Billy G. Mills, among first Black politicians elected to L.A. City Council, dies

Billy G. Mills, a civil rights leader who was among the first Black men to serve on the Los Angeles City Council, has died.

Mills, 96, died on June 27 after struggling with declining health, his son, James Edward Mills, confirmed. The elder statesman died peacefully at his home in Leimert Park, his son said.

James, a journalist and founder of the Joy Trip Project, memorialized his father online, where he shared a photo of the elder Mills shaking hands with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He said the image highlights “the significance of those who work behind the scenes of world events that shape our reality.”

“He was the man who went to work every day. The man who expected his children to tell the truth, keep their word, and finish what they started,” he wrote of his father. “He believed that integrity was something you practiced when no one was watching.”

Mills worked as a civil rights lawyer before being elected to the L.A. City Council in 1963 to represent District 8, the same year Tom Bradley was elected to District 10. They were the first two Black men elected to City Council, following behind Gilbert Lindsay, the first Black man appointed to fill Edward Roybal’s city council seat. Lindsay was also a close family friend, James said.

James described his father as a humble man who remained active and engaged even after he left office. As the youngest child, he heard stories over the years about his father’s impact and legacy. Only late in life did he learn his father officiated Muhammad Ali’s wedding.

Before his father died in June, a man who had worked as a city parking attendant while his father worked in City Hall described Mills as “one of my favorite people there” after Mills came to his aid following an incident involving police officers.

“There are a lot of people in Los Angeles that still think very highly of my dad,” James said.

James said his own work was largely shaped by his parents.

“They taught me that the pursuit of justice and the aspiration to understand are, at their heart, the same journey: to see people fully, to listen carefully, and to leave the world better than you found it,” he wrote.

Mills was part of the first wave of Black politicians in L.A., paving the way for more Black representation at the city and state levels, according to Alison Rose Jefferson, a historian who authored the book “Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era.”

“That was a really historic moment for Los Angeles,” Jefferson said. Mills, she said, “was very vocal in terms of standing up for civil rights and human rights.”

President Kennedy, leaving the Hollywood Palladium after addressing a breakfast of Democratic women, is greeted by a delegation of Los Angeles Black leaders. He is shaking hands with Thomas Bradley. Left of Bradley, only his head showing, is Billy G. Mills.

(Associated Press)

As part of the council, he helped lead the city in the aftermath of the Watts rebellion of 1965. He was selected by his colleagues to serve as acting mayor and president pro tem on multiple occasions, according to UCLA, which honored him in 2003 with a Public Service Award. He also brought streetlights and paved alleys to his district, installing them throughout South L.A.

“Just as he was a role model for black politicians, he also became one of the most respected black judges in California, whom lawyers and judges continue to emulate,” the university said when it gave the award. “Billy Mills is truly one of UCLA’s greatest treasures.”

In 1972, Mills ran unsuccessfully for Congress. When he left City Council in 1974, he was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, despite their opposing politics, James said.

Mills was born in Waco, Texas, where he grew up and attended school. After high school, he arrived in Los Angeles and studied at Compton College before transferring to UCLA. There, he became the first Black graduate of the UCLA Law School. He met his wife, Rubye, at UCLA, and they had five children. Rubye died in 2018.

Mills is survived by his five children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. The Dr. Rubye and Judge Billy G. Mills Scholarship at UCLA supports undergraduate students interested in studying education or law.