Watts Labor Community Action Committee

The Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC) is a predominantly African-American antipoverty organization in Watts, California, officially founded in 1965.[1] Its mission “is to improve the quality of life for the residents of Watts and neighboring communities.” [2]

The WLCAC was established by labor unions and its elected representative, Ted Watkins, whom was part of the United Automobile Workers Union. WLCAC creation was influenced by the Watts riots in 1965 and the need to address the high unemployment rates and low education levels present in Watts, California.

Theodore Watkins, better known as Ted Watkins, helped found the Watts Labor Community Action Committee. Watkins was born in Meridian (second source says Vicksburg), Mississippi in 1912. He moved to Los Angeles, California at the age of 13 after receiving a lynch threat, and soon began working for Ford Motor Company. Shortly thereafter he joined the United Auto Workers, quickly gaining prominence within the union. Watkins eventually married and had six children. He and his wife Bernice were active members of the Civil Rights Committee as well as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Throughout his years of involvement with the local chapter of the United Auto Workers, Watkins witnessed many instances of discrimination towards workers in the community. Eventually, with the help of the United Auto Workers, he founded the Watts Labor Community Action Committee. It grew to prominence as the primary agency responsible for helping rebuild communities most heavily affected by the Watts riots of 1965.

The Watts Labor Community Action Committee was formed as a community development corporation (CDC). These grew rapidly in popularity after the riots of 1965, and worked to provide a multitude of services to residents in the communities they were established in with the intention of granting these communities greater control over their own economic development. The WLCAC was distinguishable from other CDC’s in that it was associated with both labor unions as well as the civil rights movement. Through the WLCAC, Watkins initiated various programs aimed at alleviating poverty in Watts and generally improving the quality of life for members of the community. During his lifetime, Watkins was involved in the construction of a financial institution and hospital in Watts, as well as the development of low-income housing and youth programs. Following the 1981 riots in London, England, the British prime minister contacted Watkins to fly out to London and help the British government by applying methods used by the WLCAC in the aftermath of the Watts riots. Aided by the relationships he was able to form with public officials and policymakers, Watkins implemented a multitude of programs through the WLCA. Despite his popularity, though, some took issue with the amount of funding Watkins received from both the public and private sectors. Right before his death in 1993, Watkins helped to rebuild the WLCAC after it was burned down in the Los Angeles riots of 1992. He is survived by his wife and children, as well as the Watts Labor Community Action Committee, which continues to serve his mission today under the guidance of one of his sons.

Organization

WLCAC was initiated largely due to the failure of the city and county of Los Angeles to establish a War on Poverty agency. Watts lacked an agency that addressed their concerns regarding the high unemployment rates, racism and inadequate living conditions. In the creation of the organization, the ideas of black nationalism motivated and influenced the community as they desired “for community control of economic resources, self-empowerment, and self-determination.” [3]

The WLCAC’s headquarters is located at 109th and Central Avenue in Watts, California.[4]

War on poverty

The War on poverty, proposed by Lyndon B. Johnson to address the national poverty rate of about nineteen percent, led to the creation of the Economic Opportunity Act, which then established the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to administer the local application of federal funds targeted against poverty.[5] OEO was created to fix the high unemployment rates rising in poverty areas. But from "1965 until 1970, OEO scrambled for an average of about $1.7 billion per year" which "the amounts never amounted to more than around 1.5 percent of the federal budget."[6] The War on Poverty failed to provide the funds and services it promised to areas such as Watts, which led to the creation of many local programs to aid their communities.

History

African Americans and Mexican Americans faced discrimination and a lack of support on the issue of poverty. Both groups battled “racially restrictive covenants, segregated schools, redlining practices, and a lack of access to jobs, transportation, and health care.” [7]

Both these groups were supposed to benefit from the EYOA that also included the EOE. However, disappointed with the antipoverty agency by LeRoy Collins and the city-controlled EYOA, African Americans sought alternative avenues for involvement in the War on Poverty.

