01/17/05

LC050117

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

It may look like an eyesore, but beneath the graffiti is a piece
of local history, but is it worth saving?

Ed Reyes>> What we are going to lose is a vacant piece of land
that's right now unmanaged. It has no guidance, allows people
to come and go when they please, tag it up, do their drugs and
create a blighting effect. That's what we have right now.

Val>> And then, he was the first African-American heavyweight
champ, but did his race cost him his career? Ken Burns talks
about his new film on the extraordinary life of Jack Johnson.

All that and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> Some people call it an eyesore and yet this scruffy piece
of land is the object of a four-way tug of war. Developers want
to build on it, history buffs want to preserve it, graffiti
artists want to paint on it and some teens just want to play on
it. Hena Cuevas takes us to the site of this valuable land to
give us an idea of what its fate might be.

Hena Cuevas>> It doesn't look like an historical site, an
abandoned tunnel in Belmont, a neighborhood just south of
downtown Los Angeles. Years of neglect and graffiti have taken
their toll. Then last month, bulldozers moved in to begin
construction on new apartments and that's when preservationists
moved in to save these historic buildings. Why? Because under
all that graffiti are the walls of the old train yard where the
Redline rail system, part of Los Angeles's first attempt at
public transportation.

Narrator>> "Once upon a time, the Red Cars ran up and down the
tree-lined streets of Southern California. Everyone loved the
Red Cars, their frequent, convenient and very friendly service.
Everyone rode them everywhere. All was good in those golden
pre-smog years."

Hena Cuevas>> The line closed in 1955 and, for the next fifty
years, the train yard remained vacant. The original substation
is still there as well as a section of the Belmont Tunnel which
runs under the 110 Freeway. But it's not just the historic
walls they want saved. They also want what's painted on them.

Amy McKenzie>> It's open space, it's art.

Hena Cuevas>> Belmont resident, Amy McKenzie, says these
graffiti murals are part of Los Angeles's culture.

Amy McKenzie>> Some people might still consider it an eyesore,
but I think it's because it's just painted over and over and
over again that, you know, some people may not be able to look
at it and right away realize or appreciate the value behind it.

Hena Cuevas>> One group that does appreciate its value are film
crews.

>> "And camera rolling. Action."

Hena Cuevas>> Belmont Tunnel is a perfect spot for moviemakers
looking for a gritty urban feel.

Stash Maleski>> People come from all over Los Angeles. They
actually come from all over the world to see the graffiti here
and artists come and view. To process their art form, they come
here and do their art form here.

Hena Cuevas>> An art form which Stash Maleski says should be
preserved. He and McKenzie are part of Belmont Art Park United,
a group that wants to keep the apartment building from being
built on the property. So transit history buffs joined forces
with the graffiti artists who say that Belmont Tunnel graffiti
is worth saving. Together, they took their case to the city's
Cultural Heritage Commission.

Ann McKenzie>> It's just a continuous fight. It's something
that we feel strongly about because it's going to affect our
neighborhood.

Hena Cuevas>> Four years ago, Maleski who lives in Venice was
able to save a beachfront graffiti park. Now he wants to make
sure the community's voice is heard.

Stash Maleski>> If they say they don't want an art park and
they just would rather have four hundred units here, then so be
it, but at least they've had an opportunity to make their say.

Ed Reyes>> And that is the clash, this pressure for open space
and art versus housing.

Hena Cuevas>> Los Angeles City Councilman Ed Reyes voted for
the construction of the new building.

Ed Reyes>> What we are going to lose is a vacant piece of land
that's right now unmanaged. It has no guidance, allows people
to come and go when they please, tag it up, do their drugs and
create a blighting effect. That's what we have right now.

Hena Cuevas>> One of the requirements for the new complex is
that it designate at least twenty percent of its units as
affordable housing and, in an area like Belmont with one of the
highest concentrations of residents in the city, new apartments
would bring much-needed living space.

Ed Reyes>> Anywhere in my district, change is tough because I
do have the original suburbs. Much of what's happening in my
district does have an historic element to it.

Hena Cuevas>> In order to preserve the park, the group wanted
it declared a cultural historical landmark. However, the
Commission said only two of the buildings could be preserved,
the substation and the tunnel. And although they will be fixed
and will be open to the public, they will be on private property
within the new apartment complex. But there's still another
group that uses the lot and wants to keep it just the way it is.

Omeatl Tonatiuh>> It goes back probably about maybe three
thousand years and it evolved from a game and it's played in
many different areas throughout Mexico, but different versions
of it.

Hena Cuevas>> Omeatl Tonatiuh from Mexico is producing a
documentary on the tarasca, an ancient Mayan ballgame.

Omeatl Tonatiuh>> It's older than football, it's older than
soccer, it's older than baseball.

