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Beach Culture & Access

A minority couple laying on the beach together under an umbrella
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In this lesson students examine four secondary documents and create a DBQ poster that will answer the the inquiry question: What internal and external factors shaped African-American South Central between the 1920's and 1950's? Between the 1920's and 1950's South Central was a neighborhood in which African-Americans were both welcomed and confined. Escaping the oppression of the South, black folks fled to Los Angeles, among other cities, for a better life. Before WWII, the black residents of Los Angeles had the highest rate of urban home ownership. Black intellectuals, politicians, athletes, artists and musicians from around the country flocked to South Central. Central Avenue became known as “Little Harlem.” Although Los Angeles was a space of refuge from the South, it was not free of institutional and interpersonal oppression. Housing discrimination and work discrimination were prevalent. Civic engagement was the response. The first west coast NAACP convention was held in the Somerville Hotel on Central Avenue. The Somerville Hotel was founded by the first black male and female USC dental school graduates.

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What if the stories L.A. tol about itself relegated you to the margins? This episode explores two underground guidebooks -- The Negro Travelers' Green Book and The Address Book -- that reveal the hidden geographies many Angelenos had to navigate, esposing Los Angeles as a place of coded segregation and resistance.
Beach Culture

Lesson: How can we make the beach culture in Socal equitable for all?

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Content Standards

11.8.8: Discuss forms of popular culture, with emphasis on their origins and geographic diffusion (e.g., jazz and other forms of popular music, professional sports, architectural and artistic styles). 

CCSS Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.11-12.7: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on- one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.



UCLA History Geography Project USC Libraries Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West PBS SoCal

The Lost LA Curriculum project is a collaboration among PBS SoCal, USC Libraries, the UCLA History-Geography Project and the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

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