Crenshaw, also referred to as theCrenshaw District, is a neighborhood inSouth Los Angeles, California.[2][3]
The neighborhood's diverse cultural history is marked by an influx ofJapanese Americans afterWorld War II and the subsequent development of a thrivingAfrican American community. By the early 1970s, African Americans were Crenshaw's majority demographic group, and the neighborhood came to be known as a hub of Black culture in Los Angeles.[4][5]
In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled segregated housing covenants to be unconstitutional inShelley v. Kraemer, allowing people of all races to legally inhabit the once all-white community. FollowingWorld War II, a largeJapanese American community established itself in the area. At its peak, the Japanese American settlement in Crenshaw was one of the largest in California, with about 8,000 residents.[7]
African Americans began migrating to the district in the mid 1960s and became the majority ethnic group by the early 1970s.[4] Due to a shared sense of discrimination, many Japanese-Americans formed close relationships with the African-American community.[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.
The neighborhood's Japanese population dwindled in the following decades, dropping to 4,000 people in 1980 and 2,500 in 1990.[7] 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] Traces of Japanese influence are still visible in the neighborhood's cuisine and architecture.[8]
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.[11] The renovation was met with community opposition and did not happen.[12]
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.[13] 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.[14]
The city has also installed aneighborhood sign at the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson Avenue.[15]
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.[16] 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.[26]
White Men Can't Jump - One of the main characters, Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes), lives in Crenshaw.[27]
^"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.
