Crenshaw Square

Crenshaw Square. . , The Japanese in Crenshaw , Though it is mostly known as an African American community, Crenshaw was also home to the largest Japanese American population in the United States for decades, a population that lived and worked alongside blacks and left an indelible mark on the area. After World War II, Japanese Angelenos started moving out of the ethnic Downtown enclave of Little Tokyo and Crenshaw was their first foray into the westside. Beginning in the 1950s, the Crenshaw district, especially Leimert Park and the Jefferson Corridor, was dotted with Japanese-owned businesses, and Crenshaw Square, an airy, 300,000-square-foot courtyard-style shopping and business center, was the flagship. Besides typical mall offerings like a grocery store, Crenshaw Square boasted many Japanese shops, restaurants, and services, including Sumitomo Bank and Cren-Star Realty, owned by Crenshaw Square developer Yo Takagaki. The center also had its own annual Obon Festival and carnival. Just north of Crenshaw Square was the Holiday Bowl and restaurant, another flagship Japanese-owned business that became an institution in Crenshaw among Japanese and black residents alike. , The Color of Orange , Japanese residents were a diverse mix of entrepreneurs, professionals, and blue-collar workers who found a lot of common ground with their black neighbors. Both groups had experienced intense discrimination, especially in housing, and were working hard to increase their social mobility. Leimert Park was already known for its black celebrities, including Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, and the politically ambitious Tom Bradley. Kazuo Inouye opened Kashu Realty on Jefferson Boulevard in 1947, the year before the Supreme Court invalidated racial covenants that had kept non-whites out of Crenshaw and elsewhere. After 1948, Inouye and other realtors would be actively selling houses to African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Japanese Americans, like himself who had previously been shut out.