South Los Angeles - History - 1970s-1990s

1970s-1990s

Beginning in the 1970s, the precipitous decline of the area's manufacturing base resulted in a loss of the jobs that had allowed skilled union workers to have a middle class life. The downtown Los Angeles' service sector, which had long been dominated by unionized African Americans earning relatively high wages, replaced most black workers with newly arrived Mexican and Central American immigrants.

Widespread unemployment, poverty and street crime contributed to the rise of street gangs in South Central, such as the Crips and Bloods. They became even more powerful with money from drugs, especially the crack cocaine trade, dominated by gangs in the 1980s.

By the time of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, which began in South Central and spread throughout the city, South Central had become a national byword for urban decay. Its bad reputation was broadcast by movies such as Colors, South Central, Menace II Society, South Central native John Singleton's Boyz n the Hood and in music by the rap group N.W.A.'s album Straight Outta Compton.

In 1995, a group of ex-gang members joined to create the Compton Cricket Club.