Gallery

Until the 1920s, most residents of the Watts area of Los Angeles were white.  African American servicemen, having saved their money from military service during World War II along with the new programs of VA assisted mortgages, began to move into new housing developments that were being built in Los Angeles.  The Paul R. Williams-designed Carver Manor was a tract of 250 affordable single-family homes especially built for black buyers in the Willowbrook area just south of Watts Parkside Manor.  This tract played a key role in the dispersal of middle-class African Americans out of crowded housing into other areas of Los Angeles.