The Realm of Religion: Jefferson Park

Jefferson Park is what you consider a spiritual community. With multiple churches located on every block, it is common for most to instantly feel the religious atmosphere when walking along Jefferson Boulevard. The area’s inception parallels the radical social and civil changes that Los Angeles experienced in the 1900’s.

The role of the African American church, in particular, only seemed appropriate to this community because of opportunity. Jefferson Park was considered one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Los Angeles during the early 1900’s. Affluent African Americans who nicknamed the area “Sugar Hill” gradually replaced wealthy white inhabitants. In 1948, a groundbreaking Supreme Court ruling that banned segregation paved the way for the black church community’s growth. Although religion was fervently practiced prior to this, religious African Americans were granted more opportunities and control over their own churches.

The Westminster Presbyterian Church, credited with being one of the first African American congregations in the area, is survived through an eighty-year-old building. Built in 1931 originally as St. Paul’s Church, the religious edifice had a mainly white audience. However, with the influx of wealthy African American families, the Westminster Presbyterian Church moved in, further solidifying the black church community.

Trinity Baptist Church, founded in 1917, became the first church in Los Angeles to be constructed exclusively by African American men. A majority of the original buildings in Trinity Baptist Church still remains in use to this day. Built entirely by the African American men that attended the first establishments alongside Jefferson Boulevard, the steeple is clearly the main attraction of the church. Handmade brick by brick, the establishment stands as a façade representing the civil accomplishments made by those who wanted a more righteous structure, without the help of the white man.

Trinity Baptist Church is to celebrate its 100th anniversary next year, a definite landmark to both the community and Christianity in Los Angeles. Another historic church, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, is located in the area.

The First AME Church is the oldest church founded by African Americans in Los Angeles. Discovered in 1872, the church was reputed as an unprecedented benchmark in the South Los Angeles religious scene. Although FAME’s current location is not the original building, it was only fitting for the church to relocate to Jefferson Park in the 1960’s.

Rev. Dr. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, who served as the pastor in 1977, provided a powerful churchgoing experience and was able to raise church membership from 250 to 18,000 in a matter of 27 years. Through the church’s esteemed reputation as the first African American church in the West, Rev. Murray’s sermons gained popularity in the area as clearly evidenced by the exponential growth of religious activism.

Linda Webb, a member of the First AME Church since 1984, witnessed the extent of Rev. Murray’s influential voice when Tom Bradley, the first African American mayor in Los Angeles, visited for several sermons. She recalled seeing the pastor and the mayor conversing often after service.

She would also mention how crucial FAME’s responsibility was in consoling the many distressed church members during the 1982 Los Angeles riots. Rev. Murray would ask his listeners to stay composed no matter what; he encouraged church members to set an example to the public.

“During the riots, a lot of the members were frustrated,” said Linda. “But Rev. Murray would say this was not the time to be upset.”

Religious members and even non-religious residents in Jefferson Park turned to Rev. Murray for an answer to the calamity. Linda remembered the pastor’s response: remain calm.

“We had a lot of the young men in this church form a group called “The Ramblers” who walked around the neighborhood and told people to calm down. And that’s what they did. In troubling times, we remained calm.”

With primarily Christian megachurches dominating Jefferson Park, other religions were dwarfed, yet nonetheless thrived. The Holy Name of Jesus School is a Catholic elementary school that also serves as a Roman Catholic Church. Although several major renovations took place in the past decade, the school church operates in its original 1952 architecture. The religious institute continues to operate and offers a hybrid spiritual educational curriculum.

And then you have the smaller, less grandiose Latino and Korean churches that also occupy Jefferson Boulevard. Although the black Christian church community highly influenced Jefferson Park’s origins, we can now see less established, illegitimate churches blend in with the surrounding storefronts due to the neighborhood’s increasing Hispanic population.

With not as nearly as a rich, revolutionary history as the above mentioned African American churches, the newer churches have adopted the area’s trend: providing a place of worship without barriers. In this case, the Hispanic churches decompose the language barrier by providing a separate Spanish-speaking service.

What remains unclear to this day is the relationship between the amount of churches and rate of crime in Jefferson Park. Although residents claim that the neighborhood feels drastically safer, Jefferson Park still contains a total crime risk higher than the national average, ironic when considering the area’s religious atmosphere.

Jefferson Park owes most of its cultural development and history to its religious upbringing. The landmark churches still have open doors to anyone who seeks help, comfort or spiritual satisfaction. Religion has definitely impacted and structured Jefferson Park into the neighborhood that it is today. Once considered the leading spiritual progressive community in Los Angeles, Jefferson Park remains home to the most crucial African American churches.