Culver City is asking people who have faced discrimination while living or working in the city to share their experiences in a new study, now underway.
Yasmine-Imani McMorrin, Culver City’s vice mayor, says this effort comes two years after the city publicly acknowledged its history of segregation and police abuse. In 2021, the city council passed a resolution that acknowledges that history and the harm caused to Black community members and people of color.
“We apologize for the harm that happened,” McMorrin said. At the same time, she notes: “There has been no historical record of that harm. So this is kind of completing the record.”
A ‘sundown town’ history
Culver City has a history of being a “sundown town” — places that prevented Black people and people of color from living in certain jurisdictions or even being inside the city limits after sundown. When Culver City was founded by Henry Culver, he posted an ad in the Los Angeles Herald calling it a “little white city.”
McMorrin noted many residents do not know this history. The 2021 resolution also addressed:
- The fact that the Klu Klux Klan held meetings in the city.
- Racially restrictive covenants prohibited Black people and other people of color from becoming homeowners.
- The city was founded on land stolen from the Gabrielino-Tongva peoples.
Accounting for racism
In January of this year, the City Council approved an agreement to work with the Architectural Resources Group to prepare a historical context study. City leaders say the study can fill some gaps.
“It’s good that the survey exists, given the past trajectory, and the decisions of the city and the past,” McMorrin said,…
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