Formation

The significant unemployment and low education levels of the Watts area highlighted the urgent need for an effective antipoverty organization in the Watts area. By 1965, the unemployment rate in the Watts area escalated to "10.7 percent, compared to only 4.2 percent for the city as a whole."[8]

In 1964, before the War on Poverty was implemented, members of the United Automobile Workers and other unions, researchers at the UCLA Institute for Industrial Relations, and a student group from Jordan High School in Watts congregated to discuss their concern regarding an Area Redevelopment Agency Report.[9] Members of these groups started meeting informally to discuss solutions to the problems conflicting the Watts area including the significant unemployment and low education levels in Watts.

In the summer of 1965, local activists and labor union representatives officially founded WLCAC. UAW was instrumental in the creation of the WLCAC as UAW president Walter Reuther and western regional director Paul Schrade “helped build a core of support for the new organization.”[10] They saw the War on Poverty as an “opportunity in which long-standing policies and practices were open to question and change” and believed that the way to “create change…is by building community organizations.”[11]

To further emphasize the crisis in Watts, the Watts Riots in August 1965 led the federal and local governments as well as private organizations to pay attention to the inadequate living conditions and lack of federal and local support in the Los Angeles area. Watts Rioters "were prompted as much by unemployment, bad housing, and lack of decent education" as they were by the mistreatment of the "white-dominated LAPD."[12] This event was the catalyst for the recognition and gain in support for the WLCAC. Shortly after this incident, WLCAC began a more assertive and persistent effort to urge the Office of Economic Opportunity and the local governments toward antipoverty and direct-action programs.

Ted Watkins, UAW member and civil rights activists, became the WLCAC administrator in 1966.[13]

Ted Watkins

Watkins was born in Meridian, Mississippi, in 1912. At the age of fourteen he moved to the Los Angeles area. After high school, Watkins landed a job on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Company.[14] There he joined the local chapter of the UAW and in 1949 became the “international representative for UAW.”[15] Aside from union activities, Watkins also involved himself “in various civil rights organizations, including the Watts chapter of the NAACP and the United Civil Rights Committee.”[16] These programs protested against poor housing conditions and the lack of services in inner-city Los Angeles. Watkins active participation made him an adequate candidate to lead the WLCAC. When, in 1966, UAW sought a leader for the WLCAC, Watkins had the experience and organizational skills to lead the Watts community.

Using the experience he gained as a UAW representative, Watkins began to direct funding from local, state and federal agencies, as well as private organizations to numerous anti-poverty programs under WLCAC.

In May 1967, Watkins persuaded members of the Senate Subcommittee on Manpower, Employment, and Poverty to visit Los Angeles. The subcommittee included Robert Kennedy, Joe Clark, and George Murphy. After the visit from the Senate Subcommitte, OEO granted WLCAC over $250,000, to be allocated towards consumer services and a credit union was formed to aid the community members of Watts.[17] This was vital to the community as many residents often had “problems receiving approval because of their race or charged higher interest rates because of where they lived.”[18]

Two main objectives Watkins sought to accomplish was the establishment of a hospital and a financial institution. The necessity for a hospital near the Watts area prompted the WLCAC to institute the Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital in Willowbrook, California in 1972.

In the 1970s, Watkins formed a Community Development Corporation as a part of WLCAC. It was a "quasi-private and quasi-public” organization that focused on community control and economic development designed to address the problems of poverty. In specific, CDC was “a locally controlled, tax-exempt corporation that operates programs aimed at both immediate relief of severe social and economic disadvantage and at eventful regeneration of its community.”[19] The implementation of CDC aided the Watts area as more funding was obtained. In addition, during Watkins administration, WLCAC opened a service station, poultry farm, grocery store, laundry, furniture and appliance shop, and food stamp centers.[20]

WLCAC and Black Power

WLCAC promoted the ideology of Black Power. It valued the elements of “self-definition, community control, and cultural nationalism.” [21] WLCAC focused its attention on including projects and promoting cultural heritage to the majority of the population. During the 1960s and 1970s, a black population dominated the Watts area, therefore, their focus was on black power.

