Police Officer | The HistoryMakers

Maxie L. Patterson

Maxie (Max) L. Patterson was born on June 12, 1944 in Detroit, Michigan to Myra and Harry Patterson. He was active in the science club, the marching band and achieved the rank of Master Sergeant in the ROTC. He graduated from Munford High School in 1962 and enrolled in Ferris State College, which he attended for two years. After leaving college, Patterson worked for the Ford Motor Company.

Patterson enlisted in the United States Army in 1967 and was assigned to counterintelligence. He is a decorated Vietnam War veteran and is retired from the United States Army Reserve with the rank of Chief Warrant Officer.

Patterson returned to college after the military. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in public administration in 1973 and 1977 from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. While attending Michigan State University, Patterson worked for the police department. In 1976, he was offered a job as the Police Chief of Albion, Michigan. Three years later, in 1979, he became the Police Chief of Windsor, Connecticut. After seven years, Patterson was persuaded to accept a position as Assistant City Manager of Beaumont, Texas, where he also served as the city’s Coordinator of the Minority Business Enterprise Program until 1989.

Patterson moved to Houston, Texas in 1989 to become Deputy Chief Administrative Officer. In 1991, he was appointed as interim Director of Housing and Community Development. From July 1992 to 1995, Patterson served as the Deputy Director and City Treasurer and ultimately was appointed City Treasurer. He worked as the fiduciary of the city’s three pension systems. In 1997, Patterson was hired as Executive Director of Houston’s Firefighter’s Retirement Fund until 2005 when he became the Executive Director of Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems.

Patterson lives in Houston, Texas with his wife Deborah. They have four children.

Patterson was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on February 9, 2007.

Accession Number

A2007.060

Sex

Male

Interview Date

2/9/2007

Last Name

Patterson

Maker Category

CivicMakers

PoliticalMakers

Middle Name

Occupation

Police Officer

City Government Administrator

Organizations

Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police

American Red Cross

Texas Master Chorale

Schools

Sampson Elementary School

Samuel C. Mumford High School

Hally Magnet Middle School

Michigan State University

First Name

Maxie

Birth City, State, Country

Detroit

HM ID

PAT06

Favorite Season

Fall, Spring

State

Michigan

THM DA Link

http://marc.thehistorymakers.org/thmdigital/A2007.060.htm

Web Clip 1

https://thmdaprodmedia.blob.core.windows.net/media/story/video/531807

Favorite Vacation Destination

Caribbean

Favorite Quote

None

Bio Photo

Speakers Bureau Region State

Texas

Birth Date

6/12/1944

Birth Place Term

Detroit

Speakers Bureau Region City

Houston

Country

United States

Favorite Food

Ribs

Short Description

Police officer and city government administrator Maxie L. Patterson (1944 - ) served as police chief of Albion, Michigan and Windsor, Connecticut. Patterson was later appointed as the Deputy Director and City Treasurer of Houston, and was ultimately appointed as the Executive Director of Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems.

Employment

Police Department

Houston Firefighters' Relief and Retirement Fund

Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems

Southwest Athletic Conference

Conference USA

Favorite Color

None

Web Clip 2

https://thmdaprodmedia.blob.core.windows.net/media/story/video/531810

Timing Pairs

0,0:1771,62:12243,333:13860,366:14553,374:15015,379:15400,385:20713,491:35440,615:49044,780:53368,935:81220,1283:81580,1288:82840,1304:85350,1321:87605,1330:94405,1516:94745,1521:96190,1544:99130,1557:99538,1562:99946,1567:106952,1680:107372,1686:107876,1693:109220,1712:109892,1721:110396,1728:111488,1743:112748,1771:114260,1794:115856,1828:122492,1949:146609,2132:163562,2349:166544,2358:167168,2367:171020,2453$0,0:255,7:850,15:4675,77:8925,209:29290,465:32472,545:32990,553:35210,605:35506,610:37652,735:38096,742:45052,836:46458,862:46976,868:48456,897:50158,933:58790,981:59090,986:61565,1044:62015,1051:62690,1081:86925,1467:87447,1474:97452,1665:110300,1797:111660,1824:112220,1832:112780,1840:115260,1892:115980,1902:117900,1943:128400,2131:134435,2258:144550,2349:144918,2354:145286,2359:145838,2367:152254,2445:154792,2472:155566,2485:156340,2505:160124,2574:161586,2603:162188,2612:162618,2618:163134,2630:177873,2830:185968,2933:188698,2983:193876,3046:194767,3077:196792,3100:200648,3153:206456,3266:207512,3285:207776,3290:213208,3342:221510,3492:226517,3544:232876,3671:234436,3703:234826,3708:237244,3750:240792,3768:241147,3773:246472,3923:249454,3985:265090,4246:265756,4257:266644,4277:267162,4289:269308,4344:270418,4356:270936,4364:271528,4374:275440,4394:275760,4399:283680,4522:284000,4527:288000,4606:288720,4618:298076,4690:298732,4700:305128,4794:306030,4803:306604,4811:318939,4974:320802,5013:325578,5061:325983,5067:326955,5089:327522,5097:327846,5102:330490,5163

DAStories

Tape: 1 Story: 1 - Slating of Maxie L. Patterson's interview

Tape: 1 Story: 2 - Maxie L. Patterson lists his favorites

Tape: 1 Story: 3 - Maxie L. Patterson describes his mother's family background

Tape: 1 Story: 4 - Maxie L. Patterson describes his father's family background

Tape: 1 Story: 5 - Maxie L. Patterson describes how his parents met

Tape: 1 Story: 6 - Maxie L. Patterson lists his siblings

Tape: 1 Story: 7 - Maxie L. Patterson remembers shopping with his mother

Tape: 1 Story: 8 - Maxie L. Patterson describes his mother's career

Tape: 1 Story: 9 - Maxie L. Patterson describes his relationship with his father

Tape: 1 Story: 10 - Maxie L. Patterson remembers the apartment building his father owned

Tape: 1 Story: 11 - Maxie L. Patterson describes his schooling in Detroit, Michigan

Tape: 1 Story: 12 - Maxie L. Patterson describes his neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan

Tape: 1 Story: 13 - Maxie L. Patterson recalls P.J.M. Halley Elementary School in Detroit, Michigan

Tape: 1 Story: 14 - Maxie L. Patterson describes his early pastimes

Tape: 2 Story: 1 - Maxie L. Patterson recalls his elementary schools

Tape: 2 Story: 2 - Maxie L. Patterson recalls the Trinity Youth Center band

Tape: 2 Story: 3 - Maxie L. Patterson describes his early education

Tape: 2 Story: 4 - Maxie L. Patterson remembers Samuel C. Mumford High School in Detroit, Michigan

Tape: 2 Story: 5 - Maxie L. Patterson recalls his college aspirations

Tape: 2 Story: 6 - Maxie L. Patterson remembers Ferris State College in Big Rapids, Michigan

Tape: 2 Story: 7 - Maxie L. Patterson recalls working at the Ford Motor Company

Tape: 2 Story: 8 - Maxie L. Patterson remembers the Civil Rights Movement

Tape: 2 Story: 9 - Maxie L. Patterson remembers leaving Ferris State College

Tape: 2 Story: 10 - Maxie L. Patterson recalls his enlistment in the U.S. Army

Tape: 2 Story: 11 - Maxie L. Patterson talks about his leadership positions

Tape: 2 Story: 12 - Maxie L. Patterson describes his role as a counterintelligence agent in the U.S. Army

Tape: 2 Story: 13 - Maxie L. Patterson recalls his basic training at Fort Knox in Kentucky

Tape: 3 Story: 1 - Maxie L. Patterson remembers his father's death

Tape: 3 Story: 2 - Maxie L. Patterson remembers leaving the Ford Motor Company

Tape: 3 Story: 3 - Maxie L. Patterson recalls his decision not to become a helicopter pilot

Tape: 3 Story: 4 - Maxie L. Patterson remembers his counterintelligence training

Tape: 3 Story: 5 - Maxie L. Patterson recalls his admission to Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan

Tape: 3 Story: 6 - Maxie L. Patterson describes his counterintelligence duties in Vietnam

