Grace Simons

Grace E. Simons was an activist who lived in Los Angeles and is known for her work in preserving Elysian Park as open space.

Grace Simons
Born1901
Died1985
Other namesGrace Simons Glass

Biography
Picture of the entrance to Elysian Park with path, stone wall, and sidewalk
Entrance to Elysian Park, a park in Los Angeles that Simons worked to retain as open space

Simons was born in 1901[1] and grew up in Chicago.[2] In 1925 she moved to China where she met her sister, the journalist Rayna Prohme.[3]: 131 She left Beijing in 1926 to travel, and then married Wilbur Burton on July 9, 1928 in Atlanta, Georgia.[4] Simons and Burton returned to China, this time to Shanghei where Simons first worked in a bank,[5]: 159  and then the news agency Agence Havas.[6] Simons returned to the United States in 1937 and married Frank Glass, a journalist she had met in China.[3]: 134 

Simons moved to California in 1939, where she would work as a writer and as the executive editor of the California Eagle, an African American newspaper in Los Angeles, for fourteen years.[7] While working at the California Eagle, Simons interacted with multiple people including Martin Luther King Jr.,[8] the concert artist Khalil Nimini Ben Bezaleel,[9] and Robert Farrell.[10] Abie Robinson, a reporter at the California Eagle, said that during a 1963 press conference Malcolm X called Simons the best journalist he knew.[2]

In 1965 Simons started The Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park.[11] She used multiple means to convince people to preserve the park,[12][13] even asking people to send leaves to the city council.[14] She gathered information to oppose the plan to make the area into a convention center, and ultimately went to court to prevent drilling for oil in the park, turning parts of the park into a parking lot,[7][15] a day care center,[16] and other uses over a multi-year period.[17][18] She was unsuccessful in preventing an expansion of the police academy.[19][20]

Simons died in 1985,[21] and later that year the city of Los Angeles named the community center the "Grace E. Simons Lodge" in recognition of her work to save the park.[22]

Awards and honors

In 1959 she was recognized as the best editor for Negro newspapers in Los Angeles.[23] She received an "Award of Exception Distinction" from Governor Jerry Brown in 1967 for her work in preserving Elysian Park.[24][25] The Sierra Club in 1971,[26] and the Feinstone Environmental Awards, in 1979, recognized her for the work she did to preserve Elysian Park.[17][27] In 1993, after her death, the sculptor Peter Shire started a memorial sculpture that sits in Elysian Park and honors Simons and her husband Frank Glass.[28][29]

References
  1. "Glass (C. Frank) papers". oac.cdlib.org. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  2. "Grace E. Simons". Echo Park Historical Society. Winter 2006. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  3. French, Paul (2009-05-01). Through the Looking Glass: China's Foreign Journalists from Opium Wars to Mao. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 978-962-209-982-1.
  4. The China Weekly Review (1928-08-18). The China Weekly Review 1928.08.18.
  5. Hirson, Baruch; Knodel, Arthur J. (2007). Reporting the Chinese revolution : the letters of Rayna Prohme. Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0-7453-2642-9. OCLC 717609117.
  6. "China Again Features N. Y. News; Shanghailanders Gather in Big City: Tired of Talking". The China Weekly Review (1923-1950); Shanghai [Shanghai]. 2 March 1940. p. 14 – via ProQuest.
  7. Lilliston, Lynn (1969-04-22). "Park a battleground in conservation war". The Los Angeles Times. pp. , . Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  8. Simons, Grace E. (1957-05-23). "Californians fly to Washington". California Eagle. p. 8. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  9. Mounts, Barbara (1963-02-21). "Bezaleel acclaimed at Philharmonic". California Eagle. p. 3. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  10. "Interview of Robert Farrell". static.library.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  11. Smith, Jack (1976). The Big Orange. Ward Ritchie Press. ISBN 978-0-378-04956-6.
  12. Thabet, Andrea (2015-03-10). "The Day Angelenos Lost Elysian Park…Almost". Remaking Los Angeles. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  13. Thabet, Andrea (2014-12-02). "The L.A. Convention Center in Elysian Park? The Importance of Studying 'Never Built' Projects". Remaking Los Angeles. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  14. Chamberlain, Safford; Osborne, Jim; Morgan, Jeanne; Carson, Clay; Lee, A.K.; Zatlyn, Ted; Hartweg, Norman; Diehl, Digby (July 9, 1965). "Los Angeles Free Press: Los Angeles Free Press; Send Leaves to City Hall". Vol. 2, no. 28(51).
  15. Cummings, Ridgely (1966-01-02). "Elysian convention center called 'scandal'". Highland Park News-Herald and Journal. pp. , . Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  16. "Group staves off park land lease". Highland Park News-Herald and Journal. 1972-01-23. p. 5. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  17. "1979 | The Feinstone Environmental Awards | ESF". www.esf.edu. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  18. "City finance committee hears citizen requests". Eagle Rock Sentinel. 1967-05-21. p. 2. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  19. "City OKs addition to police academy". The Los Angeles Times. 1972-05-16. pp. , . Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  20. "Council vote fails to stop expansion". Highland Park News-Herald and Journal. 1972-05-18. p. 16. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  21. "Grace Simons, Defender of Elysian Park, Dies at 84". Los Angeles Times (pre-1997 Fulltext); Los Angeles, Calif. [Los Angeles, Calif]. 23 April 1985. p. 6.
  22. Kaplan, Sam (1985-05-19). "Neighborhood groups strive for common link". The Los Angeles Times. pp. , . Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  23. "Eagle gets awards at press dinner". California Eagle. 1959-04-09. p. 2. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  24. "Clipped From The Los Angeles Times". The Los Angeles Times. 1967-01-01. p. 66. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  25. "Park-saving group honored for efforts". Lincoln Heights Bulletin-News. 1967-01-05. p. 1. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  26. "Awards by Year". Sierra Club Angeles Chapter. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  27. "Past Awards | The Feinstone Environmental Awards | ESF". www.esf.edu. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  28. Yokoi, Iris (1993-01-10). "Sculptor to begin Glass-Simons work". The Los Angeles Times. p. 216. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  29. "Frank Glass and Grace E. Simons Memorial Sculpture". Los Angeles Explorers Guild. 2022-07-07. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
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