Man: Watts is only 2 1/4 miles square, with the most public housing units anywhere west of the Mississippi.

Poverty is amongst the highest in the nation.

It's a food desert.

It's an economic desert.

I'm trying to make the point that despite all of these things, people long and hope for a better way of life, and that's what compels me.

[Theme music playing] Woman: For me, this community is very nostalgic.

Man 2: We are taught to survive.

Man 3: We're talking about the cooks, the artists, the music.

Man 4: I had no idea I was privileged to be in Watts.

I actually spoke my future to life.

Man: That dream is coming to fruition.

Woman: When I was coming up, I was loved.

In this neighborhood, I was loved.

[Music ends] Announcer: This program was made possible in part by generous support from Carol Shandler, Paula R. Kendrick, and Nikolai Shandler Bokin.

[Distant dog barks] Man: If I was a regular 9-to-5er doing a regular job every day, I'd probably go crazy.

Why I love my job and what gets me up every day?

Um, number one is the hope that I feel, who lives in the people of Watts... [Truck door closes] I'm not that literate, I'm not college-educated.

I don't know if it's inertia or momentum, but one of 'em keeps me going.

One of 'em is what gets me out of bed every morning and gets me down here to work.

[Tractor beeping] Hey, Chris?

Chris on phone: Yeah.

Tim: You know, you guys have this pile of dirt over here.

Chris: Right.

Tim: Um, I think you should take it out of here before you put this pad in here.

Chris: Yeah, OK. Tim: I'm over here working with these guys.

They're putting in the gray pipe.

They'll put in the black pipe.

I'm getting the gray.

Chris: OK, what about the drain pipes?

Tim: We have to bring the electrical and the--and the drains up to the same place, but it might have to come around to a different spot over here.

I'll get the plan from Chris.

[Equipment beeps] When you gonna be over here?

Where--where is the ABS pipe, so that we can get these drains in?

You know, we're gonna have the grand opening, um, next Friday from 11:00 to 4:00, which you're welcome to join us at.

[Electric saw whirring] Tim, voice-over: We acquired MudTown Farms back in 2005.

What it started out as was a dream to create a beautiful urban farm park where people could find solace and respite, and we'd be growing what people need within a food desert.

[Speaks Spanish] OK, let's go check it out.

Tim, voice-over: The reason that MudTown Farms is so important to me is because when I agreed to take this job 22 years ago, it was with the determination that I was gonna extend my father's legacy.

When WLCAC started in 1965, one of the first things that he did, he started growing food.

MudTown Farms became alive in my mind, that here's an opportunity to extend that part of the legacy.

MudTown promises to be one of our greatest achievements; at the same time, one of our most worrisome undertakings.

The project has been plagued with cost overruns, time delays.

There's a lot of work to getting it complete.

When we have the grand opening, we hope that the neighborhood will come and they'll see a beautiful, safe space that has a sort of spiritual veil over it, like nothing happens in that space but peace.

Can't give me enough money, can't give me enough of anything else but fulfillment, knowing that I've actually made a difference, but also as an extension of my father's work, of the work of WLCAC, that it becomes part of our shared legacies.

Man: Where--where are you gonna take the mayor?

Ted Watkins: Uh, we're gonna take him on a tour around Watts.

We're building a senior citizens park on 104th and Ram.

We've got the growing grounds, we've got the credit union, we got the consumer action program, and we've got the best pocket parks that we've built.

Mayor Sam Yorty: And your training program for the hardcore unemployed, I think, is just great.

Ted: Thank you.

Tina Watkins-Quaye: My grandpa, Ted Watkins Sr., was born in Mississippi in the 1920s.

He was going to be lynched, and so his mother put him on a train and sent him here to Los Angeles alone, as either a 12- or 13-year-old boy, to figure out how to survive.

Ted: When I was living in the projects, I was a tenant council organizer and organized tenants.

