Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de Leon recently introduced a motion to rename Pershing Square after Bridget “Biddy” Mason, who was freed from slavery in Los Angeles in the 1850s. His efforts to reinvent the long-suffering public space under renovation may be well-intentioned, but they are disturbing.
For one thing, Biddy Mason Memorial Park, which opened in 1989, already honors her at her home at the intersection of Third and Spring Streets, a few blocks northeast of Pershing Square. Why didn’t de León honor more of the city’s pioneering African-Americans, without taking into account other respectable black Los Angeles settlers who owned land and businesses downtown, whose stories are less well known, could be honored here?
It seems entirely possible that Mayor de Leon is pandering to the Black community, women, and others to make up for the notoriously racist conversations among city leaders that were exposed in 2022. Given the overlap with existing monuments, his efforts don’t seem truly geared toward showcasing Los Angeles’ overlooked history and historical figures.
For example, Robert and Winnie Owens and their children, Sarah, Martha, and Charles, were prominent former slaves who have yet to be properly recognized by the city. Robert Owens bought himself and his family out of slavery and emigrated to Los Angeles from Texas between 1852 and 1853. The Owens family owned real estate and a livery stable in Los Angeles and provided other business services. By the time the great Robert Owens died in 1865, he was considered the wealthiest African-American in Los Angeles County.
The family, along with Manuel Pepper of Los Angeles and Elizabeth Rowan of San Bernardino County (both African-Americans) and several white allies, helped Mason, his children, and other relatives escape slavery in 1856. As newly freed people in Los Angeles, Mason and her children Ellen, Ann, and Harriet initially lived with the Owens family and built relationships with their adopted community, which helped her father become successful as a midwife. She eventually became the first African-American woman to independently own real estate that she purchased. Biddy Mason’s daughter Ellen married Charles Owens, and the two families merged.
Lewis (or Lewis) Green, a lifelong barber among other professions, is another black Los Angeles pioneer who deserves to be remembered widely in our civic memory. Green overcame the racist tactics of local whites to become the first African-American to register to vote in Los Angeles County in 1870, the same year the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution expanded voting rights for black men.
Biddy Mason Memorial Park was one of the first significant efforts to acknowledge the history of workers and communities of color in Los Angeles’ public spaces. Founded by the nonprofit Power of Place, the project was the result of years of historical research, community engagement, collaboration, wrangling over permits and policies, and battling dismissive city leaders. Thirty years later, in 2019, the Power of Place effort remained an important touchstone when then-Mayor Eric Garcetti brought together advisors, historians, cultural critics, and designers to form the Civic Remembrance Working Group.
But that seems all too easily forgotten. De Leon, who proposed renaming Pershing Square after Biddy Mason, is the man who named the memorial park in his district. Dark and secludedIt’s unclear if and how he plans to fix it.
The city appears to have done little to maintain Biddy Mason Memorial Park. There is no large entrance sign, and the two small metal plaques at Spring and Third Streets are both defaced and offer no directional guidance. Lighting and seating discourage visitors from viewing the weathered memorial, which is long overdue for restoration. The memorial includes Sheila Lebrun de Bretteville-designed “Biddy Mason’s Time and Place,” a memorial wall featuring traces and artifacts that tell the story of Mason’s life and times. Next to it is renowned Los Angeles-based African-American artist Betty Sahl’s “Biddy Mason: House of the Open Hand,” an installation that offers a glimpse into what Mason’s home may have looked like based on historical photographs.
The city has long lacked a process and policy for dealing with memorial sites, and the Mayor’s Civic Memory Working Group was formed to fill this gap. 2022 Group ReportThen-chief design officer Christopher Hawthorne wrote that the “major lesson” was the need for a “broader conversation about monumentalization and commemoration” and that “Los Angeles has not yet engaged in that conversation to the extent it needs to, particularly with regard to efforts beginning at City Hall.”
LA needs to rethink its civic memory beyond renaming places, removing statues, and creating new memorials. This requires a more comprehensive review and preservation of past efforts. The report also emphasizes the need for community engagement, recognition of multi-layered histories, and a thorough process involving historians, Indigenous leaders, and community elders.
Mr. de Leon should join us in calling on City Council members and Mayor Karen Bass to take the steps articulated by the Civic Remembrance Working Group to honor Biddy Mason and others like her.
Alison Rose Jefferson is a historian, curator, and heritage preservation consultant. “Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Places in the Jim Crow Era.” Katherine Gudis is professor of history and director of the Public History Program at the University of California, Riverside, a researcher in residence at the Los Angeles Department of Poverty’s Skid Row History Museum and Archives, and a former member of the Civic Memory Working Group.
