Chester Washington was a journalist, newspaper publisher and editor. In 1955, Washington became the first African-American news employee at the Los Angeles Mirror-News. Later, he went to work for the Los Angeles Sentinel, the city's largest black-owned weekly, where he became editor in charge. He later bought several papers and formed Central News-Wave Publications, which at one time published over a dozen newspapers. The (now) Chester L. Washington Golf Course was one of the first public golf courses in Los Angeles to allow blacks to play.