If you can believe it, there was a time in the "official"
history of Long Beach when there were only three words about the
city's black community: "11 percent African American." That was
in the late 1980s. No one thought much about it, except one
person, Indira Hale Tucker, who said she was "flabbergasted" by
this scant information about people who made up such an
important part of the city's history and life. Tucker wasn't one
of those people who complain about something but do nothing
about it. Tucker rolled up her sleeves and started what turned
out to be a remarkable campaign to preserve and illuminate the
history of the black community in Long Beach. With her friends,
Doris Topsy-Elvord, the city's first black female City Council
member and harbor commissioner, and Aaron Day, a tireless author
and genealogist, Tucker started collecting personal stories,
newspaper stories and family photographs from black Long Beach
residents. Ironically, the group took a major step in its
preservation efforts when the ci