Rolland Joseph 'Speedy' Curtis was born in Louisiana in 1922. After serving three years in the Marines during World War II, he and his wife, Gloria, relocated from New Orleans to Los Angeles in 1946. Curtis served four years with the Los Angeles Police Department, but resigned from the force in order to pursue both a Bachelor's and 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.; Leon H. Washington, Jr. (1907-1974) became the first African American to serve on the Board of Directors of the California Newspaper Publishers Association, and his own newspaper, the Los Angeles Sentinel which began publication in 1933, and is currently the oldest and largest running African American newspaper in Los Angeles. Washington became best known for his "Don't Spend Where You Can't Work" campaign, which boycotted businesses that operated in black communities, but refused to hire black workers. Leon Washington (left) is pictured with an unidentified man as they hold a sign that reads, "Let the poor speak for themselves" while protesting the election of the board to oversee anti-poverty funds. Numerous other demonstrators also hold signs, some of which read, "Of the people, for the people, by the people"; "Don't be fooled. Anti-poverty money... belongs to the people!" and "End Yorty's [illegible] dictatorship now." The crowd is marching in front of Los Angeles City Hall not far from the Los Angeles Times Building (background at left) and the State Building (right). Photograph July 12-13, 1965. See images 00128017; 00134109; 00134151; 00134153, and 00144893 through 00144900 for additional photos in this series.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print : b&w ; 10 x 13 cm. Photographic prints
Washington, Leon H.,--Jr Los Angeles City Hall (Los Angeles, Calif.) Los Angeles Times (Firm) Los Angeles Times Building California State Building (Los Angeles, Calif.) African American men Men African American women Women Protest movements Demonstrations Picketing Signs and signboards City halls Newspaper editors Newspaper buildings Buildings Lost architecture Sidewalks Streets Lampposts Trees Posing Smiling Los Angeles (Calif.)
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