NAACP Los Angeles leader Geraldine Washington dies
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Funeral services will be held Saturday for Geraldine Washington, a prominent Los Angeles civil rights leader whose death was confirmed today by the local arm of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Washington died last Thursday of natural causes at the age of 81, NAACP spokeswoman Joy Atkinson said. She had been ill for several years and suffered from a form of dementia, the spokewoman said.
Washington, who was president of the Los Angeles branch of the NAACP for 14 years beginning in the mid-1990s, was known for her activism on education.
During her tenure as president, she worked to reverse declining enrollment of Blacks in the University of California system and pushed for local job training programs, Atkinson said.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called Washington “an outstanding educator and tireless advocate of equal opportunity for all students.”
“Her legacy of service to Los Angeles, its students and the community will live on through the many lives she touched,” Villaraigosa said.
Funeral services are scheduled for noon Saturday at the Second Baptist Church, 2412 Griffith Ave., Los Angeles.
Funeral services will be held Saturday for Geraldine R. Washington, a prominent Los Angeles civil rights leader who died Jan. 5 of natural causes at the age of 81, NAACP spokeswoman Joy Atkinson said. She had been ill for several years and suffered from a form of dementia, the spokewoman said.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—An Antelope Valley community group sued Lancaster and Palmdale officials today, alleging the cities engaged in practices meant to drive out Black and Latino residents.
The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of the Community Action League, the California State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and two unidentified residents who allegedly faced racial discrimination.
Before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Ala., 15-year-old Claudette Colvin had refused to yield her seat to a White passenger on March 2, 1955, and was arrested.
Parks’ similar act followed on December 1 of the same year.
Born Sept. 5, 1939, Colvin understood early what injustice was.
According to one report, she had been inspired by her ancestors who endured and fought the institution of slavery.
An estimated 800 people paid their final respects to former Compton City Councilman and civic activist Maxcy Dean Filer during services at Love and Unity Fellowship Church in Compton.
The Marianna, Ark., native, who was 80, died following a lingering illness.
Filer, who arrived in Los Angeles after serving in the Army in Okinawa, developed a love of law that he would quietly go on to use to influence others to consider the field.
The NAACP recently held its first national summit on education in more than three years after determining that there was an extreme need to address what it feels is the resegregation of schools across the country.
The organization met for three days last week in Raleigh, N.C., to discuss comprehensive education reform and the Department of Justice investigation of school district policies relating to resegregation.