Hena Cuevas>> Every weekend, players from all over the city
gather at this bare lot to play tarasca. They toss a rubber
ball using their elbows, knees, hips and fists. According to
Tonatiuh, the Belmont Tunnel area is ideal because of the hard
soil which the players themselves have compacted over the years.
It's believed that this is the only tarasca ballpark in the
United States. If this place closes, where are they going to
play?

Omeatl Tonatiuh>> That's the dilemma. That's what they're
asking themselves. Where would the players go? Again, it is
not acknowledged as a professional sport. Therefore, spaces are
not given a priority, say, if they want to play at a soccer
field or a football field because it's not taken as serious.

Hena Cuevas>> The three groups, historical preservationists,
graffiti artists and tarasca players, all want the space for the
community's use and they have a plan to make it more attractive.

Stash Maleski>> We definitely think that it looks like an
eyesore now, but we believe we have plans for an art park. We
had an architect draw up some plans and it's a beautiful park.

Amy McKenzie>> And we'd like to have like an art gallery or a
museum or some sort of something in the power substation. We
could use that space. You know, clean it up and make it safe
for people. We could hold events here. We could have music.
You know, all sorts of things. This place has endless
possibilities.

Hena Cuevas>> Their proposal keeps the historic buildings, the
murals, and allows for the playing of tarasca. Although
Councilman Reyes thinks it's a good idea, he wonders why these
proposals were never brought up before.

Ed Reyes>> It sounds very easy, but to get to this point, it
took almost two or three years of negotiating. No one really
came forward with a proposal like that. No one came in with a
very real substance in terms of these kinds of dollars. I have
to deal with the inalienable rights of a person to be able to
draw up their own land and their own property.

Hena Cuevas>> This park has been here for forty years now. Why
hasn't there been an effort to make it an art park until now?

Stash Maleski>> Well, I think for one thing, I think there was
a general understanding that it was public land and that it
would eventually be used for either some sort of MTA thing and
that possibly a park would come along with it at that point.

Hena Cuevas>> Across the street, the state is building a new
fifteen-acre park next to the new Belmont High School.

Ed Reyes>> Here, we are going to develop housing for the local
people, we're going to preserve the historic element and we're
going to have an art program. It's all going to happen here.
It's just not going to happen the way they want it.

Hena Cuevas>> Construction on the site has stopped until the
art park group presents its case to the City Council. But at
least for one graffiti artist, it seems they're already getting
ready to say goodbye. I'm Hena Cuevas for Life and Times.

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Val>> If you think the life of prize fighter, Muhammad Ali, was
extraordinary, you'll be amazed by the story of Jack Johnson.
Johnson was America's first African-American heavyweight
champion. He won the title in the dark era of Jim Crow racism
and lynchings. His life was what movies are made of and that's
why PBS filmmaker, Ken Burns, chose Jack Johnson for a two-part
documentary called "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of
Jack Johnson".

Announcer>> "Jack Johnson's ambition and talent and quick wits,
his extraordinary financial success, fondness for fast living
and refusal to follow rules set by others had all helped make
him a hero among many black Americans."

Val>> I met Ken Burns at the Los Angeles Central Library where
he told me more bout this remarkable American.

Ken Burns>> Jack Johnson was the first African-American
heavyweight champion of the world. He was able to reach the
championship because of sheer will and determination. There was
a gentleman's agreement, so-called gentleman's agreement, that
precluded African-Americans from fighting for the highest level
of the boxing world, the heavyweight champion. He struggled for
years and years and years, having fought all the lesser fighters
and beat them all.

He fought for years and years for a better chance and finally
some promoter offered the current champion enough money that he
decided he'd go into battle against Jack Johnson. Jack Johnson
won and then took on every comer, every White Hope that went
after him, and held on to his championship for years and years
while the white world went berserk trying to stop him in some
way.

Val>> So tell us a little bit about that fight that finally
broke through this.

Ken Burns>> Jack Johnson followed the championship, a man named
Tommy Burns, around the world literally until, in late 1908, he
cornered him in Sydney, Australia and a promoter offered Tommy
Burns enough money and they agreed to fight the day after
Christmas, 1908. It was just assumed that Tommy Burns would
take care of this inferior black man. It was, in fact, the
other way around. Johnson so dominated that it was not even
funny. He was playing with him. He could have knocked him out
probably in the first round, but he just toyed with him.

There were racial invectives hurled at Johnson from the stands
and from Burns' corner. He just smiled and gave as good as he
got, taunting his opponent. In the end, the police came and
stopped the newsreel cameras from recording the final blow that
knocked Tommy Burns to the canvas, so the world was denied the
opportunity to see Jack Johnson win the title outright. But win
it he did and then held off all challengers for many years.

