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Pioneering Minority Representation: Edward Roybal and the Los Angeles City Council, 1949-1962Author(s): Katherine UnderwoodReviewed work(s):Source: Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 66, No. 3 (Aug., 1997), pp. 399-425Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3640203 .

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Pioneering Minority Representation:Edward Roybal and the Los AngelesCity Council, 1949-1962KATHERINE UNDERWOODThe author is a memberof thedepartmentofpolitical sciencein the Universityof Wisconsin,Oshkosh.

The efforts of ethnic and racialgroupsto obtain effec-tive representation are deeply woven into the fabric of theUnited States.The election of EdwardRoybal o the LosAnge-les City Council in 1949 exemplifies the opportunities forpolitical change that emergedfrom local cross-ethnicactivismafter WorldWar II. It also suggeststhe limits of such change.Roybal, the city's first Latino council representative in thetwentiethcentury,receivedsupport n hisquestfor office froman unusual combination of MexicanAmericans,whites, andAfricanAmericans.To liberalsand minoritieshiselectionwasasymbolof social and political progress n the bleak Cold Waryearsprecedingthe civilrightsera,wheneconomic, social,andpolitical discriminationwas a fact of life for communities ofcolor. In this respect, Los Angeles was no different from anyother community,but Roybal'spresenceon the council meantthat minoritieshad some politicalvoice throughoutthe 1950s.Roybalfaced politicaloppositionfrom both obvious andobscure quarters.Conservativesdominated the council, andthey refused to negotiate compromiseswith their liberal col-league. This meant thatRoybal requentlyhad to settle for in-cremental rather than wholesale changes. The lack of assis-tance from the Democratic partywas less apparent to thePacific Historical Review ?1997 by the Pacific Coast Branch American Historical Association 399

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400 Pacific Historical Reviewcasual observer. Outside the arena of nonpartisan local gov-ernment, state Democratic leaders believed Roybal would be aliability rather than an asset to the party.Yetdespite oppositionfrom without and within his own party,Roybal waged a publicbattle for progressive causes, forging a strong network of mi-nority group interests and running as an alternative choice forhigher office. A small body of literature focuses on Los Ange-les politics between World War II and the early 1960s, but littleof it deals with Roybal's career. Several studies refer to his elec-tion in Los Angeles as a watershed political event, but they donot adequately explore the circumstances of his election or hisrole on the council.1 This article traces the circumstances ofRoybal's election, examines his efforts on the council to alterthe course of municipal policy, and outlines the barriers thatimpeded greater change and frustrated his attempts to winother elected positions.

West Coast minorities continued to hold second-class sta-tus even after World War II and, during the Cold War,were tar-gets of repression. The McCarran-WalterAct of 1952 abolishedracial bars to citizenship, thus enabling Japanese residentaliens to become naturalized, but it also contained provisionsthat could be used to revoke the citizenship of naturalized citi-zens. The McCarran Act of 1950, which revised and codified allprevious immigration legislation, and the subsequent McCar-ran-Walter Act were used to intimidate and deport American-born Mexican-American trade unionists and also to identifyChinese Communist sympathizers and other subversives. Ahopeful note was struck in 1952 when the California supremecourt found the Alien Land Act unconstitutional. Four yearslater the state's voters overwhelmingly repealed the statute.2

1. FrancisCarney,"The Decentralized Politics of LosAngeles,"AnnalsoftheAmericanAcademy of Political and Social Science,CCCLIII (1964), 107-121; RodolfoF. Acufia, Communityunder Siege:A Chronicleof ChicanosEast of the Los AngelesRiver(LosAngeles, 1984), 29-30, 43;CareyMcWilliams,SouthernCaliforniaCountry: nIsland on theLand(1946;SaltLakeCity,1983);DavidClark,"ImprobableLos An-geles," n Richard M. Bernard and BradleyR. Rice, eds., SunbeltCities:PoliticsandGrowth ince WorldWarII (Austin, 1983), 268-308; Juan G6mez-Quifiones, ChicanoPolitics: Reality and Promise, 1940-1990 (Albuquerque, 1990), 53-56; Rodolfo F.Acufia, OccupiedAmerica:A History of Chicanos (3d ed., New York, 1988), 285-286.2. Acufia, OccupiedAmerica,269; Ronald Takaki, Strangersfroma Distant Shore:A History of Asian Americans (New York, 1989), 413, 415-416.

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Roybal and the LA. City Council 401Until the late 1950s, however, state and national civil rights leg-islation remained an unrealized vision, and minorities werelargely unprotected from overt and subtle instances of dis-crimination. Edward Roybal was one of the few elected officialswho spoke out against these injustices and, more remarkably,did so in Los Angeles.The multiracial Los Angeles of the 1990s is vastly differentfrom the city of the late 1940s. In 1950, the city was 81 percentwhite, 8 percent Latino, and 9 percent African American.White social and economic conservatives (with deep midwest-ern cultural and ideological roots) dominated Los Angeles pol-itics and used anticommunist rhetoric to quash any proposalthat threatened to change the status quo. A handful of power-ful groups, such as the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerceand real estate, construction, and financial organizations,shaped political outcomes, while the LosAngeles Timesspoke forthese interests as the city's "leading establishment voice."3Times owner Norman Chandler tightly controlled news contentand set a conservative journalistic tone that was parroted by hisother daily newspaper (the Mirror News), as well as by the LosAngeles Examiner and Los Angeles Herald Express,both belongingto William Randolph Hearst.

Although Los Angeles politics were highly insular, at thegrass-roots level a vibrant array of organizations held an alter-native vision of "progress" and used every opportunity to voicetheir opinions and views. Until it folded in 1954, the Daily News(owned by Democrat Manchester Boddy) supported policiesand candidates opposed by its competitors. Union members,church groups, and civil rights and neighborhood organiza-tions registered their support for fair employment legislation,rent control, and public housing by writing hundreds of lettersto the city council and by testifying at council hearings.4 Whilethe Times and the other major daily papers failed to reportcompletely the activities of these groups, local community pa-pers such as the California Eagle, the Sentinel, and the Eastside

3. Raphael J. Sonenshein, Politics in Black and White:Race and Power in LosAngeles (Princeton, NJ., 1993), 26, 30; Robert Gottlieb and Irene Wolt, ThinkingBig: The Story of the Los Angeles Times,Its Publishers,and TheirInfluence on SouthernCalifornia (Los Angeles, 1977), 7.4. Los Angeles City Council files 39092, 40909, 39066, Records ManagementDivision, Office of the City Clerk, Los Angeles City Archives.

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402 Pacific Historical ReviewSun frequently discussed social and political injustices perpe-trated by city government.

