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The Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC) founded in 1965 is a community service organization for African American in the Watts neighborhood of South Los Angles. Watts is famous for its landmark, Watts Tower, and for the 1965 Watts Riots. The people of the Watt community reacted to the police discrimination pressure with riots activity both in 1965 and in 1992. The founder Ted Watkins, of the WLCAC was involved in both riots activity.

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  Burning buildings in Watts during the Riot in August 1965

Watts Neighborhood, South Central Los Angeles

Today, Watts neighborhood is a 2.12 square mile, 61.6% Latino and 37.1% black neighborhood located in the South Los Angeles, California. Watts is high density neighborhood with many young people and typically large household size. There is also relatively high percentage of single-parent families. Historically, Watts began as a single rancho under Mexican rule. Before it was Watts, it was known as Rancho La Tajuata after Spanish and Mexican groups settled the land. After California became part of the United States Nation, it was then divided into small farms which produce basic agricultural products through the 1920s and 1930s. It was not until the 1940’s when African Americans began to move to California in search of desegregation and a better life. After World War II, Watts became a predominantly African American community because the war industry attracted many Southern African American families moved here during the war. They traveled from places such as Louisiana, Texas, and Mississppi, where they had been previously lived. Here they were working in the war industry and living in housing projects. The residents of the housing projects were almost all African Americans by the 1960’s. By then, whites had moved to suburbs on the outskirts of the city. Slowly, as the industrial jobs were leaving this area there were more poor families living in the housing projects.
The neighborhood of Watts in South Los Angeles is infamous for similar discrimination, violence, and poverty. The people of Watts suffered injustices and discrimination personally and institutionally. Their mistreatment was systematic and was also apparent through their quality of educational and hospital care they received. Resentment grew from this community and it was felt on August 11, 1965 in what is today known as the Watts Riots. It was an incident that did not happen in Watts, but the arrests of young African Americans ignited the rage Watts had been experiencing. It was in this city that there was the most property damage done. In the oncoming years, Watts was one of the cities infamous for their gangs and violence. In fact police reports show that, from 1989 to 2005 there were more than 500 homicides in the neighborhood. Most of these were related to gang violence and the illegal drug market.

Ted Watkins
Although Ted Watkins (1912-1993) was a member of the United Auto Worker’s Union, he experienced discrimination in the workplace, and as a resident of the Watts community. This led him to found the Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC) in 1965. He envisioned this committee as an organization that was going to provide beneficial services to the Watts community as citizens and laborers. The WLCAC’s goal was to create better opportunities for employment, economic stability, academic achievement, and housing. The committee was created a couple of months before the Watts riot of 1965 when there was a lack of attention and care given to this community. In the 1980’s, Watkins predicted that there would be another civil unrest in Watts due to the lack of resources in the community. His prediction was right; there was another riot in 1992 known as the Rodney King riots. Unfortunately, the WLCAC headquarters had extensive damage due to the riot. The dismantling of the headquarters was a major disappointment because it was a center that helped that particular community. However, it was rebuilt the following year and it continued to provide the same services.
Walkins was one of the first individuals who advocated for accessible transportation in and around the neighborhood. He was also in favor of having a freeway that allowed for faster commutes to and from Watts. From this project, jobs were created in that area. There were also programs that provided at-home care for elders who did not have anyone to care for them. Another significant improvement he was able to achieve was having the Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center built to provide medical services for residents.

History

A railroad station had been built on the donated land of Mr. Watts and was named Watts Station. For a long period of time, Watts was a separately incorporated town. In 1907, Watts was taking his name Watts from the first railroad station. It was then annexed to the growing city of Los Angeles in 1926. The original neighborhood was white families and the dominant occupation was small scale farming. During World War II, the City built many large housing projects to house thousands of new workers in war industries. By the early 1960s, these housing projects had nearly 100% African-American residents. Since Watts was an unincorporated Los Angeles neighborhood, it received less police protection, fewer schools, and almost no social services.

On the evening Wednesday, 11 August 1965, Marquette Frye, a 21 year old black man, was arrested for drunk driving on the edge of Watts neighborhood. Marquette's brother, Ronald, and his mother fought with the police officers and were both arrested together with Marquette. In the meantime, many local residents watched this scenery happened and began yelling and throwing objects at the police officers. After Frye's family being arrested, the crowd continued to grow and attacked the police by rocks and concrete and twenty-nine people were arrested. These arrested finally turned into riot and this six-day riot resulted in 35 Deaths, 1032 injuries, 3438 arrests and the destruction of property valued over $40 million.

Watts also participated in the 1992 Los Angeles riots after a trial jury acquitted four police officers of using excessive force to assault an African-American named Rodney King following a high-speed police pursuit. The videotape of beating up Rodney King was widespread and after the verdict, the riots took place and ended up with 53 people were killed, over two thousand people were injured, approximately 3600 fires were set, destroying 1100 buildings and the estimated losses around $800 million $1 billion.

