History of the Korean Americans in Los Angeles

There is a significant Korean American population in Los Angeles.

As of 2008 Greater Los Angeles has the largest Korean community in the United States with about 60,000 ethnic Koreans. It, along with Greater New York City, is one of the two principal areas of Korean settlement, and the number of ethnic Koreans in Greater Los Angeles is 15% of the United States's Korean American population.

The Korean community was centered in the Bunker Hill area, a community designated as a place where non-Whites were allowed to live, from 1900 to the 1920s. This first wave of immigrants worked as truck farmers, domestic workers, waiters, and domestic help. The Korean United Presbyterian Church was established on West Jefferson Boulevard in 1905. A Korean community developed around this church.

The Bunker Hill community housed the Chang Ho Ahn residence, which served as a community center and a guidance, lodging, and community support center for new Korean immigrants. The community housed grocery stores and the offices of the Korean National Association Los Angeles Branch and the Young Korean Academy. In the 1930s the Korean population shifted to an area between Normandie and Vermont Streets in the Jefferson Boulevard area. This Korean area, which became known as the "Old Koreatown," was in proximity to the University of Southern California. By then the first generation of Korean immigrants had children, who lived around the Old Koreatown.

In the 1950s, Los Angeles received a second wave of Korean immigrants resulting from the Korean War and the children of the first generation of immigrants gave birth to the next generation. After the passage of the Hart-Cellar Act in 1965, Korean immigration increased. After the Watts Riots in 1965, many Koreans began moving to suburban communities. In 1970, the Koreans in Los Angeles and Orange Counties made up 63% of the total number of Koreans in the United States. Around this period, the Korean community area moved to Olympic Boulevard, where the modern Koreatown is located.

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