Museum Looks at Early Black L.A.

The lure of a land of unlimited opportunity drew many blacks to early California where many enjoyed prosperity they had never known, says historian Lonnie G. Bunch III. But just as many of these immigrants faced familiar treatment once they moved west, Bunch says.

Curator at the California Afro-American Museum in Exposition Park, Bunch has organized an exhibition to explore this dichotomy.

“Black Angelenos: The Afro-American in Los Angeles, 1850-1950,” Saturday through March, includes historical photographs, architectural reconstructions, tax records and business deeds, a wedding gown and uniforms of porters “who helped to spread the word about Los Angeles as they traveled around the country,” as well as newspapers and other artifacts.

“It’s an attempt to juxtapose the lure of California--especially Southern California--for black Americans with the realities of life in Southern California they experienced after they arrived,” Bunch said.

Many blacks found early Los Angeles “more conducive for people of color,” he said. “There was still bigotry and you couldn’t live in any neighborhood you wanted to, but compared to Birmingham, Ala., or Macon, Ga., this was a pretty good place to be.”

Symbols of black prosperity in the exhibit include yellowed copies of “The Liberator,” an early black newspaper, the reconstructed facade of a wealthy black businessman’s home, and photomurals of the Dunbar Hotel, built in 1928 as the Sommerville Hotel by Vada and John Sommerville, socially and politically prominent black Angelenos.

The Sommerville Hotel also represents “a lot about the ambivalent nature of race relations” of the time, Bunch said. “On one hand, blacks were not allowed to stay at major hotels. But with enough financial wherewithal and a strong sense of community a black man could build a large hotel.” Bunch said he obtained many of the exhibit’s materials by visiting local black residents, churches and community groups.

“I feel very strongly that there’s a wealth of material and photographs about black life that’s sitting in homes and attics because black people haven’t been tapped as a resource for the material. We wanted to begin to tap that source.”

“Black Angelenos” is the second in the museum’s seven-part series on the black experience throughout California.

ENLIST: A meeting about volunteer opportunities at the California Afro-American Museum will be held Tuesday at the museum, 600 State Drive. Information: (213) 744-7432.

WINDFALL: The Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at UCLA’s Wight Art Gallery has received a major collection of Old and Modern Master prints and drawings from the estate of the late Los Angeles architect Rudolf L. (Rudi) Baumfeld.

Composed of 800 works by European and American artists of the 16th through 20th centuries, the collection is the largest and most important gift to the Grunwald Center since its founding donation of 1,137 works from Mr. and Mrs. Fred Grunwald in 1956.

Highlights of the Baumfeld collection include works by Rembrandt, Goltzius, Pissarro and Bonnard. The Wight Art Gallery will stage an exhibition of some of the works in fall, 1989.

The San Diego Museum of Art has received one of the most important donations in its history, the Baldwin M. Baldwin Collection of works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

The collection, scheduled for exhibit at the museum from Oct. 15 through Dec. 31, consists of about 100 pieces, including a complete set of 30 posters, two oil paintings, drawings and lithographs. It reveals the range of Lautrec’s themes and his revolutionary use of lithography, the museum reports.

HOW TO: The Los Angeles Artists Equity Assn.’s day-long marketing symposium for professional artists begins at 9:30 a.m. today. Topics scheduled for discussion by local art community professionals include “How to Have a Successful Exhibition in Your Own Studio,” “Marketing Alternative Art Products” such as prints, artists books and wearable art, and “The Secret of Closing Art Sales.”

The symposium will be held at Seeking It Through Exhibitions, a nonprofit art center, at the Old Helms Building, 8723 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City. Admission is $20 for Artists Equity Assn. and center members, $30 for non-members.