Sunday, Oct. 12, 8am-2pm
Transport: Meet at Rendezvous Court, Biltmore Hotel. Walking and Metro Purple Line public transportation https://www.rome2rio.com/map/The-Biltmore-Hotel-Los-Angeles-South-Grand-Avenue-Los-Angeles-CA-USA/Santa-Monica-Pier#r/Tram
It takes about an hour to reach Santa Monica from Downtown LA using public transport. Tour leaders or chaperone will be available to guide people from the Biltmore hotel to public transportation at 8am, then at 9am the tour will begin in Santa Monica.
Tour Maximum: 25 people
Cost: $10
Bring either a Metro pass or $5.00 for Metro ticket. Each participant will be responsible for their own lunch cost, up to $25 depending on what they want to dine on at the cafe.
Tour description:
At first glance, it may seem as if all the beaches of the Los Angeles region resemble each other: sea, sand, seagulls, and those iconic powder-blue lifeguard towers. Yet there is more to the Los Angeles coastline than meets the eye. This tour explores the hidden histories of Los Angeles’ beaches, including the history of African American beach access and discrimination, the environmental history of the shores, the life, death and rebirth of world-famous Muscle Beach, and the repression of gay cruising at Crystal Beach. The tour begins at Historic Belmar Park, a Santa Monica commemorative justice initiative which features an outdoor exhibition exploring Black life in the first half of the 20th century. It continues on to early landmarks of Black Santa Monica, including Bay Street Beach, sometimes controversially called “the Inkwell,” followed by Crystal Beach, a cruising ground for gay men and women in the 1950s-70s, and the original location of Muscle Beach, where acrobats and bodybuilders included Jack LaLanne and Steve Reeves. Tourgoers will stop for lunch at the affordable beach cafe Cha Cha Cha (serving Caribbean cuisine). The tour concludes with a walk through Tongva Park, to explore the history of the Gabrieleño-Tongva people, their relationship to the sea, and how the city has commemorated its indigenous past.
Tour leaders:
Alison Rose Jefferson, independent historian and Heritage Conservation Consultant, is author of Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era (University of Nebraska Press).