In the postwar period, EdwardRoybalemerged as the onlycity council member who consistently spoke on behalf of mi-nority and low-income groups. Roybalrepresented and lived inthe city's ninth council district, which encompassed old neigh-borhoods with rich ethnic diversity:Boyle Heights on the east-side (Latinos and eastern Europeans), Bunker Hill and thecivic center in the downtown area (mostly whites), Chinatownand Little Tokyo, and the Central Avenue district (overwhelm-ingly African American). His district also contained four publichousing projects. Compared to the city as a whole, the ninthdistrict was a demographic smorgasbord.At the time Roybal began contemplating his run for acouncil seat, no single racial group constituted a majority ofthe district's 185,033 residents: whites were 45 percent of thepopulation, Latinos 34 percent, African Americans 15 percent,and "other races"6 percent (see Table 1). Even Roybal's politi-cal base, Boyle Heights, was not solidly Latino. Forty-three per-cent of its residents were Latinos, and thirty-fourpercent werenative-born whites. Since Boyle Heights was the first stop formany of the city's recent immigrants, a high proportion of itsresidents were Russians and other Slavic peoples (many ofthem Jews) from eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (or Rus-sia before 1917). According to Fortnightmagazine, 'Jews ap-peared in great numbers at the turn of the century... [and]most are small merchants and workers." After World War II,many Jewish trade-union leaders and younger, more mobilemembers of the community moved to the westside, but in thelate 1940s and early 1950s a significant number of Jews stilllived in the ninth district. Fortnightestimated their number at14,000 in Boyle Heights in the mid-1950s.5Despite their social heterogeneity, residents of the ninthdistrict shared similar ideological positions, material interests,and political circumstances. Support for liberal, Democraticcandidates wasmore intense there than in the rest of the citybe-cause of the residents' lower incomes and education levels,

5. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureauof the Census, UnitedStatesCen-susofPopulation: 950 (Washington,D.C.,1952), chap.28, tables1 and 6;Fortnight(Oct. 20, 1954), 20, 21.

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Roybal and the LA. City Council 403Table 1: Population of Ninth Districtand Los Angeles, 1950

Ninth District LosAngelesLatino 62,927 (34%) 157,275 (8%)African American 27,344 (15%) 171,209 (9%)White 82,985 (45%) 1,601,498 (81%)Other races* 11,777 (6%) 40,376 (2%)Total 185,033 (100%) 1,970,358 (100%)Source:U.S. Departmentof Commerce,Bureauof the Census,United tatesCensusofPopulation, 950 (Washington,D.C.,1952), III,chap.28, tables1 and 6.*In the U.S. census of 1950, "otherraces"wasa residualcategoryfor personswhowere nonwhite but not "Negro."

poor housing conditions, and the many forms of discriminationthat they experienced.6 The ninth district's leftist tendencieswere evident in a Boyle Heights chapter of the IndependentProgressive Party (the California branch of the ProgressivePartyestablished in support of the 1948 presidential candidacyof Henry A. Wallace). Moreover, Roybal's predecessor on thecouncil, Parley Parker Christensen, had run as a "laborpresi-dential candidate." Ninth-district residents did not share in thegeneral prosperity that characterized the region's economy af-ter World War II. In 1950, nearly sixty percent of all employedpersons in the district worked as craftsmen and foremen, fac-tory operatives, and service workers. By contrast, only forty-three percent of all persons employed in the cityof Los Angelesworked in these categories. The district also had higher levels ofunemployment than the rest of the city,with thirteen percent ofits labor force unemployed in 1950, compared to a citywideun-employment rate of 8.5 percent. The district's housing stockvaried, but as a rule it was older and more likely to be rentedthan in other parts of Los Angeles. Because over half of thehousing had been built before 1919, a large proportion (fortypercent) was either dilapidated or had no running water.7

6. Acufia, Community under Siege, 26; Los Angeles California Eagle, April 7,1949.7. U.S. Department of Commerce,Bureauof the Census, UnitedStatesCen-susofPopulation: 950, "CensusTract Statistics:LosAngeles, California,and Adja-cent Areas,"1950 PopulationCensusReport III,chap. 28, tables 1, 2, and 3; U.S.Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, United States CensusesofPopula-

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404 Pacific Historical ReviewSuch disadvantages, together with the discriminationfaced by residents in employment, education, and law enforce-ment, suggest that the ninth district would have a reputationfor electing individuals who would vigorously represent its in-terests on the city council. Such wasnot the case, for since 1939the district had been represented by the increasingly ineffec-tual Christensen. According to Anthony Rios, a local residentand steelworker, Christensen had been an active council mem-ber in the early 1940s (during his second term), but by the end

of the decade he had exhausted his talents and become an em-barrassment to constituents who "tookphotos of him asleep inthe city council chair."Roybal recalled that the octogenarianChristensen had become "senile and... a very heavy drinker."Unhappy with Christensen's lackluster representation, Mexi-can-American activists recruited Roybal as a candidate forchange.8 While Roybal's victory was facilitated by a districtedform of council representation, he had to run for office twicebefore defeating the incumbent.In 1947 Roybal was a thirty-year-old social worker em-ployed by the California Tuberculosis Association. Born in Al-buquerque, New Mexico, he had come to Los Angeles in 1920when his father, a cabinetmaker, relocated his family of eightchildren to Boyle Heights. During the depression, Roybalserved in the Civilian Conservation Corps and then, at hismother's insistence, attended the University of California,Los Angeles, before serving in the finance section of the U.S.Army during World War II. After the war, the California Tu-berculosis Association put Roybal in charge of a mobile X-rayunit. His work first took him to low-income communitiesthroughout the state and then primarily to Los Angeles wheretion and Housing:1960 (Washington,D.C., 1961-1962), "CensusTracts:Los An-geles-Long Beach, Calif., Standard MetropolitanStatisticalArea,"Final ReportPHC (1)-82, tablesH-l, P-l, and P-3.8. InterviewwithAnthonyRios,a founding memberof the CommunitySer-vice Organization,Oct. 31, 1991 (firstquotation);Sanford D. Horwitt,Let ThemCallMe Rebel: aulAlinsky,His LifeandLegacyNewYork,1989), 227, 228 (secondquotation); interviewwith EdwardRoybal,Dec. 5, 1991;G6mez-Quifiones,Chi-canoPolitics,42-43; RichardA. Donovan,"RoybalRouses the Ninth,"TheReporter(Jan.17, 1950), 7-9. Except as indicated in note 48, notes for all interviews,hereand throughout, are transcribed rom tapesin the author'spossession.

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Roybal and the LA. City Council 405his assignment included the neighborhoods of the ninthdistrict.9

It was not Roybal's idea to run for elected office. That no-tion originated with his Los Angeles health advisorycommittee(one of many that Roybal established throughout the state).This committee consisted of nine Latino medical doctors andtwo Latino doctors of osteopathy (the only ones in Los AngelesCounty). Frank Faus, owner of a chain of theaters specializingin Spanish-language films, chaired the Los Angeles health ad-visory committee. Faus and his colleagues were politically ac-tive and anxious to run a candidate against the inept Chris-tensen. They interviewed Leo Varela (a playground director),who said, "I'm not your man. Eddie Roybal is your man." Fausexclaimed, "Oh my God, he's been right under my nose and Iforgot him." But Roybal declined the invitation to run againstChristensen, prompting Faus to threaten to withdrawthe assis-tance he had been providing to the tuberculosis association.Faced with the threat, Roybal capitulated.10Roybal's political inexperience led to failure in 1947. LosAngeles City Council elections are nonpartisan, and Roybalcould not rely on external political resources for assistance. Hisfirst campaign was a last-minute affair that lacked endorse-ments, neglected voter outreach, and generally failed to pro-vide good reasons for voters to support him. Moreover, he wasone of four candidates challenging Christensen, all of whomwere defeated on election day. Christensen won with 8,948votes, and Roybal came in third with 3,350 votes (fifteen per-cent of the total ballots cast). Almost seventy-five percent ofRoybal's support came from Boyle Heights. Immediately afterthe defeat, Saul Alinsky (founder of the IndustrialAreas Foun-dation [IAF], which had trained community organizers since1940) sent Roybal a telegram containing a straightforwardquestion: "What are you going to do next?"1'Roybal's response

9. Donovan, "RoybalRouses the Ninth,"8; interview with Roybal,Jan. 23,1997.10. InterviewwithRoybal,July20, 1995.11. Horwitt,LetThemCallMeRebel229; interviewwithRios;FortnightAug.18, 1954), 9-11; Donovan, "RoybalRouses the Ninth,"8. Roybalhad met SaulAlinksyat a social workers'convention in Texasseveralyearsearlier.

