This series documents long-term and multigenerational business ownership in the black community through oral history interviews with owners of businesses located in Los Angeles County. The title is inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last book, Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community, whic...
Biographical Note:
Owner of Harold and Belle’s, a long-established restaurant in the West Adams neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness is a collection of interviews with over seventy individuals living in the U.S. and Canada whose family history, occupation, art practice, or activism have brought them into direct contact with illness experience and disability relate...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. Lives with Lyme Disease and experiences chemical sensitivities. UCLA student. Advocate for people living with for Lyme Disease and chronic illnesses, and activist for ...
This series documents efforts to secure quality education for Black students in the Los Angeles area in the years 1950-2000. This includes the issues of integration/desegregation, increasing the numbers of Black teachers and administrators and the struggle against discriminatory hiring practice...
Biographical Note:
Director of Academic English Mastery and Closing the Achievement Gap Branch in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Educational consultant for LeMoine & Associates Educational Consultant Services. California State University, Northridge, Mount St. Mary's College, and California Lutheran Unive...
This series of interviews was undertaken in collaboration with the Art Directors Guild. Its aim is to document the lives and work of Guild members and staff who have made a significant contribution to film and television history. Interviews capture the work of title artists, set designers, art di...
Biographical Note:
Set designer known for work on L.A. Confidential, The Last Tycoon, Oz the Great and Powerful, and The Majestic.
The Many Branches, One Root series traces the histories and practices of a range of Buddhist traditions and communities in the greater Los Angeles area. Beginning in the early twentieth century, a succession of Buddhist traditions have put down roots in Los Angeles, each one providing spiritual s...
Biographical Note:
Buddhist teacher and founder of Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society and Refuge Recovery. Author of memoir Dharma Punx.
Interviews in this series preserve the recollections of selected individuals in Los Angeles who were affected by the Hollywood blacklist during the Joseph R. McCarthy-J. Edgar Hoover era.
Biographical Note:
Film and television producer. Known for breaking the post-World War II Hollywood blacklist with the production of Spartacus.
The Suburban Chinatown series focuses on political and business leaders in the San Gabriel Valley who came to the U.S. in the post-1965 wave of Asian immigration after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the quota system based on national origins. The series was undertaken as a ...
Biographical Note:
Immigrant from Taiwan. California State University, Long Beach, professor of Asian and Asian American Studies.
The Narratives of Justice oral history series documents issues related to the criminal justice system in California through interviews with a variety of people who seek to reform that system. It includes interviews with individuals who provide services to at-risk youth; individuals engaged in com...
Biographical Note:
Director of the ACLU of Southern California's Jails Project.
This series includes full-life histories of a number of prominent Korean Americans who represent their community’s tremendous expansion during the period after federal anti-Asian immigration laws were repealed in 1965. The series focuses on the remarkable growth of the Korean American community i...
Biographical Note:
Head of the law firm Lim, Ruger, & Kim, John S.C. Lim. Co-founder of the first Korean American law firm in Los Angeles.
The Suburban Chinatown series focuses on political and business leaders in the San Gabriel Valley who came to the U.S. in the post-1965 wave of Asian immigration after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the quota system based on national origins. The series was undertaken as a ...
Biographical Note:
Immigrant from Taiwan. Orthopedic surgeon and city council member and mayor of San Marino, California.
The series documents affordable housing activism in the Los Angeles area with particular attention to the work of community development corporations. Additional interviews document the work of social justice activists whose work concerns both the low income housing crisis in the city as well as ...
Biographical Note:
Executive director of the Community Corporation of Santa Monica and treasurer of the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles. UCLA lecturer in the Department of Urban Planning.
The series documents environmental activism in the Los Angeles area from the 1970s through to the present day. The majority of interviews are with either founders or knowledgeable participants in major regional environmental organizations. Represented groups embody a wide range of issues, includi...
Biographical Note:
Early member of the Friends of the Los Angeles River and author of Down by the Los Angeles River, a guide to river walks. Member of Bus Rider’s Union; advocate for bike lanes; resident of Los Angeles Eco-Village.
The series documents environmental activism in the Los Angeles area from the 1970s through to the present day. The majority of interviews are with either founders or knowledgeable participants in major regional environmental organizations. Represented groups embody a wide range of issues, includi...
Biographical Note:
Founder of TreePeople. Co-organizer of Los Angeles Million Tree Campaign. Involved in Los Angeles urban forest and urban watershed initiatives.
Interviews in this series preserve the spoken memories of individuals, mainly musicians, who were raised near and/or performed on Los Angeles's Central Avenue from the late 1920s to the mid-1950s.
This series of interviews documents the work of costumers in the film and television industries in Los Angeles. The interviews preserve a dimension of Hollywood history and Los Angeles history that has been under-documented to date.
Biographical Note:
Co-founder of Muto-Little custom-made costume shop. Career in costuming that has included work in film, television, opera, and popular music.
