South L.A. Is a Story of Both Segregation and Desegregation
Homeownership in the Area Has Been Gaining Since the 1990s, Even as Prosperous Residents Move Out
The first big change in South Los Angeles over the last half-century has been the shift of concentrated black communities westward into newer and better housing. The second big change is the replacement of those concentrated black communities, especially those near Central Avenue, by Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and other Latinos.
By 2010 this ethnic change in South L.A. had continued such that people of Mexican ethnicity outnumbered blacks everywhere east of Interstate 110, from Watts north to Interstate 10.
The two of us have long studied the ethnic quilt of Southern …
