The First Eight Black Police Officers Of Atlanta Couldn’t Arrest White People Or Use Their Firearms.

The First Eight Black Police Officers Of Atlanta Couldn’t Arrest White People Or Use Their Firearms.

Black men weren’t allowed to be part of the police force until April 3, 1948, when the Atlanta Police Department first instated black men on the force. The then-mayor, William B. Hartsfield, used this tactic to gain votes from the black community.

The first African-American division of the Atlanta Police Department consisted of eight policemen who mainly operated from a local Y.M.C.To avoid rubbing shoulders with their white counterparts.
The first team of eight black policemen included Claude Dixon, Henry Hooks, Johnnie Jones, Ernest Lyons, Robert McKibbens, John Sanders, Willard Strickland, and Willie Elkins.

The team of African-American policemen was popular in black-populated neighborhoods. They weren’t allowed to arrest affluent white people but could intersect when crimes committed by whites were in progress and weren’t supposed to use patrol cars like the white police officers.

It’s not that the black officers enjoyed any special rights for being part of the police force. They were still subjects to the whites including their fellow officers. Their power was limited to the black population. The white policemen constantly harassed the black police officers. There was a constant fight against the blacks in the police force, and it was much better to be a civilian than an officer as a black.

The white policemen tried to run the black officers over with their vehicles, reported them for drinking alcohol which was prohibited at the time. One time a white officer proposed a $200 bounty to anyone who would kill a black cop.
Just like the white policemen, the black officers were issued with guns and badges. However, they weren’t allowed to use their weapons.

“On the one hand, they’re second-class citizens as black men in the Jim Crow South: They couldn’t ride in the front of the bus, they couldn’t eat in most restaurants,” he says. “But at the same time, they’re also authority figures, and they have to enforce the laws of the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia.”

The black policemen could use the same headquarter with the whites in 1953, but were still required to use the basement.
In early 1961, the 12th black officer who got hired in 1950 was shot dead in the line of duty. However, things got better in 1962 as black policemen were given the right to arrest whites regardless of their social status