Neighborhood Spotlight: Close-knit Leimert Park is primed to be well-connected again

"Walter Leimert, having already developed tracts in Glendale and City Terrace, turned his attention to what was then considered the far west side of Los Angeles, where he was able to buy a 230-acre swath of the late Lucky Baldwin's Rancho La Cienega. There, on fallow pastureland nestled in the flats below the Baldwin Hills, he envisioned a planned community consisting of homes, apartment buildings, schools and a small commercial district."

"It also boasted of 'restrictions,' which had the effect of excluding anyone other than whites from Leimert Park. That began to change in the 1950s, as middle-class African-American and Japanese-American Angelenos began to move, tentatively at first, into the neighborhood."

"They were met with a fierce backlash from some whites, and for a time a group called Neighborly Endeavors tried to intimidate new minority homeowners by burning crosses on their lawns. The campaign of terror was unsuccessful and, according to the city's SurveyLA study of the area, from 1950 to 1960 the number of African American residents grew from fewer than 100 to nearly 4,200."

Walter Leimert, an Oakland developer, purchased 230 acres of former Rancho La Cienega land in 1923 to create a planned community in what was then Los Angeles's far west side. He engaged the Olmsted Brothers for master planning and prominent architects like Gordon Kaufman to design homes for middle-income workers. The neighborhood featured tree-lined streets, commercial districts, and convenient transportation via the Yellow Car line. Initial marketing emphasized proximity to downtown Los Angeles. Restrictive covenants explicitly excluded non-white residents. Beginning in the 1950s, middle-class African-American and Japanese-American families began moving into Leimert Park. White residents responded with intimidation campaigns, including cross-burnings by a group called Neighborly Endeavors. Despite this violence, African-American population grew dramatically from fewer than 100 residents in 1950 to nearly 4,200 by 1960, establishing Leimert Park as a significant African-American community.

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