Sugar Hill, once home to LA’s Black elite, before-and-after construction of the Santa Monica Freeway (I-10), seen below. Formerly the wealthiest Black neighborhood in Los Angeles, construction of the 10 cut Sugar Hill in half in the 1960s. Despite residents’ protest, the highway took dozens of homes with it and swallowed the entirety of Berkeley Square, an affluent residential block seen in this post.

Prior to the 1940s, Black people were technically barred from living in the area (originally known as West Adams Heights) due to the presence of restrictive covenants, which permitted homes to be sold to “members of the caucasian race only.” Despite this, beginning in the 1910s as upper class whites began leaving West Adams for new developments on the West Side and Beverly Hills, a rising Black upper class moved in, in defiance of covenants. Most prominent among these new residents were actors and performers, including Hattie McDaniel (the first Black woman to win an Oscar), Louise Beavers, and Ethel Waters. West Adams Heights was rechristened Sugar Hill in honor of the legendary neighborhood in Harlem, and the larger West Adams area became a center of Black wealth (more on this in future posts). 

In 1945 when white residents sued to enforce the restrictive covenants and evict Black families in Sugar Hill, the NAACP and McDaniel organized and fought back. In a landmark case, the court sided with McDaniel and Black residents, finding the covenants in violation of the 14th Amendment. While this was not the first time racial covenants had been struck down in court (see earlier posts on the Hansberry Family in Chicago, which, while momentous, was decided on a technicality), it was the first time they had been found expressly unconstitutional.

The victory was short-lived. 15 years after residents won the right to remain in their homes, CalTrans seized much of the neighborhood through eminent domain and demolished it for the construction of the 10. The LA Times writes: "Across Southern CA, freeways that paved over Black and Latino neighborhoods—such as the 5, 10 & 110—were completed, while those proposed to cross whiter, more affluent areas were stopped.”

This post focuses on the Berkeley Square section of Sugar Hill, outlined in red in the aerial image above. I was able to find information on the residents of this section from BerkeleySquareLosAngeles.com, which I’ve corroborated with historic city directories and obituaries. 

Dr. Ruth J. Temple lived with her family at 5 Berkeley Sq. She was the first Black woman doctor in California. From Wikipedia: “Ruth Janetta Temple (1892–1984) was an American physician who was a leader in providing free and affordable healthcare and education to underserved communities in Los Angeles, California. She and her husband, Otis Banks, established the Temple Health Institute in East Los Angeles, which became a model for community-based health clinics across the country.”

Dr. Perry W. Beal lived with his family at 7 Berkeley. From his obituary, Dr. Beal was one of the first Black doctors in Houston. “After his move to Los Angeles in mid-1952, Perry Beal continued to practice medicine and was the president of the Medical, Dental, & Pharmaceutical Association. He was considered one of Los Angeles’s prominent African-American professionals. He made headlines when his family was forced to move from Berkeley Square so that the city of Los Angeles could build a freeway. Perry Beal died on January 20, 1984, in Los Angeles, California.”

Mrs. Cora Berry (1903-1976) lived at 9 Berkeley. From her obituary, she was a public school teacher and pillar of the Emmanuel Church of God in Christ at 33rd and Compton.

Reverend Pearl C. Wood, founder of the Triangular Church of Religious Science, lived at 19 Berkeley. 19 Berkeley was regularly home to events in Sugar Hill, including the annual Regalettes garden party seen in the sixth image.

Flipper Tate Fairchild Sr. lived at 21 Berkeley. His son Dr. Halford Fairchild is a distinguished professor of psychology at Pitzer College and the author of the “History of the Association of Black Psychologists.” 

Shortly after construction of the freeway, the LA Sentinel wrote: “The road could have been built without cutting through the so-called Sugar Hill section. However, in order to miss Sugar Hill, it was ‘said’ that the route would have to cut through fraternity and sorority row area around USC. Sorority and fraternity row still stands and Sugar Hill doesn’t, so you know who won out.”

Before the freeway, West Adams had been connected to Downtown LA via Los Angeles Railway streetcar lines (aka the Yellow Car) on Washington Blvd and W. Adams Blvd. Pacific Electric Interurbans (aka the Red Car) provided service on nearby Venice Blvd to destinations across the region. More on LA transit to come. 

More on Sugar Hill here: https://la.curbed.com/2018/2/22/16979700/west-adams-history-segregation-housing-covenants