{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/kh0dv1fd91/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Dr. Naomi Nightingale, 6/22/2022"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/497/original/VHM_Aviary_banner.png?1768074560","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eDr. Naomi Nightengale is a civil rights activist associated with the \"Save Venice\" coalition and an Oakwood community leader.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["5/11/22 at 10:30 AM"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English"]}},{"label":{"en":["Preferred Citation"]},"value":{"en":["Name of interviewee, date; The Venice Heritage Museum Oral Histories Project; Venice Heritage Museum, Los Angeles, CA."]}},{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Venice Heritage Museum"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["Copyright © 2024 Venice Heritage Museum"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["MP4"]}},{"label":{"en":["Identifier"]},"value":{"en":["OH_048"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["Venice Beach"]}},{"label":{"en":["Access Ss"]},"value":{"en":["access_public"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eDr. Naomi Nightengale is a civil rights activist associated with the \"Save Venice\" coalition and an Oakwood community leader.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["Copyright © 2024 Venice Heritage Museum"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Venice Heritage Museum"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Venice Heritage Museum"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/497/original/VHM_Aviary_banner.png?1768074560","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/224/812/small/Naomi_Nightingale.jpg?1713989537","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119600/file/224812","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - Naomi_Nightingale.mp4"]},"duration":574.35733,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/224/812/small/Naomi_Nightingale.jpg?1713989537","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119600/file/224812/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119600/file/224812/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-veniceheritagemuseum.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/224/812/original/Naomi_Nightingale.mp4?1713556717","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":574.35733,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119600/file/224812","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119600/file/224812/transcript/67696","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Naomi Nightingale Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119600/file/224812/transcript/67696/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"00:00:05:02 - 00:00:08:11\nMy name is Naomi Nightingale Jr.\n\n00:00:08:13 - 00:00:12:22\nAnd my birthday is August 24th, 1946.\n\n00:00:13:00 - 00:00:16:07\nI've actually been coming to Venice since...\n\n00:00:16:09 - 00:00:19:09\nI was born. (Slight Laughter) uh. \n\n00:00:19:09 - 00:00:22:01\nI've had relatives that lived in Venice.\n\n00:00:22:01 - 00:00:27:06\nMy aunt and uncle, my grandmother\rand my mom and the rest of my siblings.\n\n00:00:27:06 - 00:00:29:06\nWe lived in Santa Monica.\n\n00:00:29:06 - 00:00:32:19\nWe moved to Venice permanently in 1963,\n\n00:00:32:19 - 00:00:36:12\nafter the Santa Monica\rFreeway came through.