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.

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.

13.8 Linear Feet (33 flat boxes)

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