MLK & The Boys: An L.A. Story
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to L.A. in 1964 and made a pit stop in a place dear to me…and my own history in the city.
Of all the places in L.A. that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, J. visited during his numerous visits here in the ’60s, his 1964 get out the vote appearance at The Boys Market (at Crenshaw & Rodeo Rd.) was the most connective for me while viewing the “MLK in LA” exhibition at USC Fisher Museum.
Not only did my parents meet while employees at a Boys Mkt (at the Hoover location), our extended family worked in for various members of the Goldstein family who owned the market chain (you can read more about it in my stories at janicelittlejohn.com). I also worked for Boys through high school and undergrad.
Among the photos featured in the exhibition are other places in ’64 where King stopped on his whirlwind visit: at Nickerson Gardens chatting with a little girl and at a civil rights rally at the L.A. Coliseum; in ’62 at Ward A.M.E. Church where he delivered a message on “Freedom Sunday,” and in 1961 at Bovard Auditorium at USC (where he gave a speech after the space was cleared briefly after a bomb threat)…all spaces I would eventually experience myself.