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406 Pacific Historical Reviewwas to announce his intention to run again. He then joinedwith a group of those who had worked on his campaign to cre-ate the Community Service Organization (CSO). The CSO'sofficial purpose, according to Ralph Guzman, was "communityaction, voter registration, and voter participation,"while its un-official purpose was assisting Roybal'selection.12Among those working closely with the CSO was Fred Ross,a community organizer for IAF.Prior to his association with theIAF,Ross had worked for the Chicago-based American Councilon Race Relations as an interracial consultant in California.Alinsky learned of Ross (and that his employers were likely tofire him for on-the-job community organizing) at a Chicagopoker party. During a trip to California, Alinksy hired Ross asan IAF organizer and assigned him to Boyle Heights where, asa teenager, he had lived during summer visits with his father.13According to Sanford Horwitt, Ross spent "weeks"search-ing for an entrance into the eastside Mexican-American com-munity, eventually finding it with "Roybaland his band of cam-paign workers."14After attending weekly CSO meetings andgaining the confidence of its members, Ross obtained thegroup's permission to participate in its effort to organize thelocal community. The IAFprovided Ross's salaryand some ad-ditional funding, thereby stabilizing the CSO's work and allow-ing it to concentrate on empowering eastside residents in theelectoral arena and to work with municipal government tosolve community problems. By holding house meetings almostevery night and engaging residents in dialogue about potentialremedies for the district's problems, the CSO grew to 800members in just two years and continued to increase rapidly insize. By the early 1960s, there were thirty-four chartered CSOchapters in California and 10,000 dues-paying members. TheCSO promoted understanding of the local governmentalprocess and city bureaucracy by encouraging homeowners toobtain street lighting and road improvements. It also instigated

12. Ralph Cortez Guzman, "The Political Socialization of the MexicanAmerican People" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles,1970), 251; Beatrice W. Griffith, "VivaRoybal-Viva America," CommonGround, X(Autumn 1949), 61-70; Donovan, "Roybal Rouses the Ninth," 8.13. Horwitt, Let Them Call Me Rebel,222-225.14. Ibid., 229.

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Roybal and the LA. City Council 407litigation against housing discrimination and police brutality;during the 1950s it operated a very popular citizenship educa-tion program. Average citizens, rather than experts or profes-sionals, were in charge of the CSO research committees thatidentified the issues requiring attention.15Although officially nonpartisan and uninvolved in Roybal'ssecond campaign for office, the CSO in fact laid the foundationfor his election drive. This came primarily through a massivevoter registration effort launched in 1947. The CSO, with helpfrom the Central Labor Council of the American Federation ofLabor (AFL), convinced the county's registrarof voters to holdan "unprecedented evening class" for the sixty-three peoplewho had volunteered to serve as deputy registrars.16HenryNava was in charge of the registration campaign that includedMexican-American union members and the clergy at St. Mary's,Our Lady of Talpa, and Our Ladyof Lourdes parishes. Withintwo years, the CSO had registered 17,000 new voters, about15,000 with Spanish surnames.17A by-product of this drive wasincreased membership in the CSO and growing interest in Roy-bal's campaign organization, which picked up volunteers and fi-nancial support.The Committee to Elect Roybal quickly grew from twentyto three hundred volunteer members, "including a hundredcollege youngsters of all nationalities."18Donations came pri-marily from the "little people" who learned about the cam-paign from the CSO. Their contributions came in the form ofraffles, dances, and parties where homemade food was sold.While Roybal's supporters were enthusiastic, their incomes did

15. Ibid., 229-231; Guzman,"PoliticalSocialization of the Mexican Ameri-can People,"246-250; KayeLynnBriegel, "TheHistoryof PoliticalOrganizationsamong Mexican Americans in Los Angeles since the Second World War"(M.A.thesis,Universityof Southern California,1967), 9-13, 18;Gomez-Quifiones,Chi-canoPolitics,55; interview with Grace Montanez Davis,Jan. 2, 1997. MontafiezDavis taught the CSO citizenship courses, organized CSOvoter-registrationdri-ves, worked on Roybal's campaign for county supervisor in 1958, worked onThomas (Tom) Bradley'svarious campaigns for office, and served as deputymayorunder Bradleyfrom 1975 to 1989. She wasthe first Latinato hold this lat-ter position.16. Griffith,"VivaRoybal-Viva merica," 5.17. Ibid.;G6mez-Quifones, ChicanoPolitics,54; Donovan, "RoybalRousesthe Ninth,"9; Horwitt,Let ThemCallMeRebel, 34.18. Griffith,"VivaRoybal-Viva merica," 8.

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408 Pacific HistoricalReviewnot permit them to make large donations. At a time when theaverage city council campaign cost $15,000, Roybal's war chestwas only $5,500. The biggest single donation came from thesteelworkers union in the Congress of Industrial Organiza-tions (CIO) that also shared its personnel and sound trucks.Anthony Rios, a CSO founder and active member of Steel-workers Local 2018, facilitated collaboration between the twoorganizations in support of Roybal's campaign.19

Roybal downplayed his own ethnicity and refused to raisethemes of Mexican empowerment and self-determination thatmight alienate non-Latino voters. Instead, he campaigned onthree sets of issues that transcended ethnicity and appealed toa majority of ninth-district residents: a fair share of city servicesand material benefits; his record of service to the community;and civil rights and social justice. In promoting this agenda,Roybal, who was articulate but not given to grand rhetoricalflourishes, claimed that, instead of speeches, he gave "presen-tations" that resembled lectures with plenty of visual aids: "Ihad a film presentation, maps, charts."20These talks focused onsocial, economic, and physical conditions throughout "the no-toriously underprivileged Ninth District." Little had been doneby past representatives to rectify the significant imbalances thatexisted between the ninth and other city council districts: "So Iappealed to them to see the differences between what they hadin the Ninth District, and what they had on the west side oftown. The only thing we wanted was to be the same, no more,no less."21

Roybal also emphasized his record of service to the districtas a social worker and a founder of the CSO, and how he coulddo even more to improve conditions if elected. He "hammeredhis central theme, community service," by reminding audiences19. Ibid.; nterviewwith Rios,Oct. 31, 1991;Gmez-Quifiones; ChicanoPoli-tics,55; interviewwithMontafiezDavis,Jan. 2, 1997.20. Interviewwith Roybal,Dec. 5, 1991.21. "Profile,"HealthOfficers ewsDigest Aug.1952), clipping files, LosAnge-les Municipal Reference Library(firstquotation); interviewwith Roybal,Dec. 5,1991 (second quotation). The Los Angeles Municipal Reference Librarywasclosed in 1992because of budget cuts,and itsclipping files were discarded on thegrounds that theywere not "uniqueor valuable." nterviewwith Lee Ridgeway, e-nior librarian,LosAngeles CentralLibrary,May1, 1997.

