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.; Photograph included in the Exhibit: Firsts, Seconds and Thirds: African American Leaders in Los Angeles During the 1960s and '70s from the Rolland J. Curtis Collection. Ralph Bunche (1904-1971) was the first African American to receive the Nobel Prize in 1950 for his mediation during the Israeli-Arab War. During World War II, Bunche worked for the OSS, a predecessor for the CIA. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President John F. Kennedy, and joined Martin Luther King Jr. for both the March on Washington in 1963 and from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. Ralph Bunche shaking hands with Louise Ridgle White.
Type
Image
Format
1 negative :safety ;10 x 13 cm. Photographic safety negatives
Bunche, Ralph J.--(Ralph Johnson),--1904-1971 White, Louise Ridgle,--1928- Civil rights workers--United States Nobel Prize winners--United States Educators--United States Los Angeles (Calif.)
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