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). Sigma Pi Phi (ΣΠΦ) is the first successful and oldest African-American Greek-lettered organization. Dr. Henry R. Butler graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1926; studied internal medicine at London Hospital on a Rosenwald Fellowship; headed a 1,000 bed military station hospital at Fort Huachuca, Arizona; and established his practice in Los Angeles in 1946. He was married to Reba Butler. Dr. Wilbur Clarence Gordon was a physician. He was born in Ohio and practiced medicine in Los Angeles. Ivan J. Johnson III was a Los Angeles attorney. He was one of the first African Americans to letter in track at USC and UC Berkeley. He was a charter member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. Shortly before his death, he was honored by the Langston Law Club as the dean of local attorneys. He was married to Dorothy Vena Johnson. Group portrait of fifteen members of the Los Angeles chapter of Sigma Pi Phi, in a garden or park. Dr. Alva Curtis Garrott married Lillie Dejarnette in 1893. Dr. Garrott earned degrees in Pharmacy and Dentistry at Howard University in Washington, D. C. before bringing his family to Los Angeles in 1901, becoming this city's first Negro dentist. A. J. "Kelly" Williams was a civic leader and vice president public service officer at Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company. Written on back of photo: Xi Boulé, Los Angeles. Seated from left: A. J. "Kelly" Williams, Dr. Henry Butler, Jr., Dr. Alva C. Garrott, Dr. John Alexander Somerville, DDS, Atty. Clarence Jones, Dr. B. A. Jordan, DDS. Standing from left: Dr. Gordon, M.D., Eugene Johnson, Pharmacist, Dr. Chas. A. Jackson, M.D., _____, _____, Dr. Henry McPherson, M.D., _____, Ivan J. Johnson, Atty. at law, Willis O. Tyler, Atty. at law.
Type
image
Identifier
uclalsc_1889_b25_f01_002a.tif ark:/21198/z1g467jz
Subject
African American Greek letter societies Somerville, John Alexander, 1881-1973 Gordon, Dr McPherson, Henry Arthur, 1908-1987 Jones, Clarence, 1886-1948 Sigma Pi Phi Johnson, Ivan J., III, 1903-1975 Jackson, Charles A., b. 1880 Butler, Henry R., Jr., 1899-1988 Johnson, Eugene G., Sr., 1893-1974 Garrott, Alva C. (Alva Curtis), 1866-1952 Williams, A. J. (Arthur Joseph), 1903-1966 Jordan, B. A. (Benjamin Arnett), 1885-1959 Tyler, Willis O. (Willis Oliver), 1880-1949
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