Row Raised Over His Buses: Dr. Thomas W. Matthew operates a franchised bus line in the Watts area of Los Angeles, where this picture was taken. He has clashed with New York City officials over his unfranchised buses there. He has a fleet of 30 second-hand buses for his line in Watts, plus Harlem and the black section of South Jamaica, Queens. Matthew says he is testing New York's unwillingness to bend its regulations to help blacks help themselves, New York City.

Dr. Thomas W. Matthew, was once hailed as a “black capitalist” by the Nixon Administration. Dr. Matthew was arrested on April 1 on charges of diverting at least $250,000 in Medicaid funds into his other ventures.

On verso: typewritten label with title and date affixed.

Wire photographs were originally transmitted over phonelines, then later, by satellite. They were first used in the early 1920s. Associated Press became a leader with this. After pigment touch-ups, etc., the print is put into a drum (like a drum scanner). The image gets converted into audio tones that are transmitted. The tones are received and beamed onto photo-sensitive paper. Wire photographs are copies without originals---they are hybrid, transmitted objects. (Britt Salvesen, Curator and Department Head, Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 30-31, 2022)

This object has the following keywords:

• Buses
• Civil Rights Movements
• Dr. Thomas Matthew
• Economic discrimination
• Harlem
• Injustice
• Racial Discrimination
• South Central Los Angeles
• South Jamaica

• Overall Dimensions: 7 1/16 x 8 9/16 in. (17.94 x 21.75 cm) Measured by Cornejo-Reynoso, Aitzin