Abigail Rosas. South Central Is Home: Race and the Power of Community Investment in Los Angeles.

Abstract

Hundreds of thousands of African Americans moved to Los Angeles during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Most ended up living in the sprawling area south and southwest of downtown that became known as South Central. By the 1960s, Black people constituted a majority of South Central’s residents. Beginning in the 1970s, however, tens of thousands of immigrants from Mexico and Central America moved into the area. By 1990, 40 percent of South Central’s residents were Latinx. The 2000 census revealed that 64 percent of the area’s population was Latinx. Abigail Rosas lived through the demographic and cultural transformation of South Central. Her parents, Dolores and Francisco Rosas, began living in the area in the 1970s. In South Central Is Home: Race and the Power of Community Investment in Los Angeles, Rosas examines the historical forces that shaped the experiences of her family and families like hers in Los Angeles.