Biography
Omar Bradley grew up in Compton, California. As an adult, he stayed in the neighborhood and taught high school before entering politics.
In 1991, Bradley defeated Pedro Pallan to become City Councilman for the 1st District of Compton. Despite winning the race decisively with 2,904 votes over Pallan's 1,577, Bradley adopted a very conciliatory tone, when he said, "My first priority is to extend the olive branch to the Latino community, find out what they lack in city services and find out how to meet them."
Just two years later in the spring of 1993, Bradley faced off against Councilwoman Patricia A. Moore for the city's top job. In a bitterly fought runoff campaign, Bradley received just 349 votes over Moore to replace the outgoing Mayor Walter R. Tucker III. Immediately upon taking office, Bradley stirred controversy. During his campaign he had garnered the support of many Latino voters with the promise that if he were elected mayor, he would appoint a Latino to replace him on the council. It was generally assumed that he would appoint his former opponent Pallan, who was the first Latino in Compton to qualify for a run-off election. On the night of the presumed appointment, Bradley joined two other council members to appoint political newcomer Ronald Green, an African American instead.
That fall, comments he made regarding the violence in rap videos angered members of the Jewish community. When gangster rapper Eazy-E was seeking permission to film a music video in Compton, Bradley scolded him during a council meeting by saying that he was being exploited by a "specific ethnic group" that was "having a bar mitzvah at the same time." On October 13, 1993 he held a press conference with Eazy-E to announce his approval of the music video and to apologize for his previous remarks.
In 2001, Bradley narrowly lost his bid for re-election to a third term to political novice Eric J. Perrodin.
Read more about this topic: Omar Bradley (politician)
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“The best part of a writer’s biography is not the record of his adventures but the story of his style.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)