Arthur Silvers

ARTHUR H. SILVERS Was born July 12, 1930 and died on Friday, January 18, 2008, at the age of 77, after a protracted illness. He was born in South Central Los Angeles and raised by his mother, May Silvers, and his uncle, Jess Kimbrough, one of the first black police officers in Los Angeles. Educated in the Los Angeles public schools and a graduate from the School of Architecture of the University of Southern California in 1959, and practiced architecture primarily in California for 30 years. He taught architecture at California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo. Silvers was a partner of Kennard and Silvers, the first black architectural firm in Los Angeles. He designed private homes, religious institutions and commercial and educational centers such as The Thurgood Marshall College (College III) at the San Diego campus of the University of California. He was commissioned by the City and County of San Francisco to plan the redevelopment of a portion of the Fillmore District of that city. Silvers was an active leader in the civil rights movement in Los Angeles and president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in the 1960s where he worked to expose housing discrimination, red lining, and discrimination against Blacks in restaurants. Silvers played a leading role in acts of civil disobedience and non-violent resistance to attempts to undermine public protests against racial segregation. He collaborated with community and national leaders in the civil rights movement and worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. After retiring, Silvers lived in Santa Fe, NM, where he was president of the Santa Fe NAACP and was known for his activism to end the Death Penalty, Drug Policy Reform, and ending disparate sentencing and treatment of people of color in the Criminal Justice System. He also lived in San Miguel de Allende, TX, where he built an extraordinary hacienda where he lived for many years. While there, he helped establish a peace center and worked with others in Atlanta, GA, to create the office of Secretary of Peace to serve as a member of the cabinet of the executive branch of the federal government. In 2007, Silvers returned to Los Angeles to be closer to his family and his roots. Silvers is survived by two sons: Gene Silvers and John Silvers; and his wife, Wendy, and their daughter, Joie-May Silvers, all of Los Angeles. For information, call (505) 438-4368.