Tom Bradley (mayor)

Thomas Bradley (December 29, 1917 – September 29, 1998) was an American politician, athlete, police officer, and lawyer who served as the 38th

Bradley was born on December 29, 1917, to Lee Thomas and Crenner Bradley. Thomas and Bradley were poor sharecroppers who lived in a small log cabin outside

Bradley attended Rosemont Elementary School, Lafayette Junior High School and

Bradley left his studies to join the Los Angeles Police Department in 1940. He became one of 400 black officers in a police department that had 4,000 officers. He recalled "the downtown department store that refused him credit, although he was a police officer, and the restaurants that would not serve blacks."^[6] He told a Times reporter:

When I came on the department, there were literally two assignments for black officers. You either worked Newton Street Division, which has a predominantly black community, or you worked traffic downtown. You could not work with a white officer, and that continued until 1964.^[6]

Bradley and Ethel Arnold met at the New Hope Baptist Church and were married May 4, 1941. They had three daughters, Lorraine, Phyllis and a baby who died on the day she was born. He and his wife "needed a white intermediary to buy their first house in

In June 1961, the post for

There were only two candidates, Hollingsworth and Bradley, and also two elections — one for the unexpired term left by Controller Navarro, ending June 30, and one for a full four-year term starting July 1. Bradley won the first, 17,760 to 10,540 votes, and the second election, 17,552 to 10,400 votes.[14] By then he had retired from the police force, and he was sworn in as a councilman at the age of 45 on April 15, 1963, the first African-American elected to City Council.^[15]

One of his first votes was in opposition to a proposed study by City Attorney Roger Arnebergh and Police Chief William H. Parker of the Dictionary of American Slang,^[16] ordered in an 11–4 vote by the council. Councilman Tom Shepard's motion said the book was "saturated not only with phrases of sexual filth, but wordage defamatory of minority ethnic groups and definitions insulting religions and races."^[17]

When asked why he did not participate in public demonstrations, Bradley said that he saw his position on the City Council as a way to bring groups together. He expressed a desire to establish a human relations commission for the city.^[18]

Campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles

In 1969, Bradley first challenged incumbent Mayor

Powerful downtown business interests at first opposed Bradley. But with passage of the 1974 redevelopment plan and the inclusion of business leaders on influential committees, corporate chiefs moved in behind him. A significant feature of this plan was the development and building of numerous skyscrapers in the Bunker Hill financial district.^[citation needed]

Mayor of Los Angeles

Bradley served for twenty years as mayor of Los Angeles, surpassing Fletcher Bowron with the longest tenure in that office. Bradley contributed to the financial success of the city by helping develop the satellite business hubs at

Bradley was offered a cabinet-level position in the administration of President Jimmy Carter, which he turned down. Bradley introduced President Carter at the May 5, 1979 dedication ceremony for the Los Angeles Placita de Dolores.^[21]

In 1984, Bradley presided over the first profitable

Although Bradley was a political liberal, he believed that business prosperity was good for the entire city and would generate jobs, an outlook like that of his successor, Richard Riordan. For most of Bradley's administration, the city appeared to agree with him. But in his fourth term, with traffic congestion, air pollution and the condition of Santa Monica Bay worsening, and with residential neighborhoods threatened by commercial development, the tide began to turn. In 1989, he was elected to a fifth term, but the ability of opponent Nate Holden to attract one-third of the vote,^[23] despite being a neophyte to the Los Angeles City Council and a very late entrant to the mayoral race, signaled that Bradley's era was drawing to a close.

Other factors in the waning of his political strength were his decision to reverse himself and support a controversial oil drilling project near the Pacific Palisades and his reluctance to condemn Louis Farrakhan, the Black Muslim minister who made speeches in Los Angeles and elsewhere that many considered anti-Semitic. Further, some key Bradley supporters lost their City Council reelection bids, among them veteran Westside Councilwoman Pat Russell. Bradley chose to leave office in 1993 rather than seek election to a sixth term.

Gubernatorial campaigns

Bradley ran for Governor of California twice, in 1982 and 1986, but lost both times to Republican George Deukmejian. He was the first African American to head a gubernatorial ticket in California.^{[citation needed]}

In 1982, the election was extremely close. Bradley led in the polls going into election day, and in the initial hours after the polls closed, some news organizations projected him as the winner.^[24] Ultimately, Bradley lost the election by about 100,000 votes, about 1.2% of the 7.5 million votes cast.^[25]

These circumstances gave rise to the term the "Bradley effect", which refers to a tendency of voters to tell interviewers or pollsters that they are undecided or likely to vote for a black candidate, but then actually vote for his white opponent. In 1986, Bradley lost the rematch to Deukmejian by a margin of 61–37 percent.^[26]

Death and legacy

Bradley's mayoral archives are held at

Tom Bradley's political coalition originated with liberal

• 1976, Bradley was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree from Whittier College.^[31]
• 1984, Bradley was awarded the Olympic Order in silver.
• In 1985 Bradley was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP.^[32]
• The KTLA News Project: Tom Bradley, Mayor of Los Angeles a collection of the UCLA KTLA News Project^[33] at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
• The Tom and Ethel Bradley Center at California State University, Northridge contains over one million archived images from communities of color in Los Angeles and several Latin American countries.^[34]
• Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport is named in his honor.
• Civic Center/Grand Park/Tom Bradley station on Metro Rail's B and D lines.

See also