Tape: 3 Story: 7 - Maxie L. Patterson describes the U.S. military's Phoenix Program

Tape: 3 Story: 8 - Maxie L. Patterson remembers his U.S. military promotion

Tape: 3 Story: 9 - Maxie L. Patterson talks about the U.S. Army's domestic intelligence programs

Tape: 3 Story: 10 - Maxie L. Patterson remembers Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan

Tape: 4 Story: 1 - Maxie L. Patterson recalls becoming the police chief of Albion, Michigan

Tape: 4 Story: 2 - Maxie L. Patterson remembers serving as the police chief of Windsor, Connecticut

Tape: 4 Story: 3 - Maxie L. Patterson describes his community involvement in Albion, Michigan

Tape: 4 Story: 4 - Maxie L. Patterson remembers meeting his wife

Tape: 4 Story: 5 - Maxie L. Patterson describes his religious activities

Tape: 4 Story: 6 - Maxie L. Patterson talks about his membership in professional organizations

Tape: 4 Story: 7 - Maxie L. Patterson recalls working in the City of Beaumont, Texas

Tape: 4 Story: 8 - Maxie L. Patterson describes his affirmative action work in the City of Beaumont

Tape: 4 Story: 9 - Maxie L. Patterson recalls working in the finance department of the City of Houston, Texas

Tape: 4 Story: 10 - Maxie L. Patterson recalls managing pension plans for the City of Houston

Tape: 4 Story: 11 - Maxie L. Patterson talks about the Enron Corporation

Tape: 5 Story: 1 - Maxie L. Patterson remembers the Enron Corporation's bankruptcy

Tape: 5 Story: 2 - Maxie L. Patterson describes the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems

Tape: 5 Story: 3 - Maxie L. Patterson talks about his interest in singing

Tape: 5 Story: 4 - Maxie L. Patterson describes his volunteer activities

Tape: 5 Story: 5 - Maxie L. Patterson talks about the American Red Cross

Tape: 5 Story: 6 - Maxie L. Patterson talks about officiating football games

Tape: 5 Story: 7 - Maxie L. Patterson describes his children

Tape: 5 Story: 8 - Maxie L. Patterson talks about his awards and honors

Tape: 5 Story: 9 - Maxie L. Patterson shares a message to future generations

Tape: 5 Story: 10 - Maxie L. Patterson describes how he would like to be remembered

Tape: 5 Story: 11 - Maxie L. Patterson narrates his photographs

DASession

1$1

DATape

3$4

DAStory

8$1

DATitle

Maxie L. Patterson remembers his U.S. military promotion

Maxie L. Patterson recalls becoming the police chief of Albion, Michigan

Transcript

(Simultaneous) So you learned to speak Vietnamese very well.$$Well, the, the way the [U.S.] military operates they, they, they lessened it because when I got over there, they gave me an interpreter, and my interpreter was Vietnamese, and he didn't wanna speak Vietnamese, he wanted to learn English, and so I didn't get to use it as much as I really wanted to. And then my last three months, my boss, who was up at division headquarters, called me up and says, he says, "I'm really--." He says, "I hate to do this to you," and he says, "I won't do it if you tell me you don't wanna do it, but--," he says--he was located at the--what they call the division tactical operation center where you're working with--there's a two star generals there and, and, and in the intelligence section, there is usually him and he has a, a junior captain working underneath him, and a couple other people, and he says, "We're outta people. I don't have any more officers up here," and he says, "I need you to help me; come back up and help me." And he says, "I know you got a good deal down there" (laughter), "and I hate to pull you back," he says, "but I won't do it if you don't wanna come." And I says, "Captain, I'll come, no problem." And the guy's name was Captain Miles Cortez, and we have communicated to this day, and he actually took my daughter [Laurel Patterson] in for the summer while she was a student at Colorado State University [Fort Collins, Colorado], 'cause he's an attorney in Denver [Colorado], and we have maintained the kind of relationship from that time way back in '69 [1969] to today. And I came back up, went up to division headquarters, and we finished out three months there and--dodging incoming rounds underneath the table. They had those old, metal, gray government tables, and when the rounds start coming in, you dive underneath the table until there was a break, and then you make a mad dash for the bunker until--and that was a, a daily routine you go through. And so I managed to go through twelve months of Vietnam, stayed intact, never get shot at, and did some crazy, stupid things, and went on operations I didn't have to go on, and went up and down roads I didn't have to go on, and saw how the state department [U.S. Department of State] operates and how (unclear) operates and, and saw how political and how much the civilian side state department influenced the war [Vietnam War], compared to the military side.$You're getting ready to--I think we were at the point where you were getting your master's [degree] from Michigan State [Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan].$$Okay. I was almost ready, getting close to graduation--$$Um-hm.$$--and I had planned on career wise, going into higher education; that's what I wanted to do was work in higher education, and a friend of mine--I was also in a, in a [U.S.] military reserve unit; at the time I came back from Vietnam, I went in the [U.S.] Army Reserve, and it was a criminal investigation unit in Jackson, Michigan and a, and a friend of mine there said that there was an opening as a police chief in Albion, Michigan and I ought to apply for it, and I says, "I don't wanna be a police chief." He said, "You should apply for it," and so, to make a long story short, he talked me into it. And Albion is a small community, about four square miles, population twelve thousand.$$Spell the name of it.$$A-L-B-I-O-N.$$Okay.$$And most notably, if anybody knows about it, it's probably because Albion College [Albion, Michigan] is located there. And so I applied for the job and--thinking that there's no way I--patrolman for six years, I'm not a sergeant, not a lieutenant, and I'm a, you know--but I went on ahead--they talked me into it and they said--the other element he had was they were looking for a, a, a, a minority as police chief. And so as the process went along, I got a call from a friend of mine in Battle Creek [Michigan] who I had gotten to know while I was at Michigan State. When I was at Michigan State, I used to work on what they call police community relation teams, and did a lot in the community, both on campus and in Lansing [Michigan], working on police community relations. And the Battle Creek Police Department hired a civilian who was a retired colonel from the [U.S.] Army who was their police community relations person. Back in those days, there was a need for police community relations because of all the issues going on between community and police. And so he called me up and told me, he said, "I understand you're a candidate for the chief job," and I said, "Yeah, how do you know?" And he says, "That's all right, don't worry about it." He says, "I'm on the selection team." And so, as we continued through the process, to make a long story short, what came down to three finalists, and I found this out after, after I was selected, he told me what had happened and, and basically he says, "When you got down to the three of you--." He said, "The way you made it into the three is," he said, "we were making a short list of the finalists, and" he says, "I confronted the other members of the selection committee," he said, "because (unclear) it was all rigged." He said, "There was a captain, and his lieutenant was one of the candidates," and he says, "that wasn't right." And he says--so he confronted the guy and he said, "If your guy stays in then my guy stays in," so I was left in the pool. And he said this whole thing about hiring a minority was just a ruse; they just wanted to make it look good. He said, "That's why they left you in the first place, 'cause they knew you wouldn't be selected 'cause you didn't have the supervisory." He says, "But I highlighted all of your military training and," and he said, "that made you equally or more qualified than the other ones they were looking at." And so we went in--the three of us went in; the third one was somebody from New York, and he dropped out after they shortlisted the three, and then the city manager picked the other lieutenant from the other department, and they gave him everything he wanted except when they went up to the city council to approve it, he had asked for a contract, and the city council said, "We'll give you everything but we're not giving you a contract." And so he said, "Forget it, I don't want it," and so I got the job by default (laughter). And so I went from patrolman at Michigan State University overnight, to a police chief in Albion, Michigan. And I started out there, and that's about twelve thousand--population is twelve thousand, and they had a host of issues; they had a railroad track that went down the middle of town, they had a history of blacks being on one side of the tracks and whites on the other side of the tracks, the state had a welfare office in town, there was one high school; it had all of the demographics you would want--it had a sizeable Hispanic population, black populations, white; it went from very poor--as poor as you can get, to as rich as you can get with private street, big houses, and the police department, the previous chief had been fired--a number of incidents. The--there was a state civil rights investigation going on, there was a couple of lawsuits against officer abuse that was underway, and it was an old community that went all the way back to the Roaring '20s [1920s] and still had red bricks in the middle of main street, so that's how I started out my career in--as a police chief, and was there for three years. And it'd make another four hours just talking about what had went on there.$$(Laughter).

