The history of African Americans in Los Angeles includes participation in the culture, education, and politics of the city of Los Angeles, California, United States.
The first blacks in Los Angeles were mulattos and Afro-Mexicans who immigrated to California from Sinaloa and Sonora in northwestern Mexico.
Contributions to the city's culture have particularly been in music, dance, visual arts, stage, and film.
African Americans are concentrated in South Los Angeles; as well as a Black community in suburban cities such as Compton and Inglewood. There are sizable African immigrant communities in Greater Los Angeles. There is also a Louisiana Creole community in Los Angeles County. There is an Ethiopian and Eritrean community in Little Ethiopia. Some are Afro-Latino people from Central and South American countries, especially Garifuna American people. Many were born in Nigeria, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Belize, Honduras, Panama, and Ghana.Faith-based Social Engagement in 20th Century Los Angeles: A Historic Overview
The Black population in Los Angeles has declined since 2017, due to gentrification and more Latinos such as Mexicans and Central Americans moving to their neighborhoods. Many blacks leaving Los Angeles and also California moved to cities in the Southern United States, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Little Rock, New Orleans, and San Antonio.For Many Black People, L.A. is No Longer the Last Best Place to Live Including partly Black people, Los Angeles proper is 10% Black (estimated 385,000 residents in 2021). Many African Americans have become homeless in the city. African Americans make up 34% of Los Angeles's homeless, while only being 8% of the city's population in 2020.
Blacks in Los Angeles have a lower life expectancy and die younger than other racial groups in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles also has a sizable Black immigrant population. Los Angeles has the largest Ethiopian population in the United States after Washington, D.C.. 45,000 Ethiopians live in the Los Angeles area. 6,000 Eritreans live in Los Angeles.
History
Tongva people inhabited the area before the arrival of European colonists and African slaves.
18th century
In 1781, the early non-Indian settlers in Los Angeles (or 'Los Angeles Pobladores') included upwards of two dozen Afro-Spanish individuals from the Spanish colonies in California (part of New Spain).
Pío Pico, California's last governor under Mexican rule, was of mixed Spanish, Native American, and African ancestry. Pico spent his last days in Los Angeles dying in 1894 at the home of his daughter Joaquina Pico Moreno in Los Angeles. He was buried in the old Calvary Cemetery in downtown Los Angeles. His brothers and their descendants were also early influencers in the same era.
Spanish Governor of Las Californias, Felipe de Neve called on eleven Afro-Mexican families from Sonora and Sinaloa to help build Los Angeles.
19th century Many white Southerners who came to California during the Gold Rush brought racist attitudes and ideals with them. In 1850, twelve black people were registered as residents of Los Angeles. Because many blacks were enslaved until the abolition of slavery occurred in 1865, few blacks migrated to Los Angeles before then. Due to the construction of the Santa Fe Railroad and a settlement increase in 1880, increasing numbers of blacks came to Los Angeles. By 1900, 2,131 African Americans, the second-largest black population in California, lived in Los Angeles.Stanford, p. 7 .
In 1872, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles (First A.M.E. or FAME) was established under the sponsorship of Biddy Mason, an African American nurse and a California real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist, and her son-in-law Charles Owens. The church now has a membership of more than 19,000 individuals.
20th century Between the 1890s and 1910, African Americans migrated to Los Angeles from Southern places like Texas, Shreveport, Atlanta, and New Orleans to escape the racial violence, racism, white supremacy, and bigotry of the Southern United States. The presence of the first transcontinental railroad meant that Los Angeles had a relatively high African American population for a city in the Western United States; in 1910 it had 7,599 African Americans. The first branch of the NAACP in California was established in Los Angeles in 1913. Housing segregation was a common practice in the early 20th century. Many private property deeds explicitly banned owners from selling to anyone but whites.
They also came from Oklahoma to flee Jim Crow laws and due to being intimidated by white people and white supremacist gangs such as the Ku Klux Klan.
The African American population did not significantly increase during the first Great Migration. From approximately 1920 to 1955, Central Avenue was the heart of the African American community in Los Angeles, with active rhythm and blues and jazz music scenes.
Central Avenue had two all-black segregated fire stations. Fire Station No. 30 and Fire Station No. 14 were segregated in 1924. They remained segregated until 1956 when the Los Angeles Fire Department was integrated. The listing on the National Register notes, "All-black fire stations were simultaneous representations of racial segregation and sources of community pride." In 1928, World War I veteran William J. Powell founded the Bessie Coleman Aero Club. In 1931, Powell organized the first all-black air show in the United States for the Club in Los Angeles, an event that drew 15,000 visitors. Powell also established a school to train mechanics and pilots.
World War II brought the Second Great Migration, tens of thousands of African American migrants, mostly from Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas, who left segregated Southern states in search of better opportunities in California. The African American population significantly increased in the Second Great Migration of the 1940s as area factories received labor for the effort in World War II. In 1940 the black population was 63,700.
