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. James Shern joined the Los Angeles Fire dept. in 1948. The highest rank any African American firefighter had achieved up to this point was Captain, a distinction held by William Hall, who upon passing the Battalion Chief exam in 1931, was told that there would never be an African American promoted to that position. Thirty seven years later, in 1968, James Shern became the LAFD's first black Battalion Chief. By 1972, Shern retired from the LAFD and became the Fire Chief for the city of Pasadena, the first African American to hold that position in a major California city. From left to right, Councilman Billy Mills, First Battalion Chief James Shern and Chief Engineer Raymond Hill at City Hall for an LAFD awards ceremony in October 1969.
Type
image
Format
1 negative :safety ;10 x 13 cm. Photographic safety negatives
Mills, Billy G Hill, Raymond M Shern, James Los Angeles (Calif.).--Fire Department--Officials and employees City council members--California--Los Angeles Men--California--Los Angeles Los Angeles City Hall (Los Angeles, Calif.) Downtown Los Angeles (Los Angeles, Calif.)
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