Purpose Served: An Oral History of the Exemplary Life of Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993 is an initiative of the Arthur Ashe Legacy Fund (AALF) at UCLA and is funded by AALF and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. By launching an oral history project to document and capture the firsthand recollections of ...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed because of connection to tennis player Arthur Ashe. Tennis player who met Arthur Ashe as a child while attending Dr. Robert Walter Johnson’s summer tennis camp. Was the first African American tennis player to play in South Africa.
Interviews that reflect the experiences and the thoughts of members of the UCLA campus community on the topic of the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of Angelenos from the broader LA community participated in the project as well. Because of stipulations in legal agreements and other reasons, some oral...
The interviews in this series document the ideological transformation of the Chicana and Chicano generation in Los Angeles. Dissatisfied with their position in U.S. society, Chicana and Chicano activists built a civil rights movement from the ground up. Interviewees were selected based on their e...
Biographical Note:
Member of Católicos por La Raza protests. Involved in the sanctuary movement in Los Angeles, the resettlement of refugees from Central America.
The series documents environmental activism in the Los Angeles area from the 1970s through to the present day. The majority of interviews are with either founders or knowledgeable participants in major regional environmental organizations. Represented groups embody a wide range of issues, includi...
Biographical Note:
Principal in DakeLuna Consultants, an urban design consulting group. Stream restoration specialist for Heal the Bay, founder of Urban Semillas, and creator of youth-oriented educational courses on watershed issues known as “Agua Universities."
This series includes interviews with prominent Los Angeles-based visual artists and other members of the art establishment whose careers span the period from the 1920s through the 1970s. It documents the art community of the pre-World War II period and the rise of Los Angeles as a nationally rec...
The series documents environmental activism in the Los Angeles area from the 1970s through to the present day. The majority of interviews are with either founders or knowledgeable participants in major regional environmental organizations. Represented groups embody a wide range of issues, includi...
Biographical Note:
Poet, journalist, and filmmaker. Founder of Friends of the Los Angeles River.
Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness is a collection of interviews with over seventy individuals living in the U.S. and Canada whose family history, occupation, art practice, or activism have brought them into direct contact with illness experience and disability relate...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. Lives with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). Gender queer artist and activist. Having experienced houselessness, they advocate for developing accessible social housing.
The South Asian Women in Los Angeles series documents the lives of a number of women who are first generation South Asian immigrants and who lived or currently live in the greater Los Angeles area. This project was generously supported by Arcadia funds.
The South Asian Women in Los Angeles series documents the lives of a number of women who are first generation South Asian immigrants and who lived or currently live in the greater Los Angeles area. This project was generously supported by Arcadia funds.
Biographical Note:
Immigrant from India. UCLA lecturer in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures.
The Traditional Asian Arts in Southern California series focuses on both immigrants and second- or third-generation Asian Americans who have continued East Asian or Southeast Asian musical, dance, and performance traditions in Southern California. Some preserved their art form by adhering to the...
Biographical Note:
Performer and teacher of traditional Okinawan dance. Artistic director of the Majikina Honryu Aigen no Kai dance school and performing arts company.
Purpose Served: An Oral History of the Exemplary Life of Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993 is an initiative of the Arthur Ashe Legacy Fund (AALF) at UCLA and is funded by AALF and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. By launching an oral history project to document and capture the firsthand recollections of ...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed because of connection to tennis player Arthur Ashe. Attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and received tennis instruction for Lieutenant Ashe while he was stationed at West Point between 1967 to 1969.
The Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM), founded in Los Angeles by Edith and Frank Wyle, grew out of The Egg and The Eye, a commercial art gallery/restaurant devoted to international contemporary craft and folk art—and (in the restaurant) omelettes. The gallery opened November 1, 1965 at 5814 Wilsh...
Biographical Note:
Furniture designer and woodworker. Craft and Folk Art Museum Board Member, 1986–1997.
Interviews in this series preserve the recollections of selected individuals in Los Angeles who were affected by the Hollywood blacklist during the Joseph R. McCarthy-J. Edgar Hoover era.
Biographical Note:
Novelist and screenwriter. One of the Hollywood Ten, who were imprisoned and blacklisted in the post-World War II Hollywood blacklist.
Activist and organizer. Work with the Congress of Racial Equality, Newark Community Union Project, Students for a Democratic Society, as well as its Weathermen faction. Other work includes labor organizing and work in environmental justice. Currently director of the Labor/Community Strategy Cen...
The interviews in this series document the ideological transformation of the Chicana and Chicano generation in Los Angeles. Dissatisfied with their position in U.S. society, Chicana and Chicano activists built a civil rights movement from the ground up. Interviewees were selected based on their e...
Biographical Note:
Chairman of the Educational Issues Coordinating Committee (EICC) during the Chicano Blowouts. Founder of the Hispanic Urban Center Board of Education and the Parent Institute for Quality Education.
The Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM), founded in Los Angeles by Edith and Frank Wyle, grew out of The Egg and The Eye, a commercial art gallery/restaurant devoted to international contemporary craft and folk art—and (in the restaurant) omelettes. The gallery opened November 1, 1965 at 5814 Wilsh...
