SANTA MONICA
BLACK HISTORY PLACEMAKING
 (1905-1960)

Selena McDonald Brunson and Charles E.A. Brunson holding Donald A. Brunson, 1907.
Female descendants at the Brunson Circle naming ceremony. In 2022, the city of Santa Monica officially named the section of Michigan Avenue where the Brunson homestead stood to honor the pioneering family as an important part of the city's heritage.

ABOUT

In conversation with neighborhood elders, this project visualizes the rich African-American community that thrived in Santa Monica before urban renewal and displacement.
As an entry to this history, this narrative map follows the journey of Charles Ernest Augusta Brunson and Selena Carrie McDonald to Santa Monica from Americus, Georgia in 1905, preceding the Great Migration (1915-1970) of African Americans from the South. Their son Donald A. Brunson is known as the first black child born in Santa Monica. Their family and friends became community and city leaders and are now featured in new public art commemorating the site of Belmar triangle, a neighborhood that was razed to expand the civic center.

EXPLORATION

      • Which stories speak to you the most?
      • Zoom out in the map to see where the Brunson family came from:  Americus, Georgia; Monroe, Louisiana; Natchez Mississippi. Follow along the route while hearing the stories about what it took for the family to move west with the help of Cousin Daisy, their family’s Harriet Tubman.
      • Explore the two different clusters of African-American neighborhoods:  Belmar and Broadway.  How were the two areas similar and different?

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks for collaboration and inspiration to Leana Brunson, and gratitude to Bill and Carolyne Edwards of the Quinn Research Center, April Banks, Alison Rose Jefferson, Sue Bell Yank, Jeny Amaya, Jan Williamson, Susan Lamb.
Institutional Collaborators:  18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica Cultural Affairs, Santa Monica Public Library, Santa Monica History Museum.
Slabbers who helped build this project: Scott Mahoy, Duo Bao, Temi Omotinugbon, Sihan Mao, Emily Thomas, Nubes Chen, Jiyoon Kim. Additional thanks to students Adrienne Adams and Lexie Abrahamian.
Financial support:  American Council of Learned Societies, USC Provost, USC Price School, USC Lusk Center for Real Estate

OTHER INTERACTIVE SPACE/TIME MAPS