Black Family in Los Angeles in the 1920s

March 29, 2013    |  By Teka-Lark Fleming

People say as a newspaper publisher, I’m supposed to be objective.

I disagree. I publish a community newspaper.

Owing to the fact that this is my newspaper, I will state that I do have an agenda. I dare anyone to name a newspaper that does not have an agenda. My agenda is to protect and preserve the middle class in Inglewood and our property values.

Inglewood is a diverse place, but I cover what I know and more importantly what I care about. I don’t have to be fair. I don’t think it’s very fair to give a corporation from somewhere else the same benefit of a doubt as I would a neighbor. I don’t want to be objective about free giveaways to billion-dollar corporations.

I care about Inglewood. I care about the future of it.

It bothers me when it is characterized in a disparaging way by local newspapers.

The people on my block are professionals. I have graduates of Penn State, Hunter College, Vassar, UCLA and USC as neighbors.

Those big box stores along Century Boulevard are filled with people who are not from our community.

Those big box stores are not for us.

I am not impressed with the understaffing at all of the oft-touted “number one in sales” of the big chain stores that litter Century.
The reason we have “number one” big box stores with limited staff and unimpressive service is because the people who run this city have sold the idea to outsiders that Inglewood residents are trash and that any piece of corporate retail “justice” will do.

I’m not impressed with the disgusting 99¢ Only store and its disgusting unwashed parking lot. I’m not impressed with the Food-4-Less.

I’m not impressed with the most disgusting Target in L.A. County.

All of these are examples of how corporations treat a people when the politicians tout their residents as trash as a selling point.

Our Target is disgusting because Target cuts corners in our community, because One Manchester made it clear that they don’t care and that they’ll accept anything.

One Manchester and their supporters have a hand in the perception of Inglewood as being a place of blight and desperation.

I will continue to write and publish about my disgust for people who aren’t from here and who don’t understand that Inglewood isn’t like the community they grew up in.

Our community is a one that didn’t burn during the 1990s riots. It is a community that being black and a college graduate isn’t unusual. It is a community that has had a strong albeit inclusive middle class since the 1960s. My agenda is to keep it that way

W.E.B. and Shirley Graham Du Bois with the sisters Nelson, Davia and Jessie. Los Angeles

March 15, 2013    |  By Teka-Lark Fleming

My grandfather banked at Broadway Federal Bank, and he read the L.A. Sentinel. Both are Black L.A. institutions. In the pre-1950 area and its subsequent reign of terror with which LAPD’s Chief Parker-designed “thin blue line” surrounded and attempted to choke it, Black L.A. was a vibrant place.

Back then, Black L.A. embraced culture, politics and commerce.

In its formative years, Broadway Federal Bank was led by L.A. Civil Rights icon Dr. Claude Hudson. By trade, Dr. Hudson was a dentist; he was also the first black person to receive a law degree from L.A.’s Loyola Law in 1923.

The founders of Black L.A. respected culture, commerce and education.

Many of the people who now own local media and area commerce have forgotten why black people moved to L.A.

“Los Angeles is wonderful. Nowhere in the U.S. is the Negro so well and beautifully housed...Out here in this matchless Southern California there would seem to be no limit to your opportunity, your possibilities.”  W.E.B. Dubois, Crisis Magazine, 1913.

I recently went into Broadway Federal Bank in Inglewood. I had a dream of writing checks for the Morningside Park Chronicle with Broadway Federal embossed in the corner. It would have been my hat tip back to the past with my present endeavors.

The bank was surrounded with people waiting to cash their government checks. Some of the people had bottles of cheap beer in their hands. I didn’t let this discourage me.

I went into the bank and it smelled like an SRO in downtown L.A. (I’ve had to go into a few to write stories way back when.)

I was the only person waiting to open an account.

The guard looking at my stressed face and tried to put me at ease. “Someone’s coming, Miss,” he assured me. He stood by me as if to guard me from the chaos of the lost black L.A. that surrounded me.

Finally a friendly young woman came out. I told her that I would like to open a business account for my newspaper. I gave her all the proper forms.

She stated I would need a business license.

