“The venues might differ, but he was the same person wherever he was,” said Karen Hudson, daughter of long time attorney, civic leader and banker Elbert T. Hudson who died August 5, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 96. Memorial service plans have not yet been established, according to his family.
Hudson was born in Shreveport, LA on November 16, 1920. He moved to Los Angeles as a toddler with his family, after his activist father received death threats from the local White community. Here, he attended public schools, including 28th Street School, John Adams Junior High, and Polytechnic High School. Following graduation from “Poly,” Hudson enlisted in the Army and became a First Lieutenant with the 332nd Fighter Group, one of the units better known as the Tuskegee Airmen. After the war, he earned an undergraduate degree from UCLA and a law degree from Loyola Law School.
He grew up in a family “dedicated to equality of opportunity and civil rights,” according to his family.
His father, H. Claude Hudson, was a dentist who decided at age 45 to enter law school to use the courts to fight discrimination and segregation in the city. “Elbert inherited that gene,” said family members. He was a lifelong supporter of the city’s Black communities.
After acquiring a banking credential in 1964, Hudson was able to take over his father’s banking business. In 1972 he became president and CEO of Broadway Savings and Loan, an institution his father established almost 20 years earlier. In that position, he offered jobs and loans to people of color, who experienced discrimination from other institutions. Elbert Hudson was a mentor, gladly offering his knowledge and wisdom to African American youth.
“He was so much to so many, from war hero to civil rights activist, from legal advisor to community banker, from friend to mentor, but to me, he was everything,” recalled Earl’s son Paul C. Hudson.
“He truly filled the life he was blessed to have by giving back in so many ways to so many people. He will be remembered and continue to live on in the memories of those touched by his compassion, conviction and wisdom.”
In 1966, shortly after the Watts Riots, Elbert Hudson became the first Black Los Angeles Police Commission president. He admitted to having some reservations about taking the position, since he faced having to call out the LAPD for its consistent maltreatment of people of color.
“I am not sure I should thank you for electing me,” E. Hudson told the audience during his acceptance speech.
“Hudson was a familiar figure in his Lafayette Square neighborhood, where he could often be seen walking briskly down the street at dawn, or chatting with the neighborhood’s children,” said his family members.
“ Although he moved in lofty circles, Hudson was equally at home in the barbershop or one of his favorite soul food restaurants as he was at a civic gala. He was never thought he was better than anyone else…”
Elbert Hudson was devoted to his wife Marilyn; they remained married until her death in 2015. Other survivors include his son, Paul and his wife Brenda Sykes, his daughter Karen and her husband Don Freeman, several nieces and nephews and a multigenerational group of friends.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be sent to the Marilyn Project at the Ebony Repertory Theater, at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, 4718 W Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90016.