South LA: A history of marginalization and resilience

South LA has seen riots, redlining and decades of neglect. Now a new hospital, health system and spirit is rising in this medically-underserved community.

The Great Migration
Starting in 1916, more than 6 million African Americans migrated out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest and West, including hundreds of thousands to Los Angeles.

The 1920s
Racial housing covenants restrict African Americans from living in 90% of LA County. Blacks had to move to unincorporated areas of Los Angeles, places like Compton, Watts and Lynwood.

Migrations

1930s: Redlining
“Redlining” – the government-sanctioned practice of defining certain communities as undesirable based on characteristics like race and income drives private investment away from heterogeneous communities.

1948: Shelley v. Kramer
The landmark 1948 US Supreme Court case Shelley v. Kraemer prohibits racially restrictive housing covenants.  Racial fears lead to white flight from South Los Angeles.

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1950s
LA’s freeway system enabled white residents to move to the suburbs while isolating and dividing neighborhoods. By the 1970s, Black communities were largely confined within the boundaries of the 110 and 10 freeways and Pico Boulevard.

The Watts Riots
The 1965 Watts Riots erupt in protest of the way people of color had been marginalized by our society.  A government commission recommends a host of investments in South LA but few of these recommendations were implemented.

Watts riots

1972
In response to the Watts Riots, King Drew Medical Center, a county-run hospital, opens, providing the first accessible higher-level care to South LA residents.

2003
King Drew closes after an LA Times investigation reveals chronic mismanagement.  South LA is without a hospital for seven years.

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2015

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MLKCH

South LA by the numbers:

Making Healthcare More Equitable 

| Dr. Elaine Batchlor | TEDxCrenshaw

“The word ‘Medi-Cal’ was like a curse.” 

South LA’s long history of “plague and protest” is described in this powerful TED talk by MLKCH CEO Dr. Elaine Batchlor.  The upshot: “We must change our separate and unequal health system.”