Title supplied by cataloger. 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.; Elected in 1963, Billy G. Mills (1929-) was the third African American to serve on the Los Angeles City Council, a seat he held until 1974 when he became a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. He was the first African American chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee, winning over fellow Councilman Tom Bradley by just three votes.; Cesar Chavez (1927–1993), born in Yuma, Arizona to a Mexican-American family, was an American labor leader and civil rights activist who began his working life as a manual laborer. In June of 1942, Chavez graduated from junior high, left formal education, and became a full-time farm laborer. In 1944, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was stationed at the U.S. base in Saipan; six months later moved to Guam, then stationed to San Francisco, at which point he decided to leave the Navy, receiving an honorable discharge in 1946. He relocated to Delano, California and resumed working as an agricultural laborer. In 1959 he became the national director of the Community Service Organization (CSO). In 1962, he left the CSO and co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA); he was aided in this project by both his wife and by Dolores Huerta. The NFWA would later merge with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers of America (UFW). Influenced by leader Mahatma Gandhi, Chavez employed nonviolent tactics, including boycotts and picketing to pressure farm owners into granting strikers' demands. He began organizing strikes among farmworkers, most notably the successful Delano grape strike of 1965–1970. Chavez's dedication to farm workers and civil rights grew out of influential childhood experiences. The UFW and Chavez accomplished establishing minimum wage standards, wage contracts, safer working conditions, child labor reform, and advancement in civil rights for Chicanos and other farm workers. He instilled his campaigns with Roman Catholic symbolism, including public processions, Masses, and fasts. Cesar Chavez died on April 23, 1993, with the family stating that he had died of natural causes, though it is believed that Chavez’s fasting may have contributed to his death; he was 66 years old. He was buried in a private ceremony, with his final resting place located in the garden of the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in Keene, California. In 1994 Cesar Chavez posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His birthday is a federal commemorative holiday in several U.S. states. Los Angeles City Councilman Billy Mills (right) is shown shaking hands with union leader and labor organizer Cesar Chavez, as they hold a picket sign that reads, "Huelga" at an unknown event. "Huelga" means "strike", which was a term Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers (UFW) used in their five-year strike against grape growers, and which now signifies their struggle. The Aztec eagle, once a symbol for farm workers, represented a cultural connection evoking a sense of pride (Source: Cesar Chavez Foundation). Photograph circa 1968. See images 00130093 through 00130100 for additional photos in this series.
Type
image
Format
1 negative : safety ; 10 x 13 cm. Photographic safety negatives
Mills, Billy G Chavez, Cesar,--1927-1993 United Farm Workers United Farm Workers of America--Presidents African American men Mexican American men Men African American politicians Politicians City council members Agricultural laborers Civil rights workers Civic leaders Labor leaders Signs and signboards Handshaking Los Angeles (Calif.)
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