Read more about Maxie L. Patterson

Carl Long

Negro League veteran and African American law enforcement pioneer Carl Russell Long was born May 9, 1935, in Rock Hill, South Carolina. His father William Long was a catcher for the black Rock Hill Blue Jays and his mother Ella Griffin Long operated a laundry business. Long graduated from West End School in Rockville where he excelled at sports. In 1951, at age sixteen, Long was recruited by John William Parker of the Nashville Stars of the Negro Baseball League (NBL). In Nashville, Long was taught to play center field by NBL legend and Hall of Famer, Oscar Charleston. He played for the NBL Black Barons in 1952, where he competed on the field with Willie Mays, Charlie Pride, Ernie Banks and Frank Robinson.

In 1953, Long was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates organization and hit twenty home runs for Class A team, St. Johns, Quebec. In 1955, he was chosen as the first African American to play for the Kinston, North Carolina Eagles, also of the Pirates organization. Joined by other black players, Curt Flood and Leon Wagner, Long hit 111 runs and made the All Star Team. In 1956, Long married and hoped to be called up to the big leagues. However, he badly injured his shoulder in the Mexican League and never played major league baseball again. Starting as a truck driver, Long worked a succession of jobs including being named the first African American Deputy Sheriff in Lenoir County, North Carolina. In the 1970s, Long was appointed as the first black police detective in the history of Kinston.

The Kinston Indians started celebrating Carl Long Day in 1999. Carl Long Day is a three day celebration of Long and other Negro League veterans. Long, a member of the Negro Leagues Players Association, honored for his youth work and his baseball knowledge, lived in Kinston with Ella, his wife of fifty-two years. He passed away on January 12, 2015, at age 79.

Carl Long was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on November 21, 2005.

Accession Number

A2005.246

Sex

Male

Interview Date

11/21/2005

Last Name

Long

Maker Category

Occupation

Organizations

Negro Leagues Players Association

Carolina Pit Bulls Citizen\'s Band

Schools

Emmett Scott School

West End Elementary School

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Search Occupation Category

SportsMakers:Baseball

First Name

Carl

Birth City, State, Country

Rock Hill

HM ID

LON02

Favorite Season

Summer

State

South Carolina

THM DA Link

http://marc.thehistorymakers.org/thmdigital/A2005.246.htm

Web Clip 1

https://thmdaprodmedia.blob.core.windows.net/media/story/video/305193

Favorite Vacation Destination

Kentucky

Favorite Quote

I Want To Be Right.

Bio Photo

Speakers Bureau Region State

North Carolina

Birth Date

5/9/1935

Birth Place Term

Rock Hill

Speakers Bureau Region City

Kinston

Country

United States

Favorite Food

Barbeque (Chicken, Fish)

Death Date

1/12/2015

Short Description

Police officer and baseball player Carl Long (1935 - 2015 ) played for the Negro Leagues and later became the first African American police detective in the history of Kinston, North Carolina.

Employment

Negro League Baseball

Pittsburgh Pirates

State of North Carolina

City of Kinston, North Carolina

Favorite Color

Blue

Web Clip 2

https://thmdaprodmedia.blob.core.windows.net/media/story/video/307549

Timing Pairs

0,0:40867,327:41877,340:57191,785:92115,1088:96719,1145:141601,1659:151229,1850:169063,2015:187570,2347:187990,2369:196050,2469$0,0:11002,179:19013,279:46566,705:86396,1233:102138,1459:130860,1808:143187,2019:178397,2460:178852,2482:190434,2673:211650,2967

DAStories

Tape: 1 Story: 1 - Slating of Carl Long's interview

Tape: 1 Story: 2 - Carl Long lists his favorites

Tape: 1 Story: 3 - Carl Long describes his mother's family background

Tape: 1 Story: 4 - Carl Long recalls his mother's family's community in Rock Hill, South Carolina

Tape: 1 Story: 5 - Carl Long describes his father's family background

Tape: 1 Story: 6 - Carl Long recalls his childhood in segregated South Carolina

Tape: 1 Story: 7 - Carl Long describes his earliest childhood memories

Tape: 1 Story: 8 - Carl Long recalls the start of his professional baseball career

Tape: 1 Story: 9 - Carl Long describes his tenure on the Birmingham Black Barons

Tape: 2 Story: 1 - Carl Long describes the sights, sounds and smells of his childhood

Tape: 2 Story: 2 - Carl Long describes his father's work as a bootlegger

Tape: 2 Story: 3 - Carl Long recalls his childhood neighborhood in Rock Hill, South Carolina

Tape: 2 Story: 4 - Carl Long recalls his father watching him play baseball

Tape: 2 Story: 5 - Carl Long recalls lessons in injustice from his career in the Negro Leagues

Tape: 2 Story: 6 - Carl Long recalls leaving the Negro Leagues in 1954

Tape: 2 Story: 7 - Carl Long recalls signing with the Pittsburgh Pirates

Tape: 2 Story: 8 - Carl Long recalls playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates organization

Tape: 3 Story: 1 - Carl Long recalls playing for the Billings Mustangs in 1955

Tape: 3 Story: 2 - Carl Long recalls playing for the Kinston Eagles in 1956, pt. 1

Tape: 3 Story: 3 - Carl Long recalls playing for the Kinston Eagles in 1956, pt. 2

Tape: 3 Story: 4 - Carl Long reflects on the effects of the Civil Rights Movement on baseball

Tape: 3 Story: 5 - Carl Long recalls playing baseball in the Mexican League

Tape: 3 Story: 6 - Carl Long recalls the shoulder injury that ended his baseball career

Tape: 4 Story: 1 - Carl Long describes why he retired from baseball after his shoulder injury

Tape: 4 Story: 2 - Carl Long recalls becoming a deputy sheriff in North Carolina

Tape: 4 Story: 3 - Carl Long recalls the death of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, pt. 1

Tape: 4 Story: 4 - Carl Long recalls the death of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, pt. 2

Tape: 4 Story: 5 - Carl Long describes his son, Sotello Long

Tape: 4 Story: 6 - Carl Long describes his hopes and concerns for the African American community

Tape: 4 Story: 7 - Carl Long reflects upon his life

Tape: 4 Story: 8 - Carl Long reflects upon his legacy

Tape: 4 Story: 9 - Carl Long reflects upon debates about the accuracy of Negro League history

Tape: 5 Story: 1 - Carl Long recalls the experience of playing in the Negro Leagues

Tape: 5 Story: 2 - Carl Long describes how he would like to be remembered, pt. 1

Tape: 5 Story: 3 - Carl Long describes how he would like to be remembered, pt. 2

Tape: 5 Story: 4 - Carl Long reflects on movies made about Negro League Baseball

DASession

1$1

DATape

2$4

DAStory

8$4

DATitle

Carl Long recalls playing in the minors for the Pittsburgh Pirates organization

Carl Long recalls the death of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, pt. 2

