Melanie Elizabeth Lomax (April 12, 1950 – September 10, 2006), was a

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

lawyer and former head of the

Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners The Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, also commonly known as the Los Angeles Police Commission, is a five-member body of civilian-only, appointed officials which oversees the Los Angeles Police Department. Organization The board is made ...

. Lomax was the daughter of Lucius W. Lomax, Jr. (1910–73), an attorney, and Hallie Almena Davis Lomax (1915-2011), a civil rights activist and editor of the Los Angeles Tribune. A native of

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, Lomax graduated from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, and

Loyola Law School Loyola Law School is the law school of Loyola Marymount University, a private Catholic university in Los Angeles, California. Loyola was established in 1920. Academics Degrees offered include the Juris Doctor (JD); Master of Science in Legal ...

in Los Angeles. In the early 1960s, her mother took her to visit the segregated South, an experience which had a lasting effect on Melanie, who decided to focus on civil rights instead of following her father into criminal law. In 1975, she started working for the Los Angeles County Counsel's office, defending county agencies in labor and civil matters. She founded her own firm in 1984, specializing in age, sex and racial discrimination cases. Appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley, Lomax was the first black woman to lead the Los Angeles Police Commission, which she headed when motorist

Rodney King Rodney Glen King (April 2, 1965June 17, 2012) was an African American man who was a victim of police brutality. On March 3, 1991, he was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers during his arrest after a pursuit for driving whi ...

was beaten by four officers of the

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

. She won many friends and enemies in its aftermath, when she waged a high-profile battle to oust controversial Police Chief

Daryl F. Gates Daryl Gates (born Darrel Francis Gates; August 30, 1926 – April 16, 2010) was the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1978 to 1992. His length of tenure in this position was second only to that of William H. Parker (police of ...

in an effort to transform the department's culture. Melanie was also responsible for the Emergency Preparedness and Maintenance of LAX. Melanie was also Defense Counsel for the Veterans Administration and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority at the time of her death. Her brother, Michael L. Lomax, is president and CEO of the

United Negro College Fund UNCF, the United Negro College Fund, also known as the United Fund, is an American philanthropic organization that funds scholarships for black students and general scholarship funds for 37 private historically black colleges and universities ...

External links

Los Angeles Times article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lomax, Melanie 1949 births 2006 deaths 20th-century American lawyers Lawyers from Los Angeles Loyola Law School alumni Road incident deaths in California 20th-century American women lawyers 21st-century American women