Collection consisting of recorded oral history interviews and digitized photographs from elders in the African American community in South Los Angeles. This collection began as a grant-funded Humanities for All Grant from the California Humanities foundation. Individuals were selected who came from a Christian tradition, especially Churches of Christ, and who had some relationship to Pepperdine or its original campus. The project is an ongoing one and materials will continue to be added.

George Pepperdine College was established in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood of South Los Angeles on September 21, 1937. The college became Pepperdine University in 1971, after opening a new campus in Malibu. Between 1937-1981, George Pepperdine College was deeply connected to and shaped by the South Los Angeles community. George Pepperdine, the college's founder, was an elder at Normandie Church of Christ, where Carroll Pitts (Pepperdine alumnus and faculty member, and late husband of narrator Bernice Pitts) was a minister and one of our interviewers (and current Pepperdine faculty member), Dr. Stanley Talbert, is currently the minister. Narrator Billy Curl was the minister of Crenshaw Church of Christ, where many Pepperdine faculty, staff, and students attended. Los Angeles was an epicenter for national civil rights and Black liberation movements, which were active on college campuses, including George Pepperdine College. During this time, a significant Black community was taking root in South Los Angeles. In 1956, reflecting this shift, 10% of George Pepperdine College's student population was Black, growing to at least 22% by 1970.

378.39 Gigabytes

Pepperdine University retains copyright of interviews and digital images

All video files, buth full and edited, are available to access. Backup audio belonging to Joan Guinses may contain sensitive financial information and should not be accessed by the public until 50 years after her passing. Loretta Randle's full interview includes material about child abuse that may be triggering for some users- users should be made aware before accessing her full interview.