SOUTH-CENTRAL : Sheltering Gems From the Past

At the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, near-forgotten history comes to life. Wooden bookshelves and metal stacks hold records of crusades, struggles, heroes that have faded into the not-so-distant past.

There was Charlotta Bass, the pioneering African-American journalist, labor activist and editor of the California Eagle, the nation’s longest-publishing black newspaper. Her story and many others are preserved at the 29-year-old library at 6120 S. Vermont Blvd.

“It’s very exciting that we are preserving a history that normally might be lost,” said Mary Tyler, the library’s archivist. “When you take a look at the material in a library like this, you realize that struggles and political activism have brought about changes.”

The late Emil Freed founded the library in 1963 to document movements ranging from labor unions, international Communist activity during the Cold War to civil rights struggles. Freed’s private collection of books, documentary films, pamphlets, magazines and photographs from the ‘20s make up much of the library’s holdings.

His collection grew in the ‘50s during the McCarthy era when progressive individuals and organizations feared persecution as Communists or Communist sympathizers. Freed saved thousands of books and pamphlets from destruction and stored them until he opened the original library at a Downtown store front. He moved the library to its present location in 1973.

For Sarah Cooper, the library’s director since Freed’s death in 1982, the library not only bridges the present and the past, it also illuminates often-ignored race and class barriers in Los Angeles. She said the history of local labor unions and race relations help to explain the economic decline of South-Central Los Angeles.

“Conditions are worse now for meaningful employment for blacks than they were at the time of the (1965) Watts rebellion,” Cooper said. “Since then thousands of jobs in this area have been lost due to deindustrialization. So many lives and so many struggles have been invisible for so long. We’re just a little institution, but by documenting such changes and struggles, we can at least explain how we got where we are in this city.”

A diverse group of people and institutions draw on the library’s collection of 26,000 books, 29,000 pamphlets, 2,000 prints, 120 documentary films and 3,500 audio tapes of speeches, demonstrations and oral histories. The library has been used by ABC-TV’s “Wonder Years,” BBC radio, PBS, National Public Radio and universities.

“The place is a gem. You can find things there that you would not be able to find anywhere else,” said Gerald Horne, director of the Black Studies department at UC Santa Barbara.

With an annual budget of $140,000, the library operates as a nonprofit corporation. It gets most of its money from individual donations. Foundation grants and fund-raisers also help offset costs for research projects. The library’s staff includes Cooper, Tyler, Chester Murray, the building manager, and eight volunteers.

The library has also hosted community forums on topics ranging from police brutality to the Watts riots. Local artists often show their work in an adjoining annex. During the April-May riots, Murray and other community members stood vigil over the building, protecting it from arsonists and looters.

“A lot of people in the community come here,” Murray said. “Even the people who don’t use the place have heard about us, and they respect what we do.”