Austin H. "Jack" and Rosie Marcella Nicholas, Silver Wedding Anniversary, 1955
In 1953 my father was the personal barber for a prominent family that wanted to expand their real estate holdings in Los Angeles.
With their assistance, my Creole mother, assumed to be white, purchased a beautiful, three bedroom home on a pleasant, tree lined street near the intersection of La Cienega Boulevard and Jefferson Boulevard in way-way West L.A.
At the time, due to racial covenants in California property deeds, this lily white conclave was worlds beyond the boundaries that constrained Black home buyers in inner city L.A..
As soon as the deal was signed, real estate agents canvassed the whole neighborhood, warning home owners that "coloreds will be moving in soon."
When the rest of our very clearly Black family, my father, my two sisters, two brothers, my niece, and I showed up to move in with mom, panic stricken white folks staked "For Sale" signs in their front yards overnight and vanished in droves.
The real estate family, as planned, made a killing, snapping up premium properties at fire sale prices from desperate "evacuees."
My parents did okay too.
© 2017 Paul Howard Nicholas
Was this in Baldwin Hills aka as the Jungle! Also, my GreT grandfather Capp Jefferson living in Oklahoma City purchased a home in an all white neighborhood and tried renting it out to black people but they were ran off and eventually, the house burned to the ground.
Posted by: Brenda C Lewis | February 12, 2017 at 07:40 PM
No this is farther north and farther west. The Jungle stops at La Brea. Spokane Street is near La Cienega Boulevard and Jefferson Boulevard.
Posted by: Paul Nicholas | February 13, 2017 at 07:47 AM
My Grandparents bought one of those houses at fire sale prices on Spokane
Posted by: Vicki McCree | September 02, 2018 at 10:49 AM