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Image / Billy Mills at Angeles Mesa Elementary School

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Title
Billy Mills at Angeles Mesa Elementary School
Alternative Title
Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection;
Creator
Curtis, Rolland J
Contributor
Made accessible through a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation
Date Created and/or Issued
1972
Contributing Institution
Los Angeles Public Library
Collection
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Rights Information
Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa.lapl.org/OrderingUse.html for additional information.
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Description
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.
Pictured is City Councilman Billy Mills at the Angeles Mesa Elementary School, attending a tree planting event. Mills can be seen using a shovel to dig a planting hole next to three students with their own shovels. There are other children both seated and standing, while watching Mills and their teacher (to the left) and an unidentified man (to the right) smiling at the children. Angeles Mesa Elementary School is currently located at 2611 W. 52nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90043. Photograph dated February 1, 1972. See images 00119424 through 00119435 for additional photos in this series.
Type
image
Format
1 color negative : safety ; 10 x 13 cm.
Photographic safety negatives
Identifier
00119427
Rolland J. Curtis Collection
RC_0047.04
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/136051
Subject
Mills, Billy G
Angeles Mesa Elementary School (Los Angeles, Calif.)
City council members
African American politicians
African American teachers
African American women
African American men
Elementary schools
Tree planting
Shovels
Children
Women
Men
Los Angeles (Calif.)
Time Period
1970-1979

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