I hesitated after the unusual request. “Newspapers don’t require a business license. In fact, this is not an option,” I politely replied. I asked her to ask the manager about it. She did and returned with an answer. “No, you can’t open up a business account for the Morningside Park Chronicle at the Broadway Federal Bank. So the Broadway Federal Bank of my grandfather’s contemporaries will refuse a newspaper publisher’s money—but they will let you put your 40-ounce glass bottle of beer on the sidewalk and
walk in and cash your government check.

Sadly, Broadway Federal Bank has fallen for the easy buck of being a glorified Nix Check Cashing location.

Is a government agreement behind this?

I strongly doubt this is what the founders had in mind for Broadway Federal Bank.

March 01, 2013    |  By Teka-Lark Fleming

I was raised in Inglewood, California. My community is Morningside Park. It is middle class. I’m not going to apologize for that.

I’m not going to apologize for the media’s portrayal of my community. That portrayal is based largely in the fact that Inglewood was integrated in the 1970s—which was after Montgomery, Alabama was integrated.

That is the long way of me saying it’s based in racism.

I understand that some parts of Inglewood have more challenges. Some parts of downtown L.A., Echo Park and Hollywood have some challenges too.

I’m not going to apologize for calling people who use the term “urban” cowards.

If by “urban” you mean black, then say “black.”

I’m not going to apologize for being insulted by people who call my community the “inner city.”

Morningside Park looks just like Fullerton in the O.C., or Silver Lake. It is primary black and while we’re not record executives or millionaires, I’m not sure why black people who are middle class can’t be newspaper publishers and school teachers.

Why, in order for black people to be viewed as middle class, must we own a $2 million house and possess five college degrees?

I don’t get why some black people have this perspective.
I’m not going to let people who aren’t from here and won’t live here and would like to bulldoze it for profit—under the guise of “black pride”—destroy my neighborhood.

At least not without at a strong verbal protest.

I am not going to be quiet while developers and their friends continue to slap up big box stores and others continue to use the poverty narrative to destroy the reputation of my community for their own selfish gain.

I don’t want to get along with people who don’t like me. I don’t want to get along with people who want to exploit me. I don’t want to work with people who want to keep things as they are.

I’m tired of business as usual. I came back to Inglewood, because I saw stars in the horizon. I saw a small group of people who aren’t in love with old Inglewood and aren’t tools of the post-old Inglewood whose strings are being pulled from Bradbury, Ladera Heights and Playa Vista.

So no, we can’t “get along.”

I’m never going to “get along” with people who have no respect for me.

I am not going to “get along” on my knees for anything—and certainly not to pay people to continue stealing from me.

February 12, 2013    |  By Teka-Lark Fleming

We held the first Morningside Park Sustainable meeting last month. It was filled with enthusiastic people who are excited about a smaller, more local and more sustainable Inglewood. We invited Valerie Watson, the Pedestrian Coordinator for the City of Los Angeles and former chair of downtown L.A. Neighborhood Council’s Parks, Recreation and Open Space Committee to speak to our group.

Why did we invite her rather than the traditional organizations that serve communities that are a majority of color? The reason is simple: I do not feel that such organizations fit this community. Our city may be black, Latino and white, but we have a sizable and strong middle class. We have a sizable bohemian class too. I feel that I and many other residents of Inglewood already know how to eat healthfully, how to exercise and how to shop for food.

I am tired of people coming to our community and saying we shouldn’t eat Kentucky Fried Chicken or McDonald’s—as if these are things we don’t already know. I find that approach highly insulting. I and my neighbors, my parents and all our peers are tired of being subjected to such disrespect.

While I understand that portraying the city’s residents as ignorant people who don’t know how to not kill themselves with food is a cash cow to many people who want to beg under the umbrella of a 501(c)(3), I believe the journey is as important as the destination.

If "you’re helping" of the community portrays the community and its residents as trash then you haven’t helped anyone, but yourself. The image of your community is important. It impacts the opportunities of the residents and it impacts your home values.

I have a message for people who come here to “help”: please stopping helping to ruin the image of this community for publicity, for grants and for funds that will never be used for what they are purported.

I was recently interviewed on a radio show. The hosts asked me to pick out songs that represent Inglewood. I purposely excluded songs that denigrated the city’s image. This means I included zero rap songs from the 1990s. It’s not about taking the easy road and making the easy buck by falsely embodying stereotypes.

