Historic Central Avenue Los Angeles: A Brief History of Central Avenue

USC digital humanities project documenting the history of Central Avenue as the social, cultural, and economic hub of Black Los Angeles. Reports that by 1940, approximately 70 percent of the Black population of Los Angeles was confined to the Central Avenue corridor and relied upon the avenue to meet all of its social needs. Notes that 50,000 African American migrants settled in and around Central Avenue during the WWII years. Identifies the area around Central Avenue and 41st Street as the heart of African American Los Angeles by the late 1920s.