Long time resident and founder of Santa Monica's Juneteenth Festival Laverne Ross briefly presents some of the changes in the Pico neighborhood she’s observed. Laverne moved to Santa Monica in 1957 when she was 9 years old and states that tones of the Jim Crow years were present in Santa Monica during that time. She also explains that the Santa Monica 10 freeway displaced Pico neighborhood residents to cities like West Los Angeles and Venice. According to her research, 4,000 African American people used to live in Santa Monica but she thinks that number has decreased to 1,000, which means that yes, the city has changed.
