The son of legendary South Los Angeles bail bondsman Celes King IV was a master community advocate in his own right.
Celes King IV pictured in 2013. | Matt Hamilton
He walked with a slow gait, but Celes King IV — the South Los Angeles community advocate who died March 15 of heart failure — was always on the go.
“Can we schedule a time to meet tomorrow?” I asked him last spring, when I was profiling him for class.
“Tomorrow I’ll be in Sacramento at a protest in the morning,” he told me. “I’ll be there for the rest of the week.”
A deadline loomed, so at midnight, I hopped in my station wagon and made the 400-mile drive – a route Celes made at least once a week.
Read Matt Hamilton’s profile of Celes from last year on Intersections: South L.A.’s man in Sacramento
On the steps of the Capitol in the morning, he greeted me, wearing a white suite with cyan-hued leather shoes. Our day began. [Read more…]