When I was in the shop in the Ford Motor Company, I was organizing the workers, and when I came out here and started working in the community, I started organizing people in the community.

And that's what the Watts Labor Community Action Committee came out of, was that organizing effort.

Tina: He was instrumental in not only building the local county hospital here, but in helping to have the 105 Freeway built.

The individual single-family homes he's built here, the generational wealth that creates, it's just farther-reaching than I think I can wrap my mind around.

Ted: All of my peers--the doctors, lawyers, and merchant chiefs--felt that we were crazy to buy land in this decrepit and run-down community.

In about 7 years, we were putting houses on that land.

Tina: He passed away when I was about 13 years old.

I have fond memories of his character, his spirit.

He was a very imposing figure.

Of course, I can't profess to know exactly what compelled him to build the way that he did, but the more I learned, the more it seems like he was building a family.

Women: ♪ We're from Watts We're from Watts Mighty, mighty Watts Mighty, mighty Watts We're from Watts We're from Watts... ♪ Tina, voice-over: I grew up in Watts, and I traveled every single morning, from when I was 4 years old until I graduated at 17, to Palos Verdes.

Girl: Wow!

Tina, voice-over: Watts was concrete and gray and sterile and crowded and filthy, not because of the people, but because of the neglect.

Palos Verdes was meticulously designed and maintained and controlled, and full of greenery and beauty and freedom.

[Children clamoring] Tina, voice-over: It drilled into me that that's an intolerable injustice.

Tina: 1, 2, 3, go!

Yay!

Ha ha!

Tina, voice-over: WLCAC exists to remind people that they're just as worthy, and we do that in pockets here and there by planting trees and by helping people get back on their feet.

Tina: Should we race back?

I think we should race back and I should get a head-start 'cause I'm the slowest.

Tina, voice-over: Every single interaction, it's 20,000 moments of "you matter"--heh!--of "I care about you," of "you are valuable," and so it's in my blood, it's in my heart, and I love it.

Heh!

Tina: Oh, my gosh.

OK, you proved it.

You proved it, Sam.

You're definitely faster.

Ha ha!

Thanks for keeping Mom in shape.

[Distant dog barking] Man: So we're gonna start putting this stuff in buckets, and this is called enriched mulch.

I don't know how to say that in Spanish.

[Woman speaking Spanish] [Man speaks Spanish] Man: ...con vitamins.

Yeah.

Man, voice-over: What I do in Watts is I do community gardening.

I create opportunities for high school students to earn letters of recommendation as an exchange for the activism, the organizing, and the work that they do in gardening.

Moses: So what we do is we put this here, and this is what we call sifting.

Heh!

Moses, voice-over: I messed up a little bit in the ninth grade because of gangs, but by the tenth grade, I realized I could be an athlete and I could do well in school, and I wanted to be eligible to get into a university because I saw a university as a way out from violence and abuse and blight and systemic oppression that I grew up with as a child, that was normalized to me.

Moses: So, at first, we put the amendment in and then we massage the roots, like this.

Moses, voice-over: So, when I got to UC Santa Cruz, I had a culture shock.

I had no idea--heh!--that I was privileged to be in Watts or in Inglewood, where all these Black businesses were and where Black people were and where Black culture was regular, and there were so many white people that I didn't feel like I belonged in college.

But then I'll remember I encountered this professor, this very tall, well-spoken professor with a big afro, who I had never heard of before in my life.

Her name was Angela Davis.

Angela: You're defending yourselves, you're defending the struggle, you're defending the cause of liberation.

Moses, voice-over: Initially went to UC Santa Cruz because I wanted to be a doctor.

I learned a lot in my first class on that track, but what stood out to me the most was the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, was the racism.

And I had so many questions about it that weren't getting answered because that wasn't the objective of the class, so I said to myself, "I just met this person on accident named Angela Davis.

She answered the questions about racism that the medical track is not answering.

