His life, legacy are a call to action

BY ALVA MOORE STEVENSON

Five buildings on the UCLA campus are named after black alumni: Arthur Ashe, Tom Bradley, Ralph Bunche, Jackie Robinson and James Lu Valle. All are local or global giants. A less well-known giant passed away Nov. 10: former California Assemblyman and U.S. Congressman Augustus F. "Gus" Hawkins.

The second African American to serve in the Assembly and the first to serve in Congress West of the Mississippi, Hawkins authored legislation in labor, employment, education, housing and transportation. In 1965, he co-authored "The Elementary and Secondary School Act," which includes the now widely familiar "No Child Left Behind" decree that funds school districts where a high percentage of low-income students are enrolled.

Hawkins' family migrated to Los Angeles from Louisiana in 1918, joining other pioneering black families fleeing racism in the Jim Crow South. He graduated from Jefferson High School and, in 1931, from UCLA with a degree in economics.

For those of a certain age, Hawkins was a household name in the Los Angeles black community. I was privileged to make his acquaintance in the late 1980s when the Center for Oral History Research conducted two interviews with him on his Assembly and Congressional years. In 1991, I was again privileged to be part of a group of faculty and staff who persuaded Hawkins to contribute his papers to the UCLA Department of Special Collections.

For more than five decades, Hawkins made a profound impact on the Los Angeles black community and blazed a trail for nearly every black politician who succeeded him. He left a legacy of advocacy and service that is a call to action today. He had a genuine concern for people and was profoundly passionate about serving his constituents. In a quiet and low-key manner, he championed basic quality-of-life issues without the fanfare and self-aggrandizement that characterizes too much of politics today.

In 2003, I visited Hawkins at his Washington, D.C. home. He was 96 years old — but he still served me lunch! He wanted to know what was happening in L.A. and how his constituents were faring. I marveled at this genuine concern even though he had been out of office for 12 years.

When he attended UCLA, the number of black students on campus was low — no more than six or seven, according to his oral history. In 2006, 96 black students were accepted into the freshman class. The still — low admissions numbers set off a firestorm that reverberated nationwide, resulting in a groundswell of action by black faculty, staff, alumni and community members.

Hawkins would have been proud of these efforts. He would have cautioned us to not let our guard down and to ensure that the progress continues. His life and legacy are a call to action for all of us. He left us a blueprint for the future, and it is incumbent on us to act upon it.

Stevenson is an interviewer and program representative at the UCLA Center for Oral History Research.

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