Title supplied by cataloger. Rolland Joseph 'Speedy' Curtis was born in Louisiana in 1922. After serving three years in the Marines during World War II, he and his wife, Gloria, relocated from New Orleans to Los Angeles in 1946. Curtis served four years with the Los Angeles Police Department, but resigned from the force in order to pursue both a Bachelor's and Master's degree from USC. He later became involved in city politics, as an associate of Sam Yorty, and later a field deputy to City Council members Billy Mills and Tom Bradley. He was briefly director of the Model Cities program in 1973. Rolland J. Curtis died in his home in 1979, the victim of a homicide. An affordable housing complex on Exposition Blvd. near Vermont Ave. was named in his honor in 1981, along with a nearby street and park.; Gilbert Lindsay (1900-1990) was born on a cotton plantation in Mississippi where he later picked cotton for 50 cents a day. In 1928, he moved to Los Angeles and became a janitor for the Department of water & Power. By 1963, at the age of 62, Lindsay became the first African American to join the City Council. Appointed to fill a vacancy, he was reelected consistently until his death in 1990. Pictured is Councilman Gilbert Lindsay posing with Nisei Week Royal Court members, Queen Joanne Sono Uehara (right) and runner up Darlene Hiroto (left) at Los Angeles City Hall. The women can be seen dressed in traditional kimonos, with the Queen wearing a tiara, and the Princess wearing an ornate hair decoration. They are present for possibly the 27th (judging by the year) Nisei Week Japanese Festival; though the word, Nisei means, "second generation" the festival celebrates and promotes both Japanese and Japanese American heritage and traditions. The festival is held in Little Tokyo within Downtown Los Angeles. Photograph dated 1967. See images 00139993 through 00140000, and 00141681 through 00141684 for additional photos in this series.
Type
image
Format
1 color negative : safety ; 10 x 13 cm. Photographic safety negatives
Lindsay, Gilbert Los Angeles City Hall (Los Angeles, Calif.) Nisei Week Japanese Festival (Los Angeles, Calif.) African American men Men Japanese American women Women African American politicians Politicians City council members City halls Japanese--Clothing Kimonos Tiaras Hair ornaments Smiling Posing Little Tokyo (Los Angeles, Calif.)
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