Longtime community activist “Sweet” Alice Harris was recognized on June 17 with an intersection in Watts named in her honor.
The 90-year-old Harris was joined by Los Angeles City Councilman Tim McOsker at the ceremony at the intersection of Lou Dillon Avenue and Santa Ana Boulevard North, near the eight homes she owns on Lou Dillon Avenue and where the social services organization she founded in 1967, Parents of Watts Working with Youths and Adults, is operated.
“This sign and this naming will remember your work — your decades and decades and decades of work, that’s going to continue for decades and decades and decades more,” McOsker said as he unveiled the signage designating the intersection in Harris’ honor.
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Harris is the executive director of Parents of Watts, which encourages children to stay in school and always avoid drugs. It provides emergency food and shelter for homeless people, prepares teenagers for trade school, college and the job market and also offers drug counseling, health seminars and parenting classes.
“Thank you all, and I’m ever so grateful that you all have come out and recognized me, because nobody does that but my husband sitting there,” Harris told the crowd of supporters gathered for the event. “I’m ever so proud of my husband because I couldn’t do what I’m doing if he wasn’t a part of me and helping me.”
McOsker, whose district includes Watts, called the organization “a beacon of hope for the community” in the motion designating the intersection as Sweet Alice Square.
“Her remarkable journey and contributions have left an indelible mark on the history of Watts and will always stand as a testament to the resilience and strength of the human spirit,” McOsker said in the motion.
