And the Ku Klux Klan had a large presence in Culver City and throughout Southern California during the 1920s and 1930s and sporadically thereafter. Īnecdotal stories from residents living along the city’s eastern Washington Boulevard corridor testify to frequent sightings over the years of nonwhite-occupied vehicles pulled over to the side of the road by the police.
Weekly interviewed blacks and Latinos who described driving through Culver City as akin to “running a gauntlet,” with numerous stops and harassment by the police for no reason other than race. Kelly Lytle Hernández, one of the nation’s leading experts on race, immigration, and mass incarceration and a Culver City resident, observed in her award-winning book, City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, that in the 1920s and 30s, black musicians referred to L.A.’s suburbs as “Little Texas” or “Little Mississippi”. It’s not that nobody knows this hidden history. Why aren’t we talking about this? I wondered. The book reveals a nation filled with segregated all white towns, some of which posted signs at their city limits reading “N*****, Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On You.” I was appalled, and immediately ordered the book. “Did you know Culver City was a sundown town?” she asked. The town is a little over 100 years old with nice neighborhoods, tree-lined streets, a vibrant downtown, excellent public schools, and a vibrant and diverse population.īut not long ago my sister called to tell me about James Loewen’s book Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. I settled here with four generations of my family almost ten years ago and we love it. There are many cities in the United States with a hidden past, a history hushed up or unacknowledged, and my city is one of them.Ĭulver City, California, is a beautiful little place nestled within greater Los Angeles.
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