The images are of smiling, affluent African American Angelenos in gorgeous clothes, mingling with such celebrities as Pearl Bailey, Louis Armstrong and Dorothy Dandridge.

Gathered from friends, family and photographers’ discard piles at the historic California Eagle newspaper by attorney Walter Lear Gordon Jr., they depict a segment of the population able to overcome oppression during the era of segregation, when blacks were subjected to housing discrimination, humiliation in public accommodation and subservient employment opportunities.

Documenting a vibrant black culture that included clubs, fraternities and sororities, businesses and resorts from the 1920s through the ’60s, the collection of more than 700 images – now on loan to Doheny Memorial Library from Gordon and his friend, retired Superior Court Judge William Beverly, and curated by Dace Taube – is an invaluable resource for scholars documenting both Los Angeles and race relations.

USC is collaborating with Beverly to document the photos and preserve these rare glimpses of a nearly forgotten time. The entire archive will eventually be cataloged and available for viewing online.

The loan of the Gordon collection was facilitated by Beverly, whose nonprofit organization, Eighth and Wall, owns the photographs.

Eighth and Wall was created to preserve and present the forgotten stories of African American history in Los Angeles. Beverly makes presentations at museums, on television and to community groups to communicate the unknown stories of the black community.

A portion of the images from the Gordon collection can be found at Eighth and Wall’s Web site at http://www.eighthandwall.org.

Gordon was born in Santa Monica, Calif., in 1908. Admitted to the state bar in 1937, he blazed a trail as one of the first African American attorneys in Los Angeles at a time when the city’s legal establishment remained segregated.

Gordon – elegant, well-spoken and one of the most successful lawyers of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s – was a practicing attorney in Los Angeles for more than 60 years.

During those decades, he was considered the foremost criminal lawyer on the West Coast and one of the most sought-after attorneys in the country – by both black and white defendants.

In April 2003, Gordon was awarded the Shattuck-Price Outstanding Lawyer Award from the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the LACBA’s highest honor.

Gordon, now a spry nonagenarian retiree, opened his law practice in 1937, in the front office of the prominent African American newspaper, the California Eagle.

“When I opened my law practice in 1937, my office was in the front of [Eagle editor] Charlotta Bass’ shop at 41st and Central,” he said. “My chair was 10 steps away from her press room. After she finished with photographs, they would just lie on a table, sometimes in a stack that would fall to the floor. I could just go and get whatever I wanted.”

Gordon also obtained pictures from photographers working the social scene. “They [photographers] were all coming to my office all the time, showing what they had taken of somebody else and asking if I wanted another copy,” Gordon said. “They would say, ‘Here are the pictures I took at the party the other night. Want any of them?’ and of course I did.”

Tyson Gaskill, Doheny Library’s director of programs, found the collection to be a unique resource.

“Something we found interesting was that these photographs form a very idiosyncratic collection. Many of the images are of people from Gordon’s extended social circle, so it’s not a panoramic survey of Los Angeles black history by any means,” Gaskill said.

The curators and library staff created an exhibit of the photographs in Doheny Memorial Library for Black History Month, working with Beverly to choose the most captivating images.

Contained within the collection are highlights such as:

• photographs of the Langston Law Club (founded in response to the Los Angeles Bar Association’s refusal to admit African Americans – a policy that remained in effect until 1951) and the Wilfandel Club, which provided people of all races with a public meeting place;

• images of Count Basie performing with Buddy Rich at a club that Gordon believes was called the Club Alabam and of Louis Armstrong celebrating at an after-hours club known as Lovejoy’s;

• long-forgotten memories of black resorts such as Val Verde, a recreation center in Simi Valley nicknamed the “Black Palm Springs.” Resorts such as these offered a welcome refuge from racial restrictions.

The Gordon collection is an addition to USC’s Historic California Collections Initiative, which seeks to gather resources related to the history of Los Angeles and Southern California.