THE REAL ANGELINOS .. AN ONGOING SERIES-Referencing my January article in the series named Who Are the Real Angelinos? “so many of our earlier Black leaders have passed on their passion to the next generations,” I am thus posting this retrospective to discuss the enormous impact of some of our contemporary Black leaders on our City, State, and Nation.
Many of you will remember the remarkable Augustus Hawkins who recently passed away in 2007 at 100 years of age. He was a graduate of Jefferson High School (where I taught much later) and earned a degree from UCLA (Go, Bruins!).
The progressive social crusader and reformer, Upton Sinclair, wrote a powerful book in 1906, The Jungle, an historical fiction novel exposing the outrageous conditions for immigrant workers in Chicago’s meat-packing houses. President Teddy Roosevelt introduced legislation based on the book’s exposé but was also concerned that such investigative journalists (people he called Muckrakers—a moniker based on the character in Bunyan’s book, Pilgrim’s Progress) presented a conflict. Roosevelt was simultaneously concerned that such journalists might spend too much time looking for muck (sleazy stories) rather than concentrating on exposing what needed to be done to fix society.
At any rate, Sinclair accomplished something else--to prove the power of the pen and to demonstrate how laws, as a result of those writings, can be introduced or modified to ameliorate the suffering in society. It was into that environment that Hawkins found himself; in fact, he was mesmerized by and drawn to Sinclair and his advocacy.
Hawkins supported Sinclair’s failed run for California governor but soon after ran for office himself. In 1935 he became a State Assemblymember representing South Los Angeles (including Compton where my husband, who needed his help and got it) used to live. So highly esteemed, he nearly became the Assembly’s Speaker. During his long tenure, he accomplished many significant changes affecting urban development, workmen’s compensation, apprenticeship training, mass transportation, day care, fair housing—to name just some of his most noteworthy legislative achievements.
President Kennedy supported his successful run for Congress in 1962 when Hawkins became the first Black House member from California, let alone west of the Mississippi. He worked with Hubert Humphrey on the Full Employment Act, significant education legislation, the 1964 Civil Rights Act which created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He also was effective in getting a number of other laws through Congress, including the Pregnancy Disability Act, provisions for juvenile justice, the Historically Black College and University Act, and minimum-wage legislation. Hawkins helped form the Congressional Black Caucus—which continues to be an influential congressional body.
Choosing not to run again in 1991, he was succeeded by the powerful and often outspoken Maxine Waters who continues to serve in the House. A high school and park have been named in his honor. It will be difficult for others to match his accomplishments for the nation, California, and Los Angeles and the 300 bill he co-sponsored.
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Founded in 1920, the San Fernando Valley Association of Realtors (now the Southland Regional Association of Realtors) claims to be the "’Voice For Real Estate’ in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys. They provide products and services to their members so they may successfully pursue the real estate profession with fairness, competency and high ethical standards, and, through collective action, promote the preservation of real property rights.” This assertion was not always the case, however.
Around the mid-part of the twentieth century the restrictive covenants and red-lining (about which I have spoken before) were in full force. Case in point, when Ken and Loretta Kelly, a young Black couple, were seeking to purchase a home in a new development in the Northridge area of the San Fernando Valley, they were confronted with something reminiscent of what transpired to the frustrated, disheartened, and dispirited family in Raisin in the Sun.
A new development should have been considered neither a White or Black neighborhood, yet the developers saw the situation differently. Their intent was to create another white community. The real estate restrictions of the time were on their side. The Kellys, however, were determined. They loved the house they saw and wanted to buy it and rear their family there.
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Through a “little” subterfuge, a white friend bought the house and then turned it over to the Kellys before the real estate agent knew what was happening. Once the Kellys moved in, however, there was another attempt to get them out. There was literally an offer of money to get them to moved (even for a while)—at least until the rest of the houses were sold (to white families). This did not work either and the Kellys were there to stay.
Eventually, the neighborhood became more ethnically diverse and the Kellys both became realtors working for the San Fernando Valley Association of Realtors. How ironic and yet how wonderful and brave. They were truly pioneers in helping to bring about what led to a legal end to the discriminatory practices of restrictive covenants and red-lining.
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Under John Mack’s (photo) leadership of the Los Angeles Urban League from 1969 to 2005, the group became the most prominent non-profit organization in the country. He “promoted issues of employment, education, and economic development” for the many under-achieving, at-risk, disadvantaged, and often ignored residents in our City. He dedicated himself to removing the glass ceiling for all races and minority groups across the nation—concepts that fit into the overall vision of the National Urban League whose mission is to “secure economic, self-reliance, parity, power, an civil rights” for those denied those rights.
He co-founded the Los Angeles Black Leadership Coalition on Education and became vice-president of the local United Way. He also served as president of the LA Board of Police Commissioners at a critical time when tensions were still running high among a variety of ethnic groups. We can thank him for all his efforts that helped shape policies for Los Angeles, resulting in lower criminal rates and more harmonious communities.
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Karen Bass, (photo) who is frequently interviewed in the news for her great insights, seemed born to serve her community as she still attempts to right its ever-pervasive wrongs. Originally, she was a physician’s assistant in the Los Angeles area. She was later elected to the Assembly and became the 67th Speaker, becoming “the first African-American woman in U. S. history to serve in this powerful state legislative role.” She now is one of a number of prominent congressmembers (her district including Century City and South Central LA), having become immediately influential nationwide.
