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As of 2008, the 60,000 ethnic Koreans in Greater Los Angeles constituted the largest Korean community in the United States. Their number made up 15 percent of the country's Korean American population. [1]
A first wave of Korean immigrants settled at the foot of Bunker Hill and worked as truck farmers, domestic workers, waiters, and domestic help. [2] The Korean United Presbyterian Church was established on West Jefferson Boulevard in 1905. A Korean community developed around this church. [3]
The Ahn Chang Ho residence, which served as a community center and a guidance, lodging, and community support center for new Korean immigrants, housed grocery stores and the offices of the Korean National Association Los Angeles Branch and the Young Korean Academy. [4] In the 1930s the Korean population shifted to an area between Normandie and Vermont Streets in the Jefferson Boulevard area. This Korean area, which became known as the "Old Koreatown," was in proximity to the University of Southern California. By then the first generation of Korean immigrants had children, who lived around the Old Koreatown. [2]
In the 1950s, Los Angeles received a second wave of Korean immigrants resulting from the Korean War and the children of the first generation of immigrants gave birth to the next generation. After the passage of the Hart-Cellar Act in 1965, Korean immigration increased. After the Watts Riots in 1965, many Koreans began moving to suburban communities. In 1970, the Koreans in Los Angeles and Orange Counties made up 63% of the total number of Koreans in the United States. Around this period, the Korean community area moved to Olympic Boulevard, where the modern Koreatown is located. [2]
The Korean community was severely affected by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. One Korean American civilian, Edward Song Lee, died in the rioting. [5] Over $400 million worth of damages occurred, including the destruction of over 2,000 businesses owned by ethnic Koreans [6] even as store owners and community members tried defending them using firearms from building rooftops. Most of the members of the Korean community refer to them in Korean as the 4-2-9 riot (Sa-i-gu p'oktong). This naming follows the integer naming schemes of political events in Korean history. [5] After the event, many Koreans moved to suburbs in Orange County and the two Inland Empire counties: Riverside and San Bernardino. Since then, investment occurring in Koreatown caused the community to rebuild. [6] [7]
In 2014 a delegation of minor Japanese right-wing politicians [8] requested the removal of a memorial statue of the Korean comfort women in World War II from an area in Glendale, California, sparking controversy. [9] A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit for the statue's removal and was met with support from the Los Angeles City Council, Korea-Glendale Sister City Association, and the Korean American Forum of California as part of a "large-scale effort to raise international awareness of the comfort women's plight." [10] [11] [12] [13] The Japanese American Citizens League and other Japanese-American organizations supported the statue and deplored the Japanese delegation's claim that it had led to racially motivated bullying of Japanese-Americans as propaganda. [8]
As of 2008, about 350,000 ethnic Koreans live in Los Angeles County. [14] As of 2008 the largest Korean ethnic enclave in Los Angeles is Koreatown and the majority of the Koreans have been concentrated around that area. [1]
By 2008 many ethnic Korean communities had appeared in the northwestern San Fernando Valley, including Chatsworth, Granada Hills, Northridge, and Porter Ranch. That year, the San Fernando Valley Korean Business Directory had a list of almost 1,500 Korean-owned businesses in the San Fernando Valley. Amanda Covarrubias of the Los Angeles Times stated that area Korean community leaders estimated that 50,000 to 60,000 Koreans lived in the San Fernando Valley in 2008. [14]
In addition, by 2008 Korean communities had appeared in Cerritos and Hacienda Heights in Los Angeles County, and Buena Park and Fullerton in Orange County. [14]
Also, a long standing community, known as Koreatown or Little Seoul has been in Garden Grove since the 1970s. This formed the center of the Korean Community of Orange County which later spread out to Buena Park, Fullerton, Cypress, and Irvine. [15]
As of 2008, 257,975 Korean Americans lived in Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties, making up 25% of all of the Korean Americans. As of that year, over 46,000 Koreans lived in Koreatown, making up 20.1% of the residents there. Koreatown, in addition to Koreans, houses other ethnic groups. [6]
By 1988, in Los Angeles, many Korean stores had opened in African-American neighborhoods, and by then several boycotts by African-Americans of Korean businesses had occurred. [16] By that time many Korean garment manufacturers acted as middlemen by employing Hispanic workers and selling product to White-owned manufacturers of clothing. [17]
In 2014 the federal government ran a raid against business operations that it accused of being money laundering. By 2015 some Korean business owners stated that they may take their operations out of Los Angeles due to a reduction in Latin American customers, an increasing minimum wage, and stricter governmental enforcement of labor laws, all occurring after the 2014 raid. [18]
The Korean Bell of Friendship is located in San Pedro.
The Wilshire Private School (formerly Hankook School, Wilshire Elementary School, and Wilshire School), a private day school, located in Koreatown. [19] The Korean Institute of Southern California (KISC, 남가주한국학원/南加州韓國學院) operated this school. [20]
Schools which served the children of the first wave of Korean immigrants included Los Angeles High School, Manual Arts High School, and the James A. Foshay Learning Center. [2]
The KISC and the Korean School Association of America (KSAA, 미주한국학교연합회/美洲韓國學校聯合會) operate weekend Korean language schools, with a combined total of 16,059 students. As of 2003 the KISC operated 12 schools, employing 147 teachers and enrolling 5,048 students. [21] In 1992 there were 152 schools in Greater Los Angeles registered with the KSAA. [22] In 2003 the KSAA had 244 schools, employing 1,820 teachers and enrolling 13,659 students. [21] The number of KSAA-registered schools increased to 254 in 2005. [22]
Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from 191,719 at the 2010 census, making it the 4th-most populous city in Los Angeles County and the 24th-most populous city in California. It is located about 10 miles (16 km) north of downtown Los Angeles.
