LOS ANGELES, CA — Today the U.S. Postal Service, in conjunction with Congresswoman Diane Watson and the City of Los Angeles, honors Tom Bradley, the former Los Angeles mayor who held office for 20 years. Watson introduced legislation this year naming Crenshaw Station Post Office, 3894 Crenshaw Blvd., in Los Angeles, for Bradley. The resolution passed and was signed by President Barack Obama on Oct. 13, 2010, becoming Public Law 111-279.
“The Postal Service is very proud and honored to have one of our buildings named for Tom Bradley,” said Los Angeles Postmaster Mark Anderson. “Post Offices are a very important part of every community, providing universal service to every single business and resident, while facilitating commerce and keeping people connected,” said Anderson. “Thus it is so appropriate to have a Post Office dedicated to this great man, who devoted much of his life to public service, and left behind a legacy of duty, peace and economic growth.”
Anderson also noted that it was very fitting that Crenshaw Station be the one dedicated to Bradley, because it is located in the City’s 10th district, which Tom Bradley served as Los Angeles City Councilman from 1963 to 1972, before being elected mayor.
Also participating in today’s dedication ceremony are Bradley’s daughters, Phyllis and Lorraine Bradley; Los Angeles City Councilmen Eric Garcetti and Herb Wesson; Wanda Moore, former Chief Administrative Assistant to Mayor Bradley; Maury Weiner, President of the Tom Bradley Legacy Foundation and former Chief of Staff for Mayor Bradley; Gregory Franks, President/CEO of the Tom & Ethel Bradley Foundation; and children from Tom Bradley Elementary School leading the pledge of allegiance.
The Postal Service commemorates the day with a special pictorial postmark, which will be available and applied free of charge for 30 days at Crenshaw Station or by mail. To order by mail, enclose item for postmark with applicable postage affixed inside an envelope and mail to:
Tom Bradley Postmark
c/o Alvetia E. Smith
U.S. Postal Service
7001 S. Central Ave. Rm. 338
Los Angeles CA 90052-9998
Thomas “Tom” Bradley was born December 19, 1917, in Texas, the son of a sharecropper and the grandson of former slaves. In 1924, the family moved to Los Angeles. As a promising athlete he was recruited by Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles where he starred in football and track. He attended University of California, Los Angeles on a track scholarship, but dropped out of UCLA during his junior year to attend the Los Angeles Police Academy. He became a member of the Los Angeles Police Department in 1940 and studied at night at Southwestern University School of Law and received his law degree.
Bradley served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1963 to 1972. His 10th District was centered in the multi-ethnic Crenshaw area, the majority of whose voters were white. Bradley went on to serve as a five-term mayor of Los Angeles from 1973 to 1993. He was the first and to date only African American mayor of Los Angeles. His 20 years in office mark the longest tenure by any mayor in the city's history. His 1973 election made him only the second African American mayor of a major U.S. city. Bradley unsuccessfully ran for Governor of California in 1982 and 1986.
A man of quiet determination, Bradley spent a lifetime bridging racial barriers and used his skills to forge extraordinary coalitions, most notably between blacks and Jews and between labor and business. Bradley opened the doors for minorities and women, and was key to the racial peace that the rapidly diversifying city enjoyed during most of his five terms as mayor.
He presided over a period of enormous growth in Los Angeles and positioned the emerging metropolis to take its place as an international trade center. He brought the city a spot on the world's center stage with its hosting of the Olympic Games in the summer of 1984. Some of his legacies include the gleaming downtown skyline of Bunker Hill and the start of a subway and light rail system, and are also reflected in city institutions that bear his name, such as the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport.
Bradley married Ethel Arnold in 1941 and the two remained married for the remainder of his life. The couple has two surviving daughters, Phyllis and Lorraine. Tom Bradley passed away on September 29, 1998, and Ethel on November 25, 2008.
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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no direct support from taxpayers. With 36,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, the Postal Service relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $68 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 28th in the 2009 Fortune 500.
