Ballad for Samuel: The Legacy of Central Avenue and the 1950s Avant-Garde in Los Angeles

Because of segregation, Los Angeles's African American community was forced to discover its own resources and resolve and despite the hardships and indignities, it responded with a vibrant social and cultural scene that would contribute substantially to shaping twentieth-century American culture, nurture hundreds of artists, and encompass many different arts and styles. In its final years it offered creative soil for musical explorers and explorations that would lay the groundwork for the avant-garde of the 1950s and inspire the community arts movement from the 1960s to the present in Los Angeles.