WLCAC’s original creation of the Community Conservation Corps (CCC) incorporated programs to aid and support the youth of the Watts area. It included the Neighborhood Youth Corps and Manpower Development and Training Act (MDTA). This program directly reflected the black power movement as it provided jobs for the youth during the summer, and also conducted educational classes on Black heritage and culture. It supported the Watts Summer Festival, an annual celebration of African American culture that began in 1966.

CCC members made their own chants and actively participated in events that promoted black power. Usually WLCAC Corps members marched through the streets of Watts chanting:

We're from Watts, you know,
Mighty, mighty Watts!
Get outta the way
Cause here we come.
Soul Brothers,
Soul Sisters,
Soul city,
Soul town,
Soul world,
Soul people,
Soul now! [22]

The chant was an affirmation announcing personal and community empowerment by teenagers who relished black power,

Funding

From its establishment, WLCAC had an advisory board composed of major labor unions that provided financial assistance. In specific the labor unions consisted of the United Auto Workers (UAW), the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Building Service Employees, the International Association of Machinists, the Teamsters, the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen, United Packinghouse Workers, and others.[23] These unions alone “contributed a combined $100,000” the first two years of WLCAC existence.

In 1971, WLCAC utilized a $2 million loan from UAW-Chrysler to purchase property in order to expand on the initial “thirty homes built with funds from the state of California.”[24] In addition, grants from the Ford Foundation served as a great contribution to the organization. The money from the Ford Foundation grant went “to pay administrators and project staff and also to establish a Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Corporation.” [25] Now, WLCAC receives funds from various programs both federal and local agencies.

Current Activities

A shopping center located at WLCAC's main headquarters, includes youth center and the Ted Watkins Center for Communications, which includes a theater, galleries, exhibition spaces, and civil rights history museum.[26]

In April 2012, California State Parks announced the award to WLCAC of $4.9 Million in Proposition 84 grant funds for a new urban farm park and community center in Watts. The urban farm park is named MudTown Farms in honor of the historic name for the area, MudTown. It is a self-sustaining community center with education, job training, community gardening, farming, and entrepreneurship for stakeholders of all ages and backgrounds.

Today, WLCAC has over 350 employees on its payroll, with an annual operating budget of approximately $20 million.[27]

Integration: Blacks and Latinos

While African Americans founded their own community in the Watts area, Latinos also formed a group, the East Los Angeles Community Union (TELACU). In the 1960s and 1970s, the Watts area was predominantly black. So the WLCAC advocated black culture for its black residents. However, over the years the Watts area has transitioned from a black community with a huge wave population of Latinos. Hence, WLCAC has shifted their focus of only black culture to including Latino culture as well. WLCAC has made attempts to integrate both cultures in events.

In compliance to the growing Latino population, WLCAC teamed up with Watts Century Latino Organization “to hold the annual Latino/African American Cinco de Mayo festivities.”[28]

Criticism

In an attempt to promote black culture, WLCAC and other groups sponsored the Watts Summer Festival Parade in 1968.[29] The parade focused on promoting “black pride and the focus on Afro American culture.”[30] However, the Black Panther Party and the Black United Front opposed the festival’s focus. The Panthers perceived the parade as a “counter-revolutionary strategy to pacify blacks.”[31] The parade served as a pedestal for various organizations to demonstrate the varieties of Black Nationalism that flourished in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The Watts Credit Union was established in October 1966, with membership reaching 2,600 in the following decades. It provided services primarily for low-income residents of Watts, eventually expanding to cover a much larger portion of Los Angeles. For years the credit union provided tax services free of charge, among many other functions. It was shut down in 2009 by the California Department of Financial Institutions following a string of events that contributed to its downfall and the inability of Pacific Coast Regional Development Corporation to take over last minute.

