African American Leisure Sites

Event and Q&A hosted by Rob Schwenker

Historian and heritage conservation consultant Alison Rose Jefferson, M.H.C., Ph.D., discusses her new book, Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era. It examines stories, including in Santa Monica, of African Americans who fought for equal access to the state’s recreation and relaxation offerings for their pleasure and business development opportunities as they contributed to the broader U.S. freedom rights struggle during the nation’s Jim Crow era (1900s to 1960s). Leisure, was not an optional add-on to civil rights, but an essential component of liberty.

Alison Rose Jefferson, PhD
Alison Rose Jefferson, M.H.C., Ph.D., discusses her new book, Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites