North Inglewood

North Inglewood is the area north of the Santa Fe railroad tracks. “No blacks had ever lived in Inglewood,” Gladys Waddingham wrote (page 59), but by 1960, “they lived in great numbers along its eastern borders. Inglewood was a prime target because of its [previous] history of restrictions.” “Fair housing and school busing were the main problems of 1964. The schools were not prepared to handle racial incidents, even though any that occurred were very minor. Adults held many heated community meetings, since the Blacks objected to busing as much as did the Whites” (page 61). In 1969, an organization called “Morningside Neighbors” changed its name to “Inglewood Neighbors" "in the hope of promoting more integration” (page 63).

The first black principal among the 18 Inglewood schools was Peter Butler at La Tijera Elementary (page 66), and in 1971, Waddingham wrote, “Stormy racial meetings in 1971” included a charge by “some real estate men in the overflowing Crozier Auditorium” that the Human Relations Commission was acting like “the Gestapo” (page 67).

In 1972 Curtis Tucker Sr. was appointed as the first black City Council member. That year composer LeRoy Hurte, an African-American, took the baton of the Inglewood Symphony Orchestra and continued to work with it for 20 years. Edward Vincent became Inglewood’s first black mayor in 1980. In that decade Inglewood became the first city in California to declare the birth of Martin Luther King as a holiday. (Pages 69, 75 and 76.)

Today, Inglewood is the largest predominantly African-American city in California with a population over 100,000.