Postmaster Leslie N. Shaw holds his Distinguished Citizen Award. Beside him are former recipients, left to right: Judge Vaino Spencer (1962), Vassie D. Wright (1961) and Lorenzo Bowdoin (1960). They are at the award ceremony held at the Ambassador Hotel. Honorable Vaino Hassan Spencer, State Appeal Court Justice, was the first black woman to be appointed to judgeship in the state of California and the third in the nation. Leslie N. Shaw was the vice-president of Family Savings & Loan Association when President John F. Kennedy appointed him the first black postmaster of Los Angeles (1963-1969), and of any major U. S. city. Later he became the president of the Great Western Financial Corporation. Vassie Wright was the founder and president of Our Authors Study Club, and a champion of the study of Black history. Lorenzo Bowdoin was a Los Angeles businessman, civic leader, philanthropist and NAACP leader. One of the first three black clerks hired by the Los Angeles Post Office in 1906, he worked there for 38 years and improved hiring and promotion policies for blacks. He was one of the organizers of Angelus Mortuary (1925) and was the treasurer for many years. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Haitian Coffee Co. He was active in many civic organizations including the Metropolitan YMCA.
Type
image
Identifier
uclalsc_1889_b07_f01_010.tif ark:/21198/z1515g7m
Subject
African American postmasters African American civic leaders African American judges Award presentations Spencer, Vaino Hassan, 1920-2016 Shaw, Leslie N., -1985 Ambassador Hotel Wright, Vassie Davis, 1893-1983 Bowdoin, Lorenzo, 1886-1972
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