a limited context statement for Residential Development and Suburbanization -

202
SurveyLA-Historic Resource Survey Report, “Venice Community Plan Area,” March 2015, 44,
https://planning.lacity.org/odocument/a0f8a9d9-ac84-4672-a8db-
938835b5e05e/SurveyLAVenice_SurveyReport_.pdf (accessed July 12, 2013); Heritage Inventory & Management
System, Historic Places LA, Los Angeles Resources Inventory, http://historicplacesla.org/map (accessed July 11,
2013).
203
SurveyLA-Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey, ”Non-parcel Resources,” April 2, 2015,
https://planning.lacity.org/odocument/ad9b7969-9402-410f-89be-4c66f89f9bad/Venice_Non-
Parcel_Resources_0.pdf (accessed June 2, 2018).
204
City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning, “Historic-Cultural Monument List,”
https://planning.lacity.org/odocument/24f6fce7-f73d-4bca-87bc-
c77ed3fc5d4f/Historical_Cultural_Monuments_List.pdf (accessed Nov. 10, 2018). Note: HistoricPlacesLA includes
information on properties identified as eligible for designation through SurveyLA.
205
Deener, Contested Bohemia, 52; SurveyLA-Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey, “Venice Community Plan
Area”; For updates on plight of the First Baptist Church of Venice see Free Venice Beachhead,
https://freevenicebeachhead.com/ (accessed November 15, 2020).
74

1880-1980, under the themes of deed restriction, segregation, and ethnic enclaves.
206
Those tools
are not nuanced enough to capture the community of Oakwood. They are more suited for Black
ethnic enclaves of the South, where racial covenants more directly impacted neighborhoods. The
SurveyLA themes should be broadened to include ethnic enclaves created by de facto
segregation which had as much of an impact on communities of color in Los Angeles as those
governed by deed restrictions. SurveyLA is still exploring ethnic/cultural contexts therefore, new
development in Oakwood should be regulated until a more inclusive context statement and
resources associated with the various ethnicities in Venice can be clearly identified before they
are lost. Structures associated with early Blacks in the Oakwood area have lost their integrity due
to unintentional (because they are forgotten or undiscovered) or intentional neglect, or significant
alterations. This section of Venice is a part of the larger narrative of the racing of space in
Southern California therefore, it deserves more than consideration for local planning purposes
and a more sensitive approach to designation despite loss of integrity. The definition of the lived
experience is varied, and preservation should aid communities in keeping resources that tell a
complete story of their environment.

206
Los Angeles Citywide Historic Context Statement: Context Outline.
https://planning.lacity.org/odocument/fbb3582b-b6b0-4fb7-b27a-
dbabacd760aa/SurveyLA_HistoricContextStatementOutline_July2018.pdf
75

Venice Comprehensive Community Plan
A Planning Workshop for Oakwood was conducted in 1988 with participants from the
Powell and Tabor families who were instrumental in forming the early neighborhood of
Oakwood. (see Chapter 3 for more information on these families). This workshop identified a
vision for Oakwood that wanted to see the following: maintaining the current character (small
scale, low height, beach community atmosphere); support of affordable housing; development
plan for the popular beach tracks of Rose Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard; and more landscaping.
Although the drug and gang wars of the ‘80s and ‘90s no longer plague Oakwood, there still
exists a palpable social and economic divide between two classes of residents (the wealthy and
the homeless) and the police who respond. “Skid Rose” Avenue has become as popular and
See f.n. 207.
76

populated with posh retail and upscale coffee shops as the major thoroughfare of Abbot Kinney
Boulevard, while its sidewalks are lined with homeless encampments.
207
As far as maintaining
the character of Oakwood as a small-scale beach community, tech moguls have moved into the
area, beginning earnestly in 2011 with Google. Along with the hollywood elite and the wealthy,
these new residents have tripled the property values in Oakwood and transformed the small
cottages into mega mansions with uncharacteristic privacy fences which, from the viewpoint of
the homeowners, are necessary to deter unsavory and criminal characters.
208

The preservation section of the 1988 Community Workshop was conducted by Betsy
Goldman, president of the Venice Historical Society at the time. Goldman explained a historic
designations to the community and cited the Kinney-Tabor House as an example of a historic
designation. She referenced a 1981 survey of historic buildings in Oakwood which could not be
located. Goldman also announced the need for an updated survey for the entire Venice coastal
area and a map of historic resources in the Oakwood area for use in future planning.
209
The
Venice Historical Society also conducted oral history interviews with the Black residents of
Venice for their perspective on life in Oakwood.
210

In addition to the Oakwood Community Workshop, a comprehensive community plan for
Venice was completed in 2000. This plan, much like other Los Angeles community plans,
recognizes that within their planning area is a "diverse community that is socially and
economically vibrant with unique architectural and historical characteristics."
211
Residential
community issues identified in the 2000 plan repeat the 1988 Planning Workshop concerns:
maintaining low-density character of single-family neighborhoods and protecting them from

207
Kate Cagle and Itay Hod, “Tensions Flare as Venice Encampment Grows on ‘Skid Rose,’” Spectrum News, Jan.
13, 2020, https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/homelessness/2020/01/13/tensions-flare-as-venice-encampment-
grows-along-rose-avenue (accessed July 27, 2018).
208
Adrian Glick Kudler, “Google Moves Into Gehry's Binoculars Building in Venice,” Curbed Los Angeles, Nov. 3,
201, https://la.curbed.com/2011/11/3/10428098/google-moves-into-gehrys-binoculars-building-in-venice (accessed
July 20, 2018); Redfin Realtors, Venice Beach Housing Market,
https://www.redfin.com/neighborhood/289482/CA/Los-Angeles/Venice-Beach/housing-market (accessed Jan. 12,
2021).
209
Note: A 1990 survey of historic resources was located in the 2000 Venice Community Plan and may be the
proposed survey Betsy Goldman spoke about commissioning. Venice Community Plan, “Appendix A – Landmarks
Per Historic Sites Survey Report,” 1990, https://www.venicenc.org/wp-
content/uploads/2015/12/Appendix_A__B_Venice_Community_Plan_L.A._General_Plan.pdf (accessed June,
2018).
210
Venice Area Historical Society, Research, https://veniceareahistoricalsociety.org/Research (accessed Jan. 15,
2021).
211
Los Angeles City Planning, “Venice Community Plan,” Plans & Policies, https://planning.lacity.org/plans-
policies/community-plan-area/venice (accessed Nov. 20, 2020).
77

