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. Pictured is Ruth Washington (at left), presenting Eileen Woodson with an award at the Los Angeles Sentinel 1964 Press Conference and Awards Program at Dooto's Music Center in South Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon. The event was held from 4-7 p.m., with "800 representatives of social, civic, charity and religious organizations". The Los Angeles Sentinel article on this event states that Mrs. Ruth Washington, "stressed the fact that there is strength in unity, and only through vision and leadership on the part of countless numbers of people working in every community will it be possible to keep abreast of the needs of our ever increasing number of young people." Ruth Washington is a business manager and wife of Leon H. Washington, Jr., publisher and founder of the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper. Photograph dated November 5, 1964. See images 00053395, 00119142, and 00137903 through 00137906, for additional photos in this series.
Type
image
Format
1 negative : safety ; 10 x 13 cm. Photographic safety negatives
Washington, Ruth Los Angeles Sentinel Awards Award presentations Award winners Newspaper publishing Flower arrangement African American women South Los Angeles (Los Angeles, Calif.)
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