ATLANTA — During Black History Month, WSB takes a look at the Atlanta Police Department’s first all-African American recruit class.
The trailblazers were members of the department’s “6 p.m. watch” starting in 1961.
That’s the year Eldrin Bell joined the force.
“The white police officers went to work at 4 o’clock, we came on at 6. They got off at 12, we got off at 2 so that we wouldn’t what, run across them,” Bell said. “You name it, we went through it. We had separate bathrooms, separate water fountains, separate entrances that we could come.”
In addition to fighting crime, members of the watch had to fight discrimination within the community and within the department.
“Racial hatred, racial bitterness, the last hired, the first fired, the first to get demoted, the last to get promoted,” former Atlanta police officer Floyd Reeves said.
Despite the adversity, members of the watch stayed focused on the mission - to help keep the city of Atlanta safe.
During the peak of the civil rights movement, patrol by patrol, members of the watch, perhaps without realizing it, became civil rights pioneers in their own right.
“When the white officers saw that we took pride in the fact we was on the 6 p.m. watch and it was not derogatory to us, then that’s when some of the resistance stopped and some of the supervisors started assigning white officers to work with the Black officers,” Reeves said.
Bell was promoted to chief 29 years after joining the department.
“Not until I became chief that many of our units were integrated in our horse patrol, in our air force unit. There were no Blacks when I took over as chief of police. But when I left they were there. But somebody had to take the ball and run with it and I was willing to give my life for these men and run with it,” Bell said.
In the 1970s, the Patrolman’s League sued the department and the city, pushing for equality.
Years later, a federal consent decree ordered changes, leading to more opportunities for Black officers.
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