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Roybal and the LA. City Council 409that the CSO had obtained "new traffic signals, sidewalks, andpaving for the neighborhood, made juvenile-delinquency stud-ies, helped send children to summer camps, investigated policeinjustices, school and housing segregation and discrimination,and put on health drives."Invariablyhe followed such a litany byasking: "Doyou want more of the same? Or do you want to bevoted out of it again?"22In addition, Roybal made a major issue of civil rights, vig-orously denouncing discrimination in all forms, emphasizing"police brutality... in the district [and] the searching of indi-viduals without probable cause."He called for the creation of acivilian police review board, a fair employment practices com-mission, and an end to discrimination in housing and in mu-nicipal employment. When African Americans pressed Roybalon why they should support his campaign, he replied, "Ourskin is also brown-our battle is the same. Our victory cannotbut be a victory for you, too."23

Roybal's appeals in 1949 struck a more resonant chordwith voters, citizens' groups, and newspapers than his themesof 1947. This time he was in the advance guard of the city'scivilrights movement. There were few civil rights organizations ineither the African-American or Latino community. Nor didpoliticians openly and routinely challenge the status quo ormobilize large numbers of those who had been politically qui-escent. For these reasons, Roybal's preprimary endorsementsreflected his left-of-center orientation. They came from theNational CIO Council, the Steelworkers Local 2018, some AFLlocals, the Independent Progressive Party,and the CaliforniaEagle, one of the two newspapers serving the city's African-American community. On the other hand, the city's only Dem-ocratic newspaper, the Daily News, supported another chal-lenger (Julia Sheehan); the Boyle Heights community paper,the EastsideSun, and the AFL Central Labor Committee backedthe incumbent Christensen. La Opinion refrained from en-dorsing Roybal, who later claimed that the newspaper's silencerepresented "no political significance" since it was "more con-

22. Donovan, "Roybal Rouses the Ninth," 9.23. InterviewwithRoybal,Dec. 5, 1991 (firstquotation);Griffith,"VivaRoy-bal-VivaAmerica,"66 (second quotation).

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410 Pacific Historical Reviewcerned with the affairs of Mexican nationals than MexicanAmericans.... [I]t did not endorse anybody; t was not theircustom."24In the April 5 primary election, Roybal knocked DanielSullivan and Julia Sheehan out of the race while capturingjust under thirty-seven percent of the total votes cast and forc-ing a runoff with Christensen in the May general election. Hewon a majority of the votes in the primary only on the east-side, losing to Christensen in the south-central, downtown,and Chinatown-Little Tokyo-warehouse areas. For the generalelection, Roybal modified his precinct-level campaign. Evenmore than before, he sought to minimize racial differencesbetween himself and other residents of the ninth district. In-stead of relying on only Mexican-American campaign work-ers, he diversified his staff, sending blacks into African-American neighborhoods while also encouraging supportersof Jewish, Japanese, Chinese, and Russian ancestry to go"into their own neighborhoods... [where they] plugged Roy-bal."25 Roybal made significant gains in African-Americanneighborhoods, winning the endorsements of such leaders asGilbert Lindsay, Loren Miller, Roger Mason, and state assem-blyman Gus Hawkins.Jews were an important component of Roybal's BoyleHeights base. In Los Angeles, according to Raphael Sonen-shein, 'Jews found themselves excluded from the civic cul-ture-both asJews and as holders of a liberalism that found lit-tle expression in Los Angeles."26 Support for Roybal'scampaign became a way for the Jews of the ninth district tostate their views openly in an otherwise hostile climate. William(Bill) Phillips, a prominent businessman on Brooklyn Avenue,and Jack Y.Berman, operator of a theater chain and eastsidechairman of the Independent Progressive Party,created a ve-hicle for Jewish endorsements, the Boyle Heights Committee.Committee members vigorously supported Roybal, describinghim as "ourchoice for city councilman because he stands for a

24. InterviewwithRoybal,Jan. 23,1997; LosAngelesEastside un,March18,1949;LosAngeles California agle,March31, 1949;LosAngelesDailyNews,April5,1949;LosAngeles La Opini6n,April5, 1949.25. Griffith,"VivaRoybal-Viva merica," 6.26. Sonenshein, Politics n BlackandWhite, 1.

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Roybal and the LA. City Council 411municipal Fair Employment Practices Law, and for an end todiscrimination in housing."27Christensen played into Roybal's hands by using at leasttwo racist and anticommunist tactics. His campaign workersmade a flurry of telephone calls, telling residents: "We don'twant Mexicans in the city hall, do we? Roybal is a Mexican."Christensen's assault on Roybal's ethnicity did not sit well withthe district's minority constituents, especially African Ameri-cans, who, according to one contemporary, "blew up inwrath."28 The day before the election Christensen mailed post-cards depicting a Mexican dressed in a charro costume andplaying a guitar with a brief message in Spanish: "Roybal... [is]a Communist in disguise." Roybal countered the postcard at-tack with a last-minute telephone campaign of his own.29

Roybal was rewarded for his efforts in the May 31 generalelection, winning with sixty-three percent of the 32,510 votescast. The turnout suggests an effective voter mobilization ef-fort: Over half of his support, 12,684 votes, came from BoyleHeights precincts where the vast majority of Latino and Jewishvoters lived and where the CSO had concentrated its efforts(see Table 2). Yet Roybal also secured a majority of votes in theChinatown-Little Tokyo-warehouse areas in which no single eth-nic group constituted a majority of the residents, as well as inthe south-central area, which was mostly African American.Christensen captured a majority of votes only in the downtownarea, which was predominantly white (see Table 2). To summa-rize, a targeted voter-registration drive, salient campaign issues,and a strategic get-out-the-vote effort brought Mexican-Ameri-can, Jewish, African-American, and Asian-American voters to-gether on election day. While Thomas (Tom) Bradley's 1963city council campaign employed a remarkably similar andequally successful strategy, few other minority candidates havebeen willing or able to do so.30 Although it took a massive grass-

27. Los Angeles EastsideSun, May 19, 1949. Several years later JosephKovner,publisher of the EastsideSun,argued bluntly:"Eddie[Roybal] .. [is] thebest man.... What'sgood for BoyleHeights is good for the Jews."FortnightOct.20, 1954), 21.28. Donovan, "RoybalRouses the Ninth," 7; Griffith, "VivaRoybal-VivaAmerica,"68.29. Griffith,"VivaRoybal-Viva merica," 8.30. John M. Allswang, "Tom Bradleyof Los Angeles,"SouthernCaliforniaQuarterly, XXIV(1992), 64; Sonenshein, Politics n Blackand White, 2-66.

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412 Pacific Historical ReviewTable 2: Los Angeles GeneralElectionReturns, 1949

Roybal Christensen TotalVotesBoyle Heights 12,684 (39%) 4,543 (14%) 17,227 (53%)Downtown 3,243 (10%) 4,264 (13%) 7,507 (23%)Chinatown & 2,644 (8%) 1,824 (6%) 4,468 (14%)Little TokyoSouth Central 1,991 (6%) 1,317 (4%) 3,308 (10%)Total Votes 20,562 (63%) 11,948 (37%) 32,510 (100%)Source: City of Los Angeles Election Returns, 1949, Records ManagementDivision, Office of the City Clerk, Los Angeles City Archives.

roots effort to wrest the ninth-district seat awayfrom a white in-cumbent, Roybal's reelection campaigns were comparativelylow-key efforts. He maintained his high standing with districtvoters between 1949 and 1962 (when he was elected to Con-gress), and he repelled strong competition with only indirectcampaign support from the CSO.Roybal's electoral popularity-he won reelection fourtimes (in 1951, 1953, 1957, and 1961)-resulted in consider-able measure from continued support by the African-Americancommunity.31In 1956 the ninth district'ssouthernmost bound-ary was moved from Forty-firstStreet (between Compton Av-enue and Alameda Avenue) to Slauson Avenue (still betweenCompton and Alameda), thus increasing the number ofAfrican Americans in Roybal'sjurisdiction. Latinos remained34 percent of the district's population, but the percentage ofAfrican Americans more than doubled, from 15 percent in1950 to 38 percent in 1960 (see Table 1). Three years later,when Roybal left the city council for Congress, 51 percent ofthe district's registered voters were African American, while 34percent of its registered voters were Latino.32Despite the redistricting and the emergence of a well-

31. In 1953 city voters approved Proposition 2, which extended council rep-resentatives' term of office from two to four years. Los Angeles Mirror, April 4,1953.32. Los Angeles City Council files 35476, 55441, 76388; Acufia, Communityunder Siege, 112.