incompatible uses; preservation of residential neighborhoods; provision of more affordable
housing; the need to promote rehabilitation of residential areas; and a desire to improve the
quality of housing in some parts of the plan area. The Venice Community Plan also addressed
commercial, industrial, transportation, recreation, and open space issues. The plan is currently
being updated due to significant physical growth and change in the community.
212
The 1990
historic resource survey referenced in the community plan identify a little over forty landmarks,
only one of those is associated with the early Black residents of Venice/Oakwood – the
Kinney/Tabor residence at 1310 Sixth Avenue. The Kinney/Tabor residence was designated a
Historic-Cultural Monument/HCM (#926) in 2008.
213
Since then, other resources associated with
the early Blacks living in Oakwood have been identified. The Tabor Courts at 605-607
Westminster Avenue were designated an HCM (#1149) in 2017.
214
The Monday Women’s
Club/Bethel Tabernacle Church of God in Christ was recently nominated an HCM (#1206) on
January 14, 2020.
215
As part of the Venice Community Plan Update effort a resurvey of historic
resources in the Venice Coastal Zone Area is currently underway and is welcoming community
input.
216
The 2000 Venice Community Plan outlines objectives and goals that guide policy which
will ensure that the community’s historically significant resources are protected, preserved, and
enhanced. The policies put in place include adhering to preservation ordinances; cultural heritage
commission requirements and design standards; educating to interest the community in cultural,
historical, and architectural resources; and encouraging building code flexibility to preserve
structures. These well-thought-out objectives are founded on the premise that significant
resources will be appropriately identified. What is not taken into account is that historic

212
See f.n. 217 for recent community concerns that call for an update.
213
Venice Community Plan, “Appendix A – Landmarks Per Historic Sites Survey Report,” 1990,
https://www.venicenc.org/wp-
content/uploads/2015/12/Appendix_A__B_Venice_Community_Plan_L.A._General_Plan.pdf (accessed June,
2018); Cultural Heritage Commission, Los Angeles Department of City Planning Recommendation Report, Kinney-
Tabor House, Feb. 21, 2008, http://cityplanning.lacity.org/staffrpt/CHC/2-21-08/CHC-2008-521.pdf (accessed Dec
1, 2020); City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning, “Historic-Cultural Monument List,”
https://planning.lacity.org/odocument/24f6fce7-f73d-4bca-87bc-
c77ed3fc5d4f/Historical_Cultural_Monuments_List.pdf (accessed Nov. 10, 2018).
214
Cultural Heritage Commission, Los Angeles Department of City Planning Recommendation Report, Irving Tabor
Family Residences, July 20, 2017, https://planning.lacity.org/StaffRpt/CHC/2017/7-20-
2017/IrvinTaborFamilyResidences_605-607EWestminsterAve_Final.pdf (accessed Dec 10, 2020); Los Angeles
Conservancy, “Irvin Tabor Family Residences,” Historic Places, https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/irvin-
tabor-family-residences (accessed Dec. 10, 2020).
215
Ibid.
216
Yo!venice, “Public Meeting on Venice Coastal Zone Area,” https://yovenice.com/2020/11/08/public-meeting-on-
venice-coastal-zone-area/ (accessed Dec. 1, 2020).
78

resources which have contributed to the diversity and history of Venice have been consistently
overlooked as not significant enough to warrant protection. There are still gaps in how and who
identifies resources which may have intangible significance but are nonetheless unique to the
historic character and complete story of Venice. In order to be successful where previous
attempts at addressing community needs have failed, the Los Angeles City Planning survey
team’s invitation for community input will need to do more than just hear the community’s
suggestions regarding historic resources. The City will need to ensure that they are including
resources that tell the full story of Venice. If Venice’s Community Plan truly reflected the will of
the community, the local council would enforce what is already written about keeping the
historic character of neighborhoods intact; the city would scrutinize demolition permits and
regulate appropriate infill; there would be community-led development to ensure equitable
conservation and encourage the designation of local resources based on specific ethnic and
geographic culture.
This paper focuses on the contributions of Blacks in Venice, but it must be noted that their
history is connected to other ethnicities throughout Venice’s history. If not for Jewish property
owners in Venice, Blacks would not have been sold land. If these extant resources are not
properly identified how can the owners receive assistance to maintain and enhance them, and
thus preserve their architectural integrity using city funding? In an effort to create comprehensive
and sustainable change, the Community Plan Update will need to be consistent with the Local
Coastal Program/LCP. In order to be certified for the first time ever. Venice has to update its
Land Use Plan/LUP – last implemented in 1999 and certified in 2001, and its Local
Implementation Plan/LIP – last updated in 2004 but not certified. In 2016 the City held an open
forum for residents of Venice to voice their concerns and to assess community issues in
preparation for updating the LCP.
217
Residents expressed a myriad of concerns that have been a
consistent plea throughout the development history of Venice. It is clear that either community
concerns are going ignored, or solutions are not being enforced. Some of the concerns expressed
by residents in the 2016 community forum as it relates to preservation were: maintaining the
diverse and original architectural character of Venice, especially the demolition of affordable

217
Department of City Planning, “Venice Local Coastal Program, Community Issues Assessment, Notes: Open
House,” April 27, 2016, VENICE LOCAL COASTAL PROGRAM (venicelcp.org). (accessed Dec 1, 2020).