Biographical Note:
Craft and Folk Art Museum Board Member, 1994 – present; Board President, 2008 – 2016.
The series documents environmental activism in the Los Angeles area from the 1970s through to the present day. The majority of interviews are with either founders or knowledgeable participants in major regional environmental organizations. Represented groups embody a wide range of issues, includi...
Biographical Note:
Founder of Coalition for a Safe Environment, which fought port pollution in Wilmington, California. Participant in THE (Trade, Health, Environment) Impact Project, an organization focused on the community health impact of the Los Angeles/Long Beach ports.
Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness is a collection of interviews with over seventy individuals living in the U.S. and Canada whose family history, occupation, art practice, or activism have brought them into direct contact with illness experience and disability relate...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. Lives with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). Former president and board member of the Environmental Health Network of California.
This series includes interviews with key individuals who served in Los Angeles city government during the administration of Mayor Tom Bradley. The interviews focus on each individual’s political development, activism, and role in the Bradley administration. Major urban policy issues addressed in ...
Biographical Note:
Presidentially appointed economic development representative for the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration. Director of Business and Economic Development for Mayor Tom Bradley's Office of Small Business Assistance.
This series documents community organizations and institutions that arose in the aftermath of the Watts Rebellion to address issues such as education, employment, healthcare, housing, transportation, and police harassment. The first phase of the series involved interviews with key organizers of ...
Purpose Served: An Oral History of the Exemplary Life of Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993 is an initiative of the Arthur Ashe Legacy Fund (AALF) at UCLA and is funded by AALF and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. By launching an oral history project to document and capture the firsthand recollections of ...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed because of connection to tennis player Arthur Ashe. Arthur Ashe met poet, activist Don Mattera during his 1973 visit to South Africa. They remained friends.
Second Baptist Church is the oldest African-American church in Los Angeles and the first African American Baptist church established in Southern California. It played a prominent role during the civil rights movement in campaigns against racial discrimination in housing, public accommodations an...
Biographical Note:
Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court and one of the first African-American lawyers accepted to the California state bar. Member of the Second Baptist Church.
This series of interviews was undertaken in collaboration with the Art Directors Guild. Its aim is to document the lives and work of Guild members and staff who have made a significant contribution to film and television history. Interviews capture the work of title artists, set designers, art di...
Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness is a collection of interviews with over seventy individuals living in the U.S. and Canada whose family history, occupation, art practice, or activism have brought them into direct contact with illness experience and disability relate...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. MA, organic chemistry. Indoor air quality professional and organic chemist at May Indoor Air Investigations LLC. Author of several books. Board member of the Massachuse...
Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness is a collection of interviews with over seventy individuals living in the U.S. and Canada whose family history, occupation, art practice, or activism have brought them into direct contact with illness experience and disability relate...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. Lives with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Medical doctor specializing in internal medicine and environmental health. Chemical sensitivity and disability advocate and ac...
This series documents community organizations and institutions that arose in the aftermath of the Watts Rebellion to address issues such as education, employment, healthcare, housing, transportation, and police harassment. The first phase of the series involved interviews with key organizers of ...
Biographical Note:
Founding member of the Brotherhood Crusade. Manager of the Vera Davis McClendon Youth and Family Center.
These interviews document the rise of Chicano studies at UCLA and the founding of the Chicano Studies Research Center. Interviewees were involved in Chicano studies in the late 1960s and early ‘70s as students, faculty, or staff.
Biographical Note:
University of Southern California professor of English. Editor of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center’s journal, Aztlan. As a student at UCLA, was involved in the Chicano student movement on campus and the drive for the establishment of the research center.
The interviews in the series American Indian Presence in Southern California: Those Who Came survey some of the diversity of tribes and experiences of American Indians who have immigrated to the urban area. Over 205,000 American Indians live in Southern California, almost 73,000 of them in Los An...
Biographical Note:
Citizen of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and director of the American Indian Resource Center of the Huntington Park Library.
Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness is a collection of interviews with over seventy individuals living in the U.S. and Canada whose family history, occupation, art practice, or activism have brought them into direct contact with illness experience and disability relate...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. Chief of the Office of Viral Hepatitis Prevention for the California Department of Public Health.
These interviews with African American musicians provide details about the narrators' background, training, influences, and musical choices and discuss their contributions, and connections to the music of black Los Angeles. The series was a collaborative project of the UCLA Center for Oral Histor...
Biographical Note:
Director of Choral Activities, professor of Ethnomusicology, and head of Music Education at U.C. Davis. Choral director, composer, arranger, author, and editor.
The series documents environmental activism in the Los Angeles area from the 1970s through to the present day. The majority of interviews are with either founders or knowledgeable participants in major regional environmental organizations. Represented groups embody a wide range of issues, includi...
Biographical Note:
Vice president of environmental health for the American Lung Association of California. Governor's appointee to the South Coast Air Quality Management District Board and the California Air Resources Board.