Your Community Connection since 1994
Including Inglewood Airport Area • Baldwin Hills • Crenshaw/LA • Ladera Heights VOL. 24, No. 8
February 19, 2015
Hollywood Park Revitalization Project Means Great Things for Inglewood By Derrick Brown, Owner, Bourbon Street Fish & Grill Restaurant
I
had great hope for Inglewood’s future back in 2000 when my partners and I opened our restaurant, Bourbon Street Fish & Grill on Prairie Avenue. We were proud of our business, and worked day and night to serve up the best gumbo and po’ boys in town. The only problem with our business plan was our timing: the Lakers and Kings had left the nearby Forum the year before, taking a lot of potential customers along with them, and horse racing crowds were fading away. The years that came afterward were not easy for our business.
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lack history would not be complete without the contributions of African American athletes. Turn on any sports broadcast and you are likely to see blacks dominating the sports scene. With the exception of a few sports like hockey or some Olympic events like archery, the field of sports has opened wide for African American players during the last half of the 20th Century. While athletes today are known as much for landing multi-million dollar contracts and endorsement deals as for playing, their predecessors were motivated more by opportunities to play the
Bourbon Street Fish & Grill owners, Sean Mitchell, Johnali Brown and Derrick Brown.
Bourbon Street Fish & Grill patrons celebrate Mardi Gras. Now, things in Ingle- and throughout Inglewood, wood are looking up in a big bringing tens of thousands way. The City of Champi- of new visitors to the heart of ons Revitalization Project town and putting our City of will jumpstart the economy Champions back on the map. (Continued on page 12) around Hollywood Park
Young, Black and Gifted
On The Inside:
By Thomas Bunn
• News • Community • Entertainment • Health • Real Estate • Business
Lesser Known Black Athletes Who Broke the Color Barrier
A
s we move closer to the end of the shortened month of February concluding Black History Month, I’d like to take a look at individuals who we may not have heard of, but are pushing our culture and communities forward by be(Continued on page 8)
Brittney Exline
COMING SOON THE BEST OF INGLEWOOD
Visit www.inglewoodtoday.com & see back cover ➤
Kenny Washington game. Sports fans idolize players like Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan (NBA), Seattle Seahawks’ Russell Wilson (NFL) and San Francisco Giants’ Barry Bonds (MLB). However, they all stand on the shoulders of unsung heroes who literally got the ball rolling, but whose legacies have diminished over time. Everyone remembers Jackie Robinson for breaking the color barrier in major league baseball, but his career actually began as a football player for the (Continued on page 2)