HISTORY

Known for the largest Cambodian population in the United States, Cambodia Town is also home to Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian neighbors whose histories are woven into this East Long Beach corridor.

In 2018, more than a dozen small businesses in Poly and East Anaheim Plazas received demolition and redevelopment notices. KH Market launched a social media campaign and online petition that gathered over 9,000 signatures. Community action led the City of Long Beach to delay redevelopment approvals until the developer met with affected businesses.

The Anaheim Atlantic Development Working (AADW) group formed from several small businesses and hosted a community forum on February 27, 2019 at Gamboa Theater in MacArthur Park. AADW later became the Cambodia Town Thrives collaborative, which continues to organize around displacement, investment, and resident-led planning.

The Black Panthers, VIP Records, and NAACP were all located within Eastside Long Beach. Black residents made up much of this area due to restrictive covenants, redlining, and Proposition 14 of 1964. Black organizing helped open the door to refugee entry, which led to the passage of the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975 and the Refugee Act of 1980. These laws supported Cambodian refugees migrating and settling in Long Beach.
In 1968, Latino students from Polytechnic High School protested the lack of ethnic education in their curriculum. Many continued advocacy at CSULB, helping launch one of the first Chicano Studies departments in the United States.

The War in Southeast Asia, the Khmer Rouge, and the Killing Fields forced many Cambodians to migrate to Long Beach to rebuild their lives and community. Through organizing by Cambodia Town Inc. and the Midtown Business Improvement District, with Councilmember Dee Andrews, the East Anaheim Street corridor was officially designated as Cambodia Town on July 3, 2007. That designation recognized a community already building businesses, cultural institutions, and neighborhood pride along the corridor.

Cambodia Town did not appear overnight. It grew from Tongva stewardship, decades of Black and Latino organizing in East Long Beach, refugee resettlement after war and genocide, and years of small-business advocacy along Anaheim Street. When residents pushed back against displacement in 2018 and 2019, they were continuing a long pattern of community self-determination. Cambodia Town Thrives builds on that record by keeping history visible while residents shape what comes next for housing, culture, safety, and local ownership. The timeline below highlights photos and moments that show how neighbors, institutions, and organizers have kept this place alive across generations.