Martin Schiesl, Author at • Page 3 of 3

Academic Historian

Martin Schiesl is Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, Los Angeles. His specialities are the history of urban America in the twentieth century and the social, political, and governmental histories of Los Angeles and California since 1900. He is the author of The Politics of Efficiency: Municipal Administration and Reform in America, 1880-1920 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1977), co-editor of 20th Century Los Angeles: Power, Promotion, and Social Conflict (Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 1990), editor of Responsible Liberalism: Edmund G. “Pat” Brown and Reform Government in California, 1958-1967 (Los Angeles: Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs, California State University, Los Angeles, 2003), and co-editor of City of Promise: Race and Historical Change in Los Angeles (Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 2006). He is also the author of “Residential Opportunity for All Californians: Governor Edmund G. “Pat” Brown and the Struggle for Fair Housing Legislation, 1959-1963,” Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs, Historical Essay, August, 2013, 1-6. Dr. Schiesl is currently writing a book on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in California in the years from 1940 to 1970.

Leo Branton Jr. (1922-2013)

“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Legal and civil rights activist Leo Branton, Jr. was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on February 17, 1922 to Leo Branton, Sr., and Pauline Wiley. His father ran a family-owned taxicab business and his mother was a school teacher. Branton received … Read MoreLeo Branton Jr. (1922-2013)

Walter Arthur Gordon (1894-1976)

Walter Arthur Gordon, attorney and civil rights activist, was born on October 10, 1894, in Atlanta, Georgia, to Henry B. and Georgia Bryant Gordon. He was the son of a Pullman porter and the grandson of slaves. His family moved to Riverside, California, in 1904. … Read MoreWalter Arthur Gordon (1894-1976)

Pettis Perry (1897-1965)

Communist Party Leaders: Claudia Jones, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Pettis Perry & Betty Gannet, ca. 1951 “Image Ownership: Public Domain” U.S. Communist Party leader Pettis Perry was born on January 4, 1897, on a tenant farm near Marion, Alabama. His mother died when he was a … Read MorePettis Perry (1897-1965)

Virna Mae Canson (1921-2003)

Civil rights activist Virna Mae Canson was born in Bridgeport, Oklahoma, to William A. and Eula Gross Dobson on June 10, 1921. Both of her parents were schoolteachers. She grew up in Lima, Oklahoma, a mostly African American town where her father served as mayor. … Read MoreVirna Mae Canson (1921-2003)

Franklin Hall Williams (1917-1990)

Longtime civil rights organizer and later U.S. Ambassador, Franklin Hall Williams was born on October 22, 1917, in Flushing, New York. His mother died in 1919. Williams was raised by his maternal grandparents. He graduated from Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1941. After … Read MoreFranklin Hall Williams (1917-1990)

Nathan Wright Jr. (1923-2005)

“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Black Power advocate Nathan Wright, Jr. was born on August 5, 1923 in Shreveport, Louisiana. He and his brother and sisters grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. Wright attended St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1941 and 1942 and then … Read MoreNathan Wright Jr. (1923-2005)

Nathaniel Sextus Colley (1918-1992)

(Image Courtesy of the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley) Nathaniel Sextus Colley, the first African American attorney in Sacramento, California, was born on November 21, 1918 in Carlowsville, Alabama. The youngest of six brothers, Colley grew up in Snow Hill, Alabama, and graduated from … Read MoreNathaniel Sextus Colley (1918-1992)