79

homes being replaced by large scale and incompatible houses; housing for the homeless and
mentally ill as a solution to preserve character and diversity; land use plans that have
development standards that are not clear, objective, measurable, and enforceable; a plan review
process that is less cumbersome; lack of protection for cultural and historic resources identified
in the Coastal Zone; navigating loans that are impossible to obtain but necessary to upgrade older
homes; what defines city, state, and national resources broadened; overly restrictive building
codes that hinder development (exceptions abound in Venice). One resident expressed the need
for the city to do better when it comes to ensuring the sixth, seventh, and eighth generation of
Oakwood families were represented in the invite-only planning meetings. Many expressed their
disappointment of having gone through similar workshops and questionnaires without actual
interaction or dialogue with those who could implement the suggestions.
There is one thing that should remain from the last LUP that addresses the concerns of the
community and that is the stipulation that properties not eligible for monument status, as well as
monuments, be flagged for review by the Department of Building and Safety and the Cultural
Heritage Commission for all building and demolition permits. This requirement goes beyond the
city’s preservation ordinance that places a temporary stay of demolition, substantial alteration or
removal pending determination to designate a monument. If enforced, this LUP stipulation
would allow those properties that have been surveyed and recorded as potentially eligibility, as
well as those resources not yet identified, to be saved from demolition and alteration
(endangering its eligibility) while raising awareness to their significance, and until local
designation could be obtained. Communities and preservationists need help identifying the many
significant resources (especially intangible heritage) throughout the city. At the very least, this
LUP stipulation (along with the City of Los Angles’ Preservation Ordinance) will help identify
and record more historic resources before the wrecking ball; at best, demolition will be stalled
long enough to create preservation solutions that are more appealing and save historic resources
that reflect a diverse community.

Current Conservation Challenges in Oakwood
Weak Ordinance
Generally accepted standards for designation are based on guidelines set by the National
Register of Historic Places/NRHP and determine which properties should be considered for
80

protection from destruction and impairment.
218
The City of Los Angeles has received an A+
from LA Conservancy during its 2014 countywide assessment for improving preservation at the
local level and uses the generally accepted standards for determining designation, yet the city’s
ordinance contains no language regarding protecting those or potential resources when not
triggered by the California Environmental Quality Act/CEQA.
219
There are three levels of
designation for historic properties (local, state, and federal). Local designation is the strongest
because each local government can create protections unique to their story through preservation
ordinances. This does no good if the identification of significant resources continues to be
dictated by entities (city officials and developers) outside of the community.
Strict Preservation Guidelines
Venice acknowledges the role that Blacks played in the early days of the community by
dedicating streets and buildings after them.
220
They are written about in newspaper articles and
interviewed when issues of racial injustice or Black History Month comes around.
Acknowledgements, honorariums, and history tours are not enough. There is still an
underrepresentation of designated resources associated with the contributions of these early
Black residents. One reason for this underrepresentation is an overly technical, legalistic
approach to deciding what merits designation. It is understandable that without standards,
anything can be determined significant, therefore the need for the NRHP guidelines. If each
municipality has the authority to designate landmarks based on its own criteria for designation,
using the language of the NRHP as a guide, Venice could establish a set of criteria that
acknowledges the tangible as well as intangible contributions of its residents who were relegated
to the “Black” section of town through de facto segregation in the early 1900s – a context for
how communities in Los Angeles developed that has yet to be flushed out.

218
U.S. Department of Interior, “National Register Bulletin #15: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for
Evaluation,” revised 1997, 2, https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/upload/NRB-15_web508.pdf (accessed
Mar. 3, 2017).
219
Los Angeles Conservancy, Preservation Report Card, 7, https://www.laconservancy.org/report-card (accessed
Dec 11, 2020). NOTE: the report was scheduled to be updated in 2020; City of Los Angeles, “CEQA and Historic
Resources: The Local Government Perspective,” https://californiapreservation.org/wp-
content/uploads/2015/09/2016-05-25_Slides.pdf (accessed Mar. 3, 2017); Los Angeles Conservancy, “Irvin Tabor
Family Residences,” Historic Places, https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/irvin-tabor-family-residences
(accessed Dec. 10, 2020).
220
Betsy Goldman, “COURTS NAMED AFTER EARLY AFRICAN AMERICAN RESIDENTS,” The Argonaut,
Feb. 25, 2009, https://argonautnews.com/the-secret-life-of-abbot-kinney/ (accessed Dec. 12, 2020).
81

Another reason for an underrepresentation of resources associated with the early Black
residents of Venice is because the resources do not meet current integrity standards. Typically, to
qualify for designation, a building or property must meet age and integrity requirements as well
as meet at least one designation criteria. The property must be old enough to develop historical
perspective and to evaluate significance, typically fifty years or older for state and federal
designations. There is an exception to this rule if the resource meets special requirements. The
property must still look the way it did at the time of significance (integrity discussed below). To
meet one or more of the designation criteria it must be associated with events, activities, or
developments that were important in the past; or the lives of people who were important in the
past; or embody significant architectural history, landscape history, or engineering achievements;
or has the potential to yield information through archeological investigation about our past. With
historic resources associated with communities of color, significance is often intangible. The
Cultural Heritage Commission denied an HCM designation to the First Baptist Church of Venice
because they contend it did not meet any of the criterion of the Cultural Heritage Ordinance, it
was also less than fifty years old at the time of the nomination (1967-2018).
221
It fell short of
meeting the criteria for significance within the context of the cultural and social history of the
African American community in Venice as the applicant argues.
222
Although the growth of the
Black enclave of Oakwood was at its peak at the time of the church’s construction, and it is not
associated with the most significant years of Oakwood’s development (1904 -1920s), the role the
church building played leading up to that peak is significant in the larger context of the racial
climate in America. Life in Venice in the 1960s coincided with the civil rights and Black culture
movements so it is possible that it was also used for social gatherings and community meetings,
similar to how the Nazarene Church (now New Bethel Baptist Church of Venice) was used.
223
It
was literally built by the early Oakwood community and served as an important gathering space
for over six hundred congregants by the time of its construction. These are significant and
meaningful contributions.
224
The First Baptist Church is also significant based on the