Transcript

But 1955, they sent me out on the reservation out there in Billings, Montana. You stay up on the reservation all the time, have a good time, and had a real good year up there in Montana, played in Salt Lake City [Utah], Ogden, Utah, Boise [Idaho], Pocatello [Idaho], Magic Valley [Idaho] or something like that, and Billings, Great Falls, Montana, snow everywhere, had forty-two inches in 1954, 1955 in April. When the plane landed on top of that rock up there, and the airport is sitting on top of the mountain, looked on top of the mountain down in the valley at the ballpark, had forty-two inches of snow. They cleaned 'em all, cleaned the field away, snow banks piled up some, some kind of high. We practiced that Saturday evening. We got in there Saturday morning, practiced that Saturday evening. Went out there, the first pitch I hit was out of the ballpark, bim. I took off. I said Jack, Jack Paepke was our manager, and I told 'em, I said, I was ready. I went running off. He said, "No, you gonna have to hit some more. You gonna have to hit some more," but I know up there was cold, and the bat was stinging, and that's the reason while I hit one pitch out of the ball--first pitch I hit out of the ballpark. Had a young, young, young, young kid there played center field the year before. He didn't get it back no more. I had took over. And there's a guy by the name of Dick Stuart. Every time he'd get a hit, I get knocked down the next pitch. I said--never did charge the mound. I didn't go there to fight. I went there to play baseball.$$Yeah, Dick Stuart was a first baseman, right, for (simultaneous)--$$(Simultaneous) Yeah, first baseman--$$--for the Pirates, right?$$And no, he was a left fielder.$$Was he--$$Yeah (laughter).$$Okay.$$I had to go in his--all the way over there where he was standing about ten feet from the ball and catch the ball. He said, "You catch everything you can catch." He said, "Because I don't know if I can catch it or not." I said Dick, "You gon' have to learn how to catch these balls." And partner, I showed Dick something. I showed him how to play the outfield, but he never could learn. And (simultaneous)--$$(Simultaneous) I know he was the great hitter though--$$Yeah, who are--$$--great, great hitter.$$--talking about? In 1956, I went to Kinston. I went to Kinston, North Carolina in the Carolina League, first black ballplayer, being the first black ballplayer down there and showed out.$Then all the patrol cars, policemen, start coming in there, started grabbing these guys. I said, "Hold it, fellows." I said, "Take your hands off 'em." I said, "I got it under control." And they started mumbling. Police department started mumbling. I said, "I got it under control." See, I could arrest them. They couldn't arrest me. They had to do what I told 'em to do.$$Okay, so the sheriff was above the--$$Yeah.$$--police department. Okay.$$See, the sheriff's department would protect the city [Kinston, North Carolina]. I told the fellows, I said, "Now don't let me catch you out of here no more." I said, "Now, catch you out here again, you know where you're going. I want you off the street." One kid knowed me real well, Roy White [ph.]. I said, "Roy White, I said now, you know better than this." He said, "Yes, sir, Mr. Long [HistoryMaker Carl Long], I sure do." I said, "And I want every one of y'all off the street, and I want, I'm gonna make sure that you see that they off the street," and he said okay. I carried one guy down there and booked him, Palmer [ph.]. I said, "Palmer, if you hadn't been carrying this gasoline, I said you'd been home too." Down there booking Palmer, sheriff [Fred Boyd] called me saying, "Carl, when you get through what you doing, I'd like for you to come up here to, in the office a minute." He said no. I said, "Dusty [ph.]." He said, "I can tell you over the phone." He says, "Fred Bates called me and told me that you weren't working with the officer." And I said, "Well, no. You know I just come out of the county," and I said, "I saw what was going on, and I went right in there and stopped everyone; I stopped it. All the policemen come over there and try to take, take over, and I told 'em, I said leave 'em alone." The sheriff said, sheriff started cussing, not at me, at Fred Bates about his police officer. He said, "Look," he said, "I'm sorry." He said, "I didn't mean to disturb you." He said, "You go on do what you gotta do, but when you get time, you stop by here." And I gotta tell you something. So when I finished booking Palmer I went up to the office. He said, "Them damn son of bitches over there at the police department," he said, "too scared to get out of the patrol car. And you had to come in there and do their job, and they talking about that you wasn't helping them." He said, "Don't worry about a thing." He said, "I'll straighten it out." So the press was there. The press got a hold of it all, also. The big thing was in the paper about it. The police department was scared to go out there and do their own job and, and jumped down on Carl Long's throat, because Carl Long was doing their--Carl kept the city from getting burned up and all that stuff. You know how the press can do it, blow things up. But that's how that happened. But--$$James Earl Ray never came through there, did he?$$No, he never did come through there.$$Okay, that's right.

Read more about Carl Long

Howard Saffold

Reformer Howard Saffold, a former police officer who has dedicated his life to correcting wrongs in the criminal justice system, was born on January 26, 1941 in Chicago, Illinois to Eva and DeWitt Saffold. Saffold held odd jobs while attending Farragut High School. Upon graduation in 1959, he joined the U.S. Army. He married Carol Randall Saffold in 1960 and completed his military service in 1962. Saffold worked as an expediter for the regional office of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs before the Chicago Police Department hired him as a beat officer in 1965.

As a police officer, Saffold faced discrimination and witnessed police brutality, causing him to contemplate resigning. When the Afro-American Police League was founded in 1968 by Renault Robinson, he immediately joined, recruited others and eventually served as the League's president. When a 1976 court decision forced the Chicago Police Department to change its discriminatory hiring and promotional practices, membership soared. In 1978, Saffold co-founded the National Black Police Association, serving as its president as well. In 1979, he co-founded Positive Anti-Crime Thrust with fellow Afro-American Police League leader Renault Robinson; promoting cooperation between police and the communities they serve.

When Harold Washington unsuccessfully ran for mayor of the City of Chicago in 1977, Saffold provided security on a volunteer basis. When Washington ran again and won in 1983, one of Mayor Washington's first official acts was to name Saffold as chief of executive security, making Saffold responsible for selecting, training and assigning personnel. Saffold served in the same capacity for Mayor Eugene Sawyer after Mayor Washington's untimely death.

In 1991, Saffold retired from the Chicago Police Department and resurrected the Positive Anti-Crime Thrust. As CEO, he attempts to stem the flow of young black men into the prison system.

Saffold holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Chicago State University and an M.A. in urban studies from Northeastern Illinois University. He was honored by the Midwest Community Council in 1988, the Peoria Afro-American Police League in 1993 and the South Austin Coalition in 1994. He consults community organizing initiatives and community-based organizations, including prison ministries and public schools.

Accession Number

A2002.091

Sex

Male

Interview Date

6/5/2002

Last Name

Saffold

Maker Category

CivicMakers

Occupation

Criminal Justice Activist

Nonprofit Chief Executive

Police Officer

Organizations

National Black Police Association

Afro-American Patrolman\'s League

Positive Anti-Crime Thrust [PACT]

Schools

Farragut Career Academy Hs

Lincoln Park High School

Chicago State University

Northeastern Illinois University

First Name

Howard

Birth City, State, Country

Chicago

HM ID

SAF01

Favorite Season

Spring, Summer

State

Illinois

THM DA Link

http://marc.thehistorymakers.org/thmdigital/A2002.091.htm

Favorite Vacation Destination

None

Favorite Quote

To thine own self be true.

Bio Photo

Speakers Bureau Region State

Illinois

Birth Date

1/26/1941

Birth Place Term

Chicago

Speakers Bureau Region City

Chicago

Country

United States

Favorite Food

Soup

Short Description

Criminal justice activist, nonprofit chief executive, and police officer Howard Saffold (1941 - ) served as the president of the African American Patrolman's League. Saffold was a criminal justice activist and anti-crime specialist.

Employment

A-1 Secretarial Service (Chicago)

Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office

Chicago Transit Authority

Chicago Police Department

Favorite Color

Blue

DAStories

Tape: 1 Story: 1 - Slating of Howard Saffold interview

Tape: 1 Story: 2 - Howard Saffold lists his favorites

Tape: 1 Story: 3 - Howard Saffold outlines his immediate family

Tape: 1 Story: 4 - Howard Saffold shares childhood memories

Tape: 1 Story: 5 - Howard Saffold describes his family members

Tape: 1 Story: 6 - Howard Saffold recalls his elementary school years

Tape: 1 Story: 7 - Howard Saffold remembers his high school

Tape: 2 Story: 1 - Howard Saffold recalls the racial atmosphere at Farragut High School

Tape: 2 Story: 2 - Howard Saffold explains his poor performance in high school

Tape: 2 Story: 3 - Howard Saffold remembers his parents' separation

Tape: 2 Story: 4 - Howard Saffold recounts graduating from high school

Tape: 2 Story: 5 - Howard Saffold discusses his high school gang activity

Tape: 2 Story: 6 - Howard Saffold details his army years

Tape: 2 Story: 7 - Howard Saffold relates an incident of racial discrimination at the Metropolitan Police Department

Tape: 2 Story: 8 - Howard Saffold explains his decision to apply to the Chicago Police Department

Tape: 3 Story: 1 - Howard Saffold explains his decision to become a police officer

Tape: 3 Story: 2 - Howard Saffold recalls training to become a police officer

Tape: 3 Story: 3 - Howard Saffold discusses the relationship of white policemen to the black community

