Dr. Vada Somerville (born Vada Jetmore Watson) of Pomona graduated from USC, married dentist John Alexander Somerville (1912), was the first African American woman and the second African American person to graduate from USC School of Dentistry (1918), and was the first African American woman certified to practice dentistry in the state of California. She was a civil rights activist, highly involved in several civic and community organizations. Titus Alexander was a historian and civic leader, politician and historian in Los Angeles. Joseph Blackburn Bass founded the Topeka Call, a black community newspaper. He continued to work on that newspaper when it was purchased by another owner and its name changed to the Topeka Plaindealer. Bass was active in local politics, and in 1896 was one of the Kansas delegates to the Republican National Convention that nominated William McKinley for President. After a short stint publishing a black community newspaper in Helena, Montana, Bass moved to Los Angeles, where in 1913, he accepted Charlotta Spears' offer to edit the California Eagle. Spears and Bass married in 1914. H. Claude Hudson had a varied career, working as a dentist, lawyer, and businessman. He was President of the first branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Shreveport, Louisiana; after he moved his family to Los Angeles, he was elected President of the Los Angeles branch and served in that capacity for 10 years. In 1931, Dr. Hudson became the first African American graduate of Loyola Law School. He never practiced as a lawyer, however. He also founded Broadway Federal Savings and Loan. The Somerville Hotel opened on June 23, 1928. It was built by Drs. John and Vada Somerville for the first West Coast convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The hotel provided first-class accommodations in segregated Los Angeles for African Americans who were denied comparable lodging elsewhere. After the Stock Market crash in 1929, Somerville sold the hotel to lawyer Lucius Lomax, who renamed it after poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. Fred Williams, a blind man, was a real estate broker and newspaper publisher. Editor of the Omaha Monitor, he came to Los Angeles in 1923 and organized and published the Pacific Defender in 1925. Later he became a columnist for the Pittsburgh Courier and a contributor to many other newspapers. He wrote a column titled "Through the Darkness I See." Charles Alston painted a mural in the lobby of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Co. building in Los Angeles, entitled "The Negro in California History - Exploration and Colonization" around 1948. H. A. Howard was a business entrepreneur who founded and was the president of the Broadway Federal Savings and Loan Association. He was very active in civic organizations and was a vice president of the local chapter of the NAACP. Groundbreaking ceremony for the Hotel Somerville at 4225 S. Central Ave. From left: Bert McDonald, Dr. H. Claude Hudson, Dr. John A. Somerville, Fred Williams, Dr. Vada Somerville, H. A. Howard, Zora Williams, an unidentified woman (possibly Charlotte Bass), Titus Alexander, Charles Alston and Joseph B. Bass.
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image
Identifier
uclalsc_1889_b14_f07_003a.tif ark:/21198/z1q546p3
Subject
Hotels Ground breaking ceremonies Somerville, John Alexander, 1881-1973 Alston, Charles, 1907-1977 Bass, Charlotta A., 1880-1969 Howard, H. A. (H. Alexander), 1900-1972 Somerville, Vada, 1885-1972 Dunbar Hotel (Los Angeles, Calif.) McDonald, Bert A., 1898-1947 Bass, J. B. (Joseph Blackburn), 1867-1934 Alexander, Titus N. (Titus Nathaniel), 1870-1952 Williams, Zora, 1878-1964 Williams, Fred C., 1875-1950 Hudson, Claude H
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