221
Cultural Heritage Commission, Los Angeles Department of City Planning Recommendation Report, First Baptist
Church of Venice, 2, Dec. 6, 2018, https://planning.lacity.org/StaffRpt/InitialRpts/Item%2006%20CHC-2018-5305-
HCM.pdf (accessed Dec 10, 2020).
222
Ibid., 3
223
Cultural Heritage Commission, Los Angeles Department of City Planning Recommendation Report, Women’s
Club HCM nomination, https://planning.lacity.org/StaffRpt/InitialRpts/Item%2006%20CHC-2018-5305-HCM.pdf.
224
Ibid., 16.
82

uncomfortable fact that an environment of racism – through de facto and arbitrary tactics, and the
racing of space – was responsible for the creation of a “Negro” section in Venice and produced a
thriving ethnic enclave that contributed to the economic, political, and multi-ethnic environment
of early Venice.
Traditional tools of preservation can be a hinderance to protecting cultural resources
significant for their historic trends, events, or people. Resources like the First Baptist Church
should be protected for its ability to tell the full story of Blacks in the history of Venice and for
its ongoing value to the Black and Latinx families that continue to use it as a resource. This, and
cultural resources in other communities of color, is an issue of intangible cultural heritage. The
intangible resources and cultural significance in communities must be considered in the
designation process if neighborhoods and their historic character are to survive erasure. The
communal aspect that the church symbolizes has a great deal more meaning than the building
itself. It is understandable that criteria must be met, however the interpretation of what
exemplifies significant contributions to a community continues to focus on tangible heritage and
strict rules. It is also understandable that preservation standards and designation criteria must not
be compromised to accommodate individual structures, but communities should be allowed to
supplement those standards and criterion in order to better interpret their unique communities,
especially those with intangible heritage.
Potential historic resources must maintain their architectural integrity with respect to
location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association in order to become
eligible for designation. Standards of integrity are not measured in the same manner for tangible
resources as they are for intangible ones; and most often we consider structures for their
architectural merit rather than their connection to historic trends, events, or people. Structures
with architectural merit are likely to maintain their integrity more than structures with intangible
significance, which make it difficult for communities like Oakwood to “prove” rightful
significance for some of the resources associated with the Black pioneers of Venice. What is
becoming more evident to decision-makers is that although structures have lost integrity because
of poor maintenance or dilapidated conditions, it does not necessarily mean they have lost the
ability to tell their story, especially if visual alterations can be reversed. An example of a historic
resource being considered more for its intangible heritage than its architectural significance is the
Irvin Tabor Family Residences in Oakwood. The residences are spread out over two lots with
83

eight vernacular bungalows located at 605-607 East Westminster Avenue.
225
The residences
meet two of the Historic-Cultural Monument Criteria and have been designated a Historic-
Cultural Monument despite alterations that have compromised its integrity.
226

The First Baptist Church, despite the loss of significant features due to alterations
(removal of interior furniture, stain glass windows, and hardware), and a recent fire that damaged
a portion of the front façade, still has the ability to convey its historical, architectural and cultural
significance necessary for designation. It should be given discretion based on the same reasons
the Tabor Family Residences have been designated, because the level of historic cultural
significance outweighs the lack of integrity. This type of discretionary judgement is one that
provides more opportunities for designating a more diverse set of resources. The city can direct
an update for these antiquated standards of significance that are compounding threats to cultural
resources, especially those in communities of color that lack integrity. In coming to terms with
racial disparity and systemic racism, the City of Los Angeles has a responsibility to address the
dilemma of culturally diverse neighborhoods of color being erased from history.
Community Choice
It should be a community that decides what in their community matters. Communities
should have first right of refusal to develop; given the opportunity to imagine how their
communities will be shaped; determine their own social value; and control the narratives of
degradation, decay, and beauty in their own backyards. Significance at the local level should be
just that, a local decision. This is how preservation can help communities celebrate what is
valuable to them and give them a sense of control and ownership over the places where they live,
while ensuring that historic resources are protected and tell a full story of our diverse history.
Dolores Hayden in her book The Power of Place, talks about a discussion in an op-ed of
The New York Times between Herbert J. Gans and Ada Louise Huxtable in 1975. The argument
was started by Gans’ attack on the New York’s Landmark Preservation Commission. He was
discontent with how the Commission designated and preserved mostly buildings of the rich and
architecture of the famous. Huxtable’s argument was to defend the preservation of great

225
Los Angeles Conservancy, “Irvin Tabor Family Residences,” Historic Places,
https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/irvin-tabor-family-residences (accessed Dec. 10, 2020).
226
Note: HCM criteria: “Reflects the broad cultural, economic, or social history of the nation, state, or community”
as a representative example of residential properties associated with the African American community in Venice
during the early 20th century, and it “is identified with historic personages or with important events in the main
currents of national, State or local history” for its association with Irvin Tabor.
84

architecture because it was great architecture, whether money made it great or not. What
Huxtable missed, as Gans followed up with, is that the entity that decides what is “great” in
public history also gets to decide how public funds are spent to support it. As quoted by Gans,
“Private citizens are of course entitled to save their own past, but when preservation becomes a
public act, supported with public funds, it must attend to everyone’s past.”
227
That was forty-five
years ago. Communities still struggle to be involved in the future of their own neighborhoods,
especially communities of color. In the aftermath of the current social unrest and a call to heed
the lessons of systemic racial inequality, preservation professionals are engaging in
conversations to flush out strategies to protect the significance of intangible heritage and guide
developers and city officials to create change that is more sympathetic to the historic past of
BIOPOC/Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color. Community-centered branding that
highlights cultural significance is one of the ways that neighborhoods are preserving their
tangible as well as intangible heritage, while allowing room for diversity and growth.
228

Control of Narrative
The failure of historians and conservationist to acknowledge the accomplishments of the
oppressed in sites of trauma is something that affects many Black communities. When
neighborhoods are defined by their struggles and trauma, the solution becomes to send outside
forces in to “fix” what is wrong instead of relying on community perspectives to “enhance” what
is already there. Since the publishing of Five Views: An Ethnic Historic Site Survey for
California (1988), there has been a concerted effort to fully recognize and appreciate the
accomplishments and contributions of an ethnically diverse California.
229
The challenge now is
to capture the nuances of those varied views; to understand that struggles (especially BIOPOC)
are not the defining moments of a particular culture or the spaces they inhabit; lived experiences
are as varied as our country is ethnically diverse. Oftentimes the collective trauma of Blacks
obscures their individual achievements. People of color are multilayered, with a rich and

