Curtis, Rolland J

Description

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.Before Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton ran for president in 2008, Shirley Chisholm paved the way for both. Chisholm was the first African American woman elected to Congress in 1969, and in 1972, she became not only the first African American to run as a major party candidate, but also the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination, and the second woman ever to run as a major party candidate, second only to Margaret Chase Smith, who ran as a Republican.During a visit to Los Angeles, at the invitation of the Committee of 19 Women for Better Government, from left to right, California Congressman George Brown, New York Congresswoman Shirley...

Record Contributed By

Los Angeles Public Library

Record Harvested From

California Digital Library