The Compton Communicative Arts Academy (CCAA) Archive is a multi-year project to preserve and provide access to a collection of images of national significance that document African American art and culture, community-based art making, and art-based community making in Los Angeles during the early 1970s. The 200 items in this digital collection were selected from an unorganized collection of over 4,100 photographs, negatives, slides and ephemera by faculty members from the Library and the Liberal Studies department. The criteria for selection were images that illustrate buildings and places; the Academy's programming, artwork, and performances; artists, artwork, important people and events; and Willie Ford as a photographer. This phase of the project was part of the California Local History Digital Resources Project supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.

Willie Ford was the photographer for the Compton Communicative Arts Academy from approximately 1970 to 1976. The Academy grew out of the Compton Willowbrook Community Action Council, a War on Poverty agency funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity.

200 images 194 online items

Collection open for research.