Val>> But the contest that you're talking about that spurred
the race riots, wasn't that the fight with Jeffries?

Ken Burns>> There became, after he won the title against Tommy
Burns, a period then as the White Hope period when every fighter
above a heavyweight ranking was set at Jack Johnson. Jack
Johnson took all of them and, frustrated, the white world
decided that they had to lure the previous champion, Jim
Jeffries, who had retired many years before, to come out of
retirement. He would be the Great White Hope and, on July 4,
1910 in Reno, Nevada, Jack Johnson demolished him as well.

Almost immediately, there were race riots all around the
country. White on black riots where gangs of whites would go
into black neighborhoods and kill African-Americans just simply
for being black. Some of the fighting did take place among
celebrating African-Americans, but for the most part, it was
horrific white on black violence, the likes of which we haven't
seen. That kind of widespread racial violence took place after
Martin Luther King's assassination, but a different kind of
violence. This was mostly directed entirely at African-
Americans by whites sore and angry that Johnson had won. At
that point, the white power structure realized that, when they
couldn't beat him in the ring, they would try to beat him
elsewhere and went after his private life.

Val>> Legally, right? Basically, they prosecuted him under the
Mann Act which, at that time, prevented anybody from traveling
across state borders with a white woman? Is that right? If you
were black?

Ken Burns>> The Mann Act was a progressive era piece of
legislation intended to stop commercialized vice. Gangs of
people from stealing young girls from towns and putting them up
in prostitution, never intended to regulate personal morality or
to stop consenting adults. But they decided to use it against
Jack Johnson.

Jack Johnson lived a very loud private life. He wore the finest
clothes, he drank, he raced fast cars and he went out with women
of all colors and, later, exclusively with white women. He
married a woman who committed suicide and then later took up
with another woman. At that point, they went after him on the
Mann Act violation and found an old prostitute that he'd been
involved with and accused him of violating the Mann Act.

Val>> By traveling across the state with his wife who was
white.

Ken Burns>> They accused him of traveling across state lines
with a woman for immoral purposes or debauchery and they were
implying to a woman that wasn't his wife, but had been a
girlfriend at the time and who was a prostitute. It was this
technicality that they felt they could possibly get him on the
Mann Act. He was sentenced to a year and a day in jail. He
jumped bail and fled to Europe in exile.

Val>> And then he goes on to have -- but tell us, as you were
researching his life, there had to be so many times when you
said it is inconceivable that these things could be happening
today.

Ken Burns>> Well, I think we see the echoes of Jack Johnson in
the tension between white and black, the tension between the
sexes with regard to interracial marriages. But at that time,
you just could have had no idea of the vitriolic racism that
permeated almost all of society. How much Jack Johnson was
going against the tide of all of societal expectations. Not
just white, but in many cases, black, by becoming a loose cannon
on racial politics and violating what many black leaders hoped
responsible black men would do and conduct their lives as.

So it's one of these stories that just engages all the themes
that we're drawn to, certainly athletic accomplishments, race,
sex and freedom. In the end, I like the story more than
anything else because Jack Johnson insisted on being free and he
becomes kind of a reminder of the value of courage in the face
of people trying to take away that freedom.

Val>> In a way, it is really encouraging to look back at this
chapter and to realize how much progress we have made.

Ken Burns>> You know, we've made a lot of progress and we also
haven't. So I think we use this not just to pat ourselves on
the back and congratulate ourselves, but to remind us how much
work needs to be done. There are still African-Americans that
don't have equal access. It's true we've made great progress,
but I think Jack Johnson reminds you how deepening and ingrained
racism is and the suspicion of the other, however that might be.
I think, by sharing this story, you also help set the precedent
for figuring out a way that will work within ourselves and
within our communities to heal these rifts. Not just the
historical ones, which we also have to do, but the ones
remaining right before us.

Val>> You said that it was amazing that he wasn't murdered,
killed or assassinated, but how did he finally die?

Ken Burns>> Jack Johnson died in a car crash. He loved to
drive his cars very fast. In 1946, he was traveling back from
Texas and passing through North Carolina. He wasn't refused
service, but told to pick up his order at a diner that he'd
placed back in the back. He was very upset about that and took
off. He failed to negotiate a turn, whether it was anger at his
yet again southern Jim Crow slight or just his desire to drive
fast which he always did, he failed to negotiate a turn and was
killed.

So ironic. He lived his life out loud in so many ways. He was
the forerunner of Muhammad Ali's remarkable brash public
personality. He reminds me of some of the hip-hop "gangstas".
He was very cool, very handsome. He wore his bling-bling and he
had his long coats and his fancy suits and his fast cars and his
expensive cribs. So he'd fit in today quite well. He was the
real deal. He was risky. He would risk today the courage of
demonstration that's so transparent. Jack Johnson has a lot to
teach us even today.

