Bridging the Divide: Tom Bradley and the Politics of Race

Historic Election of 1st Black Mayor of Majority White City

Clip | 3m 19s  | Video has closed captioning.

In 1973, Tom Bradley was elected mayor of Los Angeles, becoming the first African American mayor of a major U.S. city with an overwhelmingly white population. His multi-racial coalition of African Americans, Jews, white liberals, along with Mexican Americans and Asian Americans, united a divided city, and created a new model for race relations that reverberated across the nation.