Douglas Dollarhide, who became Compton’s first black mayor in 1969, has died at age 85, the Los Angeles Times and Press-Telegram report this morning.

The classical music lover first won election to Compton City Council in 1963, by a mere 75 votes. His ascent to mayor six years later “symbolized the demographic transformation of what was once a predominantly white area,” writes the Times‘ Esmeralda Bermudez.

“He took office when Compton’s population hovered at 76,000 and was about 65% black. City leadership was starting to turn, with several black leaders winning prominent roles on the council and school boards.”

In the P-T, Joe Segura’s more expansive coverage reminds us of Compton’s restrictive housing laws, what that meant, and how it affected integration: “In 1944, the U.S. Census counted only six nonwhites in the city. Until 1946, only whites could own property in most of Compton. Restrictive covenants blocked black home ownership in all but certain areas in south Los Angeles County,” Segura writes.

“In 1960, 60 percent of the residents were white and the remainder were black. However, Compton became a predominantly African-American city soon after the 1965 rioting in nearby Watts.

“Despite the fact that there were no disturbances in the city, whites fled in droves, breaking the ‘color line’ on Alameda Street. By 1970, the city’s ethnic numbers were nearly reversed: 70 percent of the city’s residents were black and 26 percent were white.”

Dollarhide, a former mail carrier who later went into real estate, oversaw construction of a community center that was later named for him–and the building of Compton’s current City Hall, visible to the west at Compton Boulevard from the Metro Blue Line train.

“The white establishment didn’t think much about it,” longtime Compton attorney Maxcy Filer, 78, told the Times, about Dollarhide’s 1969 election. “But black people thought it was good . . . and when he was elected, he kept his promise.”

Tags: California, Compton, Compton City Hall, Douglas Dollarhide, Esmeralda Bermudez, Joe Segura, Long Beach, Los Angeles Times, Maxcy Filer, metro blue line, press telegram, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas