THE SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH of Los Angeles was the first of its kind in Southern California. It was founded in 1885 by African-Americans and for the last 83 years has operated on the 2200 block of Griffith Avenue. In part because of its age and its influence, it’s called the “mother of black Baptists in Southern California.”
Kyle T. Webster
Kyle T. Webster
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So it’s not surprising that Mark Ridley-Thomas, a state senator, has attended the church several times ahead of June 3 — when he’ll face Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks for the Los Angeles County supervisor’s post representing the 2nd Supervisorial District. He’s already gotten the endorsement of the church’s pastor, Dr. William Epps.
But here’s the wrinkle that could sway the outcome of the widely watched battle: “The neighborhood is about 80 or 90 percent Latino now,” says Second Baptist’s clerk Eugene Kenourgios. Of black churchgoers, “about 80 percent commute” — and not from around the corner. Black congregants who once lived nearby now drive in from more-affordable, safer homes in Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties. Epps lives downtown. Another pastor, Kenourgios says, commutes from much more distant Fontana.
Parks and Ridley-Thomas have made visits to black churches something of a ritual in their campaigns to woo blacks — the historic base for electoral success for the seat occupied by the retiring Yvonne Burke. By last count, they’ve racked up 42 endorsements from preachers — the overwhelming number for Ridley-Thomas.
But this election is radically unlike those of the past. The black vote in Los Angeles, which traditionally lines up heavily behind a single anointed candidate, is split. And for the first time, Latinos could play the more crucial role.
The 2nd District is one of five in L.A. County and includes vast unincorporated areas where more than 40 percent of its 2 million people live. It heavily overlaps with the city of L.A., and Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 5 to 1.
But until recently, Latino voters were no more than a blip in South Los Angeles. Now, there are two Latino voters for every three black voters. “It’s unprecedented, certainly in the last decade or decade-plus,” says Earl Ofari Hutchinson, a political commentator. “We haven’t had an open seat since about 1994. Beyond that, I think there’s the two personalities involved.”
Whichever man replaces Burke as supervisor will inherit a district with widespread poverty, where home ownership is rare and crime is rampant. Martin Luther King Jr.–Harbor Hospital was closed last year following years of inept management and scandalous patient deaths.
L.A.’s five county supervisors control a $22 billion budget — bigger than that of some nations — and sit on other powerful bodies — think the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Each supervisor wields executivelike power, especially in unincorporated areas that lack a mayor. Whoever replaces Burke will likely serve 12 years with zero competition. (The last time a supervisor was unseated was 1980.)
OPEN SEATS ON THE BOARD of Supervisors are rare. Ideological battles are rarer. And splits within the black community are rarest. This fight has all three.
Ridley-Thomas, 53, is of medium stature and slightly overweight. His voice is deep and his speaking style dull and sonorous to the point of self-importance (he spent years insisting upon being called “doctor” because he has a Ph.D. in social ethics). During a talk on funding the arts in Culver City this month, Ridley-Thomas informed the audience that he had just made a joke — laughter followed.
Parks is a tall, athletic yet graying, mustachioed 64-year-old who looks as if, given the right sweater, he could fit comfortably in Cliff Huxtable’s house.
Ridley-Thomas spent a decade as the executive director of L.A.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference — the civil rights group associated with Martin Luther King Jr. — before becoming an L.A. city councilman. He went to the state Assembly in 2002, before jumping to the Senate in 2006. Today, he chairs the Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee — a post he argues gives him the experience to promote economic growth.
Parks spent 38 years in the LAPD. In 1997, he became its chief and presided over a large drop in crime. But Rampart, one of the worst scandals in LAPD history, also unfolded on his watch. In 2002, then-Mayor James Hahn fired him, and Parks rode a wave of popularity among blacks — in part driven by being fired — to the City Council seat Ridley-Thomas had vacated.
Asked independently by the L.A. Weekly how they concretely differ in policy, both preferred to discuss their biographies and styles, while quickly trashing the other.
“I’m not a general manager,” Ridley-Thomas said, in a clear dig at Parks, followed less than 20 seconds later by another dig at the former chief, who ran a department of 10,000 and a billion-dollar budget. Said Ridley-Thomas: “My perspective is broad, as it relates to public policy. It’s not narrow in terms of a particular department” — think LAPD.
