In a moving funeral service Friday in Los Angeles, scores of leaders in the arts, culture, clergy, education, politics and business joined professionals and grateful residents to salute Harold Hambrick, an entrepreneurial visionary, community griot and strategist for the poor and struggling.
Hambrick, 71, died Oct. 8 of an unknown cause.
Held at Victory Baptist Church, a major stop on the city’s church circuit for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1960s, the four-hour service and Thursday evening memorial drew an estimated 1,200 to honor Hambrick, president of the Los Angeles Black Business Expo and Trade Show. With his sister Kathe in 1994, Hambrick also co-founded the River Road African American Museum in Donaldsonville, La., to preserve the history and contributions of African-Americans.
Among the notables paying tribute to Hambrick was Rep. Maxine Waters, who said she met him in the late 1960s. In the 1980s, “Harold walked with me, through the territories of the Crips and Bloods, to convince them to take advantage of education and job training programs,” she said in her tribute.
She concluded her remarks by recalling Hambrick’s reputation as a leader steeped in integrity. “In 1990, when we brought Nelson Mandela to the Los Angeles Coliseum to speak, sacks of money were collected to send to the African National Congress. Harold was entrusted with that responsibility because we knew all of it would get there.”
Although Hambrick’s footprint in building the expo into a gigantic enterprise earned accolades nationwide, for 35 years he was also a highly regarded advocate for community-based health care. Championing access to high-quality health care for low-income communities, Hambrick campaigned throughout California and much of the country.
With indefatigable energy, he founded the Western Association of Community Health Centers and the California Community Health Institute. He co-founded the Health Care Coalition for the Truly Needy, which staged a dramatic protest in front of the White House when President Ronald Reagan slashed crucial funding.
Retired Rep. Diane Watson, who served as chair of the California Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee, said, “Hambrick was the first person I called to get an expert perspective on the state of health care of African-Americans.”
Born in Slidell, La., Hambrick graduated from a segregated high school. Three days later, he left to join his parents and siblings in Los Angeles.
A pivotal turning point in Hambrick’s life came in 1967, when he left a managerial position at IBM to join the South Central Multi-Purpose Health Service Center, which later became Watts Health Foundation and, eventually, Watts Health Systems.
Hambrick distinguished himself in a number of positions there, most notably as vice president of public affairs, while Watts Health Systems added a broad range of business interests. One of them was the expo, which Watts Health Systems acquired in 1996 from its founder, Barbara Lindsay.
Held each year in the Tom Bradley Hall at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the expo was perhaps the most prominent in a host of shining achievements that crown Hambrick’s legacy. As the nation’s second largest African-American consumer products exhibit, the event comprised upwards of 400 vendors and 300 support staff at its peak.
In his eulogy, Dr. Clyde Oden Jr., Hambrick’s close friend for more than 40 years, pastor of Bryant Temple AME Church and former CEO of Watts Health Systems and Watts Health Foundation, said, “He demonstrated, time and again, that you can love your Black self, and that does not diminish your love and respect for others.”
In the late 1960s, Oden said, “Harold was there, not only in Watts, but in East Los Angeles [where the residents are primarily Latino], the Central Valley, Northern California, South Florida, South Texas and with Cesar Chavez in Sacramento, to bring better health care to the poor.”
An unabashed promoter of the art, culture and intellectual acumen of African-Americans, Hambrick played a critical role in efforts to revitalize Watts, which he saw as an essential component in the histories of Los Angeles, the state of California and the nation. Determined to see its resurgence during his lifetime, Hambrick became a human advertisement for the promotion of all things Watts, the epicenter of culture and activity during the 1960s, the Watts Summer Festival, Watts Coffee House, Watts Christmas Parade and the Watts Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast.
To celebrate the culture of his native Louisiana, in 1988 Hambrick teamed with a group of its other sons in the city to create the Louisiana to Los Angeles Organizing Committee. Hambrick, an intrepid collector of African and Black American art, culture, histories and artifacts, was fond of citing an African proverb to remind people of color that “until the lion start has its historian, the hunter will always be the hero.”
Since Hambrick’s sudden death, a range of respected Angelenos have commented on his unselfish, wide-ranging service and its impact. Ayuko Babu, the founder of the Pan African Film Festival, now America’s largest in Black cinema, spoke fondly of Hambrick’s help in 1992, the festival’s first year of operation, as he struggled to access sponsorships and financing. “Hambrick gave us space in the expo to promote the festival and, just as important, introduced us to corporate officials and funding sources in nonprofit corporations.”
Establishing cultural institutions for Black people, Babu explained, requires “a great deal of emotional and psychological support.” Hambrick, he said, “gave us that support. When we saw him, he gave us energy because his example showed us that others, like him, were professional, organized and had their priorities straight.”
In Hambrick, Babu reflected, “we also saw a respected, nationally known leader working on behalf of Black people as a full-time profession, as a way of life, which gave us the energy and inspiration to do the same thing.”
Dante Chambers, a singer who often collaborated with jazz notables such as drummer Billy Higgins and the Peoples Arkestra organizer Harold Tapscott, said Hambrick’s help was his salvation.
“I was in Leimert Park every day, getting high on cocaine and heroin and spending at least $30 to $40. A lot of people came to help, to lift me out of addiction,” but their words had no effect. One night, Chambers said, “I saw Harold. I was embarrassed, because I always respected him. He drove over in his van, picked me up and got me something to eat. But he didn’t condemn me.”
Hambrick, ever the diplomat, told Chambers, “I know you, you can do better than this. I will help you with whatever you need to do. I’ll be there for you.” Chambers had previously been enrolled in a treatment center, but “wasn’t committed,” he said, “because, I had developed a lifestyle.” Yet Hambrick convinced him that “you can get out of this and you can also do something positive.”
Chambers said he hasn’t used drugs since that night in 2007 and is currently employed at a drug treatment facility near downtown Los Angeles.
Dr. Anthony Samad, community college professor, author and managing director of the Urban Issues Breakfast Forum, opined, “Everybody can be replaced, but the question is, will that person have the same substance and significant track record? Will that person’s track record be a long one—or that of a sprinter?”
