Take a moment to learn about Biddy Mason, a former slave turned entrepreneur who was integral to the founding and flourishing of Los Angeles. Today, the city remembers her with a park built in her honor in the late 80s, but many don’t know of it’s existence.
Mason was born in the early 1800s as a slave. By her young adulthood, she was owned by the Smith family of Mississippi. By the mid-1800s, she had won her freedom in court and started a life in Los Angeles. Known colloquially as Grandma Mason, she helped house the unhoused, feed the unfed, and care for the sickly until she died in 1891. Check out her memorial just behind the Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles.
Elisha Williams is an audience engagement intern at the Los Angeles Times through the NAACP and EICOP partnership. She’s a digital creator and rising senior at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Quincy Bowie Jr. is a video intern at the Los Angeles Times. A passionate multimedia journalist and creative nonfiction artist, he most often explores the intersections of identity, culture and media in his work. The proud Alabama native recently graduated from USC, where he studied journalism and documentary. In his time there, he contributed to the Daily Trojan, USC Annenberg Media and produced multiple documentaries and short films. You can find his previous work at CNN, Spectrum News and Memorías de Nomada. His portfolio can be viewed at qbowie28.wixsite.com/create. Outside of work, he spends his time looking for good books, honing his craft, and searching for L.A.’s best soul food spot.
