Her son said that she spent forty years collecting African American memorabilia that he wants to display in a dignified setting.
He has been pursuing a launch for several years.
Following a round of sharp-tongued skirmishing between Mayor Albert Vera and City Councilman Steve Rose, the Council approved a sub-lease for the County Courthouse last Monday night.
The next day, another hurdle was cleared when the County approved the master lease.
“The trouble is,” said Mr. Clayton, a retired teacher and artist, “forces out of my control” prevent him from taking possession of the Courthouse space before the start of summer.
“A number of things have to happen,” he said. “We may know more after May 5,” the day Mr. Clayton and fellow planners next will meet to sort out their priorities.
The Terms: One Year or Less
Whenever the lease takes effect, the agreement will run until June 30 of next year. Thereafter, it will be converted into a month-to-month arrangement.
Mr. Vera and Mr. Rose engaged in a barbed wire exchange before the City Council stamped its approval.
A physical copy of the lease in question was unavailable, and that complicated the Council discussion.
The vagueness of details created an opportunity for Mr. Rose, a stickler for details, and Mr. Vera, a generalist, who have jousted before, to hunker down and jab at each other again.
Mr. Rose posed a probing question to the mayor. Sensing a chance to spar, Mr. Vera said, tantalizingly, that some components of the lease were highly secretive. He would not dare to talk about them in a public forum, he said, knowing the effect those words would have on his adversary.
The provocative assertion lit a fire between the two that probably won’t be extinguished until Mr. Vera retires early in this coming Monday night’s meeting.
Incensed by Mr. Vera’s response, which he thought was offputting, Mr. Rose and Mr. Vera traded hot words.
Is It a Secret or Not?
Last year, Mr. Vera and Councilman Alan Corlin were appointed to a City Council subcommittee to study a disposition for the Old County Courthouse. This was kind of like reviewing a disposition of the moon. Scores of governmental hands are around the throat of the Courthouse. All of them seem to have a say in the final decision.
Mr. Corlin said later,though, that he knew of no secret information that only Mr. Vera was privy to.
Through the authority of his organization, the Western States Black Research and Educational Center, Mr. Clayton has outlined a five-point plan for bringing to Culver City a lifetime collection of artifacts and documents pertinent to African American history.
Here is what he sketches in the current issue of the Mayme Clayton Library Newsletter:
1. Prepare the Culver City facility to receive the collection.
2. Package and relocate the collection.
3. Inventory, catalog, conserve and digitize the collection so it can be made accessible to the public.
4. Develop and implement education programs.
5. Launch a campaign to identify, collect and preserve significant African American collections in Los Angeles County and the eleven Western states.
“History and culture are the measures of a people,” Mr. Clayton says in the Newsletter. “Without evidence of history and culture, it is as though the people never existed.”
He sees what he describes as “the preservation and proper institutional presentation of African American history as…a powerful and effective alternative to popular media depictions of African American life.”
Although the project has been hanging around the City Council for almost a year, Mr. Clayton’s organization may not be here long, once it does become situated.
City officials do not expect what Mr. Clayton calls the Mayme Clayton Library & Cultural Center to be in Culver City more than temporarily.
Permanent plans call for a downtown Los Angeles site.