“I always say that the [Los Angeles] Sentinel is like a family,” former publisher Ruth Washington told The Los Angeles Times in 1981. “By that I mean it belongs to us and it belongs to the people, just like a child belongs to a family. That’s what makes it such a beautiful paper.”
On March 15, The Sentinel will celebrate 82 years of being the voice of L.A.’s black community. In that span of time, the publication has been instrumental in championing the causes of entrepreneurship and economic self-sufficiency. It has also played a major activist role in the county it serves.
It all started in 1933 when Leon H. Washington, advertising salesman for the California Eagle left the then largest Black newspaper in the city to start his own paper, The Eastside Shopper. Readership of the free paper increased quickly and allowed him to turn it into a subscription based publication called the Los Angeles Sentinel. In January 1934, Washington spearheaded the “Don’t Spend Where You Can’t Work” campaign in Los Angeles, urging blacks to boycott white stores in their communities that refused to hire them.
(Leon H. Washington)
Washington was jailed for his efforts, but the campaign solidified what the paper would be for the community… a voice, speaking up for justice and equality. By the late 1940s Washington began experiencing health problems, which forced him to appoint his wife Ruth as assistant publisher and business manager of the Sentinel. Mrs. Washington was determined to continue what her husband started, making sure the Sentinel was where readers could find coverage of anything happening in black Los Angeles.
When Washington died in 1974, his widow officially took over as publisher until her death in 1990. During her leadership, she created the Black women’s forum along with Ethel Bradley, wife of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, and legislator Maxine Waters. She also raised a significant amount of funds for the Crenshaw YMCA and provided the Sentinel as a forum for rival gangs in the city to hash out their differences.
She told the Times, “We’ve tried to do exactly for the community what Mr. Washington would have wanted us to do. That’s what keeps us going.”
Financial challenges in the 1980s forced Mrs. Washington to give the Sentinel’s longtime attorney Kenneth Thomas control over the weekly publication although she remained publisher. Thomas became publisher when Mrs. Washington died of cancer in 1990. Under his leadership, the Sentinel staff was relocated from its home on Central Avenue, to 3800 Crenshaw Boulevard, where it remains today.
Thomas and the Sentinel were appointed as representatives of the black press during the O.J. Simpson trial. The attorney turned publisher continued the Sentinel’s legacy as a resource for information vital to the black community and as an active voice, speaking out against injustice as well as highlighting positive people and events. By the time he died of respiratory failure in 1997, he had garnered the admiration and respect of the city’s black community from residents to notable politicians like Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
“He was always there as a friend, a confidant, a resource,” said Waters, speaking at his funeral. “He was always there speaking truth to power.”
The Sentinel stayed afloat through KenJenCo., Inc., a company that Thomas started with his wife Jennifer, who took over as publisher after his death. She remained in charge of the Sentinel until 2004. Under her leadership, the paper was involved the city’s yearly Black Business Expo and also put on an annual fashion show for the community.
Thomas’ widow passed the baton to businessman and long time community activist Danny Bakewell Sr. who remains publisher today. Under Bakewell and his family, the Sentinel slogan officially became, “the voice of the community speaking for itself.” The publication continues to be a vital resource for Los Angeles’ Black community.
In 2005 Bakewell started the Taste of Soul, the largest Black food and family festival in the city, with the Sentinel as its centerpiece. In addition to TOS, the Sentinel is involved in the community year round, with events like Sabriya’s Blood Drive, Mothers In Action Back to School festival, Ward Villas Thanksgiving feed and the Angel Tree Christmas giveaway.
