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Thousands protest Black Panther Raid, City Hall

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@ Los Angeles Public Library

Curtis, Rolland J

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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.Demonstrators on the Spring Street steps of City Hall on December 11, 1969; view is looking southwest towards the California State Building (upper center, demolished). Between 3,000 and 5,000 people have come out to protest the deteriorating relations between the Los Angeles Police Department and the Black Community. Protesters claim that officers applied excessive force during their raid on the Southern California Headquarters of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, 4115 S. Central Avenue, three days before.
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Image
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Photographic Safety Negatives
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Made accessible through a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation
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Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa.lapl.org/OrderingUse.html for additional information.
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Los Angeles Public Library

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California Digital Library