South Central Oral History Project

Welcome

This work collected here was created by students in the African American History course at Mann UCLA Community School. This project was created with two goals in mind:

Students would learn the history of South Central from the strongest sources available to them: the people in their community. In collecting these stories, students would have first hand experience conducting community based qualitative research. Additionally, students would supplement these interviews with the historical knowledge they had learned in class.
Eventually, the long term goal for this project is to create a database of oral histories from South Central that can be used by the community. As Ethnic Studies becomes a statewide graduation requirement, it is important for South Central students to be able to access a localized version of their history that is built by the community itself. The oral histories collected here will hopefully become the foundation for that curriculum.

This project was inspired by the collection, “Through the Same Halls” created by students at Manual Arts High School with support by 826LA and would not have been possible without the collaboration of Benjamin Casar and our interviewees from Community Coalition.

– Joanne Yi

2024 Project: Mapping our Histories

2023 Project: Oral Histories

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We Wanna Keep South Central

Nancy Camacho profiled by Londyn, John Hernandez, & Aniya Jones

Growing Up in South Central

Luis Canul profiled by Jewel Wills & Marlon S. Larreynaga Lopez

Christian Flagg’s Life

Christian Flagg profiled by Martin Hollman, Gemora Knox, & Tyler Trapp

How South Central Was

Renee Henderson profiled by Isaiah Catching, Byron Eglen, & Kyle Jackson

From Haiti to SoCal

Ansley Jean-Jacques profiled by Alex Martinez, Annabelle Medina, & Isabel Pedroza

Antwon’s Life

Antwon Mitchell profiled by Jimy Alexis & Daniel Trejos

The Life of Francisco Perez

Francisco Perez profiled by Michael Castro & Elyse Smith

South Central’s Hope

Francisco Perez profiled by Kayla McKing & Jesse Preciado

Growing Up in South Central

Lupe Romero profiled by Malcolm Clayborne, Laura Duran, & Mariana Padilla

South LA Hopes

Hector Sanchez profiled by Michelle Salguero & Yadira Tejada

Choices

Hector Sanchez profiled by Maryah Parker

Damien Valentine’s POV of South Central

Damien Valentine profiled by Darrion Clark, Ray’Ven Kelly, & Daniel Trujillo