Darren Parker

Black Advocate and Democratic Leader Darren Parker Dies

LOS ANGELES — Darren Parker, president of the California Democratic Party’s African American Caucus and a decades-long political activist and assistant to multiple Assembly Speakers, died Monday in the Los Angeles area after a battle with esophageal cancer. Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson said he was “deeply saddened” at the death of his longtime friend. “If you knew Darren, you knew that he had no choice but to be a lifelong activist because it ran in his family, starting with his mother who introduced us to each other over 25 years ago,” Wesson said. “Darren embodied the type