ALABAMA TROOPERS REFLECT DIVERSITY

ALABAMA TROOPERS REFLECT DIVERSITY OF STATE AS A RESULT OF CENTER SUIT
December 1994

After a 22-year legal battle to see blacks represented at all levels of the Alabama State Troopers, two black officers are finally poised to take the final step -- promotion to the rank of major.

"That was not even thought of 20 years ago," said Capt. James E. Jackson, one the named plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought by Center attorneys in 1971 to force the Alabama Department of Public Safety to hire more blacks as more than just janitors. "Soon there will be minorities at all ranks."

Jackson said that when first applied to become a state trooper in 1969, there were no black troopers on staff, and the state agency refused to consider him. After the Center filed suit on behalf of another black applicant, Phillip Paradise, U.S. District Judge Frank Johnson ordered the agency to hire one black trooper for every white trooper hired until blacks made up 25 percent of the trooper force. After the 1971 ruling, the agency circumvented the order for three years, hiring only a few black applicants. In 1974 the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling, and the agency recruited a 30-member trooper class that included 15 blacks on March 1975. Capt. Jackson joined the troopers a few months later.

Today, as a result of the Center's suit, 195 of the 522 permanent troopers are black (37%). This number includes many black troopers who have been promoted to supervisory rank: 22 of 75 corporals (29%), 11 of 36 sergeants (31%), 6 of 30 lieutenants (20%), and 5 of 29 captains (17%).

"For us, the case has always been more than just another employment discrimination case," said Richard Cohen, the Center's Legal Director. "The Alabama troopers symbolized the system of apartheid that existed in the South for 100 years after the Civil War. Now, minorities are probably better represented in the Alabama trooper force than in any other state."

Jackson acknowledges that "it has been a battle" to move up in the ranks but believes the promotion procedures now in place encourages whites as well as blacks to seek advancement. Col. Robert Patterson, Acting Director of Public Safety, agrees. He said that the system is more fair to all troopers and that the racial diversity of the force benefits everyone. He also stated that the Equal Employment Opportunity program instituted as a result of the Center's case gives everyone a single route through which to air any concerns or grievances.

"In some employment discrimination suits, everyone wins," said Cohen. "This case opened opportunities for white as well as black troopers because it created a promotion system based on merit rather than favoritism."

Capt. Jackson reports that at first he had no aspirations of becoming an officer but changed his mind when the opportunity to advance became available. This was after Center attorneys objected in 1977 that blacks were not being promoted and obtained a settlement for a fair promotion plan. By 1983, however, the Department of Public Safety had not followed through on the agreement, and the Center asked the court to enforce the settlement and end the state's "foot-dragging."

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ordered that one black trooper be promoted for every white trooper promoted -- as long as qualified applicants were available -- until the state developed a fair promotion plan. The ruling was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987, marking the first time the Supreme Court approved a race-conscious promotion plan.

Jackson relates that when he decided to try for advancement, "My first goal was to educate myself in criminal justice so that no one could use the excuse that I was not qualified." He earned an Associate Degree in Law Enforcement and a B.S. in Criminal Justice, and graduated from the 141st Session of the FBI National Academy. As a result of his achievements, Jackson is now a candidate for promotion to the rank of major. Jackson hopes that his advancement will make it easier for other blacks to move up in the system. "When a minority sees that another minority can advance, as opposed to going in the other direction, it becomes an inspiration," he said.

The Department of Public Safety is still under final consent decree, and the Center monitors the agency to ensure that new tests and overall practices are fair.

[This article is taken from _SPLC Report_, December edition. Permission to reprint it is given if full credit is given to its source which is
The Southern Poverty Law Center 400 Washington Avenue Montgomery, AL 36104.
The Center is non-profit and provides legal aid to the poor among other activities.]

Several Years Later...

November 20, 1997
Web posted at: 4:12 p.m. EST (2112 GMT)

SELMA, Alabama (CNN) -- This landmark city of the civil rights movement will have an African-American police chief for the first time, beginning Monday.

Assistant Chief Earnest Tate will replace Randy Lewellen, who was fired last week after a corruption investigation.

"He (Tate) is a man who is respected by the officers," Mayor Joe Smitherman, who is white, said Tuesday in announcing the appointment.

Tate has been with the police department for 30 years. He was the third black to join the force in the city of 25,000, whose population is about 60 percent black. Tate said he planned no immediate changes in the 84-member department.