John Clinton Porter

For other persons with this name, see John Porter (disambiguation).
John Clinton Porter
Porter in 1933
33rd Mayor of Los Angeles
In office
July 1, 1929 – July 1, 1933
Preceded byGeorge E. Cryer
Succeeded byFrank L. Shaw
Personal details
BornApril 4, 1871
Leon, Iowa, U.S.
DiedMay 27, 1959(1959-05-27) (aged 88)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills
Political partyDemocratic

John Clinton Porter (April 4, 1871 – May 27, 1959) was a U.S. political figure. The Los Angeles Times wrote that he represented a "unique mixture of reform politics and xenophobic Protestant populism [that] took him quite literally from the junk yard to City Hall."[1] Porter was a member of the Ku Klux Klan during its popular resurgence in the early 1920s.[2]

Biography

He was born on April 4, 1871, in Leon, Iowa to Reverend Josephus Clinton Porter and Mathilda Catherine Gardner.

He served as the 33rd mayor of Los Angeles between 1929 and 1933 when he replaced George Edward Cryer. He survived a recall election in 1932.[3]

He ran for re-election twice more but was defeated in 1933 by Frank L. Shaw and in 1941 by Fletcher Bowron.

He died of a heart and lung condition in Los Angeles, California on May 27, 1959. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.

Further reading

  • Chronological Record of Los Angeles City Officials: 1850—1938, Compiled under Direction of Municipal Reference Library City Hall, Los Angeles March 1938 (Reprinted 1966)

References

  1. ^ Cecilia Rasmussen (November 16, 1997). "A Mayor Who Stood for Reform". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-06-25. And few among them were more colorful than John Clinton Porter, whose unique mixture of reform politics and xenophobic Protestant populism took him quite literally from the junk yard to City Hall.
  2. ^ Stevenson, Brenda Elaine (September 1, 2015). The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins: Justice, Gender, and the Origins of the LA Riots (1 ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-0190231019. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  3. ^ "Dry Los Angeles Mayor Wins in Recall Vote; Decliner of French Wine Toast Swamps Foes". New York Times. 5 May 1932. Retrieved 2015-06-25. John Clinton Porter, as stanch a dry as the day he declined a wine toast to the French Republic at Havre, marshaled nearly 200,000 votes around his prohibition and other precepts today and was victorious in a recall election by a majority of more than 50,000.
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