Dr. John A. Somerville at the Los Angeles inspection of the Los Angeles-based auxiliary police, Los Angeles, 1954

Title: Dr. John A. Somerville at the Los Angeles inspection of the Los Angeles-based auxiliary police, Los Angeles, 1954
Alternative title: John Somerville and Police Commissioner and receiving Order of the British Empire
Date Created: July 1954
Date: 1954-07
Collection: Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection
OpenUCLA Collections

Description: Dr. John Somerville, born in Jamaica, was the first black graduate of USC School of Dentistry (1907). He married Vada Jetmore Watson (1912), who also became a dentist. He built the Somerville Hotel (1928), was instrumental in the founding of the Los Angeles chapter of NAACP (1914). He served on the Police Commission 1949-1953
Dr. John A. Somerville at the inspection and review of auxiliary policemen at the Los Angeles Police Academy. Dr. John A. Somerville (front row center) with police officers are on each side of him.
Herman Selvin was a Los Angeles attorney who served as the president of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners from 1952 to 1953.

Genre: photographs
Names: Somerville, John Alexander, 1881-1973
Subject Geographic: Los Angeles (Calif.)
Longitude: 43.230849-79.88189
Resource type: still image
Subjects: African American civic leaders
African American civil rights workers
African American dentists