Tape: 3 Story: 4 - Howard Saffold illustrates racism and police brutality in the Chicago police department

Tape: 3 Story: 5 - Howard Saffold recounts an instance of extreme police brutality during the 1968 King riots

Tape: 4 Story: 1 - Howard Saffold recalls racist police brutality by the Chicago Police Task Force

Tape: 4 Story: 2 - Howard Saffold details the police brutality during the 1968 Democratic National Convention

Tape: 4 Story: 3 - Howard Saffold remembers joining the Afro-American Patrolmen's League

Tape: 4 Story: 4 - Howard Saffold recounts the assassination of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark

Tape: 4 Story: 5 - Howard Saffold describes the resistance to the Afro-American Patrolman's League

Tape: 5 Story: 1 - Howard Saffold discusses African American police organizations

Tape: 5 Story: 2 - Howard Saffold details the divisions between officers and communities over race

Tape: 5 Story: 3 - Howard Saffold describes how white officers who expose police misconduct are ostracized

Tape: 6 Story: 1 - Howard Saffold details his involvement in the Afro-American Patrolman's League

Tape: 6 Story: 2 - Howard Saffold recalls the effect of the Jane Byrne administration on the Afro-American Patrolman's League

Tape: 6 Story: 3 - Howard Saffold details his career during the Harold Washington administration

Tape: 6 Story: 4 - Howard Saffold considers the future of black police organizations

Tape: 6 Story: 5 - Howard Saffold discusses his work with the Positive Anti-Crime Thrust

Tape: 7 Story: 1 - Howard Saffold considers his legacy

Tape: 7 Story: 2 - Howard Saffold explains why and how he stood for what he thought was right

Tape: 7 Story: 3 - Howard Saffold shares how he'd like to be remembered

Tape: 7 Story: 4 - Howard Saffold discusses his future plans

Tape: 7 Story: 5 - Howard Saffold recalls his parents' reaction to his career

Tape: 7 Story: 6 - Howard Saffold expresses his opinion of The HistoryMakers

Read more about Howard Saffold

Renault Robinson

Renault A. Robinson was born on September 8, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois, to Mabel and Robert Robinson. He performed a leading role in founding the African American Patrolman's League. Robinson is known for successfully bringing a civil rights lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department for discrimination against African Americans and Latinos. His work was instrumental in increasing the numbers of minority Chicago police officers.

After graduating from Hyde Park High School in 1960, Robinson joined Chicago's police force in 1964. His superiors recognized him as bright and respectful. However, this attitude towards him changed in the wake of the riots that followed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968. The brutality of the Chicago police caused Robinson and other black officers to form the Afro-American Patrolman's League. Although he felt persecuted by senior officers, Robinson continued to work for the Chicago police. During this time he served the National Black Police Association as a national information officer. In 1983, he left the police force to become chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority under the administration of Mayor Harold Washington.

Robinson pursued a business career in 1989 when he went to work as the vice president of ASI Personnel Service. In 2000, he founded his own temporary staffing agency, Renault Robinson Staffing. Robinson holds a bachelor's degree from Chicago's Roosevelt University. He and his wife, Annette, have four children: Renault, Jr.; Brian; Kivu; and Kobie.

Accession Number

A2002.107

Sex

Male

Interview Date

7/3/2002

Last Name

Robinson

Maker Category

CivicMakers

Marital Status

Married

Occupation

Community Activist

Police Officer

Organizations

Afro-American Patrolman\'s League

Schools

Corpus Christi Elementary School

Hyde Park Academy High School

Roosevelt University

First Name

Renault

Birth City, State, Country

Chicago

HM ID

ROB04

Favorite Season

None

State

Illinois

THM DA Link

http://marc.thehistorymakers.org/thmdigital/A2002.107.htm

Web Clip 1

https://thmdaprodmedia.blob.core.windows.net/media/story/video/12474

Favorite Vacation Destination

None

Favorite Quote

None

Bio Photo

Speakers Bureau Region State

Illinois

Birth Date

9/8/1942

Birth Place Term

Chicago

Speakers Bureau Region City

Chicago

Country

United States

Favorite Food

Chicken

Short Description

Community activist and police officer Renault Robinson (1942 - ) was the founder of the African American Patrolman's League and former head of the Chicago Housing Authority. Robinson was known for successfully bringing a civil rights lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department for discrimination against African Americans and Latinos. His work was instrumental in increasing the numbers of minority Chicago police officers.

Employment

Chicago Police Department

Chicago Housing Authority

ASI Personnel Service

Renault Robinson Staffing

Favorite Color

Brown, Green

Web Clip 2

https://thmdaprodmedia.blob.core.windows.net/media/story/video/12479

Timing Pairs

0,0:2018,163:7530,281:8020,288:8902,299:16480,400:17200,410:19588,438:19984,446:20314,453:20908,465:22350,471:22966,481:24022,503:27790,560:28934,576:29374,582:30078,593:31540,601:31880,606:34430,652:42507,760:47835,802:48285,811:48960,821:49860,839:50385,853:54135,917:58485,945:60602,1020:62354,1054:68876,1085:80005,1149:81280,1227:81620,1232:83744,1238:84000,1243:84256,1294:84832,1306:105954,1409:106222,1414:106892,1428:107495,1441:111870,1531:120056,1615:123536,1681:124116,1687:135382,1825:136752,1837:138396,1850:140480,1862:140954,1869:141507,1878:142297,1889:145773,1950:147037,1970:147748,1980:148538,1992:155019,2059:156624,2090:160797,2155:173061,2250:173530,2258:208658,2663:209534,2677:209899,2683:212397,2702:213090,2712:220629,2785:227320,2857:228031,2867:228584,2875:232218,2972:232613,2978:237432,3074:241140,3087:242100,3100:245146,3139:246472,3160:246940,3168:247564,3178:254963,3255:266742,3409:267730,3426:268186,3433:268946,3444:269402,3456:271606,3521:272974,3560:283172,3646:293012,3723$0,0:162,19:972,31:3525,58:4375,70:4800,80:9200,136:13444,202:20438,295:21061,303:26394,341:26670,346:27774,373:34044,462:34902,476:35214,481:35526,486:35994,496:36540,504:38022,528:38568,536:39348,549:39894,558:40986,576:47754,641:48082,647:49722,679:67616,914:70265,946:70769,954:87450,1091:87858,1121:88266,1126:89694,1142:92896,1160:98887,1295:101588,1386:111870,1429:117856,1499:119712,1545:120288,1555:123169,1573:138550,1706:139030,1713:139510,1720:139910,1725:145990,1764:149390,1856:154884,1925:163938,2057:165270,2231:175226,2308:193164,2406:193776,2418:201925,2488:202450,2496:206170,2536:206660,2545:207360,2557:208760,2584:209110,2590:212890,2699:215270,2772:215550,2777:216390,2795:225529,2957:226064,3003:233326,3185:234235,3204:240084,3237

DAStories

Tape: 1 Story: 1 - Slating of Renault Robinson interview

Tape: 1 Story: 2 - Renault Robinson's favorites

Tape: 1 Story: 3 - Renault Robinson recalls his parents' backgrounds

Tape: 1 Story: 4 - Renault Robinson shares childhood memories

Tape: 1 Story: 5 - Renault Robinson describes his early education and jobs

Tape: 1 Story: 6 - Renault Robinson explains how he met Edward 'Buzz' Palmer and Ralph Ellison

Tape: 1 Story: 7 - Renault Robinson remembers his high school educational and work experiences

Tape: 1 Story: 8 - Renault Robinson briefly outlines his higher education and career

Tape: 1 Story: 9 - Renault Robinson recounts how he became a policeman on the Chicago Vice Control Division

Tape: 2 Story: 1 - Renault Robinson recalls his work at the Chicago Police Vice Control Division

Tape: 2 Story: 2 - Renault Robinson explains why he quit undercover work with the Chicago Vice Control Division

Tape: 2 Story: 3 - Renault Robinson discusses corruption in the Chicago Police Department

Tape: 2 Story: 4 - Renault Robinson relates how he became a vice detective for the Chicago Police Department

Tape: 2 Story: 5 - Renault Robinson recounts founding the Afro-American Patrolman's League