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Roybal and the L.A. City Council 413

organized African-American community at the grass-rootslevel, the ninth district remained safe for Roybal. No AfricanAmerican ran against him, and he consistently received enthu-siastic praise from community leaders and both of the city'sAfrican-American newspapers. Indeed, only twice, in 1951 and1961, did Roybal have any opposition. Irving Rael (who ranagainst him in 1951), and David Ruiz and Lillian Carter (whoboth opposed him in 1961) had no prior political experience,no prominent connections, and no name recognition. On theother hand, Roybal received support in every election from awide spectrum of labor unions, civic and business associations,and political leaders, with the result that he never won less thansixty-seven percent of the vote.33Roybal's popularity was based, in part, on his role as avoice for low-income groups and minorities. He put new issueson the city's agenda and vociferously argued against publicpolicies that would hurt powerless groups. African-American,Mexican-American, Asian-American, and Jewish communityorganizations considered fair-employment-practices legislationa top priority, and Roybal put such an ordinance before thecouncil in 1949, 1955, and 1957-1958. He cast the only voteagainst a highly controversial Communist registration ordi-nance and spoke publicly against the McCarran-WalterAct.34Moreover, Roybal investigated many cases of police harassmentand "fought the police department when nobody else did."35After Police Chief William Parker remarked that differences inneighborhood crime rates were because Mexican Americans"were not too far removed from the wild tribes of the innermountains of Mexico," Roybal publicly-but unsuccessfully-demanded an apology to the Mexican-American community,

33. LosAngeles entinel,March28, 1957,March23, 30, 1961;LosAngeles Cal-iforniaEagle,March23, 1961.34. LosAngeles CityCouncil files 39092, 43923;LosAngelesHeraldDispatch,May12, 1955, Roybalnewspaper scrapbook,EastLosAngeles Branch,LosAnge-les County Library;B'nai B'rithRecord, ug. 1955, ibid.;LosAngeles EastsideSun,March 18, 1954; Los Angeles CaliforniaEagle,June 16, 1955, Nov. 28, Dec. 26,1957,Jan. 9, 1958.35. InterviewwithRoybal,Jan. 23, 1997 (quotation);see correspondence inbox 29, Roybal Collection, Department of Special Collections, UniversityRe-search Library,Universityof California,LosAngeles.

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414 Pacific Historical Reviewand he facilitated a council session that reviewed Parker'scom-ments.36 Roybal advocated upgraded residential and commer-cial development, but he openly criticized the Community Re-development Agency's massive renewal plan for Bunker Hilland the construction of Dodger Stadium (which was not in hisdistrict) .37Roybal received much credit from his constituents as wellas from liberals all over the city for his role as an opponent ofthe status quo, yet he found few allies on the council itself. Forthis reason he was unable to redirect substantiallythe conserv-ative direction of municipal policy. Significant measures thatRoybal backed, such as fair-employment-practices ordinances,rent control, public housing, alternative redevelopment, andantifreeway plans, were soundly defeated.38 Even with massiveand articulate community support, Roybal could not block ormodify large land-use projects, such as freeway constructionand Bunker Hill renewal, that displaced many low-income resi-dents and destroyed large portions of the ninth district.39ThatRoybal was never assigned to the powerful finance or planningcommittees is another indication of his relative political weak-ness on the council.Several factors explain why Roybal had few council allies.Earlyin the 1950s a highly ideological council majority regularlyvoted against liberal measures, with its position reinforced bywell-organized, influential, interest-group lobbying. Laterin the

36. LosAngelesHeraldandExpress,an. 29, Feb.2, 1960.Afterthe council's in-vestigationof William Parker's"wild ribes"remark,the LosAngelesTimes Feb. 5,1960) accused Roybalof "demagoguery" nd defended the chief of police byar-guing that he had "greatcourage and a prodigiousamount of candor, qualitieswhich have made him famous as a policeman and a perfect whipping boy for theminority manipulators."37. Constituentcorrespondence, box 4, RoybalCollection;LosAngeles CityCouncil file 74638; Ridgely Cummings, "O'MalleyTakesLos Angeles,"TheCali-fornian (Sept. 1962), 11-14, copy in box 6, RoybalCollection; ColumbusDispatch,May10, 1959, clipping in ibid.38. LosAngeles CityCouncil files 39092,43923,46540,40909,39066, 74638;LosAngeles Eastside un,Dec. 3, 1953;LloydAldrich to LosAngeles CityCouncil,Dec. 11, 1953, box 13, RoybalCollection;"Golden StateFreeway:Agenda," bid.;CaliforniaDepartment of PublicWorks,PressRelease,June 24, 1954, ibid.39. Controversyover urban renewal (and the inabilityof neighborhood or-ganizationsto thwart tsonslaught) was not limited to LosAngeles. In many largeAmerican cities, such as New York,San Francisco,and Boston, poor minorityneighborhoods were pitted against pro-redevelopment coalitions composed of

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Roybal and the L.A. City Council 415decade several moderates and liberalsjoined the council, suchas Rosalind Weiner Wyman,who represented a westside Jewishconstituency, but they shared a strong pro-growth ethos withcouncil conservatives.40Their belief in the efficacy of large de-velopment projects put them at loggerheads with Roybal, whofocused on how the plans would affect individuals and commu-nities. Finally,most city council members had no real electoralincentive to grant demands for equal employment and otherpolicies that would reflect minority interests. Between 1950 and1960, the city'spopulation was overwhelmingly white, and mostof the city's African Americans, Asians, and Latinos lived inthree of the fifteen council districts.Despite growing demandsfrom increasingly mobilized minority communities, particularlyAfrican Americans in the south-central area, as well as the im-plications of the 1959 state fair-employment law, issues ofequality and opportunity remained largely irrelevant to a ma-jority of the Los Angeles CityCouncil until the early 1960s.41

Roybal had to prove his worth to insensitive and biasedcolleagues in a new and professionally challenging work envi-ronment. On his first day on the city council, Roybalwas intro-duced by the council president as the "MexicanCouncil mem-ber, elected by the Mexican people of his District."Many of hiscollegues attended the first meeting of the Roybal-chairedPublic Health and Welfare Committee to learn whether theirnew Latino colleague could conduct a meeting according toRobert's Rules of Order. Gradually,however, Roybal'srelation-ships with the other council members improved. In 1950, Fort-nightMagazine ncluded Roybal in its "TopPerformers"awards,which generated very favorable press for the first-termcouncil-man. Challenges to his loyalty from a red-baiting colleaguebusiness interests, autonomous agencies headed by ambitious individuals,andelected officials. See John Mollenkopf, "The PostwarPolitics of UrbanDevelop-ment," n William K. Tabb and LarrySawyers, ds., Marxism nd theMetropolis:ewPerspectivesin Urban Political Economy (New York, 1978), 117-152; Chester Hart-man, et al., YerbaBuena: Land Grab and CommunityResistance in San Francisco (SanFrancisco,1974).40. For Jewish migration from Boyle Heights to the westside, see MaxVorspan and Lloyd P. Gartner, History of theJewsof LosAngeles (San Marino, Calif.,1970); Deborah Dash Moore, To the Golden Cities: Pursuing the AmericanJewishDream in Miami and Los Angeles (New York, 1994).41. Sonenshein, Politics in Black and White,31-35.

