Paul and Karen Hudson
Paul Hudson
Paul Hudson was born in Los Angeles, California, the son and grandson of prominent African American figures. He attended public high schools in the city before receiving a B.A. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley and a J.D. from there as well. He went on to follow in his family’s footsteps by becoming the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Broadway Federal Bank, the largest and only publicly owned African American bank west of the Mississippi, of which his grandfather had been a founding member.
Prior to joining Broadway Federal in 1980, Mr. Hudson practiced law with the Washington D.C. firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. In 1975, he returned to Los Angeles to join the law firm established by his father, Hudson, Sandoz and Brown. He is a member of the State of California and District of Columbia bars.
Hudson has extensive nonprofit experience in a variety of capacities. He is a past President of the Los Angeles NAACP and past Chairman of the Los Angeles City Community Redevelopment Agency. He currently serves as Chairman of Community Build, Inc., Center for Social Inclusion, and Ebony Repertory Theatre. He also serves on the Los Angeles City Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and on the board of the Tuskegee Airmen Scholarship Foundation and the African American Board Leadership Institute.
Karen Hudson
Born in Los Angeles to a prominent African American family, Karen Hudson attended public schools in Los Angeles, California. Her grandfathers, who had been best friends since childhood, were Paul Williams, the noted African American architect, and Dr. Claude Hudson, a noted civil rights leader, dentist, and attorney. Hudson grew up in a loving, watchful world filled with aunts, uncles, and neighbors. She later attended Stanford University.
After spending time working at Broadway Federal, the bank founded by her grandfather, Hudson has spent her career working tirelessly to preserve the legacy of her grandparents, and particularly that of Paul Williams, whose accomplishments were initially unheralded. She is currently the director of the Paul Williams Architectural Archives and lectures frequently on the subject of architecture and preservation. She is the author, through Rizzoli, of Paul Williams: A Legacy of Style, and The Will and the Way: Paul Williams, Architect. She is also, with Karen Grigsby Bates, the author of Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times and The New Basic Black.