Tape: 2 Story: 6 - Renault Robinson describes facing job demotion and FBI harassment for forming the Afro-American Patrolman's League

Tape: 2 Story: 7 - Renault Robinson outlines the goals of the Afro-American Patrolman's League

Tape: 2 Story: 8 - Renault Robinson explains police culture

Tape: 2 Story: 9 - Renault Robinson illustrates why black cops and politicians were afraid to speak out against police brutality

Tape: 3 Story: 1 - Renault Robinson recalls the difficulty in getting legal help in his discrimination lawsuit against the city of Chicago

Tape: 3 Story: 2 - Renault Robinson discusses his employment discrimination lawsuit against the city of Chicago

Tape: 3 Story: 3 - Renault Robinson remembers the FBI surveillance of his activities in the Afro-American Patrolman's League

Tape: 3 Story: 4 - Renault Robinson recounts results of his discrimination lawsuit against the city of Chicago

Tape: 3 Story: 5 - Renault Robinson details the harassment he faced from other Chicago cops over his discrimination lawsuit

Tape: 3 Story: 6 - Renault Robinson compares opportunities for minority and women police officers before and after his lawsuit

Tape: 3 Story: 7 - Renault Robinson tells about the discovery of false intelligence reports on him by the Chicago Police Department's "Red Squad"

Tape: 4 Story: 1 - Renault Robinson describes the Red Squad's secret surveillance files on civil rights organizations

Tape: 4 Story: 2 - Renault Robinson recalls the scene of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark's assassination

Tape: 4 Story: 3 - Renault Robinson reflects on the changes in number and rank of black police in Chicago thirty years after his discrimination lawsuit

Tape: 4 Story: 4 - Renault Robinson remembers leaving the Chicago Police Department for the Chicago Housing Authority

Tape: 4 Story: 5 - Renault Robinson details his efforts to fight corruption at the Chicago Housing Authority

Tape: 4 Story: 6 - Renault Robinson explains why he left politics

Tape: 4 Story: 7 - Renault Robinson discusses black police organizations' future prospects

Tape: 4 Story: 8 - Renault Robinson reflects on his life and career

Tape: 5 Story: 1 - Renault Robinson credits God and Father George Clements as his sources of strength

Tape: 5 Story: 2 - Renault Robinson looks back on his decades of struggles against corrupt institutions in Chicago

Tape: 5 Story: 3 - Renault Robinson recounts the affect on his children of harassment by the Chicago Police Department and the Daley Machine

Tape: 5 Story: 4 - Photo - Renault Robinson's children and grandchildren with Conrad Worrill at the Million Man March, Washington, D.C., October 16, 1995

Tape: 5 Story: 5 - Photo - Renault Robinson's grandson, Renault Robinson III, with Leslie Hairston and others, Chicago, Illinois, 2001

Tape: 5 Story: 6 - Photo - Renault Robinson's mother, Mabel Stevenson Robinson

Tape: 5 Story: 7 - Photo - Renault Robinson's father, Robert Robinson, ca. 1960s

Tape: 5 Story: 8 - Photo - Renault Robinson and his wife, Annette Robinson, 1962

Tape: 5 Story: 9 - Photo - Renault Robinson at the Afro-American Patrolman's League's headquarters, Chicago, Illinois, ca. 1970

Tape: 5 Story: 10 - Photo - Renault Robinson at the Afro-American Patrolman's League headquarters, Chicago, Illinois, ca. 1970s

Tape: 5 Story: 11 - Photo - Edward 'Buzz' Palmer, ca. 1967

Tape: 5 Story: 12 - Photo - Howard Saffold with Father George Clements, Chicago, Illinois, 1970

Tape: 5 Story: 13 - Photo - Renault Robinson directing traffic, Chicago, Illinois, ca. 1970

Tape: 5 Story: 14 - Photo - Renault Robinson returns to work after a year's suspension, Chicago, Illinois, ca. 1970

Tape: 5 Story: 15 - Photo - Renault Robinson with Ramsey Clark and Whitney Young, Chicago, Illinois, 1971

Tape: 5 Story: 16 - Photo - Renault Robinson with Ralph Metcalfe, Chicago, Illinois, 1972

Tape: 5 Story: 17 - Photo - Renault Robinson with traffic cop uniform and traffic whistle, Chicago, Illinois, ca. 1970s

Tape: 5 Story: 18 - Photo - Renault Robinson by racist graffiti in police station men's room, Chicago, Illinois, ca. 1968

Tape: 5 Story: 19 - Photo - Renault Robinson at Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois, ca. 1970

Tape: 5 Story: 20 - Photo - Renault Robinson, Chicago, Illinois, June 1980

Tape: 5 Story: 21 - Photo - Unidentified victim of police brutality gives statement to Afro-American Patrolmen's League, Chicago, Illinois

Tape: 5 Story: 22 - Photo - Renault Robinson with unidentified victims of police harassment, Chicago, Illinois

DASession

1$1

DATape

2$3

DAStory

6$2

DATitle

Renault Robinson describes facing job demotion and FBI harassment for forming the Afro-American Patrolman's League

Renault Robinson discusses his employment discrimination lawsuit against the city of Chicago

Transcript

And we knew, when we started talking about it [forming the Afro American Patrolmen's League in response to racism and brutality in the Chicago Police Department], that we were gonna be in trouble, that the [Chicago] Police Department [Chicago, Illinois] wasn't gonna tolerate it. When I refused to stop participating in the [Afro-American Patrolman's] League activities, they did what they called a telephone transfer order. And that's sort of like a slap in the face, when they transfer you over the telephone. And they sent me to a South Side district in uniform for the first time in my career, took away my prestigious job and, you know, we had plainclothes cars, and we had our own cars and all of that; took all that away, zapped me to make everybody around me realize, don't do this. And my boss, my immediate supervisor at the time, was the president of the Sergeant's Association, which was an all-Irish group. But he, he wouldn't listen to me and the League. You know, he said, man, that's a bad group. That ain't, you know, you talking about something else. So once they bounced me, then I went full blast with the League, I mean full blast. They made it very difficult for a lot of the guys. And a lot of guys quit, that were part of the original group. One guy that was part of the original group, turns out that he was telling on us. And it was unfortunate. He's a judge today. So they knew a lot of what we were doing. They classified us as subversives. The FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] was called in to, to investigate us. We found out later that they monitored all of our phone conversations, all of our travels, all of our everything in those days.$$Now, these were the Red Squad, right?$$Oh, yeah.$$Can you talk about what that is, 'cause this is historic.$$The Red Squad was put together to investigate, originally, groups that had subversive activities. And what they meant by "subversive" were groups that intended to do something against the government. It was not supposed to have anything to do with civil rights. It was supposed to be groups that had nefarious purposes.$$Communists?$$Communists was always the bug-a-boo that they used to cover themselves, Communist-oriented groups, okay. And anybody that was anti, or protested the system, you were a "Communist" or you were a "Communist sympathizer" or you were "subversive", which was sort of a general word that covered anything that they didn't like. Later we found that, from the first day we announced the forming of the organization on 63rd Street, back in '64 [1964]--no, it wasn't in '64 [1964], it was '68 [1968], the FBI was, was there at the announcement, along with the Red Squad recording everything we said, and, as we found later, they had planted bugs in our telephones and, you know, the whole nine yards. And we were a bunch of misplaced college students who shouldn't have been on the Police Department in the first place (laughter), who had other goals in mind. And one of them was to try and change our own circumstances and that of our own people. But that was bad news. [J. Edgar] Hoover branded me an official subversive, which I found out later. And I was even a subject at the Police Training Acad--I mean the FBI Training Academy in Quantico [Virginia]--I was an example of the wrong kind of guy, bad guy, policeman gone bad, etc., etc., etc. And I didn't know that until one of our police commanders went to the school and came back and told me. (Laughter) He said, you're a movie star. He said, they got a whole movie on you. So, you know--$$They actually had a film?$$Oh, yeah, yeah, me making a speech, yeah, I was--Hoover hated me. But, so that's how things got rolling.$He [a black judge] dropped the case, and thank God he did because the judge who eventually got it was the only person that probably had enough chutzpah (laughter) to do what he did and rule against the city [Chicago, Illinois]. And it stood up all the way to the Supreme Court. But it went to another judge, and he had the case. He was a very strict judge, and he was a Republican too. And, but then this, the guy that eventually got the case, Prentice [H.] Marshall, had just been named the federal judge. And each of the sitting judges has a right to take one of their cases and give it to the new judge. And this judge, who had our case, when the black guy, black judge turned it down, he gave it, the case to the new judge, thank goodness. The Lord was looking upon us because he wouldn't have ruled against the city either. I knew his history. But the case lasted a long time, went through a million appeals. We eventually got the Justice Department to join in with us. We eventually got them to sue the Fire Department too. And, you know, over time, we won. During all of this, interesting enough, the city called me in to City Hall to talk about a settlement. I didn't want to go, but my lawyer said, you got to go, you know. You, when they talk a settlement, the way this works, you got to go sit down and listen to what they got to say. So we went in, and they said, we want to settle this case. Here's what we want to do. We're gonna give you $250,000 in damages. We'll make you a deputy superintendent in charge of community relations, and in return, you drop the lawsuit. And you can never refile. So I said, no. My lawyer said, "Whoops, we got to talk." So we went out, walked around City Hall. And he said, you know, this is, this is a hell of a deal. They're scared to death. I said, I know. I said, why would you think they would offer me that kind of money, and I'm making--at the time, I think our salary was something like--it wasn't nothing. When I started on the [Chicago] Police Department, it was $5,400 a year. This was like--I started in '64 [1964], and this was '70 [1970], and so the salary couldn't have been no more than about $10,000 at that time. And here they offer me this kind of money? I had never even seen that kind of money. But I turned them down. I said, no. So, they said, okay. We're gonna stretch this thing out forever; you'll never go to court. So, the only thing that chipped it off was when they passed a Revenue Sharing Act. And I found a little hook that the government, city was taking in all the money from Revenue Sharing and paying the police salaries cause they thought that was the easiest way to do it and account for it. And they took a like amount of money, and they could do what they wanted to do with it.$$Now, Revenue Sharing was a [President Richard Milhous] Nixon program--$$Correct.$$--where he sent, like big sums of money--$$Block grants of money.$$To urban centers around the country to--$$To all cities--$$For municipal--$$Service. Right.$$Right, and the city would administrate the money, but the money came with stipulations from the federal government.$$And one of them was that they couldn't discriminate. Yeah, that was it.

