Violent crime rates (homicide, rape, robbery, assault) in Los Angeles County have dramatically dropped over the last four decades.
Photo from the L.A. Daily News Negatives Collection at UCLA Digital Library.
1946. Picketers confront discriminatory housing and restrictive convenant laws outside the home of an African American family on 92nd Street in Los Angeles. Henry and Anna Laws were a Los Angeles African American couple who saved their earnings from work in L.A.’s defense industry and from domestic work. They purchased a vacant lot on 92nd Street in South Los Angeles. The property was on the “White side” of the street, subject to title covenants that restricted ownership to white owners. The realtor, however, assured them that the restrictions would not be enforced. Nonetheless, in 1944, when the Laws decided to build and move into a home on their lot, they were sued by white developers for violating restrictions that allowed only white ownership and domicile. Neighbors, friends, and allies rallied around the Laws and picketed outside their home in support. Henry argued that the wartime military service of his children entitled his family to live where they chose. His son-in-law was awarded a Purple Heart medal. He supported the war by regularly buying war bonds. He declared that "...the only way they will ever get me out of this house is to shoot me with a Gatling gun and throw my dead body on the other lot. I am a free-born American citizen. My sons are fighting...in the South pacific. I buy war bonds. I am working for a defense plant, and so is the rest of my family." In November 1945, the court ruled against the Laws and L.A. Sheriff’s deputies arrested them and their daughter for illegally staying in their home. The Laws then, with the help of the NAACP and black celebrities, joined a class-action lawsuit against racial covenants. In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in their favor in the landmark decision, Shelley v. Kraemer, that racial-restrictive housing covenants violated the 14th amendment and, therefore, were legally unenforceable. The Laws family were able to return to their home on 92nd Street.
Also see: Redlining in Los Angeles County
Almost one million rail passengers annually board or alight Amtrak trains at Union Station in Los Angeles. Five Amtrak routes directly connect L.A. with cities from San Diego to Chicago and New Orleans.
