Group portrait with Dr. John A. Somerville (standing, 6th from left), at a meeting of the Circus Saints and Sinners Club. In the very front are two men dressed as a clown and a policeman. Dr. John Somerville, born in Jamaica, was the first black graduate of USC School of Dentistry (1907). He married Vada Jetmore Watson (1912), who also became a dentist. He built the Somerville Hotel (1928), was instrumental in the founding of the Los Angeles chapter of NAACP (1914), and served on the Police Commission 1949-1953. The Circus Saints and Sinners Club of America is a national organization that raises money for local charities.
Type
image
Identifier
uclalsc_1889_b14_f10_022a.tif ark:/21198/z1378ss3
Subject
African American businesspeople African American dentists African American civil rights workers Somerville, John Alexander, 1881-1973 Circus Saints & Sinners Club of America
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