The Greater Watts Development Corporation was formed to move homes affected by the construction of the Century Freeway (Interstate 105), which began in 1981, to Watts. This was done with the assistance of multiple organizations including the Brotherhood Crusade, which later awarded Ted Watkins with the Pioneer of African Achievement Award. The Community Conservation Corps was created to serve the dual purpose of providing summer jobs for young residents of South Los Angeles as well as preserving Black heritage through classes and cultural celebrations. The CCC played a large role in the lowering of the national working age, which allowed teenagers to help contribute financially to their families. The Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center was founded in 1971 following years of calls by civil rights activists for quality health services to be brought to community members of South Los Angeles. Ted Watkins played a fundamental role in the development of the medical center, lobbying for its opening and eventually heading financial planning of its construction. In 1972, it was renamed Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center after African American physician and medical researcher Dr. Charles R. Drew. Decades after its opening, the medical center underwent numerous investigations follows claims of malpractice. It was shut down in 2007, save for an urgent care center and outpatient clinic.

Watts Labor Community Action Committee in the Present Day Today the Watts Labor Community Action Committee is headed by Tim Watkins, son of the late Ted Watkins. A seven-acre complex located in Watts dubbed “The Center” serves as its hub. According to the WLCAC’s website, the Center is meant to “dispel and redefine misperceptions” about Watts. The facility is used as an administrative center for staff as well as a tourist attraction, showcasing various permanent and temporary exhibits throughout the year. The main exhibit at the Center is the three-part Civil Rights Tour. The tour features a scale model slave-hold as well as an array of photographs memorializing the Civil Rights Movement. It features the photographic collections Countdown to Eternity by Benedict Fernandez, The Panthers by Howard Bingham, a sixteen and a half foot bronze statue by Nigel Binns named The Mother of Humanity, and an exhibit named “Americana: The Hall of Shame” that contains images and documentation of “the unauthorized commoditization of the Black Image.” According to the Watts Labor Community Action Committee’s website, “Americana: The Hall of Shame” is meant to “expose the uses of these images as an extension of slavery.” There are also multiple murals displayed, including The Resurrection of Watts by Ras Ammar Nsoroma, Concrete Jungle by Richard Franco and Toni Love, Space Station by Richard Arturo, and Danny Franco, Mound Bayou by PeQue, BrowHands by Rondell, Malcom X and Muhammad Al by EnkOne, Central Avenue Jazz by an unknown artist and Community Heroes by Elliot Pinkney. Apart from a multitude of permanent exhibits that can be viewed year-round, the WLCAC has built a number of facilities at the Center that cater to community members of Watts and the surrounding cities within South Los Angeles. The Center includes a play space named “Kaboom” as well as a skate park, and even holds arts classes for kids. The Howard Bingham Multimedia Institute is open to people of all ages, and allows community members access to technology they can utilize for a variety of purposes. For the more artistically inclined, the Cecil Fergerson Gallery provides a space for artists and art viewers to convene and hold exhibits, signings, lectures, or any other type of gathering. The gallery is located in the Ted Watkins Center for International Communication, a thirty-five thousand square foot building that also includes Phoenix Hall, a theatre, and Freedom Hall. The Universal Access Theatre provides a variety of resources for young people, including laundry machines, computers with internet, help with phone calls/mail to potential employers, snacks, games, books and magazines, an entertainment system, as well as tutoring, mentoring, and counseling. The Watts International Marketplace houses studios for embroidery, silk-screening, ceramics, fine arts, glass blowing, wood working, and photography. The Watts Labor Community Action Committee is currently developing a retail restaurant, library, and farmer’s market for the marketplace. On the last Friday of every month, the Center holds Bones and Blues in its Phoenix Hall. This event presents adult residents with live music as well as other performances.

