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.; 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. In 1969, Angela Davis became an assistant professor of Philosophy at UCLA. Due to her affiliation with the Communist Party in the United States and close ties to the Black Panther movement, the UCLA Board of Regents, at the urging of Governor Ronald Reagan, fired her from her position. A year later, Angela Davis' name was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted fugitive list; she became the third woman and the second African American woman to be added. She was charged with aggravated kidnapping and first degree murder after guns she purchased were used during the escape attempt by the Soledad Brothers, resulting in the death of the trial judge, the brothers and their accomplice. She was found not guilty by an all-white jury in 1972. Angela Davis speaks from the Spring Street steps of City Hall during the community rally on December 11, 1969; on the left is Rev. H. H. Brookins from First A.M.E. Church. Between 3,000 and 5,000 people have come out to protest the deteriorating relations between the Los Angeles Police Department and the Black Community. Protesters claim that officers applied excessive force during their raid on the Southern California Headquarters of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, 4115 S. Central Avenue, three days before.
Type
image
Format
1 negative :safety ;10 x 13 cm. Photographic safety negatives
Davis, Angela Y.--(Angela Yvonne),--1944- Brookins, H. Hartford Black Panther Party Black Panther Party.--Southern California Chapter First A.M.E. Church (Los Angeles, Calif.)--Clergy Los Angeles City Hall (Los Angeles, Calif.) Demonstrations--California--Los Angeles Clergy--California--Los Angeles Civil rights workers--United States Black power--United States Black militant organizations--United States African Americans--Social conditions--1964-1975 Public speaking--California--Los Angeles Men--California--Los Angeles Women--California--Los Angeles Microphones City halls--California--Los Angeles Public buildings--California--Los Angeles Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Spring Street (Los Angeles, Calif.) Downtown Los Angeles (Los Angeles, Calif.) Austin, John C. W.(John Corneby Wilson),1870-1963 Parkinson, Donald B.(Donald Berthold),1895-1945 Parkinson, John,1861-1935 Martin, Albert C.,1879-1960
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