Community and commerce: Oral histories of African American businesses in Los Angeles County

This project recorded the histories of nineteen business owners located mainly in South Los Angeles and Pasadena. Those owners were chosen based on the longevity of their businesses — each business documented has existed for at least twenty-five years — and also to document a diverse group of business experiences. The businesses represent nine different industries ranging from small, community-based businesses with only a couple of employees to enterprises with a regional and national reach. These oral histories collectively counter the myth that African Americans lack entrepreneurial traditions to pass down. Focused primarily on black businesses in South Los Angeles and Pasadena, this collection includes only a handful of businesses outside those areas. Among the interviewees is Lonzia Shay, whose family owned the Little Red Hen Coffee Shop in Altadena before the business was destroyed(opens in a new tab) in the 2025 Eaton Fire.

Although African American enterprise can be found throughout Los Angeles County, a geographically focused collection of narratives offers insight into the role business districts have played in African American place-making and enterprise. From 1916 to 1970, nearly six million African Americans sought to escape economic suppression and racial violence by leaving the rural South and relocating to urban areas in the Northeast, Midwest and Western United States. Nearly all of the narrators in this series came from families who had migrated west in the past few generations — some when the narrators were younger, some in their parents’ or grandparents’ generations. Many brought skills, trades and traditions that they cultivated in Los Angeles. For some, entrepreneurship began with continuing a family business they had been involved in since childhood. For others, business ownership meant taking a leap of faith and carving out a new life. For all, owning a business meant crafting an economic pathway and future.

In the full interviews on the UCLA Library Center for Oral History Research website(opens in a new tab), business owners share not only how they took a leap of faith into entrepreneurship but also how they decided on the names and locations of their businesses, how they acquired startup money and how they staffed and promoted their early businesses. Unlike the owners of large corporate endeavors, which might change leadership every few years, owners of small and family businesses witness change across decades and often pass down stories as a part of family lore. The narratives in this project thus provide tremendous insight into the specifics and strategies of longevity: how communities change, how people respond and how businesses evolve. Eight of the businesses included in this oral history project are multigenerational. Four of these businesses are third-generation businesses, and one, Angelus Funeral Home, has continued through four generations.

About the Interviewer

Yolanda Hester conducted all the interviews in this project as an interviewer for the UCLA Library Center for Oral History Research(opens in a new tab). Hester prepared for the interviews by reading several books and articles that examined Black business ownership in a historical context, as well as articles that examined it from a social science perspective and examined current socioeconomic debates and findings. Hester has an M.A. in African American Studies from UCLA.

Hero image: Groundbreaking ceremony for the Hotel Somerville (later the Dunbar Hotel), Los Angeles, circa 1928, UCLA Library Digital Collections