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. A young boy speaks into a microphone during a school event at an unknown school site, possibly Victory Baptist Day School, while a group of school children line up next to him in three single file lines. The young speaker and his schoolmates are all well dressed, and the school yard is decorated with crepe paper flowers and streamers along the poles and along the rooftop of the school buildings. Two unidentified women (possibly parents) are partially visible sitting at a lunch table at far right. Photograph circa 1975. See images 00130166 through 00130175, and 00143729 for additional photos in this series.
Type
image
Format
1 color negative : safety ; 10 x 13 cm. Photographic safety negatives
African American women Women African American boys Boys African American girls Girls African American children Children School children School buildings School sites Schools Microphones Decorations Crepe paper Smiling Los Angeles (Calif.)
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