| Background information on Glenn Anderson Glenn M. Anderson was born in the South Bay area of Los Angeles and always considered the region his home. As young man, Anderson turned an early interest in motorcycles and racing into an automobile repair business, then branched into home construction, helping to establish the Hawthorne Savings and Loan when big banks proved indifferent to local needs. Although his parents were Republicans, Anderson was active in the Democratic Party during the Depression, becoming a member of the Los Angeles Democratic County Central Committee in 1938. From 1939 to 1940, he chaired the Hawthorne Democratic Club and was a member of the Hawthorne City Council. In 1940, Anderson was elected Mayor of Hawthorne (one of the youngest mayors in the country), and immediately sought to bring additional resources to his community. Anderson successfully obtained a WPA water filtration system, a seawall, and, ultimately, an airstrip with which he attracted Northrop Aviation to the area. Anderson was elected to the California State Assembly in 1942, resigned in 1943 to serve in the U.S. Army, and returned to the Assembly in 1945. He shared a desk--and early commitments to civil rights and the environment--with Gus Hawkins, one of the first African American legislators in California. While in the Assembly, Anderson supported transportation and fair housing legislation, as well as measures to outlaw school segregation and to establish institutions of higher education. Between 1949 and 1950, Anderson chaired the Interim Committee on Highways, Streets and Bridges, which developed a statewide system of highways five years before the federal highway project.
In 1950, Anderson gave up his Assembly seat to challenge State Senator Jack Tenney, California's version of Joseph McCarthy, losing by a very small margin. Between 1951 and 1958, Anderson held no elected office, but continued his efforts to strengthen the historically weak California Democratic party. He served as chair of the Los Angeles County Central Committee (1948-1950), Head of the State Central Committee (1950-1952), and was instrumental in the California campaigns of Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy. In January 1953, Anderson and future U.S. Senator Alan Cranston founded the California Democratic Council (CDC), a statewide network of grassroots clubs. Mrs. Lee Anderson was also an important participant in this effort. The resultant support base helped Anderson win the lieutenant governorship in 1958, while Pat Brown became California's Democratic governor. Anderson served on a number of important state commissions as part of his duties, while many of his other projects reflected his ongoing interests in the environment, transportation, and education. During the 1966 election, Republicans Ronald Reagan and Robert Finch used Anderson's support for the University of California and his controversial handling of the Watts riot during Brown's absence from the state to defeat Anderson's re-election campaign.
Anderson successfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1968, serving until his retirement in 1992. The bulk of the material in the collection is from this period. During Anderson's tenure in Congress, he sat on the Committee on Public Works and Transportation (briefly as chair), and on the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. Congressman Anderson was noted for his ability to remain in close touch with the needs of his constituency, both personally and in terms of bringing important benefits to the area. In the first case, Anderson and his staff fielded a tremendous number of requests for help from his constituents when they ran into trouble with government agencies such as the Social Security Administration, the Armed Forces, the Veterans Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service. More generally, Anderson was instrumental in obtaining a number of major infrastructure development projects. For example, his determined advocacy resulted in the transformation of the combined ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach into one of the largest in the world. He helped establish major flood control programs, the Alameda Corridor project, and was so instrumental in the construction of the 105 freeways that it now bears his name. A number of other projects have also been named for Glenn Anderson in tribute to his dedication and service. Glenn Anderson died in 1994.
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Biographical Summary
1913-1994
ANDERSON, Glenn Malcolm, a Representative from California, 17th Congressional District.
Born in Hawthorne, Los Angeles County, Calif., February 21, 1913.
B.A., University of California, 1936.
Served with the United States Army, World War II.
Elected mayor of Hawthorne in 1940 at the age of twenty-seven.
Elected to the California State assembly, 1942-1948.
Lieutenant Governor of California, 1959-1967.
Chairman and member, State Lands Commissions, 1959-1967.
Regent, University of California, 1959-1967.
Member of the Board of Trustees of California State Colleges, 1961-1967.
Elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-first (and to the eleven succeeding) Congress, January 3, 1969-January 3, 1993
Died, in Long Beach, California, 1994.
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COLLECTION SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
BIOGRAPHICAL FILE, c. 1930-1992. Correspondence, certificates, financial materials, printed material, reports, clippings, press releases, tributes, and miscellany. Arranged by form.
PRESS FILE, 1942-1992. Clippings, press releases, and other printed material relating to Glenn Anderson. Arranged by form, therein under by date.
SPEECHES AND WRITINGS, c. 1930-1992. Draft, typescript, and printed copies of speeches and writings with related correspondence, notes, and printed material, position papers, broadcast transcripts, newsletters, and material inserted into the Congressional Record by Glenn Anderson. Arranged chronologically.
CORRESPONDENCE FILE, 1942-1992. General correspondence of Glenn Anderson, arranged alphabetically. Correspondence with H.R.
District constituency is located in the CONGRESSIONAL ADMINISTRATIVE FILE.
POLITICAL FILE, 1940-1990. Newsletters, speeches and statements,
correspondence, biographical material, voting records, pamphlets, leaflets, campaign material, clippings, position statements and platforms, memoranda, questionnaires, financial material, reports, resolutions, form letters, press releases, notes, and miscellany. Arranged alphabetically by form.
MAYOR OF HAWTHORNE FILE, 1940-1943. One folder.
CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY FILE, 1947-1950. Letters, reports, press releases, notes, copies of bills, and other material relating to the Alien Land Law; Labor; Racial Discrimination; Religion; Tenney Committee ["Un-American"; Committee; Communism] and other California legislative issues. Arranged by form.
CALIFORNIA LT. GOVERNOR FILE, 1958-1967. Letters, reports, memoranda, press releases, hearing transcripts, minutes, notes, copies of bills, printed material,; and miscellany. Some Congressional materials including: itineraries, financial records, primary office files, and other material relating to official congressional functions. Arranged by form.
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE FILE, 1969-1992. Memoranda, reports, draft and final copies of legislation, budgets, transports, minutes, resolutions, speeches and statements, correspondence, clippings, notes, pamphlets, press
releases, abstracts, newsletters, interviews, itineraries, serial issues, book reviews, and miscellany. This section includes office files and other material relating to Rep. Anderson's official congressional functions.
SUBJECT FILE, 1969-1992. Correspondence, reports, printed articles, clippings,
newsletters, leaflets, serial issues, maps, notes, speeches and statements, memoranda, agenda and minutes, lists, resolutions, press releases, financial material, form letters, bibliographies, pamphlets, flyers, serial issues,
transcripts, policy statements, interviews, book reviews, chronologies, conference material, by-laws, and miscellany. Arranged by alphabetically by subject.
AUDIOVISUAL FILE, c1930-1992. Cassettes, photographs and motion picture film. Arranged by form.
OVERSIZE FILE, General Scrapbooks
MEMORABILIA
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