Read more about Renault Robinson

Patricia Hill

The oldest of three children, Patricia Lynne Hill was born on July 10, 1951 in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents, Lucille Fleming and Hercules Richardson, migrated from the South. Hill (then Richardson) earned a diploma in 1968 from Harlan High School. As a youth, Hill excelled in athletics, touring the nation with Chicago's Mayor Daley Youth Foundation track team, where she was mentored by Olympians Willye White and Ira Murchison. Hill barely missed making the U.S. Olympic Team in 1968 at the finals in Pomona, California. In the 1970s, she was a pioneer in women's professional basketball as a member of the Chicago Debs.

Hill attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, but moved back home to finish her B.S. at Chicago State University. She spent her last year as a physical education instructor in the Chicago Park District, and then used her degree to become a public school teacher in 1974. Finally, Hill turned to a career in law enforcement in 1986, serving as a bodyguard to Mayor Harold Washington in 1987.

An outspoken community-oriented police officer, Hill served as both president and executive director of the African-American Police League. She brought her views on racial profiling of drivers and controversial shootings of civilians by police officers to such venues as the Medill School of Journalism and the Chicago Headline Club. She was a sounding board for the black media on important crime and safety issues.

A member of the Black United Front and the National Black Police Association, Hill also worked with Demico Youth, a cultural arts program serving the Cabrini Green housing project, where she developed the now famous Near North Little Leagues. She threw her hat into the political arena in 1999 when she unsuccessfully ran against Dorothy Tillman for the Third Ward aldermanic seat. Hill has three adult children: Trennie, Stacy and Ronald.

Hill passed away on September 3, 2017.

Dulaney, Marvin. Black Police in America. 1995.

Coyle, Daniel. Hardball. 1987.

Accession Number

A2002.081

Sex

Female

Interview Date

6/25/2002

Last Name

Hill

Maker Category

CivicMakers

Occupation

Community Activist

Police Officer

Organizations

African American Police League

Schools

John M. Harlan Community Academy High School

Gillespie Elem School

Chicago State University

Northern Illinois University

First Name

Patricia

Birth City, State, Country

Chicago

HM ID

HIL02

Favorite Season

Summer

State

Illinois

THM DA Link

http://marc.thehistorymakers.org/thmdigital/A2002.081.htm

Web Clip 1

https://thmdaprodmedia.blob.core.windows.net/media/story/video/75037

Favorite Vacation Destination

Puerto Rico

Favorite Quote

Right On.

Bio Photo

Speakers Bureau Region State

Illinois

Interview Description

A2002_081_Hill_Patricia_EAD.pdf

A2002_081_Hill_Patricia_EAC.pdf

Birth Date

7/10/1951

Birth Place Term

Chicago

Speakers Bureau Region City

Chicago

Country

United States

Favorite Food

Chicken Salad

Death Date

9/3/2017

Short Description

Community activist and police officer Patricia Hill (1951 - 2017 ) is chair of the African American Police League.

Employment

Chicago Debs

Chicago Park District

Chicago Public Schools

Chicago Police Department

Favorite Color

Purple

Web Clip 2

https://thmdaprodmedia.blob.core.windows.net/media/story/video/75054

Timing Pairs

0,0:10542,203:21721,350:42972,729:43944,747:45969,778:54665,906:56821,979:71998,1301:72294,1306:72590,1311:79250,1448:106005,1863:115532,2057:124798,2280:128960,2307:135200,2454:137040,2486:154106,2740:154490,2745:154970,2751:168488,3014:187297,3499:204438,3748:204798,3754:205734,3769:206094,3775:206382,3780:206670,3785:208542,3831:210270,3893:214580,3930$0,0:3973,71:6484,120:6808,125:20416,373:26410,464:33190,476:40390,602:43465,666:48302,693:57626,862:58292,877:94484,1466:105600,1635:106860,1660:109940,1730:110500,1740:111130,1750:116240,1854:135031,2112:136773,2243:147426,2418:159847,2594:171860,2787:180030,2954

DAStories

Tape: 1 Story: 1 - Slating of Patricia Hill's interview

Tape: 1 Story: 2 - Patricia Hill lists her favorites

Tape: 1 Story: 3 - Patricia Hill describes her family background

Tape: 1 Story: 4 - Patricia Hill describes her mother Lucille Fleming's employment

Tape: 1 Story: 5 - Patricia Hill describes her father 's employment

Tape: 1 Story: 6 - Patricia Hill describes her siblings and her pediatrician, Dr. Edward Beasley, who lived in the Bronzeville area in Chicago, Illinois

Tape: 1 Story: 7 - Patricia Hill talks about growing up in Princeton Park in Chicago, Illinois

Tape: 1 Story: 8 - Patricia Hill describes the sights, smells, and sounds of her childhood, pt. 1

Tape: 1 Story: 9 - Patricia Hill describes the sights, smells, and sounds of her childhood, pt. 2

Tape: 1 Story: 10 - Patricia Hill describes the racial segregation of the South Side of Chicago, Illinois

Tape: 1 Story: 11 - Patricia Hill talks about attending Gillespie Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois and playing hooky in kindergarten

Tape: 2 Story: 1 - Patricia Hill talks about attending Gillespie Elementary School and Harlan High School in Chicago, Illinois in the 1960s

Tape: 2 Story: 2 - Patricia Hill talks about being part of the Richard J. Daley Youth Foundation Women's Track Team in Chicago, Illinois

Tape: 2 Story: 3 - Patricia Hill talks about participating in the 1968 Olympic Trials for track with Tommie Smith and HistoryMaker John Carlos

Tape: 2 Story: 4 - Patricia Hill talks about graduating from Harlan High School in Chicago, Illinois, and later entering Northern Illinois University

