L.A.’s founders were perhaps the most ethnically diverse group of founders for any major city in America. Half of them were of African descent.
Circa 1910. Portrait of five African American Los Angeles police officers. The first African American police officer in Los Angeles was Robert W. Stewart, appointed in 1886. In 1919, the Los Angeles Police Department was one of two departments to become the first in the U.S. to appoint an African American woman police officer. As for the officers in the photo above, only their last names are given. Standing L-R: White, Stevens, Watson. Seated L-R: McDuff and Green.
From the 1950s through the 1970s, the Los Angeles area was surrounded by a ring of Cold War missile bases, possibly nuclear-armed, ready to defend the region from Soviet bombers.