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416 Pacific Historical Reviewceased after Roybal privately confronted him in the councilbathroom. After a few years Roybal's colleagues were "con-vinced," Roybal later said, that he "could do the job as well asthey could. They no longer looked at me as the misfit who gotelected there by luck." Other council members now consultedhim on budget and health issues, as well as parliamentaryprocedures.42While Roybal did not influence major city policies, headeptly directed a steady stream of benefits to the ninth dis-trict, was always accessible to constituents, worked hard to im-prove the quality of city services, and promoted equal treat-ment wherever possible. His efforts helped to producemodernized sewer systems, resurfaced streets, paved alleys,new park equipment, traffic signals, stop signs, and schoolcross-walks. Community organizations worked closely with hisoffice to identify areas of need, and then together they pres-sured city agencies to deliver improvements. Roybal held pub-lic meetings and office hours all over the district, attendedcountless neighborhood events, authored a news column forcommunity newspapers, and sent newsletters to constituents.He attempted to sensitize municipal employees to the ninthdistrict's conditions by lecturing at the city's police academyand regularly serving as a liaison between city agencies andresidents. His authorship of a 1957 municipal ordinance ban-ning racial segregation and discrimination in redevelopmenthousing further illustrates what could be accomplished by adetermined but largely isolated council representative.43

Roybal's lack of allies on the council was partly offset bymany friends outside city hall. Throughout the 1950s and intothe early 1960s he increased the number of political organiza-tions with which he worked closely. He became involved withthe California Democratic Council (CDC), which relied on thesupport of grass-roots clubs and was more ideological than the

42. Interview with Roybal, May23, 1995;FortnightNov. 13, 1950), clippingin Roybalnewspaper scrapbook.43. LosAngeles EastsideSun,Sept. 14, Nov.9, 1950,March15, 1951, Roybalnewspaper scrapbook;NinthDistrictNewsletter,ov.6, 1959,April7, July 26, 1960,Aug. 17, Dec. 27, 1961, box 26, RoybalCollection;EdwardR. Roybal,"OurCoun-cilman's Corner,"Weekly eporter,une 1951, copy in ibid.; nterview with Roybal,Dec. 5 1991;LosAngeles California agle, une 20, 1957;see also boxes 28 and 29,RoybalCollection.

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Roybal and the LA. City Council 417regular party, and he participated in CDC endorsing conven-tions and issue conferences. He also developed a good rela-tionship with the Los Angeles County Democratic CentralCommittee, which in 1956 appointed him to the Democraticparty's state central committee.44 Through the CDC and theregular party Roybal met many activistsand state and federalelected officials. In 1956 he campaigned on behalf of AdlaiStevenson and in 1960 served as a California delegate to theDemocratic national convention. After John F. Kennedy'snomination, Roybal became cochair (with U.S. Senator DennisChavez) of the national Viva Kennedy clubs and chaired theViva Kennedy clubs of California. In these capacities he spokeat Kennedy campaign rallies for Latinos throughout the South-west during 1960.45Roybal's commitment to Democratic poli-tics further burnished his already strong reputation andprompted CDC members to view him as an attractivecandidatefor higher office.The regular state Democratic party,however, was less will-ing than the CDC to implement principles of equality in elec-toral politics. On the one hand, Governor Edmund G. (Pat)Brown and the Democratic-controlled legislature quicklypassed a Fair Employment Practices Act after they capturedcontrol of state government in 1958. On the other hand, partyleaders viewed minority candidates with considerable ambiva-lence. Before and after 1958, the Democratic leadership failedto provide financial and organizational support to Mexican-American candidates such as Roybal and Henry Lopez, the1958 Democratic nominee for Secretary of State. More subtly,party leaders did not provide for even symbolic representationof minorities at major party functions, further contributing toa belief among Mexican Americans and African Americansthat the partywas treating them as second-class citizens.46In re-

44. James Q. Wilson, TheAmateurDemocrat:ClubPolitics in ThreeCities(Chicago, 1962), 295-301; Joseph L. Wyattand MarvinSchachter to Roybal,March22, 1961, box 10,RoybalCollection;Don Rose to Roybal,Aug.6, 1956, ibid.45. Roybal campaign letter endorsing Adlai Stevenson, May 25, 1956;Edmund G. Brown to Roybal,April 12, 1960, both in box 10, RoybalCollection;interview with Roybal,Jan. 23, 1997; "LosAngeles CityCouncilman EdwardR.Roybal:ChairmanVivaKennedyClubs of California,Co-ChairmanNationalVivaKennedy Clubs,"box 35, RoybalCollection.46. LosAngeles California agle,Nov.7, 1954,Nov. 14, 1957,April 16, 1959;G6mez-Quifiones, Chicano olitics, 7.

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418 Pacific Historical Reviewsponse to the defeat of L6pez and "other accumulated griev-ances against the Democratic Party,"150 activists convened inFresno a year later to create the Mexican American Political As-sociation (MAPA)whose first chair was Roybal. MAPAstressed"ethnic identity, direct electoral politics, and electoral inde-pendence," and reflected the realization that political partieswere impediments to Mexican-American officeholding.47Roybal ran for higher office three times. He received theDemocratic nomination for lieutenant governor in 1954,faced a council colleague in a campaign for county supervisorin 1958, and four years later successfully sought a seat in theU.S. House of Representatives. Roybal's quest for office out-side of city government illustrates some of the problems con-fronting minority candidates in the 1950s as well as the slowlyevolving climate of acceptance for civil rights and minorityrepresentation.Roybal recalled that he was asked to run for lieutenantgovernor by rank-and-file CDC members, and it was the "onlygenuine draft that I have ever seen."He attended the first CDCendorsing convention with "absolutely no intention of run-ning" for state office.48 To Roybal's great surprise, RalphRichardson, a professor at the Universityof California, Los An-geles, nominated Roybal for lieutenant governor (he was oneof four nominees). Before the floor vote, Jesse Unruh andstate Attorney General Pat Brown attempted to persuade Roy-bal to decline the nomination, on the grounds that Brown wasrunning for reelection and the "state could not accept twoCatholics on the ticket."49Instead, Roybal listened to advicefrom Alan Cranston, then chair of the CDC, who told Roybalnot to withdraw.After being endorsed for lieutenant governorby an overwhelming vote, which "flabbergasted"the regularparty hierarchy, Roybal launched a primary election campaign

47. Guzman, "Political Socialization of the Mexican American People,"257-258 (firstquote); G6mez-Quifones, Chicano olitics, 7 (second quote).48. James (Jaime)A. Regalado interview with EdwardRoybal (transcribedby Regalado from tape in his possession;copy in author'spossession), 1988, Ed-mund G. (Pat) BrownInstitute,CaliforniaStateUniversity,LosAngeles.49. Jesse Unruh was an Assemblycandidate in 1954. Interviewwith Roybal,May23, 1995 (quotation); Los Angeles EastsideSun,March18, 1954;LosAngelesDailyNews,Feb. 5, 1954.

