Preserving the History of South Los Angeles Collection

George Pepperdine College was established in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood of South Los Angeles on September 21, 1937. The college became Pepperdine University in 1971, after opening a new campus in Malibu. Between 1937-1981, George Pepperdine College was deeply connected to and shaped by the South Los Angeles community. George Pepperdine, the college’s founder, was an elder at Normandie Church of Christ, where Carroll Pitts (Pepperdine alumnus and faculty member, and late husband of narrator Bernice Pitts) was a minister and one of our interviewers (and current Pepperdine faculty member), Dr. Stanley Talbert, is currently the minister. Narrator Billy Curl was the minister of Crenshaw Church of Christ, where many Pepperdine faculty, staff, and students attended. Los Angeles was an epicenter for national civil rights and Black liberation movements, which were active on college campuses, including George Pepperdine College. During this time, a significant Black community was taking root in South Los Angeles. In 1956, reflecting this shift, 10% of George Pepperdine College’s student population was Black, growing to at least 22% by 1970.

In 1968, an opportunity to expand the university emerged, made possible by a gift from the Marblehead Land Company of 138 acres of land in Malibu. In 1981, the difficult decision was made to close the original campus. Many of the interviews in this collection touch on that decision and its repercussions in the community.

Each of the participants who have been interviewed are elders in the Black community in South Los Angeles. All participants have been community organizers and leaders who have done work to empower and support their community in South LA. Two ministers from the Churches of Christ tradition were interviewed, a restauranteur, a real estate broker, and an artist. Several went to or worked with Pepperdine.