Dr. Vada Somerville, Kenneth Hahn, and a naval officer at the Second Baptist Church, Los Angeles, 1950s

Title: Dr. Vada Somerville, Kenneth Hahn, and a naval officer at the Second Baptist Church, Los Angeles, 1950s
Alternative title: Somerville community activities (1)
Date Created: [1950s]
Date: 1950/1960
Collection: Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection
OpenUCLA Collections

Description: Dr. Vada Somerville (born Vada Jetmore Watson) of Pomona graduated from USC, married dentist John Alexander Somerville (1912), was the first African American woman and the second African American person to graduate from USC School of Dentistry (1918), and was the first African American woman certified to practice dentistry in the state of California. She was a civil rights activist, highly involved in several civic and community organizations.
Kenneth Hahn (1920–1997) was a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for forty years, from 1952 to 1992. Hahn was on the Los Angeles City Council from 1947 to 1952. He was an ardent supporter of civil rights throughout the 1960s, and met Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1961.
Dr. Vada Somerville (center) and Kenneth Hahn (right) with an unidentified man in a Navy uniform and an unidentified woman, at the Second Baptist Church (24th and Griffith Avenue).