Black Santa Monica: Reframed and Reimagined
An examination and presentation of what happened, what could have been, what is happening, and the significance of freedom dreaming.
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Overview
In a UCLA course titled "Whitewashing the Beach: Reconstructing the Past to Claim Alternative Futures", urban humanities students discussed reparations, public memory, spatial injustice, and incomplete and silenced archives on the Southern California coast, in the American South, and as far as Berlin. Eventually their conversations evolved into a more focused effort thanks to the knowledge sharing of Robbie Jones, long-time Santa Monica resident, historian, and owner of Black Santa Monica Tours , and Dr. Alison Rose Jefferson, historian, heritage conservation consultant, cultural producer, and author of Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era . The project culminated in a 6'x10' "thick map", which layers Black Santa Monica's history, disallowed potential, significant tenacity, current state, and imagined future.
Thick Map
"Black Santa Monica: Reframed and Reimagined", highlights and maps Black spaces of resistance and joy in Santa Monica. Our thick map is a palimpsest of past, present, and (alternate) futures. By layering a 1926 land-use map, the 1939 Home Owners’ Loan Corporation redlining border data, and present-day satellite imagery of Santa Monica, the map demonstrates how Black Santa Monica was demolished and reconfigured through city planning and urban policies. The term "thick map" is used among critical cartographers, and suggests that a map should remain open to include new forms of expression and modes of storytelling in order to transform mapping into an ethical process.
Black Santa Monica Basemap.
Our map also features four callouts, depicting the Santa Monica beaches, Belmar Triangle, 1819 Pico Boulevard, and the Broadway Business District. In each, we address three questions related to three periods of time (past, present, and alternate futures). On our physical map, these questions are indicated with different colored tape. What happened here (yellow)? What is happening here (blue)? What could have happened here (green)?
The final Thick Map.
Individual callouts on the printed Thick Map.
On the lower-half of the map, we ask a fourth question: what dreams do current residents have for Santa Monica? Thick maps are never complete and we envision this as an open-ended project where residents (current and former) and their descendants can add their own ephemera (photos, newspaper clippings, etc.) and plot their stories alongside many others. We are available for any questions or comments, and welcome any edits to our work; please see contact information at the bottom of this page. We ask that you contribute any stories and photos to this expanding history through the link below.
Our research question was, "how can we spatialize and visualize the historically marginalized narratives of the African-American community of Santa Monica?" We approached the project with an understanding that archives are not necessarily discovered or visited, but constructed and that like the archive, Black Santa Monica has and will endure into the future despite its marginalization. The historical problem we are dealing with is the various forms of spatial violence enacted on the Black community in the 20th century - a racist, reactionary response by white, land-owning residents to the arrival of African-Americans in Santa Monica. This systemic anti-blackness was a deliberate means to create and maintain wealth. We focused on the role of space and property in those efforts.
African-Americans have lived throughout Santa Monica but the histories we attempt to visualize begin with the “Belmar Triangle” neighborhood, which is a genesis story of the broader trends of Black displacement in Santa Monica. We have divided our research into the past (the Beaches and Belmar) and future (1819 Pico and the Beach Club reimagined in 2070).
From L to R: Robbie Jones led students on a walking tour of Santa Monica. The plaque at "the Inkwell" was the first stop; Interpretive signage dots Historic Belmar Park's perimeter; The course, led by professors Dana Cuff and Todd Presner, was made up of seven graduate-level students; Robbie Jones stands in front of the completed thick map.
The Beaches
Our thick map imagined a beach unburdened by anti-Blackness by layering images of Black beachgoers to convey a sense of crowdedness. Not all of these archival images are identified as being taken in Santa Monica. We believe this allows the images to transcend the boundaries of the area where Blacks primarily found themselves congregating as a result of proximity of the local Black community and existence of the Crescent Bay Park. This space was sometimes controversially called "the Inkwell".
"History suggests that White people first used the controversial name “the Inkwell” for this beach site. The name, a pejorative reference to Black beachgoers’ skin color, was used to describe several leisure sites around the country that were associated with African Americans during the Jim Crow era. Some African Americans took agency to repurpose the offensive term, transforming the hateful moniker into a badge of pride or belonging." (Jefferson, 2020)
What visibly remains of the Inkwell is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it plaque. Hover over the point to read it.
