This collection contains issues of the L.A. Watts Times, a newspaper that originally began publication under the name Watts Times, following the Watts Rebellion in 1965. It later became the L.A. Watts Times after Charles Cook purchased the publication in 1976.

The Watts Times was founded in 1965 following the Watts Rebellion. In 1976, the newspaper's name changed to the L.A. Watts Times following a purchase by Charles Cook, a former Western regional director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); and his wife, Beverly. Cook was in charge of marketing and advertising for the newspaper, while Beverly supervised editorial and administrative duties. Originally, the newspaper was handed out in Watts only as a tabloid, but Cook developed the paper to become a weekly circular distributed through Los Angeles and South Bay communities. After Cook's death in 1998, his daughter Melanie Polk took over as publisher until it was sold to Bakewell Media, publisher of the Los Angeles Sentinel in 2010. A prominent Los Angeles Black publication, L.A. Watts Times contains information about happenings in the African American community.

22 boxes

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