All People's Chirstian Church

      All People’s Christian Church was founded during the 1940s as  “House of Prayer for All Peoples” by minister Dan Genung and his wife, Frances. The Church’s original mission of diversity and inclusion still guides its membership today. From the community’s 2008 Strategic Plan: 

 

 

“All Peoples is a non-profit, non-sectarian community center located in the very spot where it was originally founded in 1942 – in South Los Angeles... At a time when de facto and de jure segregation were still an everyday reality in Los Angeles, the establishment of All Peoples, a multi-ethnic and multi-racial community center, was not just path-breaking, it was revolutionary.” 

 

 

The Church’s original building - pictured as a drawing on the front of this cookbook - had once been home to a predominately Japanese community of church goers, including a Japanese school.  Many members were imprisoned during WWII internment and returned home to find their neighborhood had greatly changed. All People’s Church provided a welcoming congregation amidst those shifting demographics, but the building also stood as a monument to a culturally-significant Japanese institution lost due to the horrors of internment. 

 

 

All People’s Church still exists today, though the facilities are different - expanded to be a community center and preschool. The recipes in this cookbook reflect the members range of backgrounds.