During the months of June and July, this column will explore the impact of Hispanic immigration on race relations in Los Angeles County's inner city communities. This week's column, Part I, examines racial tensions between African Americans and Hispanic Americans in the city of Compton and South Los Angeles. Part II of this series will explore the impact of Hispanic immigration on the election of Hispanics and African Americans in racially diverse communities.
Race relations in Los Angeles County inner city neighborhoods may best be described in the opening line in the Charles Dickens' classic "A Tale of two Cities" — "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."
In 1965, it was the "best of times" for me when I arrived in Los Angeles from Washington D.C. ("Chocolate City") to attend Pepperdine College. Pepperdine was then located in South Central L.A. in the midst of a predominantly African American residential community. Living on campus in an academic environment, there was peace and harmony between whites, African Americans and Hispanic students attending Pepperdine.
Unfortunately, the year 1965 was also "the worst of times" as a community "Burned Baby Burned" in the Watts riot. The flames of burning white owned businesses, retail stores and residential properties in Watts ignited a white population mass exodus from once integrated inner city communities.
During the months and years following the 1965 Watts Riot, South Central Los Angeles residents struggled to survive in the midst of rising crime, alleged political corruption and racial warfare between Blacks and Hispanics gangs. According to a 2006 article in Street Gang Magazine, entitled "Racial Tensions Between Blacks and Hispanics," by Alex Alonzo, "One of Los Angeles' dirty little secrets is the rising tension between Blacks and Mexicans which is a situation that is being swept under the rug by the media, politicians, law enforcement and researchers, but for about 12 years, this has been a growing concern for residents in South LA, the South Bay area and the Westside. This conflict has manifested itself on several levels from the prisons, to high schools, among the gangs and subtly in local politics."
Alonzo revealed in the Street Gang Magazine article that as he saw it, "each year in Los Angeles, the conflict between Blacks and Browns although small, is growing and the murders are slowly climbing. From the 1940s through the early 1990s in Los Angeles, Hispanic and Black gangs rarely engaged in conflict, exhibiting more solidarity between the two groups. But something changed in the early 1990s, and conflict between Blacks and Hispanics were increasing."
"To combat the attacks from Crips gang members, a new gang was formed on Piru Street in Compton, calling themselves "Bloods," Alonzo continued. "The Bloods associated themselves with the color red which was the school colors of Centennial High in Compton. Gang warfare between the rival gangs destroyed the reputation of the once quiet and prosperous city of Compton that eventually inherited the reputation as the Gang and Crime Capitol of the Nation." Alonzo also pointed-out in the article that "there has been much speculation on the root causes to the conflict, ranging from expanding drug markets, gang turf conflict, demographic and population shifts, and the California Prison influence."
In my view, the demographic and population shifts played a major factor in the rise of crime and the racial conflicts in Los Angeles County. For example, the Racial and Ethnic Composition of Cities as recorded by Percentages in the Los Angeles County 2000 Census revealed that in the city of Compton the total population was more than 93,000. An estimated, 56.84% of residents were Hispanic and 40.31% were African Americans. Other white and ethnic groups made up the remaining percentages. I believe the reason for the shift from the former majority African American population to a majority Hispanic population was the flight of African American homeowners due to the rise in crime and the inability for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's inability to end the gang turf conflicts.
As African American homeowners and renters began moving out, mostly Hispanic immigrants from Mexico and Central America moved into cheap vacant housing. At the same time the Hispanic population continued to increase by leaps and bounds as birth rates increased dramatically. At the same time, the "great escape" of white folks from inner city communities continued resulting in the election of numerous African American and a small number of Hispanic city, county, state and congressional officials.
Possible answers to this question will be examined in Part II of this two part series.
Ronald Ellerbe is editor of Hub City News and columnist for LA Beez.
Collage by LA Beez
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