Tagged: Los Angeles

Tenth Street Elementary is in the Pico-Union district of Los Angeles, a few blocks west of the Staples Center and downtown skyscrapers. It's a tough neighborhood; school security is always an issue.

On a recent day, about 150 third-graders were spread across a worn cement playground, running around, playing chase and tag.

Most lunch hours, you'll find Juan Alfayate, the school's energetic principal, out on the blacktop, dodging soccer balls and having fun with the kids while on playground patrol.

From the beginning of the 1920s through the late 1950s Los Angeles’ Central Avenue was the center of Southern California’s African-American community and the cradle of the Central Avenue Blues and Jazz styles.