City of Miami Retired Police Officers Community Benevolent Assoc. Inc.
480 NW 11th Street, Miami FL. 33136 • Phone (305) 329-2513 • Fax (305) 329-2547
P.O. Box 011874
| Black Precinct and Courthouse Museum Grand Opening Feb. 27, 2009Jessie & Frank |
Miami’s Black Police Precinct -
They Served - We Salute
In September of 1944, the Miami Police Department began hiring black police officers. In May of 1950, a police precinct was established at 480 NW 11 Street to provide a station house for African American policemen and a courtroom for African American judges in which to adjudicate African American defendants. This building is unique as there is no other known structure in the nation that was designed, devoted to and operated as a separate station house and municipal court for Blacks. The precinct closed in 1963 and the police department was integrated at the main MPD police station.
The Precinct has now re-opened as a Museum, thanks to the efforts of some of these mentioned officers, led by the Retired Police Officers Community Police Benevolent Association.
The following is a list of the black police officers who served at the Precinct, or earlier, during these years. Beginning in 1960, the black officers began attending the standard MPD Academy. We included these officers as they were assigned to the Precinct and stood roll calls there until 1963. No complete records listing the names of the officers assigned to the precinct has been located. The below list has been compiled from the memory of the officers. We also honor the ones not listed.
Sgt Lury Bowen, Sgt Louis Duty, Sgt Jesse Nash, Sgt Leroy Smith , Sgt Clinton William , Edward Kimble**, John Milledge**, (LOD) Clyde Lee**, Moody Hall**, Ralph White **, James Albury, Cleophus Allgood, Cicero Anderson, Willie Blount, James Bowe, M.C. Bowles, Robert Boyd, Amos Brooks, Hernando Brown, Rudolph Brown, Charles Bryant, Jerry Burrel, Eugene Butler , Victor Butler (LOD) , Willie Calhoun, William Carey, Whitfield Carroll, Patterson Clemons, Charlie Cohen, Frank Cohen, Buster Collie, Earl Cotton, Otis Davis , Richard Davis, Joe Davis, Clarence Dickson, Phillip Dixon, Fred Ebron, John English, James Farrington, Prince Farrington, Jerrel Ferguson (LOD), Clyde Finch, Marion Finch, David Fincher, Jacob Frinks, John Gay, Samuel Gerald, William Gladden, John Glass, Marcellius Goodman, Willie Gordon, Benjamin Guilford, Kenneth Hamilton, Andrew Harris, Orange Hayes, Jesse Hill, Harold Hill, Jimmy Hines, Joe V. Hunt, Robert Ingram, William Jackson, Willie Johnson, Kenneth Jones, Earl Kirkland, Earnest Kirkland, Rumfle D. Kirkland, Archie McKay, Clyde Lee, Bennie Lewis, Howard Lewis, Nathaniel Mack, Nathaniel Maddox, Calvin Mapp, Thomas Marshall, Augustus Mathews, Alexander McDowell, James McGruder, Archie McKay, Edmond McKinney, Moses McMillan, Wilfred Miller, Eddie Mitchell, Harold Mitchell, Robert Monroe, Sammie Moore, Oscar Morley, Ledley Moss, Willard Myles, Willie Nicholson, William Parks, Clemons Patterson, Otis Pitts, Sr, Johnnie Pool, Henry Puyol, Freeman Pyles, Gaddy Rawls, Ben Riggins, Leroy Rogers, Percy Rolle, Amos Rountree, Alexander Sampson, Jerome Sanders, Reginald Sandland, Monroe Shelman, Cecil Sims, Arnold Smith, John Smith, James Stubbs, Rudolph Sweeting, Robert Taylor, James Thomas, Charles Thomas, Ruben Thompson, Roosevelt Tremble, William Turner, Gary Ward , James Washington, Dan Washington, Earnest Washington, John Westmoreland, William White, Jimmy Wilson, Leon Williams, Melvin Williams, Willie Williams, Johnnie Young (LOD)
JAILORS James Gunn, Earl Lightbourne, Emanuel Luckie, Stanley Sweeting, Richard Whitney
TYPIST CLERKS Gwendolyn Thompson, Thelma Lewis, Orzella Ross, Mildred Smith, Veloa Williams
COMMANDERS (white) Assigned to the Precinct: Capt Lawrence Nolle, Capt William O’Connell, Capt George Haller, Lt James Ford, Lt Sherman Holland, Lt Frank Morrow, Lt Keith Wilson, Lt Kelly, Lt Adair
LOD = Officers Killed in the Line of Duty
**= First five Black Officers (1944)
Note: Each of these men listed have their own story. Many went on to be top detectives and supervisors in the MPD. Maj. Leroy Smith went on to be the first black MPD Staff Officer, Chief Clarence Dickson became the MPD Chief of Police (1980’s), Calvin Mapp became a Circuit Court Judge and Lt Robert Ingram went on to be Chief of Police and City Manger in Opa Locka and then became a long time member of the Dade County School Board. They ALL served and we salute them.
A special thanks to Otis Davis, President of the Community PBA for his assistance. Compiled by Phil Doherty, Assistant Chief (Ret), Miami Police Department, President Miami Police Veterans Association, March 2010.
