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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The former home of civil rights activist, journalist and attorney Loren Miller was recommended as a Historic-Cultural Monument today by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission.
Miller was known as a ``leader in the movement against racial segregation and restrictive covenants,'' said Emily Rinaldi, who prepared the application for the property, at 647 N. Micheltorena St., to be designated a monument.
In 1945, Miller was appointed to the NAACP's National Legal Committee, which allowed him to help shape the organization's legal strategy for challenging restrictive covenants, according to Rinaldi.
While living at the property, Miller argued the U.S. Supreme Court cases Shelly v. Kraemer and Barrows v. Jackson and wrote a majority of the briefs for the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in which justices unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
Miller's granddaughter, Judge Robin Miller Sloan, told commissioners through tears Thursday that designating the property ``would be such a wonderful thing for the African American community, for the legal community and for the citizens of Los Angeles.''
Commission President Barry Milofsky said the potential designation ``marks for (him) one of the most important things about the Cultural Heritage Commission and the monument designation.''
``One drives by this house ... and you don't know that there's a story there, that there's a history here, the role that the occupants played in the history of our nation. I think a designation brings that to people's attention,'' Milofsky said.
While the home was designated for its association with Miller, it was also built by prominent architect James Garrott, who Miller had commissioned for the project.
Miller died while still living in the home in 1967. At that time, he was a judge for the Superior Court of California, Los Angeles, for which he was appointed by Gov. Edmund Brown.
Miller also previously worked as a journalist, including as city editor for the weekly newspaper California Eagle, which he bought in 1951.
The recommendation will be reviewed by the Los Angeles City Council Planning and Land Use Management Committee before heading to the full City Council.