South Central LA hardly ranks on the tourist circuit, but it’s a large and integral part of the city, whatever wealthy white LA might prefer to think. The population has traditionally been mostly black, but is increasingly Hispanic and Asian, joined here and there by bottom-of-the-heap, working-class whites. 

It doesn’t look so terribly run-down at first sight, mostly made up of detached bungalows enjoying their own patch of palm-shaded lawn, but just about all its people get an abysmal deal in schooling and work, and have little chance of climbing the social ladder and escaping. If you pass through, what’s most striking is the sheer monotony: every block for twenty-odd miles looks much like the last, enlivened periodically by fast-food outlets, noxious liquor stores and abandoned factory sites, with burned-out, vacant lots still undeveloped almost a decade after the 1992 riots.

The Dunbar Hotel at 4225 S Central Ave marks the first US hotel built specifically for blacks and patronized by almost every prominent African-American during the Thirties, Forties and Fifties. Unfortunately, you can only see the hotel’s restored lobby and facade, as the structure is now used for elderly housing; for information call the Dunbar Economic Development Corporation at tel 213/234-7882.