Established in the mid-1970s, the Regional Cultural History Collection was originally conceived as a repository for the papers of outstanding Southern Californians, with a particular emphasis on political figures. To that end, the papers of elected officials were acquired, among them Congresswoman Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, Congressmen Alphonso Bell, Chet Holifield, Craig Hosmer, Gordon McDonough and Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz.
B. Kwaku Duren is a lawyer and long-time political, social and community activist in the Los Angeles area. He has served various institutions, among them the South-Central Office of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA), the Union of Legal Services Workers of Los Angeles. He served as head of the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party and chairman of the New Panther Vanguard Movement. He was co-editor-in-chief of The Black Panther International News Service. As a political independent Duren has run for elective office, including the U.S. Congress, Insurance Commissioner, Long Beach and Los Angeles School Boards, and most recently Mayor of Compton. The papers reflect more than 40 years (1964-2012) of his work in civil rights movements and activities, and include correspondence, photographs, published materials, fliers, posters, and audio/visual materials.
The Ralph Rodgers and Percy Turner Circus Collection documents the collective interests of a circus model builder/ miniature circus owner and a real circus owner who became friends and whose circus memorabilia ended up with a mutual friend who donated them to USC. The collection contains ephemera, correspondence, photographs, books, records, costumes, and a large amount of circus model plans and drawings kept by Ralph Rodgers. A portion of the collection represents the history of the Percy Turner Circus, one of the first circuses owned by an African-American based in the southern California area.