Bridging the Divide: Tom Bradley and the Politics of Race

Bradley’s Dramatic Battle for Los Angeles City Hall, 1969

Clip | 3m 42s  | Video has closed captioning.

In 1969, four years after the Watts Riot, in a nation torn apart by political turmoil, in a conservative city with an overwhelmingly white population, African American Tom Bradley set out to do the impossible - run for mayor of Los Angeles. Incumbent Mayor Sam Yorty fights back with a campaign fueled by racism and redbaiting, in one of the meanest, roughest campaigns in modern American history.