Tape: 2 Story: 5 - Patricia Hill describes her work as a student to establish a black studies program at Northern Illinois University

Tape: 2 Story: 6 - Patricia Hill talks about track, volleyball and basketball at Northern Illinois University and at Chicago State University

Tape: 2 Story: 7 - Patricia Hill describes teaching at Roberto Clemente High School in 1974

Tape: 2 Story: 8 - Patricia Hill describes teaching at Taft High School in 1977 during Chicago's effort to desegregate schools

Tape: 3 Story: 1 - Patricia Hill talks about playing semi-pro basketball with The Debs under coach Dorothy Gaters

Tape: 3 Story: 2 - Patricia Hill shares playing semi-pro basketball while pregnant with her son

Tape: 3 Story: 3 - Patricia Hill talks about choosing law enforcement over teaching in 1986

Tape: 3 Story: 4 - Patricia Hill talks about becoming President of Chicago Police Department's African American Police League in 1990

Tape: 3 Story: 5 - Patricia Hill describes being targeted by other officers when she was president of the African American Police League in the Chicago Police Department

Tape: 3 Story: 6 - Patricia Hill talks about the methods used to disqualify African Americans in the Chicago Police Department

Tape: 3 Story: 7 - Patricia Hill describes attempts to discredit her as president of the Chicago Police Department's African American Police League

Tape: 3 Story: 8 - Patricia Hill talks about fighting the Chicago Police Department's attempts to discredit her

Tape: 3 Story: 9 - Patricia Hill describes community organizing in relation to the Chicago Police Department

Tape: 4 Story: 1 - Patricia Hill talks about Chicago Police officers who have been accused of wrongful death of African Americans

Tape: 4 Story: 2 - Patricia Hill describes what the African American Police League does with the black community in Chicago, Illinois

Tape: 4 Story: 3 - Patricia Hill talks about the African American Police League's commitment to the black community

Tape: 4 Story: 4 - Patricia Hill describes the need in the black community to change from occupying policing to domestic peace policing

Tape: 4 Story: 5 - Patricia Hill talks about her campaign for alderman of Chicago's Third Ward in 1999 against Dorothy Tillman

Tape: 4 Story: 6 - Patricia Hill describes her philosophy of black nationalism and her campaign for Chicago City Council

Tape: 4 Story: 7 - Patricia Hill reflects upon her legacy

Tape: 4 Story: 8 - Patricia Hill talks about how she would like to be remembered

Tape: 4 Story: 9 - Patricia Hill talks about her parents, Lucille Fleming and Hercules Richardson

DASession

1$1

DATape

2$4

DAStory

3$3

DATitle

Patricia Hill talks about participating in the 1968 Olympic Trials for track with Tommie Smith and HistoryMaker John Carlos

Patricia Hill talks about the African American Police League's commitment to the black community

Transcript

I was fortunate enough to qualify for the Olympic Trials in 1968 in the Long Jump. [HM] Willye White was my men--one of my mentors. I missed it by about four inches at seventeen years old. That would have been the [1968 Mexico City, Mexico] Olympics that Tommie Smith and [HM] John Carlos stood on the podium. And, I can even reflect back during that year when we were preparing for the Olympics. We were on the circuit. O.J. Simpson was running for USC [University of Southern California]. As a matter of fact, he was a hurdler. I remember him. Bob [HM Robert] Beamon was--every jump, all year, was jumping further and further and everybody was predicting. But, what was really exciting was the undertones of what was coming out in the Black Power Movement. The HBO Special, "Fist of Fire" [sic, 'Fists of Freedom: The Story of the '68 Summer Games'], I can recall some of those conversations, hearing those conversations. I was younger though. I was still in high school [Harlan High School, Chicago, Illinois]. Tommie [Smith] and [HM] John [Carlos] and Denise, who was Tommie's wife, and a lot of those individuals, Lee Evans, they were on the West Coast, and they were extremely progressive. We were being told by our coach and the Midwest people, "Stay away from them," you know. Stay away from them. But, and we were younger. But, during that circuit as we were preparing, I remember the Indoor Nationals. I can't remember that year, it was somewhere in California at the Mason-Dixon Games, which was in Kentucky. Even at the Quantico Relays, which was in Virginia, all of these people were there and they were saying, "What are we gonna do for the [1968] Olympics?" You know. Are we gonna go? I mean, this was planning and strategy, of course, Dr. Edwards, [HM] Harry Edwards was around occasionally. But, we were forbidden, it was like taboo. You don't wanna be around them because, you know, their bad and whatever. They were twenty-three, twenty-four; we're sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. And, it was phenomenal and as I think about would I have been sent home had I gone to [Mexico City,] Mexico and won and stood on the podium, 'cause I would have done it if they did it (laughter). And, would I had been ostracized for the rest of my life, like Tommie [Smith]. [HM] John Carlos' wife even committed suicide. It's a lot of strain. And, that's just one of those things. I was a very young person. But, that was probably a pinnacle in my life, because it set the tone for a philosophy and ideology I know that I've had ever since then. In terms of, the Movement and fighting for equality. And, it was through athletics because the time was so political and it's not like that anymore. It wasn't just about making money. Well, we didn't make money. But, we got perks. The [1968] Olympic Trials, we were in the mountains in Pomona, California, just before the trails, well, at the trails. And, the brothers, [Adolf Dassler] Adidas and [Rudolf Dassler] Puma, they had just come out. These were two brothers from Germany, they actually had these shoes. And, they would always give us stuff, on the circuit, and you know, you couldn't get money, but here try this out. Try out these shoes. Try out this suit. Try this out. And, I remember they came with all these shoes. We all had these shoes to try out for the Olympics. I always enjoyed Puma because of the shape of my foot and the way the shoe was designed. One of the females from Tennessee State, Wyomia Tyas, ended up marrying one of the brothers, Adidas [Adolf Dassler]. I can't remember his first name, that why I called him Adidas.$$One of the German brothers? (Simultaneously).$$Yeah. One of the German brothers. But that was very close quarters where these guys were actually, and it was mostly the men, planning what was gonna happen in Mexico City [Mexico 1968 Olympics]. That was very intense, very intense.$Yeah, there's a historical view that, I know a couple of black writers have written about that black people actually in this country represent criminal, represent the definition of criminal to the power structure.$$Right. One prominent book author, is Dr. Charshee McIntire, whose book is 'Criminalizing a Race[: Free Blacks During Slavery'] and it's a book I refer every time I speak, I recommend that book because it gives you the foundation and the profile of what fits a criminal in America. And the prototype or the image is definitely, number one black male, and a whole culture has been built around, their whole mind set has been built around to the point that almost every behavior that black men exhibit in America is going, at some point and time to be being criminal by law. An example is the so-called anti-loitering law, which is a law that was initiated by a black member of the city council, Alderman [William] Beavers, and it's just stupidity to do such a thing when it is an extension of a slave law that says two or more slaves seen together was against the law because they would be perceived as planning their escape off the plantation. Well, the same thing probably exist here, two or more brothers who are to be, who are determined to be gang members. Now, they're not telling you they're gang members and how are the police determining they're gang members, but if they're seen socializing on a corner, on a street together, they can be arrested because they're in violation of the anti-loitering law. So, it's, a lot of this has to do with ignorance. The [African American Police] League spent a lot of time attempting, educate people about the law and about how to lobby to have laws changed, and about the political process of electing officials that represent you; and we're very strong on voter registration and voter education. The interesting things we've taken a model of Malcolm [X]'s AA, OAAU [Organization of Afro-American Unity], in terms of the voter education registration program. We take it to the streets, educate the people and inform the community, inform the people don't vote for nobody who ain't representing you, who you put first, who put you last. And that's been very effective, and people go like police officers are doing that? But the African, African American Police League formed out of the Afro American Patrolmen's League is a community organization that just happens to be comprised of police officers. And I've always been committed to the community, always been connected to the community and as a matter of fact, we are here because the community put a challenge to black police after the riots of [Reverend] Dr. [Martin Luther] King [Jr.] and they asked a poignant question: "Are you with us or are you for us;" that was when the conscious level was high, that was when the community was practicing on some level of self-determination and hopefully, we'll get back to that point.

Read more about Patricia Hill

Subscribe to Police Officer