Letting Go Of Our Love Of Lawns

Lynetta McElroy stands outside her home on a tree-lined street in the south L.A. neighborhood of Leimert Park, where she’s lived since the 1980s.

“Leimert Park was known for its beautiful lawns,” McElroy said. “No fences, and you could go to one corner and you could see just about to the next corner. It gave a community feeling. I’ve always loved this area. And it took a while to get a home in this area, needless to say.”

Leimert Park has long been a center of Black Los Angeles — and a testament to the possibility of the American Dream.

The neighborhood was once only for white upper- and middle-class families. Racist property laws in the early 1900s barred Black, Mexican, Asian, Jewish and other marginalized communities from buying homes there.

But in 1948, the Supreme Court deemed those laws unconstitutional. Well-off Black families started moving in. It wasn’t a smooth transition … the new residents faced vandalism and threats from their white neighbors.

But by the time McElroy and her husband moved into their home in 1988, Leimert Park had become a haven for middle-class Black families.

“There was a lot of pride,” McElroy said. “Everyone kept up their lawn and they had their beautiful flowers and it was such a pleasant place to see and be.”

The lawn itself has long been a symbol of achieving that white-picket-fence dream of home ownership. For generations, that’s been the case for Americans across the country.