The Inkwell or Bay Street Beach, was the first site students visited. Robbie Jones spoke of her memories there and being told by her grandmother to stay in a specific area, elucidating the historic practice of anti-Blackness and Blacks' concerns about personal safety on the beaches and in Santa Monica at large. Though there were no Jim Crow laws in California, de facto segregation was enforced through intimidation tactics by the Ku Klux Klan, police, and white residents. This was also an instance of environmental injustice and racism as The Inkwell was adjacent to the run-off depository at the end of Pico Boulevard.
Discrimination at the beaches is also obvious in the failed construction of two Black beach clubs. Both were thwarted by Santa Monica City Council - a 1922 beach property (now home to Shutters on the Beach) and the 1959 Ebony Beach Club (on Ocean Avenue, the former Elks Club was purchased by Silas White). Black economic potential could not be realized on the beach.
Left: Renovations underway for the planned Ebony Beach Club, 1958, compared with the site today in between the Viceroy Hotel and the Seychelle Luxury Condominium. Right: 1931 Image captioned “Verna with the child of a friend, Irma, at the segregated section of Santa Monica beach known as the Ink Well,” compared with the site today.
In 2009, the Bay Street Beach District (53 acres) surrounding the Inkwell was added to the National Register of Historic Places . This designation provides the area with certain protections and ensures the area "will maintain existing visitor access, public amenities and safety services, nearby private property rights, public property ownership, and the area's current uses."
Belmar Triangle
The history of African Americans in Belmar Triangle receives more attention than other, lesser-known histories in Santa Monica. Nonetheless, it was and continues to be a place of major significance. Belmar Triangle was a hub for residents, visitors, and businesses. These establishments provided jobs, economic security, and spaces for recreation and Black joy and were frequented by Black Santa Monicans and visitors alike. What could Belmar Triangle have been had it not been targeted by White Santa Monicans who disapproved of and felt threatened by its success?
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Belmar Place, 1918
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La Bonita Hotel
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Caldwell's Dance Hall
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The Arkansas Traveler
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Everybody's Cafe
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Phillips Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
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Belmar Place, 1953
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Civic Auditorium
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“A Resurrection in Four Stanzas”
Caldwell’s Dance Hall in Belmar was shut down by the City by way of the Santa Monica Bay Protective League. This 75 member group, described in a 1922 Los Angeles Times article as being “opposed to negroes encroaching upon the city”, pushed for ordinances that would effectively disallow any kinds of activities at Caldwell’s and other leisure establishments.
For a long time, memories of Belmar Triangle went unknown. Photos and documents remained in personal collections until the City of Santa Monica announced plans to build a sports field on land adjacent to the Civic Center that was once part of the neighborhood. Dr. Alison Rose Jefferson advocated for the space to acknowledge its history, taking the fight to the California Coastal Commission, whose recent mandate required the integration of principles of environmental justice, equality, and social equity on development projects. Out of this, the Belmar History+Art project was born and came to fruition in 2020.
From L to R: Odessa Billingsley, originally from Texas but sought employment opportunities in California after World War II, in the kitchen of her family home in the Belmar area. She, her husband Troy, and their children made way for other family members to move to California; area north of SaMo High School where some early-twentieth-century Black families first lived; Evelyn and Clarence Moore at Moore Beauty Salon located just north of the Belmar; the Hensley family lived in Belmar and later Ocean Park. Nathan was a mechanic and business partner of a used car lot. Adela worked as a hotel maid. Their son, Norman (bottom left) was born in Santa Monica and became a U.S. Air Force colonel and director of the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center; Vernon Brunson and friend pictured outside a typical shotgun house in Belmar (Photographs sourced from Dr. Alison Rose Jefferson's essay Reconstruction and Reclamation: The Erased African American Experience in Santa Monica’s History )
BH+A Community Time capsule
Artist April Banks , who was awarded a public art commission in the fall of 2019, led over 20 engagement events that eventually led to her design concept. "A Resurrection in 4 Stanzas", a painted steel and aluminum sculpture, "is an homage to the shotgun house, a style of architecture that migrated west with African American dreamers and seekers". A time capsule was buried at the site of the sculpture. It will be opened Juneteenth 2070. Interpretive signage that conveys the history of the African-American residents and business owners of the Belmar neighborhood also surrounds the park.
Broadway Business District
Comparing datasets from the Quinn Research Center and historian Dr. Alison Rose Jefferson, we pinpointed a prominent cluster of former and current Black businesses in Santa Monica around Broadway and between 17th and 20th Streets. The construction of the I-10 freeway severed the connection between this cluster of homes and businesses from those to the south near Pico Boulevard.