Areas in Los Angeles that were once predominantly white, such as South Central Los Angeles, Watts, and Compton became predominantly African American after the white flight.
William Parker became police chief in 1952. He largely refused to hire black police officers. During most of his tenure, those already on the force were prohibited from having white partners.
The 1965 Watts Riots were triggered by the arrest of a 21-year-old black man named Marquette Frye at 116th Street and Avalon Boulevard for driving drunk. A torrent of built-up rage erupted in the streets of Watts and South Los Angeles. An investigating commission found that the African American citizens had been denied respect and endured substandard housing, education and medical care. The King-Drew Hospital in Willowbrook opened in 1972 as a response to the area having inadequate and insufficient hospital facilities.
In 1972, Wattstax, also known as the Black-Woodstock, took place in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Over 100,000 black residents of Los Angeles attended this concert for African American pride. Later, in 1973, a documentary was released about the concert.
In 1973, Tom Bradley was elected as Mayor of Los Angeles, a role he'd hold for 20 years. L.A.'s first African American mayor, Bradley served over five terms, prior to the establishment of successive term limits, making him the longest-serving mayor of Los Angeles.
In 1991, Rodney King was beaten by police officers. His videotaped beating was controversial, and heightened racial tensions in Los Angeles. Just 13 days after the videotaped beating of King, a 15-year-old African American girl named Latasha Harlins was shot and killed by a 51-year-old Korean American store owner named Soon Ja Du after being falsely accused of stealing in a store. A jury found Du guilty of voluntary manslaughter, an offense that carries a maximum prison sentence of 16-years. However, trial judge, Joyce Karlin, sentenced Du five years of probation, four hundred hours of community service, and a $500 fine. The lenient response by the courts over the murder was one of the contributing factors to the 1992 Los Angeles riots. When four Los Angeles Police Department officers were acquitted of charges associated with the beating of Rodney King, the decision led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
The trial of the O. J. Simpson murder case took place in 1994 and 1995.
African Americans moved to the city for jobs in military production.
21st century In 2004, singer-songwriter Ray Charles's music studio on Washington Blvd. was declared a historic landmark.
Many African Americans in Los Angeles live in poverty in 2019. In 2020, 34% of homeless people in Los Angeles are African Americans despite being only 8% of the population.
In 2021, African Americans in Los Angeles County were more at risk for COVID-19. In the 2021, African Americans in Los Angeles had the highest COVID-19 hospitalization rate, as well as one of the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates.
A 2026 article said African Americans are moving out the city in droves due to high rents, high cost of living, the city becoming unaffordable and gentrification.
Geography and population
1950s and 1960s Philip Garcia, a population specialist and the assistant director of institutional research for California State University, stated that a group of communities in South Los Angeles became African American by the 1950s and 1960s. These communities were Avalon, Baldwin Hills, Central, Exposition Park, Santa Barbara, South Vermont, Watts, and West Adams. Since then the Santa Barbara street was renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.Martinez, Diana. "A Changing Population in South-Central L.A., Watts ." Los Angeles Times. January 17, 1991. Retrieved on April 3, 2014. 98,685 blacks moved to Los Angeles in the period 1965 through 1970. During the same period 40,776 blacks moved out.McMillan, Penelope. "'Black Flight' From L.A. Reverses Trend, Study Discovers ." Los Angeles Times. September 22, 1987. Retrieved on July 1, 2014.
1970s and 1980s In 1970, there were 763,000 African Americans in Los Angeles. They were the second-largest minority group after the then estimated 815,000 Mexican Americans. Los Angeles had the west coast's largest black population. Between 1975 and 1980, 96,833 blacks moved to Los Angeles while 73,316 blacks left Los Angeles. Over 5,000 of the blacks moved to the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario area. About 2,000 to 5,000 blacks moved to the Anaheim-Santa Ana-Garden Grove area. James H. Johnson, a University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) associate professor of geography, stated that due to affordable housing, blacks tend to choose "what is called the balance of the counties" or cities neutral to the existing major cities. In the Inland Empire, blacks tended to move to Rialto instead of Riverside and San Bernardino.
Of the blacks who left the City of Los Angeles between 1975 and 1980 who moved away from the Los Angeles area, over 5,000 moved to the Oakland, California area, about 2,000–5,000 went to San Diego, about 1,000–2,000 went to Sacramento, and about 1,000 to 2,000 went to San Jose, California. About 500–1,000 blacks moved to Fresno, Oxnard, Santa Barbara, Simi Valley, and Ventura. Johnson stated that the areas from Fresno to Ventura are "areas that traditionally blacks haven't settled in". Many blacks leaving Los Angeles who also California moved to cities in the U.S. South, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Little Rock, New Orleans, and San Antonio. Other cities receiving Los Angeles blacks include Chicago, New York City, and Las Vegas.
1990s