Inglewood Isn’t What You Think It Is

My Hometown Is a Whole Lot More Than Basketball, Football, or Poverty

To live in Inglewood is to have people make assumptions about you. Recently, people have been making assumptions about what a new pro football stadium, proposed by the owner of the NFL’s Rams, would mean for us. One such assumption now prevalent in the media is that we’ll embrace it, because we’re assumed to be economically desperate: Inglewood is “over 90 percent minority” (The Los Angeles Times), “a largely low-income suburb” (the U.K.’s The Independent), or a bad “neighborhood” (a characterization in movies going back to 1991’s Grand Canyon).

Inglewood, where …

Prayers, Glittering Parties, and the Sudden Taste of Freedom

The Emancipation Proclamation Inspired New Year’s Celebrations That Endure to This Day

For young Ed McCree, enslaved on a thousand-acre Georgia cotton plantation, Christmas and New Year’s Day 150 years ago were like no other he had ever known. This child and …

The L.A. TV Show That Taught America How to Groove

Nelson George Dissects the SoCal Style That Made ‘Soul Train’ a National Phenomenon

In Squaring Off, Zócalo invites authors into the public square to answer five questions about the essence of their books. For this round, we pose questions to music historian Nelson …

The Racism That Changed My Life

My L.A. Childhood Was Tough. But Seeing the Struggles of South Africans Inspired Me to Help Kids in My Own Backyard.

I first learned black history from Ms. Gilliard, my teacher at 96th Street Elementary School in Watts, who selected me to present the “I Have a Dream” speech in a …

Getting Heated About Django In L.A.’s Leimert Park

The Black Panel Didn’t Like the Movie. The Black Moviegoers Loved It.

One recent night, the storied Eso Won Bookstore in Los Angeles’ Leimert Park was packed beyond capacity for a panel discussion of director Quentin Tarantino’s controversial new film Django Unchained. …

My Destination For New Year’s Eve: First AME Church

With the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, ‘Watch Night’ Is a Must

While millions preen and prance early on December 31, preparing for their New Year’s Eve hijinks, thousands of African-Americans nationwide will be going to church. They will stay in the …