History of the Korean Americans in Los Angeles

History

The Korean community was centered in the Bunker Hill area, a community designated as a place where non-Whites were allowed to live, from 1900 to the 1920s. This first wave of immigrants worked as truck farmers, domestic workers, waiters, and domestic help. The Korean United Presbyterian Church was established on West Jefferson Boulevard in 1905. A Korean community developed around this church.

The Bunker Hill community housed the Chang Ho Ahn residence, which served as a community center and a guidance, lodging, and community support center for new Korean immigrants. The community housed grocery stores and the offices of the Korean National Association Los Angeles Branch and the Young Korean Academy. 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.

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.

The Korean community was severely affected by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. One Korean American civilian, Eddy Lee, died in the rioting. Over $400 million worth of damages occurred, including the destruction of over 2,000 businesses owned by ethnic Koreans. 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. 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.

In 2014 a delegation of minor Japanese right-wing politicians requested the removal of a memorial statue of the Korean comfort women in World War II from an area in Glendale, California, sparking controversy. 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." 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.

Geography

As of 2008, about 350,000 ethnic Koreans live in Los Angeles County. 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.

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.

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.

Demographics

As of 2008, 257,975 Korean Americans lived in Los Angeles, Orange, 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.

Economics

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. By that time many Korean garment manufacturers acted as middlemen by employing Hispanic workers and selling product to White-owned manufacturers of clothing.

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.

Culture

The Korean Bell of Friendship is located in San Pedro.

Day schools

The Wilshire Private School (formerly Hankook School, Wilshire Elementary School, and Wilshire School), a private day school, is located in Koreatown. The Korean Institute of Southern California (KISC, 남가주한국학원) operates this school.

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.

Weekend schools

The KISC and the Korean School Association of America (KSAA, 미주한국학교연합회) 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. In 1992 there were 152 schools in Greater Los Angeles registered with the KSAA. In 2003 the KSAA had 244 schools, employing 1,820 teachers and enrolling 13,659 students. The number of KSAA-registered schools increased to 254 in 2005.

As of 1988 one of the KISC campuses was in Van Nuys.

Diplomatic missions

The South Korean Consulate-General is located in Los Angeles.

Notable people