Bridging the Divide: Tom Bradley and the Politics of Race

In 1969, four years after the Watts Riot, in a nation torn apart by political turmoil, in a conservative city with an overwhelmingly white population, African American Tom Bradley set out to do the impossible - run for mayor of Los Angeles. Incumbent Mayor Sam Yorty fights back with a campaign fueled by racism and redbaiting, in one of the meanest, roughest campaigns in modern American history.

Thirty-five years before Barack Obama’s election as President, the question of race and the possibility of bridging racial barriers were put to the test in an overlooked story in American politics: Tom Bradley’s 1973 election as Mayor of Los Angeles: The first African American mayor of a major U.S. city elected with an overwhelmingly white majority.

While Mayor Bradley presides over a city polarized by race and class, anger over the beating of Rodney King, the murder of black teenager Latasha Harlins and the acquittal of LAPD officers accused of beating Rodney King, fuels the 1992 civil unrest, one of the largest urban riots in U.S. history. Mayor Bradley tries to bring the LAPD under control and force LAPD Chief Daryl Gates to resign.

Bradley transformed L.A. from a provincial town to one of the most important cities in the world. Under his leadership, city government was open, responsive, accountable. He opened up City Hall jobs and commissions to women and minorities. He held regular Open Houses, listening to people’s concerns and enlisting community involvement. Bradley’s L.A. became a model of race relations and reform.

In 1973, Tom Bradley was elected mayor of Los Angeles, becoming the first African American mayor of a major U.S. city with an overwhelmingly white population. His multi-racial coalition of African Americans, Jews, white liberals, along with Mexican Americans and Asian Americans, united a divided city, and created a new model for race relations that reverberated across the nation.