Palm Springs Black History Committee Hosts Special City Tour

Since the start of February, the Palm Springs Black History Committee has hosted events, ranging from a basketball tournament to their annual awards gala.

Today, the committee led a special tour throughout the city introducing locals to Black pioneers of Palm Springs.

It was created for both residents and visitors to learn a bit more about the history of Palm Springs, including all the contributions that African Americans played into the city helping form it into what it is today.

“The major significance of the tour is just to shed light on the contributions of African Americans in the Coachella Valley. We have one of the most diverse areas in California within our small community of the Coachella Valley, and we wanted to highlight that.” Jarvis Crawford, the President of the Palm Springs Black History Committee says.

Initially it started off as a caravan, with multiple cars following one another throughout the city, but this year the committee used a tour bus, allowing guests to be more interactive.

They started off at James O. Jessie. Desert Highland Unity Center where folks gathered to tour toward their first set of destinations, the local works of renowned African American architect Paul R. Williams.

“From the historic Town and Country Center to the historic Palm Springs Tennis Club, he even had his ties to the El Mirador Hotel, which is now the Desert Regional Medical facility.” Crawford adds.

The tour then goes on to tell stories of areas like the Lawrence Crossley neighborhood, “Just talked about the trees that were planted in the Lawrence Crossley neighborhood, and those trees were soon after taken down because to African Americans, they saw it as a way of blocking the blacks from the rest of the community. It actually bordered a golf course. The trees were taken down by the City of Palm Springs which made great strides in that community.” Crawford says.

They then toured the Desert Highland Gateway Estates, which today marks as the largest African American community in the Coachella Valley.

Crawford goes on to say, the goal of the tour is for people from all different walks of life to experience learning this history together, “It’s important for residents and visitors alike to learn about Black history and to see the great accomplishments and even to see places that they did not realize that African Americans contributed to.”