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Mon, 05.02.1955

The Nickerson Gardens Projects are Built

*Nickerson Gardens housing project is affirmed on this date in 1955. They are a complex that occupies the blocks northeast of Imperial Highway and Central Avenue corner in Watts, Los Angeles, California.

Nickerson Gardens is the largest public housing development west of the Mississippi River. Its original architect was Paul Revere Williams. In the mid-1970s, it was 95% Black; by 2004, the Black population had decreased to 75% and continues to drop. Nickerson Gardens was sometimes known as the recognized birthplace of the Bounty Hunter Bloods gang.

The complex is owned and managed by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. Nickerson Gardens consists of 156 buildings with townhouse-style units on single-bedroom units. The complex was one of the many locations featured in To Live and Die in L.A. (1985). Nickerson Gardens is assigned to Markham Middle School and Jordan High School.

New Poem Each Day

Poetry Corner

our mothers wrung hell and hardtack from row and boll. fenced others’ gardens with bones of lovers. embarking from Africa in chains reluctant pilgrims stolen by Jehovah’s light planted... AMERICAN SONNET (10)  by Wanda Coleman
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