227
Dolores Hayden, The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press,
1995), 2-13.
228
Note: San Francisco has recently drafted an ordinance that models how intangible heritage can help steer
gentrification around a neighborhood instead of bulldozing through it. See American Legal Publishing Corporation:
San Francisco Administration, “CHAPTER 107: CULTURAL DISTRICTS,”
https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/san_francisco/latest/sf_admin/0-0-0-59520 (accessed/ updated Dec 18, 2020).
229
California Department of Parks and Recreation. Office of Historic Preservation, Five Views: An Ethnic Historic
Site Survey for California, December 1988, https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/5views/5views.htm
(accessed April 10, 2012).
85

complex memory that is often brushed aside as unimportant to the larger narrative of history.
Without Black slaves, there would have been no Monticello. The racing of space in Venice – as
in other parts of America – unintentionally cultivated communities that gave back more than
what was taken from them, and this should be remembered alongside racial injustices.
Remembering this “Black section” of Venice for the accomplishments of its residents is telling
the entire story and giving control of the narrative to those whose story it is to tell. The
longstanding homeownership of third, fourth and fifth generations of Black residents (albeit
fewer than originally) is what defines Oakwood as the "Black section" today, not because they
are relegated there. The early Black families in Oakwood did not concern themselves with race
problems even though they were keenly aware of them. Therefore, their accomplishments,
achievements, and contributions should not get lost in the story of their struggle and segregation.
As long as resources continue to be measured by strict guidelines and focus more on what
communities lack, without consideration for the potential each structure has to reflect a diverse
community, more historic resources will be lost, and gentrification exacerbated.
Rebranding/Gentrification
The City of Los Angeles has consistently tried to rebrand Venice since its attempt at
creating a new coastal identity in the 1930s that made way for “slum clearance.” Its current
attempts to rebrand parts of Venice to attract more tourist and direct money into the district has
succeeded. Unfortunately, the high-end stores and more recently, the Silicon elite are rapidly
erasing the unique character of Venice’s neighborhoods and creating a new form of
gentrification. Young professionals and upper-class homebuyers moving into middle and
working-class neighborhoods because of cheap housing is no longer the driving force of this new
form of gentrification, developers and real estate investors are.
230
Rebranding has amplified
gentrification and sped up the erasure and displacement of the remaining Black and Latinx
community who fight to hang onto homes passed down through generations. Rebranding has also
made it easier to demolish or significantly alter the older, working-class, vernacular beach
bungalows that are concentrated in the Oakwood area.
231
At best, gentrification has encouraged

230
Housing Human Rights News, Patrick Range McDonald, “The Garcetti-fication of Los Angeles: A Gentrification
Cautionary Tale,” February 18, 2019,
https://www.housinghumanright.org/garcetti-fication-los-angeles-gentrification-cautionary-tale/ (accessed June 23,
2017).
231
United States Zip Codes, 90291, https://www.unitedstateszipcodes.org/90291/ (accessed Nov. 20, 2014); Note:
Almost thirty-six percent of the housing stock in Venice was constructed in 1939 or earlier, see Appendix A.
86

reinvestment where previously aging housing and pockets of the community have been neglected
and provided an opportunity for homeowners to triple their initial investment. At its worst,
gentrification has created privileged enclaves where access, amenity, and community are
controlled by the elite. Despite consistent requests from the entire community, and community
plan updates, nothing substantive has been implemented to protect the character of Venice’s
neighborhoods and their resources. Instead, the city continues to promote segregated spaces and
spur gentrification – no longer based on race but centered on social class.
One example of this new form of gentrification is the planned demolition of the First
Baptist Church of Venice. The Church and the parking lot across the street were sold in 2017 to
Jay Penske, son of billionaire auto racing entrepreneur Roger Penske and chairman and CEO of
Penske Media. Penske has plans to “better the community” by putting his family’s mansion
there.
232
Even with the sale of the property under a legal cloud, the City of Los Angeles has done
little to support the wishes of the community who have rallied around the building’s cultural
value. The physical structure is unremarkable, yet it houses a familiar story of resilience in a time
when Blacks were not accepted beyond Oakwood’s borders.

Solutions to Challenges
Educate
Educating homeowners, developers, and the community about what is important and how
to maintain that important structure (including technical assistance) can not only save historic
resources but contribute to the diversity in housing stock and in residents.
233
Contributions made
by the early Black residents of Venice are not hard to find if you know where to look and who to
ask. The history of the first Blacks to live in Venice is not purposely hidden, but if their story is
not well-known, the community cannot embrace the cultural resources as part of the full story of
Venice. If the community doesn’t know the full history, Community Plans cannot represent the
entire community. Resources and accomplishments associated with the early Black residents of

232
Free Venice Beachhead, Mike Bravo, “Update on First Baptist Church of Venice,” Dec 2020,
https://freevenicebeachhead.com/tag/first-baptist-church-of-venice/ (accessed November 14, 2020); National
Geographic, History & Culture - Race in America, Oliver Whang, “The fight to save 100 years of Black history in
gentrifying Los Angeles,” https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/10/fight-to-save-one-hunndred-years-
black-history-gentrifying-los-angeles/#close (accessed November 15, 2020).
233
California Office of Historic Preservation Department of Parks and Recreation, Technical Assistance Series 14,
Drafting Effective Historic Preservation Ordinance, June 2005, 79,
https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/pages/1069/files/14_hp_ordinances.pdf (accessed Dec. 2, 2021).
87