I'm gonna switch over and I want to do history and I want to do sociology and I want to do what's called feminist studies."

[Distant dog barking] Boy: Tomato time.

Moses: OK, you want to unload some of these tomatoes with me?

Masala, can you go up that way and see if any of the neighbors are on the porch and ask 'em if they want some tomatoes?

Moses, voice-over: I was then able to contextualize Watts and see that the things that were happening in Watts and the way that I perceived Watts to be was because I was being miseducated.

Watts is named for a man named C.H.

Watts.

C.H.

Watts was a white man who made lots of money... Moses: De nada.

Moses, voice-over: And then, over time, it industrialized and went from agricultural to industrial.

And in doing so, the demand for African Americans during the first and second Great Migration meant that Watts became something like a place where people can come and find better opportunities than they had in the South.

So institutions like WLCAC, people like the Watkins family, those people created opportunities for African Americans to fight against things that were happening to them as a result of people not wanting them to find better lives.

Woman: OK, thank you.

Moses: Adiós, Doña.

Buenas noches.

Doña: OK, thank you.

Moses, voice-over: I'm a farmer's apprentice, and when I was going through all the trauma of what was the comprehensive exams for Ph.D. and trying to find my way in the academy, I told Dr. Stephanie Evans, I said, "I'm gonna finish this Ph.D. and I want to be a farmer."

Moses: You want tomatoes?

These are free.

You want-- Woman: So I'll be back.

Moses: All right.

I'll be-- they might be gone!

Moses, voice-over: I didn't know I was serious.

I thought I was just saying that 'cause I was disillusioned with all these books I had to read, and I don't want to keep arguing with people about why my work is valuable, but I actually spoke my future to life.

Tim: What's happening, man?

No, I just saw you, man.

I just saw you.

Man: I love you, baby.

How you been, man?

Tim: How you doing?

All right.

I'm going over here to see Dottie.

Man: Oh, OK, man.

Tim: Yeah.

Man: Know you're the 'hood hero.

Tim: Heh heh!

Man: All right, bro.

Tim: How are you?

Man: I been all right, man.

Why you keep getting younger, man?

Tim: Oh, I'm not getting younger, brother.

Man: You look good, man.

Tim: Trust me.

Thank you.

Man: All right.

Tim: Ha ha!

Man: Mr. Watkins!

Tim: They've made improvements here over the years a few times, but the truth is there hasn't been any significant investment in the quality of life, you know, the amenities.

My father used to equate it to a field of weeds and that, you know, the only thing you can do is try to plant some flowers in it to bring perspective, and that's why he started the slogan "Don't move, improve," because you can make a difference by standing right where you are.

Man: Do you know, you know, I think they had that on their lot?

Donny Joubert, voice-over: Grew up here over 50-some years, lived in this community.

Got my very first job here when I was 17 years old, worked for Tim dad.

Donny: What's going on, Tim?

Yeah.

Tim: Continuing on, carrying on.

Donny, voice-over: I had a lot of respect for his dad.

His dad had a lot of respect for the community.

Man: Hey, Mr. Tim!

Donny: What's up, guys?

Tim: Hey, what's up, man?

Donny, voice-over: I'm one of the founders of the truce in 1992.

We all met in Nickerson inside the whole gym field, and I'm talking about gangs from every city.

We had a truce, we had peace in our community for going on 11 years, until 2005.

A lot of us just came together again, and we formed the task force, which is the Watts Game Task Force.

Tim: For them to maintain the peace means that they have to do it while they starving, right?

Donny: Right.

Tim: You're supposed to set down your gun.

I understand that.

You're supposed to set down your knife, your chain, your stick, whatever you got, and go out there and compete on a playing field that is nowhere near level.

Donny: Well, a prime example, Tim--1992, when we had the truce, right?

Tim: Yeah.

Donny: So guess what.

We asked them guys to put down the weapons, stop the violence, and "we're going to make it happen for you."

