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.; Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005) earned her Bachelor of Arts from Brooklyn College in 1946, majoring in sociology and minoring in Spanish. She entered the world of politics in 1953 and won the Democratic primary in June 1964. She was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1965 to 1968, sitting in the 175th, 176th and 177th New York State Legislatures. In 1968, Chisholm ran for the U.S. House of Representatives and defeated two other black opponents thereby becoming the first black woman elected to Congress and represented New York's 12th congressional district for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. From 1977 to 1981, Chisholm served as Secretary of the Democratic Caucus. In 1972, she became the first black candidate for a major-party nomination for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Chisholm announced her retirement in February 1982 and retired from Congress in 1983; she taught at Mount Holyoke College while continuing her political organizing. In 1993 she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Chisholm died on January 1, 2005 after suffering from a series of small strokes. In November 2015, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (posthumously awarded) by President Barack Obama. Pictured in conversation (L-R) are Committee Chair Maudra Cummings, New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm and an unidentified woman. They are all at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jon Williams (not pictured) for an event at the invitation of the Committee of 19 Women for Better Government, which took place on January 1, 1970. See images 00128479 through 00128493; 00134187; 00134188; and 00143491 through 00143493 for additional photos in this series.
Type
image
Format
1 negative : safety ; 10 x 13 cm. Photographic safety negatives
Chisholm, Shirley,--1924-2005 African American women African American politicians Women Politicians Legislators Dwellings Sofas Corsages Name tags Smiling Los Angeles (Calif.)
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