Postmaster Leslie N. Shaw receives the Distinguished Citizen Award at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, 1964

Title: Postmaster Leslie N. Shaw receives the Distinguished Citizen Award at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, 1964
Alternative title: Lorenzo Bowdoin, NAACP leader
Date Created: February 22, 1964
Date: 1964-02-22
Collection: Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection
OpenUCLA Collections

Description: Postmaster Leslie N. Shaw holds his Distinguished Citizen Award. Beside him are former recipients, left to right: Judge Vaino Spencer (1962), Vassie D. Wright (1961) and Lorenzo Bowdoin (1960). They are at the award ceremony held at the Ambassador Hotel.
Honorable Vaino Hassan Spencer, State Appeal Court Justice, was the first black woman to be appointed to judgeship in the state of California and the third in the nation.
Leslie N. Shaw was the vice-president of Family Savings & Loan Association when President John F. Kennedy appointed him the first black postmaster of Los Angeles (1963-1969), and of any major U. S. city. Later he became the president of the Great Western Financial Corporation.
Vassie Wright was the founder and president of Our Authors Study Club, and a champion of the study of Black history.
Lorenzo Bowdoin was a Los Angeles businessman, civic leader, philanthropist and NAACP leader. One of the first three black clerks hired by the Los Angeles Post Office in 1906, he worked there for 38 years and improved hiring and promotion policies for blacks. He was one of the organizers of Angelus Mortuary (1925) and was the treasurer for many years. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Haitian Coffee Co. He was active in many civic organizations including the Metropolitan YMCA.

Genre: photographs
Names: Spencer, Vaino Hassan, 1920-2016
Shaw, Leslie N., -1985
Ambassador Hotel
Wright, Vassie Davis, 1893-1983
Bowdoin, Lorenzo, 1886-1972
Subject Geographic: Los Angeles (Calif.)
Longitude: 34.060367
Latitude: -118.29703
Resource type: still image
Subjects: African American postmasters
African American civic leaders
African American judges
Award presentations