Title supplied by cataloger. Rolland Joseph 'Speedy' Curtis was born in Louisiana in 1922. After serving in the Marines during World War II, he and his wife, Gloria, relocated from New Orleans to Los Angeles in 1946. Curtis served for four years with the Los Angeles Police Department, but resigned from the force in order to pursue both a Bachelor's and a 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.; Gilbert Lindsay (1900-1990) was born on a cotton plantation in Mississippi where he later picked cotton for 50 cents a day. In 1928, he moved to Los Angeles and became a janitor for the Department of water & Power. By 1963, at the age of 62, Lindsay became the first African American to join the City Council. Appointed to fill a vacancy, he was reelected consistently until his death in 1990. Barbara Bennett (center), a ninth grade student at Charles Drew Junior High School, is pictured shaking hands with Councilman Gilbert Lindsay (second from left), and three unidentified people at City Hall, after delivering her award winning speech on the life and works of Mary McLeod Bethune to City Council. Bennett's speech won first place in a contest commemorating the renaming of Slauson Park to Bethune Park. The unidentified women are possibly Charles Drew Junior High Girl's Principal Inez H. Faulk and Social Studies teacher Mary Goings. The unidentified man is possibly Principal Walter S. Thomas. The event occurred on on April 7, 1964. See images 00118765 through 00118768 for all photos in this series.
Type
image
Format
1 negative : safety ; 10 x 13 cm. Photographic safety negatives
Lindsay, Gilbert Los Angeles City Hall (Los Angeles, Calif.) Charles Drew Junior High School (Los Angeles, Calif.)--Students African American teenagers Teenagers African American young women Young women African American girls Girls African American women Women African American men Men African American politicians Politicians City Council members Middle school students Teenage girls City Halls Award winners Handshaking Posing Smiling Los Angeles (Calif.)
If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.
Share your story
Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.
