First Black Law Enforcement Officers...

5fish

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Here are some of the first...


snip...

African American Police Officers were appointed to Police Departments in the late 1860’s:

1867: Selma, Alabama

1868: Jackson, Florida

1870: Houston and Galveston, Texas

1870: New Orleans, Louisiana had 177 African American Officers and three of five Police Board members were African American.

April 12, 1870: Officer William Johnson of Jacksonville, Florida becomes the first recognized African American police officer killed in the line of duty.

1875: Bass Reeves was appointed as the first African American Deputy U.S. Marshal

1916: Georgia Ann Robinson became the first African American woman police officer. She served in the Los Angeles Police Department.

1928: Dr. Louis Tompkins Wright is the first know African American Police Surgeon. He later became President of the NAACP Board of Directors

1941: William B. Lindsay became the first known African American State Trooper, hired by the Illinois State Police.

1966: Sheriff Lucius Amerson was one for the first elected African American Sheriffs. He served as Sheriff of Macon County, Alabama.

1972: National Black Police Association was chartered

1976: National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executive (NOBLE) was founded.

1988: Willie L. Williams becomes one of the first African American Police Commissioners. He served in Philadelphia and subsequently became the first African American Police Commissioner of Los Angeles Police Department in 1992.

Approximately 58,000 African American Officers work in US Police Agencies today*


Here is a link :

 

5fish

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I found this for you @Leftyhunter , is about Black police officers history in L.A. Police department...


snip...

This month we celebrate 125 years of African-Americans in the LAPD. Throughout our history, African-Americans have helped shape the Department into what it is today. From the first African-American officer in 1886, Robert W. Stewart, to the first African-American LAPD officer killed in the Line of Duty in 1923, Charles P. Williams; African-American’s influence is woven into the fabric of our organization.

snip...

In 1916, Policewoman Georgia Ann Robinson became the first African-American female officer. In 1992 Willie L. Williams became the first African-American Chief of Police followed by Bernard C. Parks as the second African-American Chief of Police in 1997. In April 2000, Ann Young became the first African-American female Captain, and in 2010, Regina Scott was appointed as the first African-American female Commander in the history of our Department.


more at the link...
 

Leftyhunter

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I found this for you @Leftyhunter , is about Black police officers history in L.A. Police department...


snip...

This month we celebrate 125 years of African-Americans in the LAPD. Throughout our history, African-Americans have helped shape the Department into what it is today. From the first African-American officer in 1886, Robert W. Stewart, to the first African-American LAPD officer killed in the Line of Duty in 1923, Charles P. Williams; African-American’s influence is woven into the fabric of our organization.

snip...

In 1916, Policewoman Georgia Ann Robinson became the first African-American female officer. In 1992 Willie L. Williams became the first African-American Chief of Police followed by Bernard C. Parks as the second African-American Chief of Police in 1997. In April 2000, Ann Young became the first African-American female Captain, and in 2010, Regina Scott was appointed as the first African-American female Commander in the history of our Department.


more at the link...
The thing was LAPD was technically intergrated but black officers only served in black majority divisions at least while Chief William Parker 1950-1966 was the Chief. That pretty much meant three divisions 77th Street, Newton and University Division .
Black officers only had black partner's. I forgot the year but that policy changed. At one time if only two black officers served on a watch and one was sick the other was sent home.
On the other hand LAPD had a black police captain by 1916 and future mayor of Los Angeles Tom Bradley ( also the first and only AA mayor of Los Angeles) was at least a leuitenanent by the mid 1950s and Jack Web ( producer and star of Dragnet) mentioned him in his mid 1950s book about LAPD.
Parker preferred hiring Southern white Marines. The Southern boys loved the pretty Southern California girls but folks of a darker complexition not so much and that caused problems.
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Leftyhunter

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Here are some of the first...


snip...

African American Police Officers were appointed to Police Departments in the late 1860’s:

1867: Selma, Alabama

1868: Jackson, Florida

1870: Houston and Galveston, Texas

1870: New Orleans, Louisiana had 177 African American Officers and three of five Police Board members were African American.

April 12, 1870: Officer William Johnson of Jacksonville, Florida becomes the first recognized African American police officer killed in the line of duty.

1875: Bass Reeves was appointed as the first African American Deputy U.S. Marshal

1916: Georgia Ann Robinson became the first African American woman police officer. She served in the Los Angeles Police Department.

1928: Dr. Louis Tompkins Wright is the first know African American Police Surgeon. He later became President of the NAACP Board of Directors

1941: William B. Lindsay became the first known African American State Trooper, hired by the Illinois State Police.

1966: Sheriff Lucius Amerson was one for the first elected African American Sheriffs. He served as Sheriff of Macon County, Alabama.
Of

1972: National Black Police Association was chartered

1976: National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executive (NOBLE) was founded.

1988: Willie L. Williams becomes one of the first African American Police Commissioners. He served in Philadelphia and subsequently became the first African American Police Commissioner of Los Angeles Police Department in 1992.

Approximately 58,000 African American Officers work in US Police Agencies today*


Here is a link :

Of course with the end of Reconstruction came the end of black law enforcement in the South. The first post Reconstruction police department to hire black officers was Knoxville Tennessee in 1943 followed by Atlanta PD in 1848 and New Orleans in 1963.
The Atlanta officers had to change in to uniforms at the YMCA and only serve in majority black precients. They could not arrest whites until the early 1960s.
NYPD didn't hire it's first black officers until the early 1920s.
It took major legal action to hire black officers in the Alabama State Police in the early 1970s.
Leftyhunter
 

5fish

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Here ia Orlando's first two Black Police Officers...


snip...

