LOS ANGELES — Black news publications have been chronicling Los Angeles’ Black history for decades.
One of those publications is the Los Angeles Sentinel, which has been covering the local community since the 1930s.
Executive Publisher and Chairman Danny Bakewell Sr. says eight words always remain on the front page of the paper.
“We say in the masthead of our paper ‘the voice of our community speaking for itself,’” said Bakewell Sr.
The Sentinel prints 30,000 papers a week and has 150,000 readers weekly, both in print and online. Executive Editor Danny Bakewell Jr. says the goal has always been to reflect the diversity of L.A.’s Black residents.
“African Americans, we’re not monolithic. We have different opinions, we see things differently,” Bakewell Jr. said. “But we try to tell our story in such a way that is inspiring and truthful to everybody that we often identify from.”
Bakewell Media has owned the paper for 20 years but the paper was first published 87 years ago. Colonel Leon Washington was the original founder.
“He started out and he was arrested,” Bakewell Jr. said. “He basically put out this paper and said, ‘Don’t spend your money where you can’t work.’ And as a result they had him arrested.”
Since the first paper was published, editors and reporters have built a legacy of interviewing L.A.’s most influential leaders and capturing major community events that bring people together. The paper covers proud moments and painful moments like the murder of George Floyd.
“It took a Black man to be murdered on TV for many people to see it. It’s not a story that we hadn’t been telling for years before,” Bakewell Jr. said. “Rodney King was not the first person to be beat by the police in Los Angeles. He was just the first one they caught on tape. So we’ve been telling these stories and everybody would say, 'well it isn’t really what it looks like.' No it’s exactly what it looks like and that is how we cover it. We cover it from our vantage point. We cover it the way we see it.”
Recently, they’ve seen the pandemic threatening the community financially. To help, they’ve been spotlighting Black businesses.
A 23-person team focuses each day on evolving the paper by being present online and on social media. They continue to find ways to share stories from inside the community.
“We are not standing around begging other communities other publications other mediums to do something for us which we’re more than capable of doing for ourselves,” Bakewell Sr. said. “That’s why the Los Angeles Sentinel exists.”