\n\n00:00:36:13 - 00:00:39:23\nThe African-American community\rin Santa Monica and displaced\n\n00:00:39:23 - 00:00:43:05\na lot of the homeowners and renters.\n\n00:00:43:07 - 00:00:46:07\nI remember going to Broadway\rElementary School.\n\n00:00:46:08 - 00:00:50:11\nI remember going to Oakwood Park\rduring the summertime \n\n00:00:50:11 - 00:00:55:14\nfor summer crafts\rand other summer camp activities.\n\n00:00:55:16 - 00:00:59:05\nI remember lots of friends\rthat I made in Venice over the years\n\n00:00:59:05 - 00:01:00:23\nthat I'm still friends with today.\n\n00:01:00:23 - 00:01:02:06\nI enjoyed my friends.\n\n00:01:02:06 - 00:01:08:19\nI enjoyed the activities, I enjoyed the\rcommunity because everyone knew everyone\n\n00:01:08:19 - 00:01:12:08\nso you couldn't go anywhere\rwithout being known.\n\n00:01:12:10 - 00:01:14:21\nSo it was just a lot of fun.\n\n00:01:14:21 - 00:01:17:17\nAs a as a child,\rI didn't have any worries.\n\n00:01:17:17 - 00:01:20:18\nI also remember that\rthere was a big flood in Venice.\n\n00:01:20:18 - 00:01:28:07\nI think it was around 1955,\rsomething around there where, um\n\n00:01:28:09 - 00:01:29:07\nour furniture was\n\n00:01:29:07 - 00:01:33:04\nfloating around in our living room\rand people were umm\n\n00:01:33:06 - 00:01:34:06\nthere weren't any streets,\n\n00:01:34:06 - 00:01:34:20\nthey were covered.\n\n00:01:34:20 - 00:01:38:11\nPeople were moving around in boats\rumm and canoes.\n\n00:01:38:13 - 00:01:39:03\nAnd I remember\n\n00:01:39:03 - 00:01:44:06\nmy uncle carried us out of the house\ron his shoulders and in his arms.\n\n00:01:44:08 - 00:01:46:11\nIt was a flood, and that was before Venice\n\n00:01:46:11 - 00:01:51:14\nhad the drainage system,\rthe infrastructure that it has now.\n\n00:01:51:16 - 00:01:52:06\nInitially\n\n00:01:52:06 - 00:01:55:05\nwe were living on\n\n00:01:55:05 - 00:02:01:00\non Vernon Avenue\rand we lived in what I call\n\n00:02:01:02 - 00:02:03:10\nVenice proper,\n\n00:02:03:10 - 00:02:06:00\nVenice proper for African-American people.\n\n00:02:06:00 - 00:02:07:22\nWe did not know the area as Oakwood.\n\n00:02:07:22 - 00:02:13:05\nIt was simply Venice to us,\rbut it was a restricted covenant area\n\n00:02:13:06 - 00:02:19:18\nwhere black people were lived\rby regulatory\n\n00:02:19:20 - 00:02:21:18\nrestricted covenant requirements.\n\n00:02:21:18 - 00:02:24:00\nIt was a red line area.\n\n00:02:24:00 - 00:02:27:12\nThe civil rights movement was\n\n00:02:27:14 - 00:02:29:23\nat its elevating edge\n\n00:02:29:23 - 00:02:33:22\nat that time, 1963, ‘64.\n\n00:02:34:00 - 00:02:39:04\nAnd my involvement in the community\n\n00:02:39:06 - 00:02:41:10\nheightened after the\n\n00:02:41:10 - 00:02:44:16\n1965 Watts riots.\n\n00:02:44:18 - 00:02:48:05\nAnd at that time the Federal government\n\n00:02:48:07 - 00:02:52:04\nmade an offer to urban communities of\n\n00:02:52:06 - 00:02:54:17\nthey would fund Summer Crash Programs.\n\n00:02:54:17 - 00:02:57:13\nThat was what it was called\rthe Summer Crash Programs.\n\n00:02:57:13 - 00:03:01:04\nThey would fund these programs\rduring the summer, a three month period,\n\n00:03:01:06 - 00:03:05:17\nand it was their way of providing\rsome financial resources\n\n00:03:05:22 - 00:03:09:06\nin the communities to try to quell\n\n00:03:09:06 - 00:03:12:17\nany potential uprisings.\n\n00:03:12:19 - 00:03:16:09\nSo I was very vocal, I was asked\n\n00:03:16:09 - 00:03:21:08\nby one of the community leaders\rwho was Robert Castille,\n\n00:03:21:10 - 00:03:26:22\nif I would put my protest to paper\rand we would move forward\n\n00:03:26:22 - 00:03:32:07\nin writing a grant\rfor the Summer Crash Program funds.