Carl Christian Rasmussen (1901–1952) was a Lutheran minister who was also a member of the Los Angeles, California, City Council between 1939 and 1947. Biography Rasmussen was born on May 12, 1901, in Tyler, Lincoln County, Minnesota, the son of Rasmus S. and Mary Elizabeth Rasmussen, both of Denmark. When Carl Christian was sixteen years old, he borrowed "a hundred dollars" to attend a barber college, after which he used the proceeds from barbering to finish South High School (Minneapolis) and Minneapolis Business College. He was first a retail clerk, then a salesman for a Minneapolis hardware firm and then purchasing agent for a wholesale house. He worked for a subsidiary of International Harvester as a traveler in three Midwestern states and then in 1923 became part owner of a retail hardware business in Lakeside, California. He studied for the Danish Lutheran ministry at Grand View College in Des Moines, Iowa, from 1927 to 1930, after which he held three pastorates—in Viborg, South Dakota; Salinas, California, and finally the Emanuel Danish Lutheran Church of Los Angeles. Rasmussen was married to Clara Margaret of Arco, Minnesota, on May 21, 1922. They had three children—Miriam Eileen, Ralph Christian and Alvin or Alvind Carl—and lived in Los Angeles at 4308 Third Avenue in a Leimert Park area house he owned adjoining his church. He died at the age of 51 on November 14, 1952, in his home at 1019 Verdugo Road, Burbank. City Council Elections See also List of Los Angeles municipal election returns, 1939–47 In the early 1940s, the Los Angeles City Council District 7 was bounded on the west by Crenshaw Boulevard, on the north by Exposition Boulevard, on the east by the city boundary with Vernon and on the south by Vernon Avenue. In 1947 it was noted that the district's population was "nearly 50 per cent Negro." Rasmussen's predecessor, Howard W. Davis, had been the representative in the 7th almost continuously since 1927, but in February 1939, a grand jury, at the instigation of District Attorney Buron Fitts, voted 38 charges of misconduct against him. After trial, Superior Judge Raymond McIntosh ruled in favor of Davis and exonerated him. In the primary election the Tuesday after the court decision, Davis was eliminated from the field, placing third after Negro newspaper publisher Leon H. Washington Jr., first, and Rasmussen, second. Rasmussen won the seat over Washington in the May final