So guess what happened following that.

Tim: Heh heh!

Donny: They shut down all the programs, they shut down the rec center, so what they wanted us to do was struggle.

Tim: Right.

Donny: So now, we just told these guys that we could help 'em--exactly what you saying now--we could help 'em, they're gonna benefit from this, and guess what.

By them shutting down everything, what'd they do?

Make everybody go back to where they were before.

Tim: Yeah.

Donny, voice-over: I done seen a lot of my friends go to prison, I done seen a lot of my friends die.

I done been to thousands of funerals.

You know, when you want to gang-bang, it's only two things to that, and it's either prison or death.

And so we try to give 'em a way out, a opportunity.

I done came here to Tim plenty of times with some of my guys that got out of prison, done did 25, 30 Years.

Tim hired 'em, put 'em to work.

Donny: When the crime has gone away... Tim: Right.

Donny: when all the homicide disappear... Tim: Right.

Donny: that's a million dollars every tape that's set up.

Tim: That's right.

Donny: So just imagine, now we could hold 'em accountable about where is that money?

Tim: That's right.

Donny: Why can't that--why ain't the money being spent here like it's supposed to?

Tim: Right.

Donny: But this is what we was telling a bunch of young brothers yesterday.

"Listen, it starts with y'all now.

We're the O.G.s, but right now, we're talking to you young cats.

Y'all are the one gotta fix this, and then we'll get behind you.

I know some people."

I even brought your name up.

I said, "Tim, all of us will get behind y'all 100%."

Tim: That's right.

Donny: "If we know y'all doing it the right way.

We just ain't gonna support bull--[bleep]."

Donny, voice-over: If we didn't have WLCAC right here, we'd be in trouble.

I mean, from providing meals, providing jobs, safe place for our young people to come here.

And Tim gets up the same way every single day, trying to figure out what's the right thing to do for the community.

He's stayed focused, he's strong-minded.

Man, I love that guy.

I look at him like my big brother.

Tim: Thank you, brother.

Keep on with it.

Donny: Always.

Tim: And let me know how that goes with them youngsters, man.

Donny: I will.

I will.

Tim: You know, get me involved.

Donny, voice-over: We thank God we all had a opportunity to get out, to say to our community, "It's another way."

When people first think of a far what comes to mind is large plots of land with one crop growing throughout it.

I see farms as something a little bit different.

I think it's important to bring food to people who live in a food desert.

That's that.

There's also a lot of importance for me in bringing a green space; not just a green space to be in, but a space that is diverse, like nature, a space that you can dig into the soil and you see worms and you see the pill bugs and the sowbugs.

It's just constant life and constant movement and interaction.

I think it's really important to bring an ecological, like, safe haven to a city; any city, but especially Los Angeles, which is sprawling metropolis.

So hopefully, the grand opening will be a fun time.

It'll kind of be like a farm fair, lots of little, different things going on.

This space is ultimately the Watts community space, from education to just coming in for respite.

It is something that MudTown emphasizes that I find a lot of other farms and farmers would never really think about.

Woman: So, Tim?

Tim: Yes?

Woman: Can we do the strawberries in that row and peppers in there?

Tim: Um... so the peppers--heh!

I told him I wanted hot peppers, and he--if he wanted to get some bell peppers, he could do that, too.

He got bell peppers, and he ain't get any hot peppers.

Ava: Right.

Tim: So... Ava: People still like those.

Ava, voice-over: I'm 33, and I've left my hometown due to environmental issues.

My hometown is in Long Island, New York.

You know, I grew up around, like, different Superfund sites.

A lot of my family members got cancer.

I've had family members die from cancer, and it's due to these, like, environmental issues that caused the slow death.

It's really hard, why I'm getting upset--heh!--thinking about it, and it's like, you know, it's something that's affected me personally, it's affected my mom, my dad, friends, family, you know, just losing people, and it's like I just don't want that to happen to more people; all of it's just because of the stupid environmental stuff that could have been prevented, things that could have been addressed.

