Black Officers

In the 1870s there are black police officers in Houston, Selma, and Raleigh, although they are far from numerous. The police board of New Orleans has three black members and in 1870 appoints a police force that includes 177 blacks — an extraordinary exception to the rule.

The first black police officers in the North are appointed in 1872 in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Other northern cities also add blacks to their payrolls during the next decades. It isn't always a trouble-free process. In Philadelphia some white officers quit in protest when the first black officers are appointed in 1881. Often relegated to black neighborhoods, these men usually have different job titles and diminished status. In Miami, the black officers are called "patrolmen," and the whites are called "policemen." Black officers in Los Angeles are assigned to a "black watch," and in St. Louis they work "black beats."

Black officers John Black Hawk National Archives