Tom Bradley (American politician)

Tom Bradley
Tom Bradley in 1984
38th Mayor of Los Angeles
In office July 1, 1973 – July 1, 1993
Preceded by	Sam Yorty
Succeeded by	Richard Riordan
Personal details
Born	Thomas J. Bradley (1917-12-29)December 29, 1917 Calvert, Texas, U.S.
Died	September 29, 1998(1998-09-29) (aged 80) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Ethel Arnold
Children	Phyllis Bradley Lorraine Bradley
Residence	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education	University of California, Los Angeles (B.A) Southwestern Law School (J.D)
Religion	African Methodist Episcopal

Thomas J. "Tom" Bradley (December 29, 1917 – September 29, 1998) was the 38th Mayor of Los Angeles, serving from 1973 to 1993. He was the only African-American mayor of that city, and his 20 years in office mark the longest tenure by any mayor in the city's history. His 1973 election made him the second African-American mayor of a major U.S. city. Bradley retired in 1993, after his approval ratings began dropping subsequent to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. Bradley unsuccessfully ran for Governor of California in 1982 and 1986 and was defeated each time by the Republican George Deukmejian. The racial dynamics that appeared to underlie his narrow and unexpected loss in 1982 gave rise to the political term "the Bradley effect." In 1985, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP.

Bradley, the grandson of a slave, was born on December 29, 1917, to Lee Thomas and Crenner Bradley, 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 family moved to Arizona to pick cotton and then in 1924 to the Temple-Alvarado area of Los Angeles, 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. He went to UCLA in 1937 on an athletic scholarship and joined Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Among the jobs he had while at college was as a photographer for comedian Jimmy Durante.