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Living with the Past The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum and its 25,000 artifacts of African-American history face eviction from Culver City Story by Colin Newton Photos by Shilah Montiel Marie Dickerson made her decision to become America’s second black female pilot in Culver City. It was at Sebastian’s Cotton Club, a Prohibition-era nightclub on the corner of Washington and National boulevards. Dickerson was on stage — Sebastian’s Cotton Club had a whites-only audience, but it featured black entertainers —and an acquaintance snuck in and urged her to replace Bessie Coleman, America’s first black female pilot, who had just died in a 1926 plane crash. Dickerson would ultimately get her pilot’s license, although she would have to travel to France to find a school that would train her. Upon returning to the United States, she added “the country’s only colored aviatrix” to a resume that already included singer, dancer and comedienne. This piece of local lore — told through entertainment news clippings, flight show brochures, personal letters and Los Angeles Gas Company bills — can be found in a scrapbook at the Mayme A. PAGE 14 THE ARGONAUT June 27, 2019
Clayton Library & Museum in Culver City. It is just one of more than 25,000 pieces of African-American history housed there. The collection stretches back to the late 1700s and includes a slim and crumbling first edition of the first book written by an African-American in the United States; documents of slave ownership from the 1830s, as big as a doormat and written in elegant cursive; and the first sound recording of an African-American, captured on a cylinder in 1890s by a disciple of Thomas Edison. There is a palpable push one feels in the presence of these artifacts. It is a push given weight by time and distance and, sometimes shockingly, beauty. There’s also the push of the collection being packed into boxes and forced out of Culver City. Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum has occupied the old Culver City Courthouse on Overland Avenue near Culver Boulevard for more than a decade. But now Los Angeles County officials under the direction of Supervisor Mark Ridley-
Thomas (whose district includes Culver City) have directed the library to be out of the building before the end of July, said Lloyd Clayton, the library’s executive director and son of its late founder, Mayme Agnew Clayton. “The county has stated they want to use the building for a constituency center,” Clayton said, with “constituency center” apparently referring to a place for town halls and public meetings. “If that’s the case, then why do we need to move? We offer all of that potential right here, at the Mayme Clayton.” “It’s heartbreaking and confusing. Who would evict a library and museum of this type of importance in the African-American experience? I’m shocked,” said Culver City Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells. “The Mayme Clayton is such an important part of our community. I’m extremely upset and dismayed that the county has moved to evict them rather than work with them.” About six months ago, Culver City sent an official letter to Ridley-Thomas inquiring about his plans for the old
courthouse. They’ve yet to get a response, “which is not only disrespectful to the current tenants,” said Sahli-Wells, “but the entire community.” Ridley-Thomas responded to requests for comment that county officials are not yet ready to discuss the next phase of the building. “Right now, Los Angeles County’s focus is on ensuring that the Mayme Clayton’s collection receives the help it needs to relocate this trove of African-American memorabilia to a suitable location,” he wrote. “Our attention is on the present.” *** The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum has never dwelt in the present. From its creation, it was destined to live in the past. It began as an idea Mayme Clayton had while working as a librarian at UCLA in the early 1960s, Lloyd Clayton said. “She approached UCLA to ask them if they would be receptive to creating a budget so that she could go out and preserve rare and out-of-print Africa-