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Roybal and the LA. City Council 419and easily captured the official Democratic party nominationin the June, 1954, election.50

That regular party leaders continued to keep Roybal atarm's length was clear when he approached the Democraticnominee for governor, Richard Graves, as well as Unruh andPat Brown, with a proposal for a coordinated campaign. Theyrejected it out of fear that Roybal would be "injurious to theparty."Roybalwas incensed: "I told them in no uncertain termsthat I was going to go out statewide if they didn't want to put to-gether the team, and I was going to get more votes than thecandidate for governor.... And they laughed at me."51Roybal's prediction came to pass as a result of an astutestrategy. He enlisted the support of community leaders whomhe had met and impressed while working for the California Tu-berculosis Association. They agreed to serve on his extensivenetwork of campaign committees that worked only for himand not the party.He also relied on CSO members throughoutthe Central Valley to publicize his candidacy. On the campaigntrail, Roybal avoided alienating fellow Democrats by emphasiz-ing party unity and the importance of voting a straight partyticket. For the most part, Democratic party candidates forstatewide office failed at the polls in the 1954 general election.The notable exception was Attorney General Pat Brown, whowas reelected. Though Roybal lost his bid for lieutenant gover-nor, he attracted more votes than his party'sgubernatorial can-didate. In a postelection analysis, Frontiermagazine observedthat "the Democrats will do well to keep this sincere, liberal,and conscientious man in mind for more important posts inthe future."Despite Roybal'sstunning performance, Democra-tic partyleaders continued to doubt the abilityof minority can-didates to win votes outside of their own communities.52Four years later Roybal ran a carefully planned campaignfor the nonpartisan position on the Los Angeles County Boardof Supervisors being vacated by retiringJohn Anson Ford. Roy-bal received Ford's endorsement and help during the early

50. LosAngelesDailyNews,Feb. 8, 1954;LosAngelesExaminer,une 10, 1954.51. Interview with Roybal,May23, 1995.52. Ibid.;Fred Ross to Roybal,Feb. 16, 1954,box 9, RoybalCollection (quo-tation);FrontierDec. 1954), 8-9; DailyPaloAltoTimes,Aug.21, 1954,Roybalnews-paper scrapbook;LosAngelesTimes,Nov.4, 1954.

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420 Pacific Historical Reviewstages of his campaign for the third-district seat. Roybal's op-ponent was his city council colleague, Ernest Debs, chair of thecity's powerful planning committee. Debs, like Roybal, wasviewed as a liberal but he had nevertheless obtained the en-dorsement of the conservative Los AngelesTimes.The size ofthe third district, which stretched from Montebello in the eastto Hollywood, BeverlyHills, and Burbank in the west, requiredRoybal to campaign far beyond his secure Boyle Heights base.Strong name recognition made him a competitive candidate,but he believed that victory depended on his success in culti-vating the Jewish community on the westside for support andfunds. The resultant demands on his time made it impossiblefor him to appear frequently at eastside campaign events,much to the dismay of his Mexican-American supporters.53Roybal's campaign themes were government efficiency,"honest land zoning," and appreciation for the county's "cul-tural background." The subtext for Mexican-American voterswas representation and access to government. Roybal'ssupportincluded the same labor groups that had backed him in his ear-lier council races, as well as many Democratic clubs that openlycampaigned on his behalf even though the race was nonparti-san. As before, the CSO formally eschewed direct-election pol-itics while continuing to hold voter registration drives aimed atMexican Americans. Individual CSO members also workedlong hours on Roybal's campaign. Additional support camefrom the Dry Cleaners, Retail Clerks, and Butchers unions,which supplied campaign signs, endorsements, and otherforms of assistance. Grace Montafiez Davis, a CSO memberand Roybal volunteer, remembered that "we were very opti-mistic, we felt like we had a good chance ... [and] we workedhard to get people out. There wasjust an incredible amount ofresponse in terms of volunteers."54Despite the enthusiasm, Roybal, in November 1958, lost aclose race marked by controversial vote counts. Ballots were tal-

53. Regalado interview with Roybal, 1988; John Anson Ford to Roybal,March 11, 1957, box 13, RoybalCollection; LosAngelesExaminer,May18, 1958;Los Angeles La Opinidn,March 30, 1957; Los Angeles EastsideSun, March 28,1957;LosAngelesTimes,Nov.2, 1958;interviewwith MontafiezDavis,Jan. 2, 1997.54. Roybalfor Supervisor campaignflyer,box 13, RoybalCollection; inter-view with MontafiezDavis,Jan. 2, 1997.

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Roybal and the LA. City Council 421lied four times: Debs held the lead in the initial count; Roybalpulled ahead in the first recount but lost his lead in the secondand third recounts. In the final tally Debs received 141,011votes (fifty-two percent) and Roybal 128,994 (forty-eight per-cent). The county registrar of voters' official explanation forthe disparities was election-worker fatigue. Roybaland his man-ager believed otherwise, citing numerous voting irregularitiesand calling for a new election. There were two separate effortsat redress, one spearheaded by Roybal and the other by GraceMontafiez Davis, who headed the "Fair Election Committee"formed after the election. Both collected affidavits from mi-nority voters who claimed they had been challenged or intimi-dated. Roybal submitted about a dozen affidavits to the Los An-geles Grand Jury, and Davis sent ninety-eight to the FederalBureau of Investigation, the state Fair Employment PracticesCommission, and the U.S. Civil Service Commission.55All theagencies refused to investigate the complaints. Reflecting yearslater on the election results, Roybal said, "Itseems to me, andseemed to many experts, that [voter fraud] was most unusualand perhaps it was done on purpose."56 Many were disap-pointed by Roybal's 1958 defeat, but the election neverthelessdemonstrated that he could be competitive outside the ninthdistrict and suggested that he could win higher office in anarea with left-leaning voters.Over the next few years an increasingly energetic nationalcivil rights movement placed the issues of equality and repre-sentation in the spotlight. In California, however, the Demo-cratic partywas still dominated by those whose prioritywaswin-ning office, not promoting diversity in officeholding. Whenthe California Assembly reapportioned congressional districtsin 1961, the result was a new, safe Democratic congressionaldistrict in Los Angeles. It included Roybal'scity council districtin the Boyle Heights and downtown areas, along with the"heart of Hollywood," the MacArthur Park and Wilshire dis-tricts, and southwest Los Angeles to Exposition Boulevard. Just

55. Los AngelesExaminer, Nov. 7, 1958; Los AngelesMirrorNews, Nov. 8, 9, 19,1958; interview with Montafiez Davis, Jan. 2, 1997. The ninety-eight affidavits thatMontaiiez Davis collected are in the Grace Montanez Davis Collection, ChicanoStudies Research Center Library, University of California, Los Angeles.56. Regalado interview with Roybal, 1988.