\n\n00:03:32:09 - 00:03:34:00\nI wrote the grant,\n\n00:03:34:00 - 00:03:37:09\nwe got the money\rfor the three month period,\n\n00:03:37:11 - 00:03:42:02\nand we started an organization\rcalled Project Action\n\n00:03:42:04 - 00:03:45:08\nand Project Action\n\n00:03:45:10 - 00:03:49:23\nwas a job training job development program\n\n00:03:49:23 - 00:03:53:19\nwhere we rented a building on,\n\n00:03:53:21 - 00:03:56:03\nat that time it was West Washington\rBoulevard.\n\n00:03:56:03 - 00:03:58:10\nIt's now Abbot Kinney.\n\n00:03:58:10 - 00:04:02:05\nWe went to the building there\rand we provided\n\n00:04:02:07 - 00:04:06:10\njob training, help\rpeople fill out job applications.\n\n00:04:06:12 - 00:04:10:03\nAnd then we started a program\rwithin the Venice community\n\n00:04:10:03 - 00:04:15:14\ncalled the Beautification Program,\rwhere we put together teams of people\n\n00:04:15:14 - 00:04:20:08\nwho would then go from door\rto door in our community and ask people\n\n00:04:20:10 - 00:04:22:04\nwhat were the kinds of things\rthat they would\n\n00:04:22:04 - 00:04:25:21\nlike to see happen in the community\rthat would,\n\n00:04:25:23 - 00:04:28:13\nbeautify the community, um,\n\n00:04:28:13 - 00:04:33:14\npeople who participated in, in\rthose walkabouts\n\n00:04:33:16 - 00:04:38:08\nwere paid for, for their work,\rand that was the way that we created jobs\n\n00:04:38:10 - 00:04:41:10\nwith the money that we got\rfrom the federal government.\n\n00:04:41:10 - 00:04:45:09\nDuring that period, a lot of activism.\n\n00:04:45:11 - 00:04:48:11\nUCLA Urban Development Program\n\n00:04:48:13 - 00:04:52:09\ncame down\rand helped with some community organizing.\n\n00:04:52:09 - 00:04:57:15\nWe had conferences at Lake Arrowhead\rand up in the Santa Barbara area\n\n00:04:57:15 - 00:05:01:15\nwhere we talked\rabout community development.\n\n00:05:01:16 - 00:05:04:17\nWe tried to,\rwe got the community more engaged\n\n00:05:04:19 - 00:05:08:16\nin the kinds of services and things\rthat were needed in the community.\n\n00:05:08:18 - 00:05:12:17\nAnd the most successful thing\rwas the building of the 15\n\n00:05:12:19 - 00:05:17:09\ncommunity housing buildings\rthat are currently still available.\n\n00:05:17:10 - 00:05:22:14\nVenice was evolving as a\n\n00:05:22:16 - 00:05:26:19\ndeveloping community\rwhere you didn't see a lot of vacant lots,\n\n00:05:26:19 - 00:05:30:18\nyou didn't see a lot of rundown housing.\n\n00:05:30:20 - 00:05:34:15\nYou saw the area growing and developing,\n\n00:05:34:17 - 00:05:37:17\nbut still being very self-contained.\n\n00:05:37:23 - 00:05:41:19\nIt was always the area\rthat I'm speaking about that\n\n00:05:41:19 - 00:05:46:07\nwe now call\rOakwood was always predominantly black.\n\n00:05:46:08 - 00:05:48:22\nThere were other\n\n00:05:49:00 - 00:05:50:19\ncultures and\n\n00:05:50:19 - 00:05:56:05\nraces within the community, Mexican\rand some\n\n00:05:56:07 - 00:06:01:06\nwhite people that still lived\rin the community, but predominantly black.\n\n00:06:01:08 - 00:06:05:11\nSo the activities,\n\n00:06:05:11 - 00:06:08:11\nthe interactions, the\n\n00:06:08:16 - 00:06:11:12\ndiscussions\n\n00:06:11:12 - 00:06:14:08\nbetween Santa Monica and Venice,\n\n00:06:14:08 - 00:06:17:05\nthose two communities\rwhere there was predominant\n\n00:06:17:05 - 00:06:20:09\nAfrican-American people remained\rvery close.\n\n00:06:20:11 - 00:06:25:17\nMany people that moved here from the South\reither moved in Venice or moved\n\n00:06:25:17 - 00:06:31:05\nto Santa Monica or lived in Venice\rand spread into other areas.