Venice will continue to be overlooked or seen as unimportant if no one takes the time to learn
their story. Naming a street “Tabor Courts” without context or explanation as to why it has been
commemorated is superficial and does little to provide protection for resources that tell that
story. Some family members admit that they are still discovering just how much the Tabor,
Reese, and other early Black families influenced “Venice of America.” Sonja Reese-Greenland
recently discovered a boat that her grandfather designed and built with the help of Venice High
School Student as decoration for a defunct bank that was later donated to the Venice Historical
Society. It fell into disrepair until Stewart Oscars, a carpenter and long-time resident of Venice,
was asked to repair it in 2019.
234
In doing so, he learned about Arthur Reese and the Black
community in Oakwood which he had never heard of. Perhaps a digital program of historic
markers would be a start, allowing the entire community to contribute as well as learn from the
stories of their neighbors who were there before them. There are a number of elementary schools
and one high school in the area, perhaps there could be a retelling of Venice’s history to include
more than a cursory view of how and why Blacks came to live in what was later called
“Oakwood” in the early 1900s.
Stronger Preservation Ordinance
The City of Los Angeles has adopted a Preservation Ordinance, but it does not outline
protections for all types of historic resources.
235
The preservation ordinance is local legislation
enacted to protect historic districts, individual buildings and archaeological sites from destruction
or insensitive altering. It is a legal means by which local communities can identify, evaluate and
protect historic properties. Each community can tailor its designation criteria to reflect the
specific significance of the community’s unique local resources.
236
A good preservation

234
Gary Walker, “VENICE GONDOLA RESTORATION IS A JOURNEY INTO THE LIVING LEGACY OF
ARTHUR REESE,” The Argonaut, July 17, 2019, https://argonautnews.com/history-in-their-hands/ (accessed Dec.
20, 2019).
235
California Office of Historic Preservation Department of Parks and Recreation, Technical Assistance Series 14,
Drafting Effective Historic Preservation Ordinance, June 2005, 79,
https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/pages/1069/files/14_hp_ordinances.pdf (accessed Dec. 2, 2021); Ibid. “Ordinance review
checklist,” 95,96; National Trust for Historic Preservation, Emily Potter, “10 Basic Elements of a Preservation
Ordinance,” Feb 25, 2015, https://savingplaces.org/stories/10-on-tuesday-10-basic-elements-of-a-preservation-
ordinance/#.X-kIz9hKg2w (accessed Dec 30, 2019); Daily Pilot, Lilly Nguyen, “Updates to historical preservation
ordinance heads to Laguna Beach City Council chambers for review,” July 10, 2020,
https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/story/2020-07-10/updates-to-historical-preservation-ordinance-
heads-to-laguna-beach-city-council-chambers-for-review (accessed Dec 10, 2020).
236
Los Angeles Conservancy, “Historic Preservation Ordinance,” How to Improve Your Score: Preservation Report
Card, https://www.laconservancy.org/node/1464 (accessed July 4, 2018).
88

ordinance not only outlines the criteria the community has established for designating their local
landmarks but contains language regarding the protection for the designated resource and
enforcement of the ordinance as well.
237
The City of Los Angeles’ General Plan does not yet
include a Historic Preservation Element; an optional long-range vision for protecting the built
environment permitted under state law. There are seven required elements of a General Plan
including conservation, but the preservation element deals with community character and the
natural environment, not the built environment.
238
A Historic Preservation Element can guide
the city of Los Angeles in their efforts to protect historic resources through a set of goals,
objectives, and policies that can then be integrated into the Venice Community Plan, without
hindering the goals for growth and development outlined in the General Plan.
Equitable Conservation
Equitable conservation asks the question, “Will demolishing or altering this
neighborhood asset enhance or honor the memory of this particular culture or erase it?” In order
to ensure the future of equitable conservation in Oakwood, the City of Los Angeles must include
strategies that are sympathetic to a historic past. This is made possible only when the community
has input, especially members who have been consistently deprived of racial equity. Once the
community is educated on how their Black neighbors have been deprived of equal access in
amenities, programming, funding, and given low priority, the city can then invest in the
homeowners and businesses who have been adversely affected by the deprivation, an act of
reparation. This could be achieved using direct and indirect economic incentives to encourage
affordable upkeep of older and historic properties, based on the needs of individual
communities.
239
Investing in the community could be achieved by assisting legacy businesses
that encourage ethnic diversity. Maybe the Mardi Gras Festival that Arthur Reese introduced to
Venice gets revived with the purpose of helping intangible heritage to survive, thrive, and benefit
from the Venice brand.

237
California Office of Historic Preservation Department of Parks and Recreation, Technical Assistance Series 14,
Drafting Effective Historic Preservation Ordinance, June 2005, 79,
https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/pages/1069/files/14_hp_ordinances.pdf (accessed Dec. 2, 2021).
238
Ibid., 21.
239
For examples of how different communities use incentives see California Office of Historic Preservation
Department of Parks and Recreation: Technical Assistance Series 14, Drafting Effective Historic Preservation
Ordinance, June 2005, 67-69, https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/pages/1069/files/14_hp_ordinances.pdf (accessed, Feb 2,
2021).
89

Moratorium on Demolitions
Currently, once an application for designation of a site (including significant trees or
other plant life located on the site), building or structure is of particular historic or cultural
significance to the City of Los Angeles is complete, there is a temporary stay of demolition,
alteration or removal pending the determination to designate it as a monument. Because of the
rapid growth and demolition in the Oakwood area, there should be a moratorium on all
demolitions before the history of Oakwood is literally uprooted. The moratorium, or at the very
least, scrutinization at the City Planning Department should last until Survey LA’s limited
context statement regarding ethnic enclaves is flushed out and there is an updated survey of
potential and designated historic resources in the Oakwood area. Resources in the area that do
not meet current significance or integrity requirements may be worthy of special consideration.
Conservation Districts and Easements
For structures in Oakwood that fall short of meeting criteria for a local, state, or national
historic designation, but nevertheless have important cultural, visual, or other significance,
conservation districts and conservation easements can be alternative forms of protection.
Conservation districts are meant to maintain a unique community center, or emphasizing an
important cultural element of a community, preserving the character rather than the historic
fabric of existing neighborhoods. Dallas, Nebraska, and Cambridge, Massachusetts have all
adopted some form of conservation district as an alternative to the more stringent historic district
regulations.
240

240
California Office of Historic Preservation Department of Parks and Recreation: Technical Assistance Series 14,
Drafting Effective Historic Preservation Ordinance, 46.
90

Conclusion

Summary of Findings
"We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not
a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate,
and religious prejudice."

