Tom Bradley (American politician)

Thomas Bradley (December 29, 1917 – September 29, 1998) was an American politician, athlete, police officer, and lawyer who served as the 38th Mayor of Los Angeles from 1973 to 1993.

Tom Bradley was Los Angeles' first Black mayor, first liberal mayor, and longest-serving mayor.

Bradley was born on December 29, 1917, to Lee Thomas and Crenner Bradley.

Thomas and Bradley were poor sharecroppers who lived in a small log cabin outside Calvert, Texas.

He had four siblings — Lawrence, Willa Mae, Ellis (who had cerebral palsy) and Howard.

The children's grandfather had been enslaved.

The family moved to Arizona to pick cotton and then in 1924 to the Temple-Alvarado area of Los Angeles during the Great Migration, where Lee was a Santa Fe Railroad porter and Crenner was a maid.

Bradley attended Rosemont Elementary School, Lafayette Junior High School and Polytechnic High School, where he was the first Black student to be elected president of the Boys League and the first to be inducted into the Ephebians national honor society.

He was captain of the track team and all-city tackle for the high school football team.

Bradley went to UCLA in 1937 on an athletic scholarship and joined Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

He was a dedicated student.

Among the jobs he had while at college was as a photographer for comedian Jimmy Durante.

Bradley left his studies to join the Los Angeles Police Department in 1940.

He became one of 400 black officers in a police department that had 4,000 officers.

He recalled "the downtown department store that refused him credit, although he was a police officer, and the restaurants that would not serve blacks."

He told a Times reporter:

A panel of 69 scholars that year ranked him the third-best mayor of any city in the United States since 1960 and among the nine best mayors in American history.

Bradley won election to the Los Angeles City Council, becoming its first Black member in 1963.

Bradley ran to be the first Black mayor of a major U.S. city in the 1969 L.A. mayoral election.

Bradley lost to incumbent conservative mayor Sam Yorty before defeating Yorty in 1973 and 1981.

In 1973 Bradley became the first liberal mayor of Los Angeles and the first Black mayor of a major city with a white majority.

Bradley was the second Black mayor of a major city after Kenneth A. Gibson in Newark.

The Bradley coalition transformed Los Angeles and from a conservative, white-dominated city to a liberal multiracial one.

Mayor Bradley appointed more women and people of color to political positions than all his predecessors combined.

He was widely respected and renowned for his hard work ethic.

Bradley was re-elected by landslides in 1977, 1981, and 1985.

Bradley's main political opponent as mayor was Chief of the LAPD Daryl Gates, and several Bradley budgets cut funding to the LAPD.

Bradley ran to be the first Black Governor of any state since Reconstruction in 1982 and 1986 but was defeated both times by Republican candidate George Deukmejian.

Bradley's narrow and unexpected 1982 loss was at odds with the polls and was attributed to the racist vote, giving rise to the political term "the Bradley effect."

Bradley was lauded for running the first profitable Summer Olympics in 1984.

The Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport is named after him and opened weeks before the 1984 Olympics.

Bradley was considered a possible vice-presidential nominee in 1984 by Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale.

Bradley was re-elected a final time as Los Angeles mayor in 1989, with a majority of the vote but diminished support.

Bradley's promotion of public transit led to the creation of the Los Angeles Metro in 1990.

Bradley's approval ratings dropped after the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, which led to the resignation of Bradley's longtime rival Gates.

Bradley announced his retirement in 1993.

A Democrat, Bradley's multiracial liberal political coalition was a forerunner of future President of the United States Barack Obama's coalition in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.

Bradley went to college at the University of California, Los Angeles, serving as captain of the track team.

Bradley joined the Los Angeles Police Department after graduation.

Disenchanted with the racism prevalent in the LAPD, Bradley became a lawyer.