\n\n00:06:31:07 - 00:06:36:08\nThe First Baptist Church of Venice\rwas started by the Venice community\n\n00:06:36:08 - 00:06:40:23\nwith some people who lived in\rSanta Monica as well.\n\n00:06:41:01 - 00:06:45:14\nThe same is true for\rwhat was the Monday Women's Club,\n\n00:06:45:16 - 00:06:50:04\nwhich was a women's\rclub started by African-American women\n\n00:06:50:06 - 00:06:54:06\nwho lived in Venice\rpredominantly, and Santa Monica.\n\n00:06:54:08 - 00:06:57:19\nIt's a historic landmark at this point on\n\n00:06:57:21 - 00:07:00:11\n6th and San Juan.\n\n00:07:00:11 - 00:07:04:23\nIt's a very dilapidated rundown building\rthat has graffiti all over it.\n\n00:07:05:01 - 00:07:08:14\nBut it is a historically designated site\n\n00:07:08:16 - 00:07:12:11\nand our intent at this time is to\n\n00:07:12:13 - 00:07:14:09\nstart a 501(c3)\n\n00:07:14:09 - 00:07:18:07\nand start raising money\rso that we can restore\n\n00:07:18:09 - 00:07:22:04\nthat women's center\rinto what it used to be to the community.\n\n00:07:22:07 - 00:07:28:23\nMy, my perspective is really my hope\rand my, my dream and my aspirations\n\n00:07:29:01 - 00:07:35:15\nthat particularly for the African-American\rcommunity, that there is recognition\n\n00:07:35:17 - 00:07:39:11\nof the contributions that were made here\ras a part of the Oakwood\n\n00:07:39:11 - 00:07:43:13\ncommunity and,\n\n00:07:43:14 - 00:07:44:21\nunfortunately,\n\n00:07:44:21 - 00:07:48:08\nthe recognition of those things were not\n\n00:07:48:10 - 00:07:52:23\nembraced at a time\rwhen we could have saved\n\n00:07:53:01 - 00:07:57:20\nsome of that tradition and some of that\n\n00:07:57:22 - 00:07:59:20\narchitectural\n\n00:07:59:20 - 00:08:04:04\nand socio financial contributions there.\n\n00:08:04:06 - 00:08:06:03\nBut it's not too late.\n\n00:08:06:03 - 00:08:10:02\nBut I hope that we can reach the hearts\rand minds of people\n\n00:08:10:02 - 00:08:16:10\nthat are moving into the community\rto embrace some of that\n\n00:08:16:12 - 00:08:18:15\nneighborly ness,\n\n00:08:18:15 - 00:08:23:21\nto become a part of the neighborhood,\rthe community, and not\n\n00:08:23:23 - 00:08:27:14\nset it apart and not be separate from it.\n\n00:08:27:16 - 00:08:30:16\nBut there is, there is a heart and soul\n\n00:08:30:17 - 00:08:34:02\nof the Venice community that we would hope\n\n00:08:34:02 - 00:08:39:03\nthat people would become a part of\rand not make themselves separate from.\n\n00:08:39:05 - 00:08:43:04\nAnd the last thing I'll say is probably\rthe biggest example of that effort\n\n00:08:43:04 - 00:08:46:10\nnow is the Oakwood Park,\rwhich is a people park.\n\n00:08:46:12 - 00:08:50:04\nBut there's a big effort on the part\rof some people to make it a dog park.\n\n00:08:50:05 - 00:08:52:19\nAnd so why should we have that fight?\n\n00:08:52:19 - 00:08:54:17\nThat should not be a fight\rthat we should have.\n\n00:08:54:17 - 00:08:58:16\nThere should be recognition\rthat there is a dog park on Westminster\n\n00:08:58:18 - 00:09:03:07\nand Main and that Oakwood as a people park\rand can we respect that.\n\n00:09:03:09 - 00:09:07:06\nSo, to me, respect is the big issue\rthat we need to work on.\n\n00:09:07:08 - 00:09:11:15\nSo thank you for inviting me here today to\n\n00:09:11:17 - 00:09:13:23\nspeak about the issues that are on my heart.\n\n00:09:13:23 - 00:09:14:16\nI appreciate it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119600/file/224812#t=0.0,574.35733"}]}]}]}