The Dolores McCoy Villa I housing complex for homeless families was created in 2011 by the partnership between the Watts Labor Community Action Committee and Affordable Housing CDC Inc. The project was funded by a $3 million loan by the PSP Lending Program and the California Community Reinvestment Fund. The sixty-four unit complex is located near the intersection of 92nd Street and Compton Avenue, not far from the WLCAC center itself. It provides housing for tenants earning less than 60% of the median income (other source says 30%, 35%, and 50%) in the surrounding area. The housing complex Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles’ Permanent Supportive Housing Program receives Section 8 rental subsidies for each unit, and rent is 30% of tenants’ household incomes. The Dolores McCoy Villa was created with homeless people as well as the formerly incarcerated in mind, given that certain housing practices prevent formerly incarcerated people from eligibility. The website states that the project was developed in an effort to provide “much needed housing and on-site support services for single mothers re-entering the community after being incarcerated.” According to the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of the United State’s website, The Dolores McCoy Villa provides various services to its residents, including case management, financial management, employment training and placement, academic counseling, access to health care, substance abuse services and other opportunities focused on families and independent living skills.

Under its Cultural Identity Initiative, the Watts Labor Community Action Committee launched the development of the Central Avenue Corridor. Regarding the initiative, the website states “Although other communities enjoy the capacity to enrich healthy cultures, the culture of Watts remains mired in abject poverty,” and that Central Avenue Corridor will utilize “the tools of “literacy, mental health, nutrition, mobility, housing, education, community service and employment.” In April 2012, with the help of a $4.9 grant from Proposition 84 funds provided by California State Parks, Watts Labor Community Action Committee began developing MudTown Farms. Also involved in the development of the project are The City of Los Angeles Prop K program, Southern California Institute of Architecture, the Trust for Public Land, and Cal Poly Pomona. According to the WLCAC ‘s website, the 2.5 acre “urban farm park and community center” provides recreation, education, events, healthy produce and green space and includes growing grounds, an orchard, fitness equipment, a community center, and learning facilities, among other features. The project is named after the area it is located in, MudTown, The WLCAC outlines future development plans for MudTown Farms, including a cannery, general store, and roadside produce stand. It describes its vision of the project as a “self-sustaining community center with education, job training, community gardening, farming, and entrepreneurship for stakeholders of all ages and backgrounds.”

The Watts Labor Community Action Committee provides an array of services for the community members of Watts and surrounding South Los Angeles aimed at alleviating poverty and fostering economic growth. The Center includes four branches offering homeless services: the Access Center, Shelter Plus Care, the Women’s Shelter, and Transitional Housing for Mental Health Clients. The Access Center and Shelter Plus Care work to transition homeless people into facilities that provide them with shelter and other forms of assistance. According to the website, Shelter Plus Care provides educational services, case management, family counseling, drug counseling, medical and mental health services, and temporary shelter, transitional housing, and long-term Section 8 housing. The Women’s Shelter is geared towards homeless women with children, and works to move them into permanent housing within 90 days while providing them with counseling services. Transitional Housing for Mental Health Clients provides services for people with mental health problems. It includes a program that helps participant to transition into a more stable living arrangement and not end up back in hospitalization. The WLCAC also funds a number of programs for youth and their families. Among these are The Greater Watts Child Care Center, which provides low-cost childcare and workshops to single female mothers; the Family Source Center, which provides social services such as job training and health services among many others; Gang Reduction and Youth Development, which provides preventative programs for younger members of the community; and 21st Century Community Learning Center, a youth-led theatre program.

The WLCAC operates the Bernice Watkins Vision Complex, a senior citizen program with two branches, one in Watts and the other in downtown Los Angeles. According to their website, the complex provides recreational activities, educational programs, health screenings, field trips, day care, in-home care, transportation and escort assistance for shopping or medical appointments, and referrals to other social service providers. It also includes a program that delivers meals to senior at its satellite sites.

