Norman Houston, Kenneth Hahn, Dr. John A. Somerville and others at a dinner, Los Angeles, 1950s-1960s

Title: Norman Houston, Kenneth Hahn, Dr. John A. Somerville and others at a dinner, Los Angeles, 1950s-1960s
Alternative title: Somerville community activities (1)
Photographer: Rothschild Photo (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Date Created: [1950s-1960s]
Date: 1950/1970
Collection: Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection
OpenUCLA Collections

Description: Dinner party with Norman O. Houston (3rd from left), and John A. Somerville (right) seated at a dining table with a standing woman, another woman and two other men.
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), and served on the Police Commission 1949-1953.
Norman O. Houston was the president of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company, at one time the largest black-owned business west of the Mississippi.
Caption: Photographer's stamp on back of photo: Rothschild / Photo / Los Angeles / DU. 7-2284

Genre: photographs
Names: Houston, Norman O. (Norman Oliver), 1893-1981
Somerville, John Alexander, 1881-1973
Subject Geographic: Los Angeles (Calif.)
Resource type: still image
Subjects: African American civil rights workers
Insurance executives
African American dentists