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.; Born in Trinidad, Mervyn Dymally (1926-2012) moved to the United States at the age of 19 and became a citizen in 1957. In 1962, he became the first foreign-born black lawmaker elected to the Assembly. In 1966, he was the first African American elected to the state Senate, and California's first African American Lieutenant Governor in 1974. Dymally had amazing staying power. In 2002, he found himself dissatisfied with the candidates for his original Assembly seat and chose to run again, winning back the seat he'd left, at the age of 76.; Bill Greene (1930-2002) was a freedom rider in the South, during the violent years of the Civil Rights Movement. Having served a prison sentence for his part in the demonstrations in Mississippi, he escaped from a Louisiana jail after another arrest and became a fugitive, shortly before becoming engaged to his wife. "I spent most of our honeymoon sewing up his ragged clothes. He was one of the larger guys, and the police force always went for him first," his wife remembered. Greene began his career as the first African American clerk in the California Assembly. By 1967, he had succeeded Mervyn Dymally, taking over Dymally's Assembly seat, and again in 1975, claiming Dymally's recently vacated Senate seat.; Homer Broome (1931-2007) joined the LAPD in 1954, and by 1969 became the first black Captain of the LAPD. He was again promoted in 1975 to the rank of Commander, also the first African American to do so. Broome is credited with opening the doors for many minority law enforcement officers throughout Los Angeles and across the country, including Chief Bernard Parks.; 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 from L-R are: California Assembly Members Leon D. Ralph and Bill Greene, Lieutenant Homer F. Broome, Jr., State Senator Mervyn Dymally, and Councilman Billy Mills attending a Grass Roots Conference which was held on April 1, 1967 at Independence Square, located at 2455 S. St. Andrews Place. See images 00128436 through 00128440, and 00143457 through 00143461 for additional photos in this series.
Type
image
Format
1 negative : safety ; 10 x 13 cm. Photographic safety negatives
Ralph, Leon D Greene, Bill,--1930-2002 Broome, Homer F Dymally, Mervyn M.,--1926-2012 Mills, Billy G Los Angeles (Calif.).--Police Department--Officials and employees African American men Men Legislators City council members Police Police--Uniforms Meetings Posing Smiling Los Angeles (Calif.)
If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.
Share your story
Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.
