Celestine 'Suzie' Clisby Ellis in front of 'Suzie's tree' on Broadway between 18th and 19th Streets

Celestine 'Suzie' Clisby Ellis in front of 'Suzie's tree' on Broadway between 18th and 19th Streets

2010

Celestine 'Suzie' Clisby Ellis was born in Santa Monica and lived on Broadway between 18th and 19th Streets. Background: For the first half of the twentieth century, the blocks between Euclid and 20th Streets on Broadway was a hub for Black and immigrant communities in Santa Monica. People raised their families in the tight-knit Broadway neighborhood, forming businesses, schools, churches, charity clubs and fraternity organization. In the 1960s, for the construction of the Interstate-10 Freeway, City officials invoked eminent domain to seize the land in the Pico neighborhood. The move resulted in the displacement of hundreds of people, cutting off the connections between Pico and Broadway neighborhoods and permanently altered the lives of those who had thrived in the Broadway community.

Santa Monica Public Library Image Archives; QRC005; Digital object 5143 img005

Ellis, Celestine Clisy

African Americans--California--Santa Monica

African American neighborhoods--California--Santa Monica

California Digital Library

http://digital.smpl.org/cdm/ref/collection/QRC/id/38