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  During the 1992 Watts Riots 4000 National Guard Troops Patrolled the Streets

The Watts Labor Community Action Committee

Today the WLCAC is one of the organizations that has prevailed in continuing to help this community. There are several programs within this organization such as child care for low and medium income families with children from three month old to five year old children. This child care was provided five days a week and up to twelve hours a day. Transportation was provided through busses that were equipped with wheelchair lifts to allow for the physically handicapped and seniors have easier door-to-door transportation. They provided rides to shopping centers, healthcare facilities, and senior centers for a small fee. Along with transportation services for seniors there was also a Senior citizen program. This program provided them with educational programs, health screenings, recreational activities, field trips, meals and day care. Employment training was for the youth as well as adults. They helped with skills in banking, retail sales, computer operations, bookkeeping, security services and clerical fields. There was also an assistance program to help the homeless. Individuals and families who were homeless were given groceries, motel vouchers, and permanent housing in some cases. Another program that was provided was specifically for mental health. . The WLCAC understands that some individuals that are released from mental institutions are not ready to live on their own and therefore, WLCAC operates two different living facilities that are semi-independent that helps them become independent. The Ultra Low-Flush Toilet Distribution Program is another program that enabled poor people with better infrastructure and provided jobs in the area. These programs were implemented to emphasize the importance of programs that address dire issues in the community that are not well addressed by the government. It has also functioned as a facilitator and initiation point for several struggling youth and adults trying to deal with the burden of residing in Watts.
He build the WLCAC to improve the WLCAC to improve the quality of life in Watts and he organized the teenagers to clean up empty lots, plant flowers and grass and turn them into small gardens and the one of which remained in his name.

He worked with the local and national organizations to build the Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center to provide medicine service. Today the WLCAC is a non-profit community based on providing human social services and dedicated to improve the quality of life for South Central Los Angeles residents include the homeless families by providing them a place to sleep, food to eat, money to earn and love to grow.

At the WLCAC cultural center there is a picture gallery, a theatre, and classrooms for vocational classes including glass blowing and for the training of restaurant workers and chefs. During the 1992 Watts riots the original building created by Ted Watkins was, according to the WLCAC, "targeted and burned to the ground."

Today
One of the controversies in the Watts Labor Community Action Committee came about in June 2003, when the Los Angeles Times published an article about the conditions that the WLCAC’s housing program had. The houses managed by the committee did not meet the sanitation and safety standards as determined by city inspectors. One of the homes was in such bad conditions that it was not approved to be a housing complex. However, there have been other projects that have stood out as positive contributions to like the McCoy Villa that is the first and only housing complex that was specifically for homeless families. South Los Angeles also began to cultivate its first farm, known as Mudtown Farms, in an attempt to create environmental and economic sustainability. The WLCAC also created the first institute of public policy in Watts that is dedicated to studying the planning and development of is Central Avenue Corridor along with the area around it. The first museum in South Los Angeles that has a permanent civil rights exhibition was also a product of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee. Another one of WLCAC’s most recent projects has been a playground. They hope to encourage youth to practice healthier physical activities in an environment that is controlled for their health and social development. As of right now, a basketball court is what is available to the youth until the playground is completed. .
Today, Tim Watkins is President and CEO of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee. His vision for the committee is similar, but he has also added other aspects that he thinks are important. For instance, he wants WLCAC to grow as also a cultural institution. Tim Watkins is also looking into innovating ways that can put a solution to poverty and neglect in this community. As for the future, Watkins wants the community of Watts, and South Los Angeles, to begin to reclaim the community as a whole, instead of as individuals, as a catalyst to the healing process. He believes that as a community it will accelerate the process and make it easier on individuals so they do not feel alone. There is also the ongoing project of Mudtown Farms that Watts residents are excited about. The project is looking to have fitness equipment, an orchard, learning facilities, a community center and more. The next part of the of the project is to include a Roadside Produce Stand, Cannery, and General Store in the two and a half acre farm. The vision is that Mudtown Farms become a community center that is self-sustaining that has and provides community gardening, job training, entrepreneurship for stakeholders, farming, and education for people of all ages and backgrounds. This Farm and its services have been designed by the community and for the community it is in and hopes to serve as a model of economic, physical and spiritual growth and health for other urban communities. .
Ted Watkins made this community-based non-profit organization into one of the most successful and largest organizations in the United States. The WLCAC even has a field office in London, England. Its reputation is international due to the help they have provided the community of South Los Angeles, but in specific the Watts neighborhood.
The funding that makes the WLCAC still function today are grants from the federal, state, and local governments, private donations and other grants. The WLCAC however, also recycles and generates money in the community.