Legend has it that when the city was founded, Griffith Dickenson Compton stipulated that a portion of the city be zoned for agriculture-today that area remains known as Richland Farms and home to the Compton Cowboys.ДЇor much of its early history, Compton was actually a quiet, mostly-white suburb that, briefly, was even home to the Bush family. Incorporated in 1888, Compton is one of the oldest cities in Los Angeles County. It's once again in the national spotlight with the release of a biopic about the rap group, sharing the same title as their landmark album. Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, MC Ren, and DJ Yella-and formerly Arabian Prince) put the city of Compton in the national consciousness with the release of Straight Outta Compton, a chronicle of violent life on the streets and fury aimed at the police. Please consider the collections listed below, as well as the Related Materials page, in your research.How did a city with a farming community in its core spawn one of the most angry and violent rap albums of all time? The Gerth Archives and Special Collections is committed to collecting and promoting materials that address those persons and communities absent in the above Compton Collections. There are gaps and silences regarding individuals and populations that have thrived in Compton, including African American, Latinx, and Japanese American. While invaluable, these materials cannot give a complete picture of the rich, diverse life of the city of Compton. They document the founding of Compton and the early decades of its development, with primary interest on government, churches, schools, and businesses. These collections represent the the interests of Gillingham, as well as the information that may have been available to him at the time. Gillingham Working Papers (1932-1983) consists of correspondence, drafts, and manuscript copies related to his work on The Rancho San Pedro and his newspaper column Yesterdays of Compton, over sixty of which were gathered and published into a book of the same name. Heritage House Collection (1847-1989) this small collection of materials from and about the Heritage House Museum in Compton, California includes correspondence, ledgers, and paper from the Auxiliary programs, booklets, and correspondence about the museum itself and ephemera and journals from the 19th century donated to the museum from citizens of Compton.Compton History Collection (1869-1998) includes include newsletters, minutes, histories, correspondence, programs, yearbooks, directories, newspapers, and newsclippings related to the founding and history of Compton.A longtime Compton resident, teacher, and historian, he documented much of the history of the South Bay, and authored The Rancho San Pedro, thus far the only large-scale history of this historic region. Gillingham Working Papers Collection is the only collection that bears his name, but much of the material for all of the collections shown here was gathered by Gillingham. In 1969, Compton elected its first African-American mayor, Douglas Dollarhide. The city was first incorporated in 1888 and again in 1909, with Clarence Dickison as mayor. This land, known as the Temple and Gibson Tract, was subdivided and lots were purchased by Harmon Higgins in 1866 and a group of pioneers led by G.D. In 1866, Francis Temple and Fielding Gibson purchased a tract of land north of the Dominguez homestead. These collections contain documents related toВ the history of Compton, California, founded on land formerly of the historic Rancho San Pedro.

City of compton