Richard Arthur Jones and Officer Belvin Perry Sr. patrolled the streets of Parramore without guns, patrol cars or radios to call for back up. All Orlando Police Department's first two Black officers had were nightsticks, handcuffs and each other. It was 1951, more than a decade before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In 1976, after 25–year careers, Jones and Perry retired. In 2010, a statue paying tribute to their trailblazing efforts was erected in their honor. It sits in the roundabout at the intersection of Wooden Boulevard and Hankins Circle.

 

5fish

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WOW... Cincinnati beat O-town with their first Black Police officer... @O' Be Joyful

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snip...

When Henry Hagerman joined the Cincinnati Police Department in 1884, he became the department's first African American police officer.

snip... a little corruption in Cincinnati...

Hagerman might not have been hired in 1884 after all. More importantly, he might not have been the city’s first African American anything.
Retired Cincinnati Police Lieutenant Stephen Kramer worked at the Greater Cincinnati Police Museum on Reading Road.
“Henry Hagerman, we believe, is the first black police officer in the Cincinnati Police Department,” Kramer said.
Kramer says the museum keeps an account of all CPD officers hired after April 1, 1886. Problematically, they don’t have records before that because the state shut down the entire department due to corruption scandals
 

Leftyhunter

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WOW... Cincinnati beat O-town with their first Black Police officer... @O' Be Joyful

.

snip...

When Henry Hagerman joined the Cincinnati Police Department in 1884, he became the department's first African American police officer.

snip... a little corruption in Cincinnati...

Hagerman might not have been hired in 1884 after all. More importantly, he might not have been the city’s first African American anything.
Retired Cincinnati Police Lieutenant Stephen Kramer worked at the Greater Cincinnati Police Museum on Reading Road.
“Henry Hagerman, we believe, is the first black inpolice officer in the Cincinnati Police Department,” Kramer said.
Kramer says the museum keeps an account of all CPD officers hired after April 1, 1886. Problematically, they don’t have records before that because the state shut down the entire department due to corruption scandals
In the mid 1960s Sherrif Buford Pusser of McNairy County Tennessee hired the counties first black Deputy Sheriff. Several movies and book were made about Sherrif Pusser and their is a museum of Pusser in McNairy County. The movie series was " Walking Tall" which like all Hollywood movies on historical subjects isn't exactly a documentary.
Leftyhunter
 

5fish

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The FBI...

James Wormley Jones - Wikipedia

Snip... James Wormley Jones

James Wormley Jones (September 22, 1884 – December 11, 1958) was an African-American policeman and World War I veteran, who is best known for having been the first African-American FBI special agent.


Snip... He went over the Top... in WW one...

After his company was sent to France in 1918, he saw action in the Vosges Mountains, Argonne Sector, and the Metz front.

"Neither can I individualize respecting the magnificent valor of the men of the company led by Captain Jones in this engagement, which Secretary Baker himself praised. When the awful bombardment died away, just as the gray streaks of early dawn pierced the night's blackness, which was made grayer by a thick heavy fog, the Captain ordered a charge 'over the top' with fixed bayonets; through the treacherous fog and into no-man-knew-what or seemed to care. The first wave, or detachment, went over with a cheer---a triumphant cheer---and the second wave followed their comrades with a dash. It may, perhaps, be best to let these boys and officers tell with their own lips of the terrific, murderous shell, shrapnel, gas, and machine-gun fire which baptized them, only to make them the more hardened and intrepid warriors; of how they contended every inch; fought with marvelous valor, never for an instant faltering. Trench after trench of the enemy was entered and conquered; dugout after dugout was successfully grenaded and made safe for the boys to follow; wires were cut and communicating trenches explored; machine-gun nests were raided and silenced, and still the boys fought their way on. Of course, as a natural sequence to such a daring raid, there were casualties, but the black soldiers, heroes as they were, never flinched at death, and the wounded were too proud of their achievements even to murmur because of the pain they endured. Captain Jones and his men took over a mile of land and trenches which for four years had been held by the Germans. The newspapers have given due and proper credit to the Americans for this daring raid, but the world has not been informed that it was the colored soldiers of America, under Captain J. Wormley Jones, a former Washington, D. C. policeman, who made the charge that was as daring, and more successful, than the Tennyson-embalmed charge of 'The Light Brigade.'"

Snip... more...


We are aware of at least four other African-American agents who followed Jones in these early years of the Bureau:

James Amos, a former bodyguard of President Theodore Roosevelt, joined the Bureau in August 1921. He was the longest-serving of these early black agents, working some of the Bureau’s biggest cases during his 32-year career.
Earl F. Titus, after working as an Indianapolis police officer, joined the Bureau on January 9, 1922. His assignments included undercover work in the investigation of Marcus Garvey, a black nationalist who was convicted of mail fraud in 1923. Titus retired in June 1924 at the age of 56.
Arthur Lowell Brent became a special agent on August 1, 1923 after serving two years as a “special employee” (a sort of assistant investigator) in the Department of Justice. Brent was assigned to the Washington Field Office, where he worked on the Garvey case and other investigations. He left the Bureau in June 1924.
Thomas Leon Jefferson—an experienced investigator who had worked for a detective agency in Chicago from about 1904 to 1921—entered the Bureau as an agent on September 22, 1922. Jefferson participated in many investigations, working on the Garvey case, car thefts, and prostitution/human trafficking matters. In November 1924, he was commended by Acting Director Hoover for his work on a bankruptcy investigation. Jefferson retired in January 1930.

Over time, other African-American agents would follow these path-breakers. Father and son agents Jesse and Robert Strider served in our L.A. office from the 1940s through the 1970s, tackling difficult fugitive investigations, military deserter matters, and other cases. They were joined in other field offices by Special Agents James Thomas Young, Harold August Carr, and Carl Vernon Mason, among others.
 
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