Elbert Hudson

College Friend

“SMC then was even smaller than a high school. But I developed some friendships that I really cherished.”

Many of the things he’s accomplished most people would consider professional breakthroughs for African Americans. But Elbert Hudson—attorney, bank president and former combat fighter pilot—is a man of few words when it comes to singing his own praise. When asked to describe the heroics of his WWII bomber escort squadron he replies simply, “Oh, I guess we were pretty well appreciated by the bomber pilots.”

After his two years at SMC, Elbert went on to the Tuskegee, Alabama flight school and soon was flying over Italy with the famed 332nd fighter group “Redtails.” After the war, he went on to UCLA, from there to law school and “I’ve been practicing law ever since.”

He says that he’s witnessed some profound changes in society over the years. “In 1953,” he says, “there was no possibility of working for a large law firm if you were black. You couldn’t even eat at many downtown drugstore counters.” But he feels that “progress is something you can only appreciate when you get to see it happen over a number of years.”

Elbert was the president of the LA board of the NAACP and served on the LA Police Commission for eight years. Though he’s enjoyed his career as an attorney, he says, “I don’t recommend it to everyone. These days, it’s a pretty crowded field. And I’d have to recommend to young black kids that they get some training in business. Get a foundation of business management and computer operations. Because those skills will serve you well, no matter what career you choose.”

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