- Carter Woodson, 1875-1950, historian known as the 'Father of Black History.' Author,
'The Mis-Education of the Negro’ (1933)

From the very beginning, the right of occupancy in Venice has been contested. It started
with the land on which it sits being stripped away from the indigenous people – Tongva and
Chumash. Mexicans were then driven from the land by the California Land Act. Currently, the
people whose only choice of housing in Venice was Oakwood are being displaced due to
gentrification – the haphazard influx of the upper-class into working-class neighborhoods.
241

According to Douglas Flamming in his book “Bound for Freedom,” Blacks were often relegated
to the most undesirable places to live, only to turn around and find those very same places hip
and desirable and their existence in jeopardy due to gentrification as in Oakwood.
242
The success
of Venice’s early Black population was due in large part to their tenacity, skill, and ability to
navigate a prejudice environment while at the same time contributing to its success. Despite the
sprinkling of Black-owned businesses in the majority-White community (especially along
Washington Blvd.), Oakwood was primarily a residential enclave.
243
The early Black residents in
Oakwood lived among Mexicans, ethnic Europeans, and Jews, but they were not allowed to live
anywhere else in Venice except north of the Pacific Electric train tracks in an undeveloped and

241
See f.n. 13; Delores Hayden, The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History (Cambridge, Mass: MIT
Press, 1995), 53.
242
Flamming, “Bound for Freedom,” 66, 67.
243
“Santa Monica’s Blacks Create a Parallel Culture,” Evening Outlook, May 17, 1973. Note: Black ethnic enclaves
like in Santa Monica and near Pasadena’s Millionaire row chose to operate and solicit Black-owned businesses,
unlike Oakwood’s Black residents; SurveyLA-Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey, “Historic Districts, Planning
Districts and Multi-Property Resources,” April 2, 2015, https://planning.lacity.org/odocument/e9a0a639-c26c-47bf-
8cb4-2f5992093d88/Venice_Districts.pdf (accessed June 12, 2014).
91

distant section to become known as Oakwood/the “Black section.” Despite the racial hurdles that
these early residents in Venice faced, the opportunity that Abbot Kinney provided them, along
with their enterprising spirit, allowed them to cultivate places that were worth investing in;
spaces where they could enjoy all the freedoms of land ownership and community. Oakwood has
formed generations of Black homeowners whose blocks were made up of multiple houses on a
single lot, connecting yards (a fusion of personal/private spaces), and tightly grouped bungalows
(a common beach vernacular).
Like the Green Book was for Black travelers during segregation, ethnic enclaves were an
oasis of freedom in a time when Black freedoms were uncertain and arbitrary. They were vital
refuges for an undisturbed Black life. Close ties with family and community were not exclusive
to Blacks living in Oakwood but theirs was born of necessity like many other Black ethnic
enclaves. The need to be rooted someplace and have ownership over your own body and land
was a driving force for Black homeownership in the early decades after emancipation. These
aspirations and mental security would be instilled in the generations that came after. In Los
Angeles in 2000, although Blacks were less educated and had less income than Whites (non-
Hispanic), the majority of them aged sixty-five and older accounted for a homeownership rate
5% higher than Whites – twenty-six percent for Blacks and twenty-one percent for Whites.
244

Homeownership was treated like any other tradition for the early residents of Oakwood. Third
and fourth generations attest to being encouraged to buy property of their own in Oakwood and
were passed down or gifted property from their relatives with the expectation to do the same.
245

Having no idea that most of their properties would be worth five times as much in the future,
they focused on preserving their family’s legacy and memories. Blacks in Oakwood found value
in living next door to people with similar values, customs, and traditions that could be shared,
and skills that could be bartered. This was a sort of social capital in the community. In doing so,
they created communities that gave them back their dignity. The beliefs, culture, and aspirations
that survived the mistreatment experienced by Blacks in Oakwood are just as important to
document as the physical spaces that were created.
This paper is not intended to “reframe” the narrative of Oakwood, but to give context to
its story and what is already known about it, and to focus the proverbial lens on the important

244
Hunt, Black Los Angeles, 90.
245
Author interviews with the Tabor, Reese, and Powell families (April/June 2013).
92

characters and their accomplishments that make up the diverse history of Venice but have all too
often been obscured amidst struggles and/or issues of the elite. Preservationists have started to
see past the formalities that have long prevented them from recognizing diverse histories. Now is
the time to go farther than mere recognition and tackle the policy structures which impede
assessing value to the stories we all need to hear.
Governmental barriers existed through de facto (which was indirectly de jure) policies
that created the initial barrier to the development of neighborhoods of color. Early Oakwood
residents in the “Black section” used this as an opportunity to create customs and traditions.
Today, the gentrification is not only creating a change in the character of Venice/Oakwood, but
preservation policy and city politics are allowing the erasure of the historic culture and heritage
of the Black pioneers of Oakwood. “The policies that cause cities to gentrify are crafted in the
offices of real estate moguls and in the halls of city government,” Moskowitz writes in How to
Kill A City.
246

The City of Los Angeles can do a better job at making sure that the Oakwood narrative is
interwoven into the community plan of Venice, more than an honorary mention or highlighted in
a news article. This research seeks to weave one of the many Black narratives into the broader
context of American history because it has been neglected or relegated to a certain level of
importance instead of integrated into the fabric of the founding and successful operation of
American society. Despite the racing of space and the constant mechanism that regulated their
success and freedom, Blacks – like those in Oakwood – were able to cultivate places of their
own. Those places are in danger of being lost.
Because of the legacy of institutional racism, we must look at informal networks as a
source of information in the Black community. Preservation is about gathering knowledge. We
must do it in a way that is most effective for each culture. In communities of color, searching for
information is found in more informal networks – churches, social organizations, patterns of
development, etc. We must consider the preservation of these networks as vital as the
preservation of traditional architectural aesthetics and mechanisms. In order to allow for different
stories to be shared, we must allow a mechanism by which they can be preserved. One size does

246
Housing Human Rights News, Patrick Range McDonald, “The Garcetti-fication of Los Angeles: A Gentrification
Cautionary Tale,” February 18, 2019,
https://www.housinghumanright.org/garcetti-fication-los-angeles-gentrification-cautionary-tale/ (accessed June 23,
2017).
93

not fit all. Archaeology teaches us that ordinary objects can carry as much vital information as
objects that are often spotlighted and are void of ethnic diversity. Thus far, the Oakwood
neighborhood has enjoyed honorary status with no real protections, revealing a weak community
plan. Language needs to be clear regarding the contributions of the Black pioneers of Venice.
Their contributions should be protected as much as the iconic architecture of Frank Gehry is
protected (and lauded). We must first get to a place where their contributions are seen as
important enough to protect from erasure and significant enough to designate as resources.