Val>> Ken Burns' documentary on the life of Jack Johnson airs
tonight and tomorrow night right here on KCET at nine o'clock.

To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us
by mail at this address:

Life and Times
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You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or
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Val>> There are larger than life heroes in civil rights history
and then there are local heroes like the woman you're about to
meet. Her name is Verna Deckard Williams and she left the south
to escape racial violence only to find racism here in Los
Angeles. So how did she handle discrimination when it landed on
her doorstep? Here's her story in her own words.

Verna Deckard Williams>> My name is Verna Deckard Williams. I
just made my ninety-first birthday on August 27. I've been
living in South Central for seventy-three years. We came to Los
Angeles in 1924 and we had to leave Texas because they tried to
tar and feather my father and that makes me so sad.

So we drove out here in two cars. I had my own little Ford
Coupe, 1924 Ford Coupe, and I drove it all the way out here.
Then after we got here, my dad, he bought a house and they
decided they didn't want any colored in the neighborhood. So
they offered to buy him out and he told them, "Well, yeah, I'll
sell it to you, but I have to have $1000 more than I paid for
it." They said, "Well, you didn't pay but $3200. We can't give
you $4200." He said, "Well, I have to have expenses for moving
and I might not find another house this reasonable."

[Film Clip]

Fifty white men came to our house, stood out on our lawn, and
two of them came up to the door and said, "We're not going to
buy you out, but you got to move." My mother had answered the
door and she got nervous. She started shaking and they saw that
she was shaking, so she said, "Well, how long will you give us
to move?" "Move before daylight in the morning." The
neighborhood was restricted, but this particular house, the
people had not signed the restricted covenant.

Now the restricted covenant is where the owners signed up where
they couldn't sell to anyone but Caucasian. Couldn't even sell
to Japanese, Mexicans, or colored, so they could make you move
if it was restricted, but, see, his house was not restricted.
So legally, they could not make him move.

But anyway, after that, Poppa got men from Twelfth and Central
Avenue, street people who just stood around on the street, and
they volunteered to come out and help us protect our house. So
they came out for a month. Every night they set up waiting for
them to come back and they never came back. So after a month,
Poppa released them and said, "Well, you all don't need to come
back anymore." Nothing happened and I guess they said, we heard
they went back and said, "That's a bad nigger. You better leave
him alone." So that's probably why they didn't bother us
anymore, I guess.

[Film Clip]

Well, they had neighborhoods where you could buy, so they put us
all on the east side of town. You could buy up to San Pedro
Street in South Central off of Compton Boulevard up to San Pedro
in just certain areas where you could buy. So we all lived
close together. They just sort of put us all together.

When the restricted covenant was broken in 1948, then we could
buy any place we want. I couldn't buy over here until after
1948. Some people did buy in the area they called Sugar Hill up
there near Harvard and they sued them. In some cases, they won
and the people had to move out, but all of them didn't win
because the people fought back. So finally the Supreme Court
outlawed that restricted covenant in 1948.

I finally found the lot that I wanted and I was determined I was
going to get it. I was sick of these peckerwoods keeping me
from fulfilling my childhood dream. I saw a real estate
salesman then and there was whites all working in the office.
He said, "Verna, I'll buy it for you." So I took him over there
to see the lot so he'd know what he was buying. While I was
showing it to him, one of the old nosy neighbors saw us. He
took his license number and called and found out his name and
address and called the real estate saleslady and told her his
name and said, "If he calls you about buying the lot, don't sell
it to him because he had a colored woman over there showing it
to her."

So, sure enough, we went to buy the lot. The woman told him,
"Oh, we can't sell you this lot because you're going to sell it
to a colored woman." "Colored woman? That was no colored
woman. That was a dark-haired white woman." (laughter) and she
fell for it, so she sold it to us. But when it was recorded,
she found out it was me who had bought it, so she said, "You
know, you can't live in it." I said, "Well, it's a vacant lot
now, but when I do build, if I can't live in it, I have some
white relatives who can." Boy, she didn't say another word.
She shut up and she never called me anymore. So this was in
1946. In 1948, the restricted covenant was broken, so I built
my house in 1949.

Val>> That story aired originally on KCET as part of the
"Mosaic" series. Our thanks to the producers. And that's our
program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times,
thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> Next time on Life and Times --

Hospice care can make a patient's last days on earth more
comfortable, so why don't more people use it?

>> A lot of times, the first thing is that people feel
uncomfortable with us coming because here they come, that means
I'm dying. Whereas you're living, you're still alive, we're
here to help you live.

Val>> That's next time on Life and Times.