Melanie Elizabeth Lomax (April 12, 1950 – September 10, 2006), was a civil rights lawyer and former head of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners.
In the early 1960s, her mother took her to visit the segregated South, an experience which had a lasting effect on Melanie, who decided to focus on civil rights instead of following her father into criminal law.
Appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley, Lomax was the first black woman to lead the Los Angeles Police Commission, which she headed when motorist Rodney King was beaten by four officers of the Los Angeles Police Department.
She won many friends and enemies in its aftermath, when she waged a high-profile battle to oust controversial Police Chief Daryl F. Gates in an effort to transform the department's culture.
Melanie was also Defense Counsel for the Veterans Administration and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority at the time of her death.