Activist, 87, Still Pushes Himself (and Others)

Eighty-seven-year-old Edward Kussman is involved in so many community projects he has to look in the mirror to see which hat he’s wearing. And the longtime activist, who helped instate fair housing policies in the San Fernando Valley, says he won’t be hanging any of those hats up soon.

“I try to accomplish something every day,” the former San Fernando Valley NAACP president said. “People expect a lot of me. I want to stay active. I have to stay active.”

There is no question that this Pacoima volunteer means business.

Kussman, who was instrumental in bringing the Community Youth Culture Center to his neighborhood, currently serves as president of the Pacoima Chamber of Commerce, an organization he joined 15 years ago.

The chamber, under Kussman’s leadership, is busy spearheading the Pacoima Beautiful project, whose goal is to upgrade the northeast Valley portion of Van Nuys Boulevard.

Kussman recently lobbied for the Hansen Dam recreational lakes project, which will provide a multiacre swimming, fishing and boating site for public use in 2000.

“Ed is great at motivating people to put their money in the right place to serve the youngsters and everybody else in this community,” said Leroy Chase, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley. “If the cause is positive, he’s all for it. He goes all the way to battle for you.”

Kussman is no stranger to fighting for causes he believes in.

The Louisiana native and his family came to Los Angeles in the 1920s, fleeing the South’s segregationist laws and seeking a better life. The family settled in East Los Angeles near the bustling black enclave around Central Avenue.

Kussman says a better life was hard to come by, though, in a city where jobs for blacks were limited and blacks were prohibited from swimming at local beaches.

At 16, Kussman found summer work as a dishwasher on railway cars, which he traveled daily between Los Angeles and Barstow. After attending Jefferson and Hollywood high schools, among others, he enrolled in trade school, then UCLA, where he learned mechanical drafting.

In 1941, Kussman married Cotton Club singer Mallie Simmons. The couple have lived in Pacoima since 1950.

Eager to fight for racial equality, Kussman established the Pacoima branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People in 1964, which he served as housing chairman and later as president.

Kussman also served a term as president of the Fair Housing Council of the San Fernando Valley, which fought for the elimination of the city’s discriminatory housing policies.

In 1974, Kussman was appointed by then-Mayor Tom Bradley to serve as a director of the Metropolitan Water District, a position he held for 19 years.

As a member of the Northeast Valley Health Corp.--a federally funded organization that provides health care for the poor--Kussman supervised the construction of two health centers, one in Pacoima and one in San Fernando.

The octogenarian says that as long as there is work to be done in his community, his place is on the front line.

“I don’t know if I’ve accomplished all I want in my life, so I’m going to stay involved,” he said. “I’ll never retire. That word is not in my vocabulary.”

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