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After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Little Tokyo in Los Angeles was left a ghost town because the Japanese inhabitants were relocated to internment camps. African-Americans then moved in and formed the impermanent community of Bronzeville.

Dr. Hilary Jenks came to PCC on Oct 22 to speak about this little known part of California history as a part of the speaker series for the “One Book, One College” selection, Nina Revoyr’s “Southland.”

Like the character Jackie Ishida in “Southland,” who went back to Crenshaw as a stranger to a neighborhood that had been home to her family for generations, the Japanese came home to an unfamiliar Bronzeville.

‘There are deep connections between Little Tokyo and Crenshaw and between the Japanese and African Americans communities,” Jenks said. “We have lost a lot of awareness of our history and our connections to places in Southern California.”

Jenks’ interest in Little Tokyo and Bronzeville stemmed from her studies at USC where she received her Ph.D. in American Studies and Ethnicity. She then turned her dissertation into a book, “Home Is Little Tokyo: Race and Metropolitan Development in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles.”

“I was working on a historic preservation project at USC which was partnered with the Little Tokyo Service Center and that was when I started going down there a lot,” Jenks said.” “Being someone that’s interested in history, I started looking into it and found out more and more about Little Tokyo and Bronzeville and the next thing you know I wrote a book on it.”

Dr. Hilary Jenks was also apart of Project Bronzeville with artist and graphic designer Kathie Foley-Meyer, LA Artcore, the Robey Theater Company, musician and composer Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Dr. Anthony Macias and PCC’s own Christopher Jimenez y West.

Project Bronzeville was started to bring this little known period of history to life.

“Kathie Foley-Meyer is an artist and she got interested in Bronzeville and started to research it for some art pieces and then it grew from there,” Jenks said. “After there was an art exhibition, play, a music show and symposium all inspired by Bronzeville.”

Project Bronzeville ran an Indiegogo campaign to raise $20,000 for the series of events. The campaign ran from February and ended in April collecting a total of  $10,025 in donations.

Samantha Molina
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