Los Angeles
The busboy and Robert Kennedy, the Watts Towers, Bruce’s Beach, Chavez Ravine and Griffith Observatory.
17 places
América Tropical
They hired him for birds and foliage, and within weeks the country wanted him gone.
Biddy Mason's Place
She walked two thousand miles to a free state and still had to go to court to be free.
Bruce's Beach
A Black family's beach resort, a park as the excuse, and a county that ended up paying them rent.
Capitol Tower and Nat King Cole
His neighbors wanted no undesirables. He agreed with them.
Chavez Ravine and Dodger Stadium
The city cleared these hills to house people. Then it found a better tenant.
Clara Foltz Criminal Justice Center
She wrote the law that let her practice, then the idea that lets the poor have a lawyer.
Clifton's and the Cafeteria Reformer
A man who sold cheap soup took on a mayor, and the investigator working with him took 186 pieces of shrapnel.
Courtroom 8: Mendez v. Westminster
Eight years before Brown, five families beat four school districts here.
Griffith Observatory
The free telescope on this hill was paid for by a man the city had reason not to thank.
Hattie McDaniel's Empty Plot
Hollywood gave her its prize and kept her out of its ground.
Mulholland Memorial Fountain
The man who brought Los Angeles its water had one morning he could never take back.
RAND and the Pentagon Papers
A secret history of Vietnam, a burglary, and a judge offered the FBI.
St. Vibiana's Saturday Demolition
A wrecking crew, a Saturday morning, and the preservationists away at a conference.
The Busboy and Robert Kennedy
A hotel kitchen, one handshake, and the letters that blamed a seventeen-year-old.
The Chinese Massacre of 1871
The street where it happened is gone, and the convictions ended on a drafting error.
Walt Disney Concert Hall Glare
The steel skin of this hall once overheated the apartments next door.
Watts Towers
The city sent men to watch them fall. An engineer who was not even a fan had another idea.