Tomorrow's L.A. Times carries an obituary for Ida Kinney, a onetime Rosie the Riveter who became a civil rights pioneer. Working at a Lockheed plant in Burbank during WWII, Kinney was barred from joining the plant's union. She fought this policy and helped overturn it.The Times' piece and previous profiles on Kinney in the L.A. Daily News offer conflicting views about whether it was the union or Lockheed that prohibited Kinney's membership. It is known that the International Association of Machinists, Lockheed's biggest union, had a national whites-only membership policy at the time.

The Times obit details Kinney's attempts to move into then all-white neighborhoods — including Pacoima, where she bought her last home. The granddaughter of slaves, Kinney helped the NAACP after WWII and worked to change housing discrimination in the San Fernando Valley.
 

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