During our latest economic downturn, she helped shepherd through Congress, Federal economic stimulus legislation which has fast-tracked billions of dollars of funding for infrastructure which will employ great numbers of workers. Her efforts have also resulted in substantial gains for foster and health care for Californians.
She continues to work assiduously on so many important topics, such as wage fairness, equal pay for equal work, many women’s issues, and foreign policy concerns, that she has become a stand-out in our political world. She sits on various committees in Washington where her voice carries a lot of weight: Judiciary (including the Over-Criminalization Task Force) and Foreign Affairs among them. She also is dedicated to ameliorating the needs and conditions for foster and adoptive children, for the LGBT community, and a number of health concerns.
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Certainly, one cannot overlook the tremendous achievements of our own Tom Bradley (photo above) . Because California (and LA) was considered the “Promised Land,” many Blacks were drawn here. Bradley was one of them. He arrived Los Angeles in 1924 (the grandson of slaves and son of a Texas sharecropper). He grew up along the famous Central Avenue, believing he could help make conditions change for the better—not only for Blacks but for all groups in the City of Los Angeles.
He attended UCLA where he helped to break “the color barrier in college sports.” He soon became a proud member of the LAPD, serving for 21 years, during which time he attended Southwestern Law School (where James A. Kushner has long taught, during which time he authored the very insightful Apartheid in America, a book about our nation’s discriminatory housing patterns—well worth reading). Bradley became an attorney.
He was a long-time force in Democratic politics and was elected to the LA City Council, a feat which required a coalition of multi-ethnic voters in order for him to prevail. In 1963, he was among “three African-American men elected to the Council that year, the first of their race to attain that distinction” over 100 years after LA’s founding.
He earned such a positive reputation for common sense and collaboration that he was able to beat conservative and somewhat racist Mayor Sam Yorty to become mayor in his own right. Again, he was responsible for creating a strong coalition of Blacks, liberal whites, Mexican-Americans, Jews, and Asian-Americans—a veritable trans-racial collaboration that was responsible for making him the first Black mayor of the City.
Bradley became a transformative figure, overseeing environmental improvements, anti-apartheid divestment (while Mandela was still in prison), prohibitions of LGBT discrimination (ahead of his time), provisions for assistance and compassion for the AIDS community). Having been a police officer, he recognized the pressing need for reforms and, consequently, helped bring about civilian control over the LAPD. Los Angeles became an urban center, recognized worldwide with its own stock exchange, business and entertainment centers, and the construction of earthquake-proof high-rise buildings.
Unfortunately, there is a downside that came from all this revitalization. Downtown became gentrified as a new generation of mostly college graduates wanted to live close to work in lofts and renovated centuries-old houses. Once again, for economic reasons, Blacks and other minorities who had long settled the downtown area, were forced to move to other, often outlying locales, unless they themselves could afford the ever-rising costs of living there.
Today, we have the Music Center with three theatres, LA Live, Disney Hall, the Kirk Douglas Theatre, Staples Center which hosts a variety of sporting events (Clippers, Lakers, Kings), the Convention Center, the Nokia Theater—all entertainment epicenters which attract throngs of locals and vacationers, jobs and tons of money (and maybe a future football team).
Bradley had become a veritable star in Los Angeles and California politics. He narrowly missed being our state’s first Black governor (since statehood), losing to the ultra-conservative George Deukmejian in 1982 and ’86, losing by less than 1% the first time. Can you imagine what this state would look like today if those elections had turned out differently?!
Pulitzer-Prize winning Paul Conrad, formerly a Los Angeles Times political cartoonist, depicted Bradley in his 1982 defeat as a man who can stand tall. The illustration is a powerful depiction of the man (and one that has been hanging in my study ever since his painful defeat).
Yes, because of Tom Bradley and all his predecessors and successors (each one helping to create the City as it was, is and will be), Los Angeles can stand tall as well. It is a picture of diversity and promise, of business and pleasure, of hills and valleys, of oceans and deserts--for all the world to see and maybe even emulate!
There simply are too many leaders to discuss by name, but, hopefully, what is contained here gives everyone a good idea of the kinds of motivation and involvement that are readily found within the Black community. Being an active part of the relatively new Neighborhood Councils has made a substantial difference to Los Angeles—offering new insights and recommendations for positive, forward-looking change.
The Black Community in Greater Los Angeles has worked not only very hard to elevate the image of our City but has also devoted itself to creating more harmonious relationships among the broad spectrum of ethnic communities in the second largest city in America. Yes, it takes a village, and the Black community certainly has taken a prominent role in building it!
(Rosemary Jenkins is a Democratic activist and chair of the Northeast Valley Green Alliance. Jenkins has written A Quick-and=Easy Reference to Correct Grammar and Composition, Leticia in Her Wedding Dress and Other Poems, and Vignettes for Understanding Literary and Related Concepts. She also writes for CityWatch. This piece is part of an ongoing CityWatch series … Who Are The Real Angelinos … exploring the myriad peoples and cultures that define Los Angeles.)
-cw
CityWatcj
Vol 12 Issue 90
Pub: Nov 7, 2014
