Black history survives when it is lived, protected, and built upon in real time. This Black History Month, I want to highlight the work we have had the privilege of supporting over the past year: the living legacy of the Watkins family and the Watts Labor Community Action Committee in Los Angeles.
Our connection to WLCAC came through a longtime mentor and partner, Dr. Philip Hart, a Black history legend in his own right. He has been instrumental in real estate across the country, and his work with the Urban Land Institute in post-Katrina New Orleans should be required reading in planning schools across America. Dr. Phil (“the OG, not the other one”, as he likes to say) wanted to introduce us to Tim Watkins and Tina W. Quaye, Ted Sr.’s son and granddaughter, respectively, as they embarked on implementing their community’s ambitious vision for the future of their neighborhood.
When I first visited their campus headquarters last spring, rebuilt after it was burned in the aftermath of the Rodney King verdicts, I felt immediately that this was not just a place shaped by history, but one actively shaping what comes next. Their museum, honoring founder Ted Watkins Sr., the Civil Rights Movement, and the history of liberation in Watts, is the most moving collection I have ever experienced. It represents, very viscerally, decades of trust from artists and leaders who chose WLCAC to safeguard deeply personal and historically significant materials. For example, the archive includes rare civil rights-era photography and the intimate portraiture of the Black Panther Party by the legendary Howard Bingham, who entrusted WLCAC with hiding his images for more than 40 years to prevent their misuse by publishers seeking to vilify Black social justice movements.
The museum also contains objects that document both the horrific violence of racism and the chilling normalcy of its presence in everyday life. Some pieces are so stark and overwhelming that they can only truly be understood in person. WLCAC has taken extraordinary care to display the collection without softening it, sanitizing it, or diluting its power. The experience is intentionally unfiltered and integrated into the everyday life of the almost 500 people who work on campus, leaving the impression that this history MUST be encountered honestly, continually and never relegated to the far away past when the consequences remain still so immediate for so many of us.
This month, TiYanna, Margo, and I traveled to the WLCAC campus to facilitate a values-based community ownership design workshop with residents and organizers. Watching Margo experience the collection for the first time, I was reminded of the power of this place, witnessing in a single day what legacy and future Black history look like in real time: A newly unpacked exhibition of Howard Bingham’s behind the scenes photographs of Muhammad Ali during the Rumble in the Jungle lined the walls, thoughtfully curated by Madelyn Bodden, WLCAC’s new archivist making her curatorial debut.
Between meetings, a volunteer Latin jazz band sparked a spontaneous dance session in the parking lot, joined by our team in the percussion section. At the same time, final touches were being placed on a monumental new mural honoring youth surfers, titans of Watts artistry (including my fave Flo Jo!) and the shared legacy of displaced Japanese farmers in Watts by groundbreaking emerging artist Rahzizi Ishakarah and more than 150 volunteers.
At a moment when the history of this country, particularly Black history, is under attack, and when many of our elders and legends are passing on, we are deeply grateful that institutions like WLCAC remain committed to preserving this legacy not as something frozen in time, but as a living and breathing force that is inspiring the future. Their work investing in place is just as relevant today as it was sixty years ago when Ted Watkins first declared, “Don’t Move… Improve.”
We will be in Los Angeles monthly through the fall of 2026 and invite you to join us for a tour, learn about WLCAC’s work, and see what their vision for a community-owned future looks like. If you are interested, I would also personally welcome a conversation about how we can support their team with philanthropic gifts and grants as they begin digitizing, archiving and creating specialized storage to preserve this extraordinary collection for the first time in over six decades. This year, let’s celebrate Black History not only by honoring our past, but by taking responsibility for protecting it for the future.
With gratitude and in everlasting Black joy,
Elisse
The Past, Present and Future of Watts
Founded in 1965 by labor leader Ted Watkins to confront poverty, discrimination, and disinvestment, the Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC) has served as a cornerstone institution in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles for nearly six decades. Today, under the leadership of his son Tim Watkins, WLCAC continues to advance a transformative vision for the future of Watts through the Watts 2000 Plan — a comprehensive initiative that includes the development of more than 2,000 homes, revitalization of the E 103rd Street commercial corridor, and a new framework for place-based economic development and sovereignty.
WLCAC’s long-standing role as a trusted community anchor is featured in the recent PBS series “10 Days in Watts,” where President Tim Watkins and WLCAC’s work appear prominently in the “Legacy” episode.
East Freedman & Main is partnering with WLCAC to help translate decades of planning and advocacy into implementation — engaging residents and stakeholders to design a community ownership model, establish community-aligned land use strategies, and acquire and develop key catalytic commercial sites that will anchor a new place-based economic ecosystem in Watts.