Sourced from Dr. Jefferson's Reconstruction and Reclamation: The Erased African American Experience in Santa Monica’s History
In 1907, Gilbert McCarroll opened a shoeshine parlor “for ladies and gentlemen” at 121 Pier Avenue. After closing the shop in 1910, McCarroll worked for the California Bank as a doorman. A second entrepreneurial endeavor, Gilbert's Grocery and Soda Fountain, opened in 1928 at Eighteenth Street and Broadway. The spot was incredibly popular but short-lived.
Sourced from Dr. Jefferson's Reconstruction and Reclamation: The Erased African American Experience in Santa Monica’s History
The photo at left is of a 1965 advertisement placed by Joseph W. Spalding in the Souvenir Program of the Annual Meeting of the Grand Lodge of the Knights of Pythias of California. His first funeral home at 1909 Colorado Avenue, was the first Black-owned mortuary in the west Los Angeles County beach area. He eventually opened another on LaBrea Avenue near Jefferson Boulevard, called Spalding Mortuary, which continues to serve the public.
Hover over points on the map below to read the names of other Black businesses in the Broadway district.
Individual businesses within the Broadway Business District.
1819 Pico Boulevard
The questions we posed (What happened? What could have happened?) led us to ask a follow-up question: “What is happening?” To this end, we mapped current projects and policies to highlight what is currently happening as Santa Monica considers what reparations might look like.
1819 Pico Boulevard Elevation via Brooks + Scarpa (Source: www.layimby.com)
In 2019, Santa Monica began developing “right to return” measures that would allow households whose families were displaced by the Civic Center and freeway to return. These individuals, who had to qualify according to income, were placed on the City's Below Market Housing waitlist. In 2021, as part of this effort, the City granted Community Corp over $33 million to build 48 affordable housing units for thousands on the waitlist.
The development will be located at 1819 Pico Boulevard, the former site of Mount Hermon Baptist Church, an important community faith center that was demolished to make way for this project. The development, which will be called Brunson Terrace, is named after Vernon and Donald Brunson, some of the first Black children born in Santa Monica and who went on to become important entrepreneurial and community figures. Brunson Terrace is set to open in 2023. Robbie Jones will be renting retail space to open up a community center, Just Family Coffee Bar. She plans for it to be a place where Black Santa Monica's histories endure and are shared and bolstered. We hope that our map allows people to engage with and contribute to this history. We drew attention to 1819 Pico Boulevard to question the extent to which Santa Monica sufficiently responds to the past in its present. If we consider the impacts of redlining, eminent domain, public health logics of filth and decay, and other forms of anti-Blackness and their relation to the Inkwell memorial plaque, art installation and interpretive signage at Historic Belmar Park, and 48 units of affordable housing, we can ask: Do these projects sufficiently redress the harm inflicted on Black Santa Monica?
Freedom Dreaming
In 2020, just a few months before communities all over the world rose up in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the city of Santa Monica commissioned April Banks to design a public art installation that commemorates Belmar. Banks investigated Black businesses previously in the area. Wondering what it would have looked like today, she decided to focus on the Ebony Beach Club, which became the focal point for Santa Monica High School students to dream and imagine Black people in the future, specifically in the year 2070. Banks worked with workshop instructors, teachers, and Santa Monica youth to create a magazine that delved into imagining and dreaming.
Kaelen Song, an artist from the class of 2021, describes how, "What happened in Belmar was not at all unique, however it still makes me say, “Really? In Santa Monica?” It is wild to think that Belmar was a thriving community, right next to where I go to high school now. However, what is even more astounding, is the fact that in my high school I had never even heard the name Belmar. So many communities of color have been wiped off the map and never heard from again. This history, the history that happens in our own cities, to people of color, is never taught or even acknowledged in our American schools. Worldbuilding is a fun and imaginative way to think about what the world could be. Worldbuilding resonates with me, because right now, we are at a turning point in history with the Black Lives Matter movement. We are worldbuilding in real life. I am young enough to be a part of the change, and to hopefully see the change happen, and I am old enough to somewhat understand what is causing this upheaval of American society.
In collaboration with Santa Monica Cultural Affairs, students from the Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences created related art as part of a restorative justice project for the Belmar History + Art. Their project titled, "Justice and Joy" project PDF is available here .
#ProjectBlackSpace | In Pursuit of Justice and Joy
Contemporary Context
Despite the vast changes to Santa Monica's built environment and demographics over the past century, certain individuals and organizations have continued to uphold and maintain Black Santa Monica's presence and identity. History is still being made in Santa Monica, and we welcome the contribution of your story to our narratives.
Stronger call for action since 2020