Oral History: Leola King
About Leola King
"Leola King was born in 1919 in Seminole County, Oklahoma and raised in Los Angeles. Her father moved north to San Francisco in 1943, and began a successful and popular barbecue restaurant business. Leola joined him in 1946, eventually opening her own business—a nightclub and bar—in the early 1950s. Throughout the 1950s, she purchased several apartment buildings and added several other Fillmore bars, including the Birdcage, to her stable of businesses. Sadly, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency began taking King’s properties through eminent domain, paying her a small percentage of what they were worth, and eventually wiping her out financially. Ms. King continued to fight the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency for just compensation until she passed away in 2015 in Palm Springs, CA.”
- Elizabeth Pepin Silva, Harlem of the West