[Water sprays] I say this a lot to people who ask, "Why do you do it?"

You know, 'cause some days, it's, like, really hard and thankless and all these other kinds of things, but I see it as almost a religious pursuit.

Ha ha!

Ava: You know, the farm isn't reinventing the wheel.

You know, there's still the gardens that have been in Watts as well.

So those gardens have been sticking it out--ha ha!--and they deserve all the credit that they--that they deserve.

Adding another green space is great, and it's needed anytime.

[Distant plane engine roaring] Moses: You guys ready?

Moses, voice-over: I'm a bridge activist, and I use gardening and farming to bring communities together.

Moses: Sidewalk.

Moses, voice-over: So I take Black children into the garden, and I do this thing called the "3 sisters method."

You plant corn first.

Once the corn is about two inches, then you plant beans next to it.

Moses: ¿Cuantos quieres?

Moses, voice-over: The corn is sister one, beans are sister two, and then we put the squash down around it.

[Two women speak Spanish] [Moses speaks Spanish] Moses, voice-over: "Now, let me tell you something.

There's 5 sisters.

Here, kids, I'mma teach you the 5 sisters method.

Let me tell you what these sunflowers are for.

Sunflowers distract the birds."

Moses: De nada.

Have a nice day.

Moses, voice-over: "The birds are the outside agencies that want to see Watts gentrified.

So when the birds come in, instead of eating our tomato, they go directly for the seeds.

So that's protecting Watts.

That's sister 4."

Moses: How are you guys doing this morning?

Do you want some corn?

Moses, voice-over: The kids are like, "OK, all right.

Now we understand what gentrification is.

We know how to stand up against gentrification and displacement because we're like sunflowers."

I say, "Yes, you're a Black sunflower kid."

And then we introduce another sister--Big Sister.

Big Sister is the land, the land upon which all these things grow.

That's Watts.

Moses: It's not a race.

Moses, voice-over: So we're gonna stand our ground and we're gonna protect Watts, and I'm saying to myself--as a child, I'm looking back at myself and I'm saying these are the things that I wanted when I was here in Watts and I had questions, and nobody was coming to me to answer those questions, because the people who could have brought me here to answer those questions were too busy defending themselves from police brutality.

So if I have a cousin who gets shot 21 times in his car and he dies, and we have PTSD, onset PTSD as children and as adults, we don't have time to come and do activism because we're trying to survive, so what I'm teaching children is that their activism is survival.

Tim, voice-over: The lessons my father taught me were freely shared with everyone.

Long before there was a Nike, he was saying, "Just do it.

Don't wait for someone else to do what needs to be done.

If there's a broken window, board it up.

If there's trash on the ground, pick it up.

If someone is in distress, help them."

No one has ever heard me say that I'm trying to follow in my father's footsteps or fill his shoes.

That's impossible.

What I do is I honor his footsteps, I honor the shoes that he filled.

If I end up being known for anything, I want to be known for setting examples of how people can work their way through seemingly impossible challenges.

Tim: There is a lot that goes into the possibilities here, and the possibilities in Watts are endless.

That's why I tell the people of Watts every chance I get, "Don't let anybody tell you that you're poor because you don't have a thousand bucks in your pocket.

You are rich with potential."

It's up to us to figure out, without owning the possibilities, how to expose those possibilities, how to bring some of those possibilities to fruition.

[Line rings, clicks] Man on phone: Hello.

Tim on phone: I just wanted to mention to you, Tee--she's the cultural enrichment director-- she's gonna be reaching out to you about the event next Friday, uh, the grand opening for MudTown Farm.

[Theme music playing] Announcer: This program was made possible in part by generous support from Carol Shandler, Paula R. Kendrick, and Nikolai Shandler Bokin.