Crenshaw, also referred to as theCrenshaw District, is a neighborhood inSouth Los Angeles, California.[2][3]
In the post–World War II era, aJapanese American community was established in Crenshaw.African Americans started migrating to the district in the mid 1960s, and by the early 1970s were the majority.[4]
TheCrenshaw Boulevard commercial corridor has had many different cultural backgrounds throughout the years,[5] but it is still "the heart of African American commerce in Los Angeles".[6]
After courts ruled segregation covenants to be unconstitutional, the area opened up to many different people. In the post-World War II era, a largeJapanese American settlement ensued, which can still be found along Coliseum Street, east and west of Crenshaw Boulevard.[7]
African Americans started migrating to the district in the mid 1960s, and by the early 1970s later were the majority.[4] Due to a shared sense of discrimination, many Japanese-Americans had formed close relationships with the African-American community.[7]
There was an area Japanese school called Dai-Ichi Gakuen.[7] Around 1970, Dai-Ichi Gakuen had a peak of 700 students.[7] At that time, Crenshaw was one of the largest Japanese-American settlements in California, with about 8,000 residents.[7]
Beginning in the 1970s the Japanese American community began decreasing in size and Japanese-American businesses began leaving. Scott Shibuya Brown stated that "some say" the effect was a "belated response" to the1965 Watts riots and that "several residents say a wave of anti-Japanese-American sentiment began cropping up in the area, prompting further departures."[7] Eighty-two-year-old Jimmy Jike was quoted in theLos Angeles Times in 1993, stating that it was mainly because the residents' children, after attending universities, moved away.[7]
In the 1970s, Crenshaw, Leimert Park and neighboring areas together had formed one of the largest African-American communities in the western United States.
By 1980, there were 4,000 Japanese ethnic residents, half of the previous size.[7] By 1990 there were 2,500 Japanese-Americans, mostly older residents. By 1993, the community was diminishing in size, with older Japanese Americans staying but with younger ones moving away. That year, Dai-Ichi Gakuen had only 15 students. In the 90s there began a shift to a new generation ofJapanese Americans moving back into the neighborhood.[7]
In 2018, theBaldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza shopping mall had been approved for a major renovation plan, that would have included apartments, shops, and more restaurants.[10] The renovation was met with community opposition and did not happen.[11]
In 1996, theLos Angeles Times defined Crenshaw as "the area bounded by the Santa Monica Freeway on the north, Van Ness Avenue on the east, Slauson Avenue on the south and La Brea Avenue on the west.[12] In 2012, theLos Angeles Times reiterated that "the Santa Monica Freeway, completed in 1964, created an imposing barrier between the Crenshaw District" and neighborhoods to the north.[13]
The city has also installed aneighborhood sign at the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson Avenue.[14]
Mural of African-American Progress and apartment complexes, alongCrenshaw Boulevard
Police services in Baldwin Hills are provided by the Los Angeles Police Department's Southwest Division.[15] The station is located at 1546 W.Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Boyz n the Hood - This was the main setting in the film as a boy is sent to live with his father in Crenshaw and experiences its booming gang culture.[25]
White Men Can't Jump - One of the main characters, Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes), lives in Crenshaw.[26]
^"Boyz N The Hood".siskelfilmcenter.org. Gene Siskel Film Center. Retrieved8 July 2024.In his riveting directorial debut, Singleton follows Jason "Tre" Styles III (Cuba Gooding Jr.) as he relocates to South Central LA's Crenshaw neighborhood to live with his father.
^Axelrod, Jeremiah B. C. (Occidental College). "The Shifting Grounds of Race: Black and Japanese Americans in the Making of Multiethnic Los Angeles."The Journal of American History, 12/2008. p. 909-910. Cited: p. 910.
