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Primary Sources

These are a couple of examples that you can use for your final project.

KCET: S2E2 Before the Dodgers

February 6, 2016

Now fifty years old, Dodger Stadium has become a Los Angeles landmark, steeped in baseball nostalgia and traffic angst. But the Dodgers' recent change of ownership has brought new attention to the real estate possibilities associated with the team's hilltop perch, reminding us that before the land served as home to athletes in white-and-blue jerseys, it was the site of a thriving Mexican American community named Chavez Ravine.

Key terms: eminent domain, built environment, manufactured space

KCET: S2 E5: Coded Geographies

November 7, 2017

What if the stories L.A. told about itself relegated you to the margins? This episode explores two underground guidebooks -- The Negro Travelers' Green Book and The Address Book -- that reveal the hidden geographies many Angelenos had to navigate, exposing Los Angeles as a place of coded segregation and resistance.

Key terms: redlining, racial covenant, Shelley v. Kraemer, blockbusting

The Invention of Disneyland and California

January 26, 2012

Kirse Granat May, author of Golden State, Golden Youth and UCLA historian Eric Avila discuss the invention of Disneyland and its image, and how Disneyland came to stand in for California (and America) for the rest of the world.

Key terms: built environment, role of freeways, eminent domain, 

Primary Sources: Videos: News
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