Calle de los Negroes aka 'N-Word Alley'

The best explanation for the street name can be found in a letter dated March 24, 1877 to the editor of the ‘Los Angeles Express, concerning the city council's passage of a resolution changing the name ‘Nigger Alley’ to ‘Los Angeles Street’. The letter stated that in the early 1840s, the property on the unnamed street was "owned by some of the most substantial citizens of Los Angeles" who were "men of very dark complexion." The letter went on to explain that one morning, "when the people arose, they found a placard put up at each end of the alley bearing the words Calle de los Negros, which they interpreted as a sign of reproach. The letter concluded by explaining that the residents of the street traced the authorship of the insulting placards to prominent ranchero, soldier and politician José Antonio Carrillo (1802-1862), who apparently had an ongoing feud with residents on the unnamed street. The aggrieved parties filed a complaint with the alcalde, a close friend of Carrillo. After the unabashed Carrillo admitted his role in the incident, the charges were dismissed, but the new street name remained ‘Nigger Alley’. The original city maps have it listed. Once gold was discovered in California (still under Mexico rule) in 1848, thousands of people came pouring into the state looking for immediate riches. Conveniently it became a U.S. state in 1850. The influx of new people (whites) brought their social and moral views of racism. Though black people had been the majority of the group that founded Los Angeles, 60 yrs before gold was discovered; somehow they became ‘NIGGERS’. They got pushed to the back of the city, near the factories. When the Chinese came, the only people willing to live beside them were the black people. Chinese Americans had a hell of a time here in California facing obscene racial discrimination, and prejudices like African Americans. In 1871 500 Chinese Americans were massacred for no reason, resulting in the Chinese massacre of 1871. Considering the ant-black sentiment held in America and China, you’d never know that they too were once treated like…….(you fill in the rest).