Further Research
The Oakwood neighborhood is one of many ethnic enclaves getting attention because of
our nation coming to terms with systemic racial injustices perpetrated against communities of
color. The community’s cry for racial equality has finally been heard and has led to the re-
evaluation of whether structures like the First Baptist Church of Venice are worthy of
designation. Perhaps what the city of Venice in Florida did in their Comprehensive Community
Plan could be used as a model for a meaningful and sensitive neighborhood conservation plan
here in Venice.
247
One area of research to be explored is the relationships between the various
immigrant groups and Blacks. Research revealed stories of the Jewish community helping
Oakwood’s Black population to secure places to live within Venice. Without their help, there
may not have been a “Black section” at all. Research has also revealed a barter system between
Blacks and other ethnicities, resulting in life-long friendships that ignored the racing of space.
Oakwood may in fact be a mixture of an immigrant enclave (Jewish and Mexican) and a Black
ethnic enclave. The extensive survey work done in Oakwood by SurveyLA has yet to be
connected to the early Black residents. Perhaps this becomes a task of the updated survey. This
information is vital to flushing out the ethnic enclave context statement and allowing more
resources associated with the early Black residents to be designated and protected, as much as
private owners’ rights and the designation process allows. This research in not an in-depth look
at the Oakwood area and leaves more to be discovered as the community, the city, and
preservationists seek to tell the full story of Venice and its unique neighborhoods.

247
City of Venice, Florida Planning and Zoning, “Adopted 2017-2027 Comprehensive Plan,”
https://www.venicegov.com/government/planning-and-zoning/comprehensive-plan-update (accessed Sept. 2, 2020).

94

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APPENDICES

Appendix A

Age of housing data for Venice, Ca. www.Unitedstateszipcodes.org. Public Domain.
119

Appendix B
Area description – Venice area (all of Oakwood and Ocean Park), circa 1939. Photo
courtesy of T-RACES: a Testbed for the Redlining Archives of California's
Exclusionary Spaces. Map by R. Marciano, D. Goldberg, C. Hou.
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120

Appendix C
Area description – South Venice area (near the canals), circa 1939. Photo courtesy of
T-RACES: a Testbed for the Redlining Archives of California's Exclusionary Spaces.
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121

Appendix D
Area description – Santa Monica area (including Pico District), circa 1939. Photo
courtesy of T-RACES: a Testbed for the Redlining Archives of California's
Exclusionary Spaces. Map by R. Marciano, D. Goldberg, C. Hou.
(http://salt.unc.edu/T-RACES).
122

Appendix E
123

Appendix E continued

124

Appendix E continued

Potential Historic Resources in Oakwood as Surveyed by SurveyLA
*Associated with the Black Pioneers of Oakwood

8. 656 E SAN JUAN AVE Historic Resource
9. Venice Branch Library Historic Resource
10. 334 S 4TH AVE Historic Resource
11. 335-337 Rennie Ave. Bungalow Court Historic District
12. 1333 S 6TH AVE Historic Resource
13. Electric Avenue Pump Plant Historic Resource
14. 1307 N ORANGE GROVE AVE Historic Resource
15. 223 S ARDEN BLVD Historic Resource
16. 706-710 Rose Avenue. Golden Star Motel Historic
District
17. Chiaffarelli House Historic Resource
18. Department of Water and Power Distributing Station No. 44 Historic
Resource
19. 303-307 6th Ave Stone Houses Historic District
20. Edward Horace Residence Historic Resource
21. 619 E BROOKS AVE Historic Resource
22. Advanced Chiropractic/Boxing/Art Studio Historic
Resource
23. La Cabana Historic Resource
24. 333 S 5TH AVE Historic Resource
25. Charles H. Whittlesley Residence Historic Resource
26. Broadway Elementary School Historic Resource
125

Appendix F

List of known Oakwood residents from original “Black boundary,” 1907 – 1933. Compiled
from census data and telephone directories.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Of the three historic Black ethnic enclaves located along the Southern California coast, only Oakwoodㅡa community tucked away in the planned vacation and exclusively White community of Venice during the early 1900sㅡremains. Although there were no racially restrictive covenants on the properties within the Venice area, strategies of racial separation made a distinct and indelible mark (both positive and negative) on the “ethnic enclave” of Oakwood. The author utilizes first person oral interviews, newspapers, and scholarly articles to reinsert Oakwood into the larger context of early “Black ethnic enclaves” within Southern California and challenging underlying assumptions about its place in history. This thesis will explore the de facto “racing of space” in early Oakwood, how its Black residents responded, the tangible and intangible cultural evidence left behind, and the challenges faced in conserving this place in the face of ongoing gentrification.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Cofield, Rita Yvonne (author)

Core Title Oakwood: exploring the tangible & intangible resources of a “Black ethnic enclave” in Venice, California–early 1900s through 1960s

School School of Architecture

Degree Master of Heritage Conservation

Degree Program Heritage Conservation

Publication Date 01/31/2021

Defense Date 01/30/2021

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Black ethnic enclave,de facto segregation,ethnic enclave,Housing,intangible heritage,OAI-PMH Harvest,Oakwood,preservation,segregation,Venice

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Breisch, Kenneth (committee chair), Di Palma, Vittoria (committee member), Sandmeier, Trudi (committee member)

Creator Email cofieldrita@gmail.com,rcofield@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-417972

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Identifier etd-CofieldRit-9254.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-417972 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-CofieldRit-9254.pdf

Dmrecord 417972

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Cofield, Rita Yvonne

Type texts

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Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

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