Hadley Meares

In recent years L.A. city government has been embroiled in corruption scandals — but the history goes back to the very start.

Baldwin Hills communities began with an Olympic village in 1932 and later became home to affluent Black families in L.A. It is now facing changing demographics and gentrification.

Though early records are murky due to a lack of primary source historical records, we can piece together a legacy of Black-owned restaurants in Los Angeles stretching back to 1888.

In its heyday, the restaurant was equally popular with Golden Age movie stars and tourist families from Omaha.

Never before or since has the simmering resentment between workers and employers boiled over the way it did that day.

For a decade and a half, it was one of the few places where people of color could enjoy SoCal's spectacular coast.

After her neighborhood was bisected by a railroad, she placed a railroad tie and a steel bar on a newly laid section of track, hoping to derail an express train. She tied a note to it demanding $10,000.

The games were more than casual fun. They were massive public assemblies where people could socialize and strategize.

The self-proclaimed mystic was an elusive, counter-culture curio who collected female acolytes. Shortly after his death, they disappeared.

Did the government really give away millions of acres of valuable California land for free? Yes, it did.