One for the History Books

In his new role as a Los Angeles historian, retired Judge William C. Beverly Jr. is a shoo-in. Beverly, whose great-grandfather came to L.A. in 1897, grew up in an era when restrictive covenants reserved desirable L.A. neighborhoods for whites, though the neighborhood of his boyhood was rich in community, a place where “everybody knew each other’s families.” His father worked as a mail carrier while getting his teaching credential at USC; Beverly, in turn, worked his way through law school as a social worker. The lawyer eventually became a distinguished jurist, but last year Beverly, 61, stepped down after 18 years as a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to pursue a new dream. As the founder of Eighth and Wall, a nonprofit created to document the forgotten achievements of the city’s African Americans and other minorities, Beverly is mastering the intricacies of camera work, interviewing and archival research, and that’s just for starters.

How did you start Eighth and Wall?

I was sitting in the City Club on the 54th floor of the Wells Fargo building at an event, the Bernard Jefferson Award. The recipient indicated that in 40 years of law practice, that evening was the first that he had heard of the “color bar” that prohibited black membership in the Los Angeles County Bar Assn. until 1950. It hit me that 90% of the people in that room had not heard about it, and most were African Americans. And it also hit me, from the 54th floor looking east, that everything that I could see--the courthouse, and Vernon and Central, all of the history I saw was gone from public memory. It was a body blow. And I left convinced that something had to be done.

Where did you get the name “Eighth and Wall”?

At the beginning of the last century, there was an organization called The Forum. By 1915 it had moved to the building on the northeast corner of 8th and Wall. The ground floor was occupied by the California Eagle newspaper, the longest-running, oldest black newspaper in the state. The Forum met every Sunday at 4 o’clock. The Forum was able to raise money for scholarships for [Nobel Laureate] Ralph Bunche, [singer] Marian Anderson, and the first black female graduate of USC’s medical school. The group went out of existence in about 1941. Nobody has ever heard of The Forum. But to us that’s the cradle.

Can you give some examples of forgotten professionals?

Hugh McBeth in 1929 was appointed by the governor to a panel to investigate corruption in Los Angeles. His work resulted in the indictment of a mayor. Loren Miller is an attorney credited with bringing a case that ended the restrictive covenants. If you really want a scare, walk into the hallway of any public building downtown, mention “Tom Bradley,” and look at the blank stares.

Do you know yet how your material will be archived?

Before founding Eighth and Wall, I was given a collection in excess of 400 photographs of the social life of Los Angeles, the black community, from about the 1920s to the 1960s. I have entered into a relationship with the University of Southern California, where I have placed these on deposit. And the Doheny Library has very graciously offered to catalogue them.

How do you think this history came to be forgotten?

In the black community, there was a lot of pain that people did not want to remember. They would not discuss these things with their children because they did not want their children to become embittered. The humiliation when you go into a store and can’t try on a hat or gloves without being told, “You now bought it.” This led to a silence. With this goes loss of self-esteem and self-identity, because the history provides your self-worth. And other communities, not knowing that history, think we arrived in 1965, just in time to start the riots.

You have a long view of L.A.’s racial history. How does it look?

The long view looks good if we get the point right now. We need to know more about each other. Until we do, we are always in danger. There is a need to know so that we can have self-identity and purpose. Equally necessary is to celebrate it. And that is our mission, to present the information and contribute to the celebration. Los Angeles has a tremendously rich history. If the city knew what treasures it had, it would celebrate in the street for months.

For more information, contact www.eighthandwall.org.