# African-American police officers, pre-Civil Rights Era **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 20, 2020, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/african-american-police-officers-pre-civil-rights-era/852221 "2020-04-20T21:21:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/african-american-police-officers-pre-civil-rights-era/852221/1 "2020-04-20T21:21:40Z")
I know there were some, but how did this work out in practice? Were they assigned beats only in black or black-majority neighborhoods? Were they respected by the community or did blacks regard them as Toms, tools of the Man? Or conversely, did whites distrust their professionalism and worry that they would wink at or collaborate in criminal activity that had broad support in the black community? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/african-american-police-officers-pre-civil-rights-era/852221/2 "2020-04-20T21:44:23Z")
Generally speaking, they weren’t allowed to patrol white neighborhoods or arrest white people. I think that it wasn’t so much distrust, but anger and outrage that blacks would be allowed to be in such a position of power that drove a lot of the issues. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/african-american-police-officers-pre-civil-rights-era/852221/3 "2020-04-20T22:26:36Z")
Yeah, the famous play and film _The Front Page_ derives much of its conflict from the fact that a [del]murdered[/del] (accidentally killed) policeman was black. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/african-american-police-officers-pre-civil-rights-era/852221/4 "2020-04-21T19:17:51Z")
Can’t remember where I read this (apocryphal?) story, but supposedly in some racially confused areas of border states like Arkansas they would name a black man Sheriff, lynch him shortly thereafter and then hold a massive funeral procession in his honor. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/african-american-police-officers-pre-civil-rights-era/852221/5 "2020-04-21T19:25:50Z")
Its not pre civil rights, but here is an article written by a black police officer in Mississippi who got hired in the 1960s. [http://orig.jacksonsun.com/civilrights/sec5\_policeofficer\_cherry.shtml](http://orig.jacksonsun.com/civilrights/sec5_policeofficer_cherry.shtml) > [@](#): > > When James Cherry became Jackson’s first uniformed, black police officer in 1964, he wondered how the white public would treat him. > > He never dreamed he would be rejected by the black community. > > “The white public accepted me well,” he said. "The black public was reluctant. I don’t know why. I don’t know what they thought. > > “The first black I arrested, I had to fight him. He said, ‘Ain’t no nigger going to arrest me.’ We fought like cats and dogs. It was pretty horrible.” > > Cherry’s first call to a white residence took another twist. The lady opened the door, looked at him and said, “I don’t want you. I want the real police.” ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/african-american-police-officers-pre-civil-rights-era/852221/6 "2020-04-21T19:38:33Z")
The HBO series Watchmen includes a character based on [Samuel J. Battle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_J._Battle), the first African-American New York City police officer. He was assigned to African-American populated areas of the city during his time there, and assignments were segregated that way for a long time afterward. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/african-american-police-officers-pre-civil-rights-era/852221/7 "2020-04-22T02:53:49Z")
Years ago I met an African-American gentleman who served as a police officer in Texas during the Jim Crow era. He said he was basically only allowed to patrol black neighborhoods and could only arrest black people. If he happened to see a white person committing a crime, the protocol was to call it in and wait on the scene until a white officer arrived. He recalled patrolling his beat one day when he and his partner (who was also black)saw a drunk stumbling down the street. They went over and grabbed him only to realize that he was white, so they let him go.