Black History Month : Valley Retrospective / Today’s Voices : Perspectives on the Past--and the Future

From the African American who owned much of what is now the San Fernando Valley in the 1790s to the high school student who has devoted himself to keeping his peers out of gangs, people of African descent in the Valley have a long, proud history.

In this special report, we look back at some of that history and--with the help of several voices from the present--turn to the future.

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This page of voices from the San Fernando Valley’s African American community was developed and researched by Times special correspondents Susan Byrnes and Kurt Pitzer. The interviews were conducted by special correspondents Byrnes, Kay Hwangbo, Geoffrey Mohan, Pitzer and Jeannette Regalado. They interviewed several dozen people, and point out that while the voices do not represent all of the 73,851 African Americans who make up 4% of the Valley’s population, the diversity of the ideas presented demonstrates a wide range of goals and hopes expressed.