The Savages (Venice's Oakwood Area in the 1960's)

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• published: 16 Jul 2013
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This is a documentary, created by Alan Gorg, about the African American section of Venice California known today as the Oakwood Area, but in earlier years as Ghost Town. Created in 1967, this documentary focuses on the struggles of Venice's younger generation during the 1960's. *I have edited in some pictures, music (by David Cash) and information (taken from the internet) about Venice's Oakwood Area since the making of this documentary. History of Los Angeles' African-American neighborhoods west of the 405 (the Far Westside): My family has been apart of the historically black neighborhoods west of the 405 since the 1950's. In early Los Angeles, Venice's Oakwood Area, Santa Monica's Pico Neighborhood and the Culver City addressed Mar Vista Gardens Housing Projects were the only areas where blacks could live and/or own homes outside of Watts and within a few miles from the beaches. - Santa Monica's Pico Neighborhood: Before the 1960s, the neighborhood was much larger and was an important African-American enclave on the Westside, but when the Santa Monica Freeway opened in the 1960s, it resulted in the destruction of many residences and the relocation of a large number of families. Its boundaries are Lincoln Blvd to the west, Centinela Ave to the east, Olympic Ave to the north and Pico Blvd to the south. - Mar Vista Gardens Housing Projects: Built around the 1940's or early 1950's, Mar Vista Gardens is a 62 building, 601 unit housing project in the Del Rey district of southwestern Los Angeles, California, bordering Ballona Creek and situated near Culver City, California. It is operated by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. The complex was given the name of neighboring city of Mar Vista and the mailing address of near by Culver City but is officially apart of the city of Los Angeles. It is the westernmost large housing project in the HACLA system. - Venice's Oakwood Area: The Oakwood portion of Venice is a 1.1 square mile area. Its bounderies are Rose Ave to the north, California Ave to the south, Lincoln Blvd to the east and Abbott Kinney Blvd to the west. The area lies inland from the tourist areas and is one of the few historically African American areas in West Los Angeles. During the age of restrictive covenants that enforced racial segregation, Oakwood was set aside as a settlement area for blacks, who came by the hundreds to Venice to work in the oil fields during the 1930s and 1940's. After the construction of the San Diego Freeway (405), which passed through predominantly Mexican American and immigrant communities, those groups moved further west and into Oakwood where black residents were already established. Whites moved into Oakwood during the 1980s and 1990's.