Books

Old black L.A.

On Kitty Felde's Talk of the City yesterday, author Douglas Flamming told some great stories about the little-known history of African Americans in early Los Angeles (including in the expedition from Mexico that first settled the pueblo.) One of the surprises was that, despite the Los Angeles Times' racist tone under longtime publishers Harrison Gray Otis and Harry Chandler, blacks thought of Otis as a friend. Flamming's book is Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America from University of California Press. Audio of the interview is online.

Also: The Elegant Variation reprints a review of Every Night is Ladies’ Night by Michael Jaime-Becerra, one of the few books to be set in El Monte. (The review is by Daniel Olivas, whose books include Devil Talk: Stories. And CaliforniaAuthors.com has added 19 more books to its registry of local new releases.


More by Kevin Roderick:
Standing up to Harvey Weinstein
The Media
LA Times gets a top editor with nothing but questions
LA Observed Notes: Harvey Weinstein stripped bare
LA Observed Notes: Photos of the homeless, photos that found homes
Recent Books stories on LA Observed:
Pop Sixties
LA Observed Notes: Bookstore stays open, NPR pact
Al Franken in Los Angeles many times over
His British invasion - and ours
Press freedom under Trump and the Festival of Books
Amy Dawes, 56, journalist and author
Richard Schickel, 84, film critic, director and author
The Lost Journalism of Ring Lardner: An Interview with Ron Rapoport


 

LA Observed on Twitter