Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
L.A. Watts Times newspapers and ephemera collection
LSC.2122
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: L.A. Watts Times newspapers and ephemera
Creator:
L.A.Watts Times
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.2122
Physical Description:
13.8 Linear Feet
(33 flat boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1987-2010
Abstract: The Watts Times was founded in 1965 following the Watts Riots. In 1976, Charles Cook purchased the publication and changed
the name to L.A. Watts Times. The collection consists of original L.A. Watts Times newspapers, a small amount of awards, and
a very small amount of ephemera.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained
by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue
the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Danny Bakewell, Chairman of Bakewell Media, 2012.
[Identification of item], L.A. Watts Times Newspapers and Ephemera (Collection 2122). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles
E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user
interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides
a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive
processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating
existing description of our materials that contains language
that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they
could be described more accurately, by filling out the form
located on our website:
Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special
Collections.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9973975893606533
The Watts Times was founded in 1965 following the Watts Riots and eventually became the premiere African American publication
in Los Angeles. In 1976, the newspaper was purchased by Charles Cook, an African American activist and former leader of the
Congress of Racial Equality. As an effort to include news about Los Angeles' entire African American community, Cook changed
the publication's name to L.A. Watts Times. Cook was credited for transforming the L.A. Watts Times from being a tabloid circulated
in Watts to becoming a financially stable weekly publication distributed in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Carson, Compton, Inglewood,
Gardena, Santa Monica and West Hollywood.
After Charles Cook's death in 1998, his daughter Melanie Polk became publisher of L.A. Watts Times. In June 2010, Polk sold
the publication to Danny Bakewell, publisher of Los Angeles Sentinel and owner of Bakewell Media
The collection consists of issues of original
L.A. Watts Times newspapers along with a small amount of awards and ephemera. The bulk of the newspapers are loose publications; a small
portion are hard bound together by year. Many of the awards, honors, and commendations are from the California State Government
and City of Los Angeles and they acknowledge the
L.A. Watts Times as well as publishers Charles and Beverly Cook and Melanie Polk.
The collection is not arranged.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Watts (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Newspapers.
African Americans -- California -- Los Angeles -- Newspapers