Imperial Courts is a

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

project located in

Watts, Los Angeles Watts is a neighborhood in southern Los Angeles, California. It is located within the South Los Angeles region, bordering the cities of Lynwood, Huntington Park and South Gate to the east and southeast, respectively, and the unincorporated comm ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It is located at 11541 Croesus Avenue on

Imperial Highway The Imperial Highway is a west-east thoroughfare in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, and Imperial in California. The main portion of the existing route begins at Vista Del Mar in Los Angeles near the Los Angeles Inter ...

, between Grape Street and Mona Boulevard, near I-105 Freeway. The federally subsidized project of 498 units was completed in May 1944. It is operated by the

Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) is a state-chartered public agency. Established in 1938, HACLA provides the largest stock of affordable housing in the city Los Angeles, California and is one of the nation's oldest public ...

. The project is predominantly inhabited by persons of

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

and

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

descent, who in 1991 constituted 88 percent of the population. It is one of the largest housing projects west of the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

Emergency services

Police service

The

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

operates the nearby Southeast Community Police Station. This location resulted in a general reduction in crime in comparison to the 1990s, although the area still has a homicide rate 57% higher than the

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

average. On October 26, 2014, five people were shot in the complex, including one woman who was killed, in separate incidents.

Education

Imperial Courts is zoned to: * Grape Elementary School
Markham Middle School
* Jordan High School. All three are in the

Los Angeles Unified School District Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a public school district in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the 2nd largest public school district in ...

Notable events

TEDxWatts
was hosted in Watts on March 11, 2017, by organizer

Justin Mayo Justin Mayo (December 19, 1981) is an American humanitarian, youth activist and philanthropist. He is the Executive Director of the international charity Red Eye and founder of the Youth Mentor initiative. He is the son of Sam Mayo and internati ...

. The project is the subject of a 22-year documentary project called
Imperial Courts
' by Dutch photographer Dana Lixenburg. The

P Jay Crips The Crips is an alliance of street gangs that is based in the coastal regions of Southern California. Founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1969, mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams, the Crips were initially a single alliance ...

were founded at this project. Parts of the motion picture ''

Training Day ''Training Day'' is a 2001 American crime thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by David Ayer. It stars Denzel Washington as Alonzo Harris and Ethan Hawke as Jake Hoyt, two LAPD narcotics officers over a 24-hour period in the gang- ...

'' were filmed in Imperial Courts to give the movie a true-to-life project setting. The movie ''

Imperial Dreams ''Imperial Dreams'' is an American drama film written and directed by Malik Vitthal. The film had its world premiere at 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2014. It won the ''Audience Award'' at the festival. The film was released as a Netf ...

'' starring

John Boyega John Adedayo Bamidele Adegboyega (born 17 March 1992), known professionally as John Boyega, is a British actor and producer. He first rose to prominence in his native Britain for his role as Moses in the sci-fi comedy film '' Attack the Block ...

was shot in Imperial Courts. Imperial Court is the real-life home of Bobby Yay Yay Jones, whom the film is centered around. The video of "Cool Like Me" by Fryar was also shot in Imperial Courts.

References

External links

Google satellite map
Public housing in Los Angeles Residential buildings completed in 1944 Watts, Los Angeles {{LosAngeles-struct-stub