An intersection in downtown Los Angeles will be dedicated on Monday to honor attorney Willis O. Tyler, known for his landmark case defending a Black police officer against racially restrictive housing covenants.
Joining City Councilman Kevin de León at the 8 a.m. ceremony on Second and Spring streets will be attorneys George C. Fatheree III and George Mallory.
Fatheree led the legal team that successfully reclaimed Bruce’s Beach for the descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce, who had their property seized by Manhattan Beach due to racial discrimination.
Tyler represented the Bruces in their legal battle against Manhattan Beach after the city unjustly took their property in 1924 under the guise of developing a park.
Mallory is the head of the Los Angeles chapter of Sigma Pi Phi, a post-graduate fraternity primarily for prominent Black professionals.
De León initiated the motion to dedicate the intersection near Tyler’s former law office at 224 S. Spring St. to commemorate his contributions and honor historically marginalized individuals who have shaped Los Angeles.
Tyler also represented H.L. Garrott, a Black police officer who faced discrimination when buying a home in South Los Angeles. The property had a deed that prohibited its sale to individuals of “African, Chinese or Japanese descent.”
When the Title Guarantee & Trust Co. discovered that Garrott owned the property, they sued him to give up his title without compensation.
In the 1919 case of Title Guarantee & Trust Company v. Garrott, Tyler argued that the racially restrictive covenant violated the due process clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. The state appellate court ruled in Garrott’s favor.
In the landmark 1948 Missouri case Shelley v. Kraemer, the U.S. Supreme Court declared racially restrictive covenants unlawful.
Tyler, born on July 19, 1880, in Bloomington, Illinois, faced early hardships with the loss of his parents, leading to his upbringing by an aunt involved in the Underground Railroad during the mid-19th century.
At the age of 16, Tyler enrolled at Indiana University and later joined the Indiana Colored Volunteer Infantry in 1898 to fight in the Spanish American War. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in 1902 and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1908.
Tyler passed away on June 18, 1949, at the age of 68 in his Harvard Heights home after practicing law in Los Angeles for over 35 years.
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