Listen
9:47
In this special Sunday edition: From our ongoing series Race in L.A., Shirlee Smith, who tells the story of the job she applied for at 18 back in the 1950s – to work as operator for Cedars of Lebanon hospital, which became Cedars-Sinai. The job interview was on the phone and she was hired on the spot. Then she came in, in person, to report to work – and that's when her new employer saw for the first time that she's Black.
In this special Sunday edition: From our ongoing series Race in L.A., Shirlee Smith, who tells the story of the job she applied for at 18 back in the 1950s – to work as operator for Cedars of Lebanon hospital, which became Cedars-Sinai. The job interview was on the phone and she was hired on the spot. Then she came in, in person, to report to work – and that's when her new employer saw for the first time that she's Black.