References

  1. ↑ Bauman, Robert. Race and the War on Povery. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 70.
  2. ↑ "Watts Labor Community Action Committee". Retrieved November 26, 2014.
  3. ↑ Bauman, Robert. "African American History". Blackpast.org. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  4. ↑ von Hoffman, Alexander (2003). House by House, Block by Block: The Rebirth of America's Urban Neighborhoods. Oxford University Press. p. 226.
  5. ↑ Phelps, Wesley G. (2014). A People's War on Poverty: Urban Politics and Grassroots Activists in Houston. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.
  6. ↑ Patterson, James T. (2000). America's Struggle against Poverty in the Twentieth Century. Harvard University Press. p. 147.
  7. ↑ Bauman, Robert (1964). Race and the War on Poverty. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman. p. 7.
  8. ↑ Laslett, John H.M. (2012). Sunshine Was Never Enough: Los Angeles Workers, 1880–2010. University of California Press. p. 241.
  9. ↑ "Testimony of Paul Schrade". Kerner Commission Transcripts (Box 4, LBJL). October 6, 1967.
  10. ↑ Bauman, Robert. Race and the War on Povery. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 71.
  11. ↑ Bauman, Robert (January 2007). "The Black and Chicano Movements in the Poverty Wars in Los Angeles". Urban History 33 (2): 284.
  12. ↑ Laslett, John H.M. (2012). Sunshine Was Never Enough: Los Angeles Workers, 1880–2010. University of California Press. p. 240.
  13. ↑ Bauman, Robert. Race and the War on Povery. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 74.
  14. ↑ von Hoffman, Alexander (2003). House by House, Block by Block: The Rebirth of America's Urban Neighborhoods. Oxford University Press. p. 225.
  15. ↑ Brown, Malaika (November 11, 1993). "WLCAC's Ted Watkins Leaves Valuable Living Legacy". LAS A3.
  16. ↑ Bauman, Robert. Race and the War on Povery. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 73.
  17. ↑ Bauman, Robert (1964). Race and the War on Poverty. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman. p. 74.
  18. ↑ Bauman, Robert. Race and the War on Povery. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 74.
  19. ↑ Bauman, Robert. Race and the War on Povery. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 75.
  20. ↑ von Hoffman, Alexander (2003). House by House, Block by Block: The Rebirth of America's Urban Neighborhoods. Oxford University Press. pp. 224–225.
  21. ↑ Bauman, Robert. Race and the War on Povery. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 78.
  22. ↑ UCLA. "Watts Labor Community Action Committee, 1967 Report.".
  23. ↑ Bauman, Robert (1964). Race and the War on Poverty. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman. p. 71.
  24. ↑ Lowe, Marshall (March 4, 1971). "WLCAC Gets $2 Million For New Low Cost Homes". LAS A1: 12.
  25. ↑ Lowe, Marshall (March 4, 1971). "WLCAC Gets $2 Million For New Low Cost Homes". LAS A1: 12.
  26. ↑ von Hoffman, Alexander (2003). House by House, Block by Block: The Rebirth of America's Urban Neighborhoods. Oxford University Press. p. 226.
  27. ↑ "Watts Labor Community Action Committee". Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  28. ↑ von Hoffman, Alexander (2003). House by House, Block by Block: The Rebirth of America's Urban Neighborhoods. Oxford University Press. p. 226.
  29. ↑ Bauman, Robert. Race and the War on Povery. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 80.
  30. ↑ Bauman, Robert. Race and the War on Povery. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 81.
  31. ↑ Bauman, Robert. Race and the War on Povery. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 82.

External links

Further reading

Bauman, Robert. 2008. Race and the war on poverty : from Watts to East L.A. University of Oklahoma Press.
Laslett, John H. M. 2012. Sunshine Was Never Enough: Los Angeles Workers, 1880–2010. University of California Press.
Wyatt, Dwayne. 1983. Marketing feasibility study and economic analysis: Watts Labor Community Action Committee, Los Angeles.

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