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422 Pacific Historical Reviewover sixty percent of the thirtieth district's 179,737 registeredvoters were Democrats, while thirty-five percent were Republi-cans. Mexican Americans and whites lived in the eastern partof the district, whites lived in the western part, and AfricanAmericans lived in the southwestern area. Roybal conducted asurvey in the new district and determined that it was a goodtime to run for federal office.57

ManyCDC members, especially those in the very large andactive Wilton Place Club, were enthusiastic about Roybal's can-didacy. But Jesse Unruh, who was by then Speaker of the As-sembly, was not pleased. According to Maurice Weiner, aWilton Place Club member and Roybal volunteer, Unruhthought that "certain things were possible at this particulartime, and certain things were not possible."58Privately,Unruhsaid that Roybal, if nominated, would lose because there werenot enough Mexican Americans in the thirtieth congressionaldistrict to assure his election. Unruh supported Loyola Univer-sity professor William Fitzgerald in the Democratic primary,but he did so only halfheartedly (though the Roybal campthought otherwise). Unruh would have preferred that Fitzger-ald run for the Assembly. To entice him to do so, Unruhpromised him sufficient campaign support and, should he win,a choice committee position. When Fitzgerald ignored Un-ruh's suggestion and instead ran for Congress, he received onlytoken financial support from the Speaker.59

Roybal and Fitzgerald battled for the CDC preprimary en-dorsement. Club members like Weiner,who supported Roybal,viewed Unruh as their "number one political adversary"andwere outraged when the Los Angeles CDC convention backedFitzgerald. Roybal's supporters appealed to the state CDC, ar-guing that a majority of the clubs supporting Fitzgerald were"paper clubs" formed at the last minute with Unruh's money.57. Los Angeles Eastside un,Feb. 8, 1962;"ElectionAnalysis,"CaliforniaDe-mocraticCouncilBulletin, (Dec. 1962), 8-15, copy in box 9, CaliforniaDemocra-tic State Committee Collection, Urban Archives, California State University,Northridge;interviewwith Roybal,Dec. 5, 1991.58. Interview with Maurice Weiner, May 30, 1995. Weiner subsequentlyworked on Tom Bradley'scampaignsfor office and also served as deputy mayorduring Bradley'sfirst term. Sonenshein, Politics n Blackand White, 1-62, 113,183. 59. Interview with WilliamFitzgerald,March22, 1993.

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Roybal and the LA. City Council 423The Fitzgerald camp insisted that the clubs were legitimate.60Ultimately, the state CDC threw out the endorsement and al-lowed each of the thirtieth district's clubs to endorse its pre-ferred candidate.

Roybal's primary and general election campaigns empha-sized three basic themes: effective voter mobilization; "repre-sentation for all the people"; and "no one should be blockedfrom having a voice." The voters in the district should be incontrol, he insisted. As for himself: "No boss would tell himhow to vote."61Moved by Roybal'swords and past record, CDCclubs, civil rights organizations such as the multiracial UnitedCivil Rights Committee (UCRC), and peace groups waged anintensive effort on his behalf. Weiner, with the assistance ofvolunteers like Tom Bradley,who was then a Los Angeles policeofficer, took charge of the get-out-the-vote drive. Roybal de-feated Fitzgerald and three other candidates to win the Dem-ocratic nomination in June 1962. Then, in November, hetrounced Gordon McDonough, a Republican member of Con-gress, winning fifty-seven percent of the vote.62Roybal's election set the stage for an interracial politicalstruggle over the ninth-district seat on the city council. Heasked the council not to appoint a replacement so that the vot-ers could select the new representative in the spring election in1963. His former colleagues ignored his request and selectedGilbert Lindsay as the firstAfrican American to hold a councilposition.63 The appointment suggests that, even after thirteenyears, Roybal'sviews were not shared by a majorityof the coun-cil members. It also reflected the growing number of African-American voters in the ninth district (see Table 1), the growinginfluence of that community citywide, and the continued po-litical marginality of the Mexican-American community.

60. Interviewwith Weiner,May30, 1995; interview with Fitzgerald,March22, 1993.61. Interview withWeiner,May30, 1995.62. Ibid.;LosAngelesTimes, une 8, 1962; "ElectionAnalysis,"10. Roybalserved for three decades before retiring in 1992. In that same year his eldestdaughter,Lucille Roybal-Allard,won election to the U.S. House of Representa-tives in a neighboring district and became the first Mexican-Americanwoman tohold a seat in Congress.Rodolfo F Acufia,AnythingButMexican:Chicanosn Con-temporaryosAngelesLondon and NewYork,1996), 99.63. Sonenshein, Politicsn Blackand White,3-46.

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424 Pacific Historical ReviewLindsay had to stand for election three months after hisappointment. He attempted to defuse Mexican-American op-

position by appointing Felix Ontiveros, a Boyle Heights busi-nessman and civic leader, as his chief of staff and by pledgingto represent all segments of the district equally. Still, Lindsayfailed to win a majorityof the votes in his race against five chal-lengers in the April primary. Richard Tafoya, Mayor SamuelYorty'saide and Roybal's first cousin, emerged as Lindsay's op-ponent in the general election of May28. Tafoyawent down todefeat, receiving forty-four percent of the vote to Lindsay'sfifty-six percent. Lindsay held his ninth-district seat until hisdeath in 1991.64A combination of gerrymandered Mexican-Americanneighborhoods and entrenched incumbents forestalled theelection of another Latino to the city council for two decades.Finally, in 1985 Richard Alatorre, a well-known member of thestate assembly, won a special election held to replace retiringfourteenth-district representative Arthur Snyder. A short timelater, political opportunities for Mexican Americans increasedmeasurably when the U.S. Department of Justice charged thatthe city's district boundaries violated federal voting rights leg-islation. In an out-of-court settlement, the council agreed to re-draw district boundaries and put Alatorre in charge of theprocess.65 Early in 1987 Gloria Molina won election in a newLatino-majorityfirst district. Four years later,when she becamethe first Mexican American to win a seat on the Los AngelesCounty Board of Supervisors, Mike Hernandez took her placeon the city council. Redistricting in the early 1990s created athird Latino-majoritydistrict in the San Fernando Valley,whichRichard Alarcon captured in 1993.

If politics is the art of the possible, then EdwardRoybal'sartistry was in offering alternative policies in an environmentthat provided little or nothing to minorities and liberals. Roy-bal was a member of what Carlos Mufios, Jr., has called the"Mexican-American"generation, veterans of WorldWar IIwho64. Los Angeles EastsideSun, March24, 1963; LosAngelesSentinel, an. 31,1963; LosAngelesTimes,April3, May29, 1963.65. Acufia,AnythingButMexican, 7-59.

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Roybal and the L.A. City Council 425dedicated themselves to creating a more egalitarian society inthe United States.66 Unlike the youth of the 1960s who pre-ferred radical action, the Mexican-American generation choseelectoral politics as the means to bring about social change andadhered to the democratic process even when it went awry.Roybal favored voter-registration drives and working throughsuch organizations as the CSO and MAPAover protest demon-strations. He tried to build consensus rather than engage inconfrontation, yet his advocacy of civil rights placed him to theleft of center and provoked considerable harassment. He wasthe target of angry and obscene telephone calls as well as shad-owing by the Los Angeles Police Department to such an extentthat he instructed his young children never to enter a policecar.67

Despite the intimidation, Roybal never wavered in placinga spotlight on issues that had been routinely ignored by his col-leagues, thereby anticipating the major changes that wouldsweep the nation in the next decade. Roybal not only broughtethnic diversityto an all-whitecouncil, he also received supportfrom a coalition of Mexican Americans, African Americans,and whites inspired by his conviction that all Americans de-served a voice in government. While his pioneering efforts onthe council resulted in incremental rather than sweeping pol-icy changes, they marked important early steps toward minor-ity empowerment.

66. Carlos Mufios, Jr., Youth,Identity,Power: The Chicano Movement (Londonand New York,1989), 49.