Title created 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.; In April of 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., an African American clergyman, prominent leader of the civil rights movement, and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate traveled to Memphis, Tennessee for a planned event along with several other civil rights movement organizers, and were lodging at the Lorraine Motel. According to Rev. Samuel Kyles, Dr. King was leaning over the balcony railing in front of his motel room, #306, speaking with Rev. Jesse Jackson when a shot from a rifle rang out at 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968. Dr. King was struck in the face by a single bullet, which entered through his right cheek, breaking not only his jaw, but several vertebrae as it traveled down his spinal cord, severing his jugular vein and major arteries in the process, before lodging in his shoulder. He was immediately rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital where doctors opened his chest and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation to no avail. Tragically, Dr. King never regained consciousness and died at 7:05 pm that same evening. On April 8th, Dr. King's widow Coretta Scott King, along with the couple's four children, led a crowd of 40,000 in a silent march through the streets of Memphis, Tennessee. The following day, funeral rites were held in Dr. Kings' hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, and the service held at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. A funeral procession, which was followed by more than 100,000 mourners, transported Dr. King's body from the church to Morehouse College. A crowd of 300,000 attended Dr. Martin Luther King's funeral on April 9, 1968. President Lyndon B. Johnson declared April 7th as a national day of mourning throughout the United States. A group of unidentified adults are seen protesting outside of the Broadway Crenshaw Department Store located in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza. A protester holds up a sign that reads, "Please do not shop here." Behind him, several more demonstrators are visible holding similar signs. The group is objecting to the store's refusal to close for a citywide mourning or allow employees to take time off to mourn the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Photograph dated 1968. See images 00128008 through 00128014, and 00128901 through 00128910 for additional photos in this series.
Type
image
Format
1 negative : safety ; 10 x 13 cm. Photographic safety negatives
King, Martin Luther,--Jr.,--1929-1968--Assassination Broadway Department Store African American men Men African American women Women African Americans--Civil rights--History--20th century Demonstrations Picketing Storefronts Department stores Signs and signboards Baldwin Hills (Los Angeles, Calif.)
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