Greater Los Angeles is the most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. state of California, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino County and Riverside County in the east, with the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County at its center, and Orange County to the southeast. The Los Angeles–Anaheim–Riverside combined statistical area (CSA) covers 33,954 square miles (87,940 km2), making it the largest metropolitan region in the United States by land area. The contiguous urban area is 2,281 square miles (5,910 km2), whereas the remainder mostly consists of mountain and desert areas. With an estimated population of over 18.3 million, it is the second-largest metropolitan area in the country, behind New York, as well as one of the largest megacities in the world.
Korean Americans are Americans who are of full or partial Korean ethnic descent. The majority of Korean Americans trace their ancestry to South Korea.
Koreatown is a neighborhood in central Los Angeles, California, centered near Eighth Street and Irolo Street.
A Koreatown (Korean: 코리아타운), also known as a Little Korea or Little Seoul, is a Korean-dominated ethnic enclave within a city or metropolitan area outside the Korean Peninsula.
The 1992 Los Angeles riots were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, United States, during April and May 1992. Unrest began in South Central Los Angeles on April 29, after a jury acquitted four officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) charged with using excessive force in the arrest and beating of Rodney King. The incident had been videotaped by George Holliday, who was a bystander to the incident, and was heavily broadcast in various news and media outlets.
Wilshire/Western station is an underground rapid transit station on the D Line of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. It is located under Wilshire Boulevard at Western Avenue, after which the station is named, in the Mid-Wilshire and Koreatown districts of Los Angeles. It is the current western terminus of the D Line.
Wilshire Boulevard (['wɪɫ.ʃɚ]) is a prominent 15.83 mi (25.48 km) boulevard in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, extending from Ocean Avenue in the city of Santa Monica east to Grand Avenue in the Financial District of downtown Los Angeles. One of the principal east–west arterial roads of Los Angeles, it is also one of the major city streets through the city of Beverly Hills. Wilshire Boulevard runs roughly parallel to Santa Monica Boulevard from Santa Monica to the west boundary of Beverly Hills. From the east boundary, it runs a block south of Sixth Street to its terminus.
Central Los Angeles is the historical urban region of Los Angeles, containing downtown Los Angeles, and several nearby regions in southwest Los Angeles County, California.
Western Avenue is a major four-lane street in the city of Los Angeles and through the center portion of Los Angeles County, California. It is one of the longest north–south streets in Los Angeles city and county, apart from Sepulveda Boulevard. It is about 29 miles (47 km) long.
The Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, also known under its past name Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates, is a multi-ethnic immigrant worker civil rights membership organization based in the Los Angeles Koreatown area.
Wilshire Center is a neighborhood in the Wilshire region of Los Angeles, California.
California is the most populous US state, with an estimated population of 38.9 million as of 2023. It has people from a wide variety of ethnic, racial, national, and religious backgrounds.
Latasha Harlins was an African American girl who was fatally shot at age 15 by Soon Ja Du, a 49-year-old Korean American convenience store owner. Du was tried and convicted of voluntary manslaughter over the killing of Harlins, based in part on security camera footage. The judge sentenced Du to 10 years in state prison but the sentence was suspended and the defendant was instead placed on five years' probation with 400 hours of community service and payment of $500 restitution, and Harlins' funeral costs. The sentencing was widely regarded as extremely light, and a failed appeal reportedly contributed to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, especially the targeting of Koreatown. The killing of Harlins came 13 days after the videotaped beating of Rodney King.
Wilshire Private School, previously called the Wilshire School, the Hankook School, and the Los Angeles Hankook Academy, was a primary and secondary school located in Koreatown, Los Angeles. It was in the Mid-City/Mid-Wilshire area. It was sponsored by the Korean Institute of Southern California. Its primary target students were Korean Americans. In 1994, the principal, John Regan, stated that Hankook School was the only educational facility that targeted Korean students in the United States.
Historically there has been a population of Chinese Americans in Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. As of 2010, there were 393,488 Chinese Americans in Los Angeles County, 4.0% of the county's population, and 66,782 Chinese Americans in the city of Los Angeles.
The history of Koreans in Baltimore dates back to the mid-20th century. The Korean-American community in Baltimore began to grow in the 1960s and reached its peak between the 1970s and 1990s. The Korean population is anchored in central Baltimore, particularly the neighborhoods of Station North and Charles Village, a portion of which has an historic Koreatown. Since the 1990s, the Korean-American population has decreased due to suburbanization, with many Korean-Americans settling in nearby Howard County.
The 1990 United States census and 2000 United States census found that non-Hispanic whites were becoming a minority in Los Angeles. Estimates for the 2010 United States census results find Latinos to be approximately half (47-49%) of the city's population, growing from 40% in 2000 and 30-35% in 1990 census.
The Statue of Peace, often shortened to Sonyeosang in Korean or Shōjo-zō in Japanese and sometimes called the Comfort Woman Statue, is a symbol of the victims of sexual slavery, known euphemistically as comfort women, by the Japanese military during World War II. The Statue of Peace was first erected in Seoul to urge the Japanese government to apologize to and honour the victims. However, it has since become a site of representational battles among different parties.
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