Billy G. Mills

Mills was elected to Los Angeles City Council District 8 in 1963, succeeding Gordon Hahn. After the election, he noted that the "cheek has turned and now Caucasians will realize that you don't have to be white to represent whites."[6]

He and Tom Bradley were the next two blacks to serve on the Los Angeles City Council, after Gilbert Lindsay, who had been appointed in the 9th District in 1962. Lindsay was elected in his own right in 1964, so the three were the first blacks to be elected to the City Council. All three were reelected in 1967 and 1971.

In 1968 Mills ran unsuccessfully for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, challenging the incumbent, Kenneth Hahn.

• Yorty. Even though Mills had supported Mayor Sam Yorty in the 1965 election against James Roosevelt,[7] once Mills was elected, Yorty "bitterly assailed" the new councilman's spending on new furnishings for his City Hall and district offices. The mayor turned down Mills' "latest request—$126 for a 'reverse' telephone directory." Mills replied that his offices had been neglected in the past and there was some "catching up" to do.[8] After Yorty vetoed additional expenditures for Mills's office three months later, Mills said of the mayor: "After many years of public office, his prejudices are beginning to show. This man's sanity is . . . in question."[9]
• Police. In April 1964 Mills maintained that he had been stopped by the police seventeen times since the preceding July because he was "spotted driving a city car at night." He declined to label the incidents as "mistreatment." Mayor Yorty said he thought that Mills's statement was "exaggerated" and that it was not factual, adding: "If he was stopped once I'd be surprised."[10]

On Wednesday evening, August 11, 1965, a large-scale civil disturbance broke out in the Watts district of Los Angeles and spread within a few days to other parts of the city. Thirty -four people were killed, 1,032 injured, and 3,438 arrested. It was the most severe riot in the city's history to that time. Mills called a meeting of community and "indigenous" leaders in the City Council chambers on Saturday morning "to hear comments from anyone connected with the disturbances so city officials can begin getting at the causes of the riots."[11] Staff writer Paul Beck of the Los Angeles Times, reported:

Mills' decision to hold the meeting came in the face of warnings from other councilmen that it could cause serious problems and do no good in calming those involved. . . . "I can imagine the drapes being torn down and the furniture slashed," said Councilman John C. Holland."[11]

Mills demanded an investigation of the role of the Los Angeles Police Department in the riots and asked Mayor Yorty to issue an executive order that would prevent Chief William H. Parker and other department heads from making public statements without clearing them first with the mayor or appropriate governing boards. He said the Los Angeles police were "rendered totally inept" after the rioting had started.[12]

On September 8, 1965, Mills "directed" Chief Parker to appear before him "in person" to explain a raid on a Black Muslim mosque the preceding August 18, in which nineteen people were arrested and all were freed by a judge, citing lack of evidence. Parker declined to comply. Mills' action, according to a news report, was "in keeping with his persistent opposition to the chief." Mills was the only council member who did not vote in favor of a council resolution commending Parker and the department for their work during the disturbances. He said he would have voted in favor if the resolution had it not named Parker and had it not "excused" the police for all their actions.[13]

The councilman said he had information that the mosque raid was "deliberately provoked" by false phone calls that Negroes were carrying guns into the building. He was critical of heavy police gunfire and claimed that the officers "were trying to destroy" two buildings on the property. Deputy Police Chief Thomas Reddin responded that "large-scale force was necessary to overcome large-scale resistance."[14] Mills later submitted a report suggesting that a fire set inside the mosque could have been done by police as an act of "hostility."[15]

Mills was critical of the coroner's inquests that were held after the riots. He said they were "attempts to justify the shooting of elderly citizens, unarmed youths and innocent bystanders." Twenty-six of the riot deaths were ruled justifiable homicide, one was accidental and five were criminal.[16]