Los Angeles's 8th City Council district

Los Angeles's 8th City Council district is one of the fifteen districts in the Los Angeles City Council. It is currently represented by Democrat Marqueece Harris-Dawson since 2015 after winning an election to succeed Bernard C. Parks, who termed out.

The district was created in 1925 after a new city charter was passed, which replaced the former "at large" voting system for a nine-member council with a district system with a 15-member council. As the city's population expanded to the west, the 8th District's boundaries gradually shifted that way as well.

Geography
The 8th District includes the neighborhoods of Baldwin Hills, Chesterfield Square, Crenshaw, Jefferson Park, and other communities of western South Los Angeles.

The district overlaps California's 37th and 43rd congressional districts, California's 28th and 35th State Senate districts, as well as California's 55th, 57th, and 61st State Assembly districts.

Historical boundaries
The district was preceded by the eighth ward, established in 1889 with the passing of the 1888 charter. It included Westlake and Downtown. It elected one member through a plurality vote before the ward became obsolete when the at-large district was re-established again in 1909. The ward had one of the longest serving members before the passing of the 1925 charter, being Republican Everett L. Blanchard who served for fifteen years.

In 1925, the district was created, with the borders of the district at south of Washington Street, north of Jefferson on the western side and north of Slauson Avenue on the eastern side, bounded on the east by Alameda Street and the Vernon city line. A year later, it was bounded by 47th Street, Vermont Avenue, Florence Avenue and Alameda Street. In 1933, due to the "exceptional growth of the western part of the city," the new boundaries were at Central Avenue, Vernon Avenue, Vermont Avenue, and Century Boulevard.

In 1940, the "general trend [was] westward and northeastward, due to heavy construction in the San Fernando Valley and the beach areas." It was bounded on the north by Vernon Avenue, on the west by Western Avenue, on the east by the city limits or Alameda Street and on the south by about Slauson Avenue. In 1955, it bordered on Huntington Park and Vernon, from Vernon Avenue to 94th Street." By this time, a sizable amount of the total population in the district was African American, and their influence would later help Billy G. Mills, one of the first three African Americans to be elected to the City Council, in 1963. In 1964, it was enlarged by absorbing two-thirds of the old 12th District, which was moved to the San Fernando Valley because of the growth of population there.

By 1971, it ran from Adams Boulevard through the south central city to around Century Boulevard, including parts of Watts. By 1975, the district ran in a north-south line in South Los Angeles. It was described as suffering from "some of the worst crime, unemployment and housing problems in the city." In 1992, the district boundaries had shifted west to include Marlton Square on Crenshaw Boulevard. as well as Baldwin Hills.