Arson fire destroys Black L.A. church, bringing vows to ‘take back what the devil stole’
In its early years, Victory Baptist Church looked upon a Black working-class neighborhood, whose residents commuted to jobs at General Hospital, the Coca-Cola plant, and Farmer John, yet were constricted by redlining policies and housing covenants that were enforced by the white political power.
Two years later, though, tragedy fell upon the church when Peters failed to show up for Sunday service. He was discovered unconscious, bludgeoned in his home, and later died. His killer was never found. African Americans, worried about their children, began to leave the inner city for outlying suburbs in the Antelope Valley and the Inland Empire. They sold their homes to new arrivals from Mexico and Central America.“Whether you’re from Mississippi or Oaxaca, this is where immigrants come because this is the cheapest housing in the city,” said Daniel Walker, curator of the gospel music history archive at USC. “This is where you will congregate to begin your L.A. journey.
Roosevelt Hicks, 89, who has been coming to Victory since 1955, was there, as was Johnnie Pearl Knox, 91, who has put in 39 years with the food ministry. They could recall the days when there were three services on Sunday and all the pews were filled, when baptisms outnumbered funerals. “We’re not a Black or brown community but a community that struggles,” said LAMP’s executive director, Diana Pinto, when describing the challenges of this low-income neighborhood where the lessons of the past are just as relevant today.
While Aretha Franklin sung of God’s grace at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in 1972, four miles away Victory Baptist Church was making its own joyful noise with Preston, who went on to play with the Beatles, and with gospel superstars like Dorothy Maynor, the Clara Ward Singers and Ethel Waters.
A 23-year-old law student at USC, Jahi doesn’t plan to follow his father into the ministry, but he understands what’s at stake in rebuilding.
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