I have respect for the people who live here. After all, I live in the Avenues in Inglewood’s Morningside Park.

January 18, 2013    |  By Teka-Lark Fleming

On A Lark

Manchester Boulevard is the jewel of Morningside Park; we simply need to shine it up. When I walk along Manchester Boulevard and I
see the cute shops such as S & S Boutique and Sa’brak and the state-of-the-art medical facilities of Smile Studio and Skin Essence, I see the potential of Manchester.

I see the potential for Inglewood to do commerce better and smaller. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like big box stores. These multinational corporations bring traffic and trash, and they take away from the character of the community. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have them, but Century Village should be the end of practically free rent deals, “no taxes” and giant stores from out of state.

We need local stores. We need local business. We need to encourage entrepreneurship. Inglewood has approximately 700 non-profits. The median income in Hawthorne is less yet they only have 289 non-profits.

Why? Who are we helping?

We need to encourage people to come to the community that reflect the demographics of our community. My neighbors have jobs and businesses. I don’t need free food or free healthcare or free anything else.

I’m happy that those services exist for people who need it, but they need to be where they are appropriate not just in spaces where we have intentionally empty plots. Those empty lots can be community gardens, pocket parks, outside libraries or public art.

I work and pay for things.

And I’m done with being silent about the 700 nonprofits within the nine-square mile area of Inglewood. It makes no sense for those of us trying to make Inglewood the “City of Possibilities.”

I’m taking my city back; please join me.

Let’s take our community back from the media, from the exploiters of stereotypes, from the people who don’t live here and won’t respect the beautiful history of our wonderful town.

Let’s make it hard for people who want to use and exploit the community for profit; let’s make it easy for people who invest their own money, time and sweat into bringing the structure of Inglewood in line with the people.

It won’t be easy, but spring cleaning is always a little bit challenging.

The Publisher, Teka-Lark Fleming

December 10, 2012    |  By Teka-Lark Fleming

I often hear people talk about how Inglewood used to be nice. I’m always confused as to what they mean. (Read More)

November 03, 2012    |  By Teka-Lark Fleming

Inglewood is a beautiful city.

It’s my hometown; it’s where I was born, where I grew up and where I
again live.

In the interim of having been born and raised here and returning, I have spent time in the lovely communities of Los Feliz, downtown L.A., Lincoln Heights and Beijing, China. Nevertheless, Inglewood remains my beloved hometown.

On one hand, Inglewood is home to many Art Deco architectural gems like the Academy Theater on Manchester, the Fox Theatre on Market and the 5th Avenue Theatre (which the Chronicle would just love to acquire for its office) on Manchester; on the other hand, it is also one of the last cities in L.A. County to end segregation in its schools.

Why this bizarre set of figurative bookends? It is the range of news that the Morningside Park Chronicle will bring to the community: wonderful facts and hard ones too.

To be sure, Inglewood is not South Central, it is not the Westside, it is not the Eastside and it is certainly not the South Bay. Modern Inglewood is just Inglewood.

Inglewood is in a town in the center of it all. Like any city in America, we are all Americans from a plethora of heritages: Nigeria, Scotland, Belize, Germany, El Salvador, Sweden, Kenya, Mexico and more. We are young and old, immigrant and native-born. We’re middle class and working class. We’re Christian, Jewish and Muslim.

Inglewood is not one thing. We’re a mosaic of California culture. One thing Inglewood will cease to be is a stepping-stone for the would-be politicians.

As the publisher of the Morningside Park Chronicle, I will bring an objective view of Inglewood, a view of the city that represents the entire community: the business people, the politicians and the residents. It will be a view that is inclusive of our many communities such as those aforementioned, of the many vibrant underground and healthful scenes found in and offered by Arbor Village Co. (see page 5) and the Community Supported Agriculture (see page 6), of the established traditional values found in Morningside Park and the artful outlook being established in our burgeoning popular art scene like in Fairview Heights, and everything therein.

Welcome to the Morningside Park Chronicle, an independently owned newspaper in, from and for Inglewood.

Teka-Lark Fleming