Sigrid and I spent Sunday morning with First United Methodist Church of Pacoima. They part of our project this summer in that they are owners of the school property where we’ll be living. We want to expand their connection to the project beyond “landlord” status to include other church community participation in the play. We’ve been talking with them for months in a positive but slow way. Xanthia and I attended Sunday service once in March and spoke to the congregation briefly about our project.
Since then the church board and the school agreed to let us live at Discovery Prep for our Institute. Reggie K has been our main contact with the church, but we are also in contact with Darrell the board chair, and Pastor Andre Wilson. We were present at a Neighborhood Council Meeting when Reggie K was elected and sworn in as a councilperson and since then Sigrid also interviewed him as a Pacoima community member.
Reggie arranged for us to talk with three senior church members after the service on Sunday. We had a great conversation with three long-time community members.
Sophia W. came to Los Angeles in 1956. She told us about the difficulty of getting hired as a school teacher here despite her accreditation and qualifications due to racism. She persevered and got work but continued to struggle with racism in the system and among colleagues for many years.
William D: “I’m 84 years old and I’ve been raising hell all along.” Bill prides himself on being outspoken and a social activist. As a WW2 vet he wanted to use his GI bill to buy a home but was very limited in terms of where he was allowed to buy property. He chose Pacoima. He experienced some significant racist attitudes and obstacles in his life.
Bob W had different experiences, or maybe handled obstacles and racism differently in his life. He worked as a LA County Sheriff, worked in the coast guard, served in Korea, and was a school teacher for many years. He was the second black person to buy property in Valencia (a neighborhood in the city of Santa Clarita, about 14 miles north of Pacoima but still in LA County).
Some recurring themes from these folks had to do with the challenges to becoming a homeowner—(Johnny Jerome the Black Real Estate Agent was the person to find!)--, in the 1960s things began to shift and social activism made headway as evidenced by a plethora of acronyms (NAACP, ACLU, Fair Housing Council, etc) and organizations. Both men spoke pretty specifically about the cost of giving birth which was generally about $300 and they would seek out the least expensive hospital for when their wives gave birth. The notion “I did it on my own” seemed an important point for all of these Angelenos.
We also talked about other signs of the shift, a social advance past racism. In addition to the the civil rights movement of the 60s, other historical/civic factors for change included the creation of the Pacoima Lutheran Hospital, the building of the freeways dividing up neighborhoods, the 1971 San Fernando earthquake (which destroyed the hospital) and “generational flight,” – the notion that after all the work this generation did to build homes and community, their kids wanted to get away and out into the world rather than stay and raise their own families here.
All three of these generous people encouraged us to please keep them informed about the project because there were all interested in the idea and enjoyed talking with us.
-pd
Sophia, William and and Bob sound like amazing elders. I hope we will have a chance to meet them this summer and hear their stories.
ReplyDeleteWilliam's story about housing discrimination is especially resonant. Growing up in the Bay Area I thought that segregation was something that only existed in the South and ended with Jim Crow. It wasn't until I grew up that I realized that systemic racist pracitces, such as redlining and predatory lending, are at the root of many disparities and that these practices are prevalent outside of the South.