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.; Photograph included in the Exhibit: Firsts, Seconds and Thirds: African American Leaders in Los Angeles During the 1960s and '70s from the Rolland J. Curtis Collection. Rev. Thomas Kilgore, Jr. (1913-1998) was the first African American to become president of the American Baptist Churches, during a time when the African Americans only made up 20% of the members. He was a friend to Martin Luther King, Jr., and helped organize the 1963 March on Washington. He was a senior pastor at Second Baptist Church from 1963-1985, the oldest African American Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Kilgore combined spirituality and community work, believing that serving God and serving your community were intertwined. Martin Luther King, Jr. accompanied by Rev. Thomas Kilgore, Jr., right, and others at an unidentified ribbon-cutting ceremony in Los Angeles.
Type
image
Format
1 negative :safety ;10 x 13 cm. Photographic safety negatives
Kilgore, Thomas,--1913-1998 King, Martin Luther,--Jr.,--1929-1968 Second Baptist Church (Los Angeles, Calif.)--Clergy Civil rights workers--United States Clergy--California--Los Angeles Dedications--California--Los Angeles Nobel Prize winners--United States Women--California--Los Angeles Men--California--Los Angeles Los Angeles (Calif.)
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