Some say they won't vote the Republican ticket because they have not been able to become spittoon-cleaners," Stewart said to the club, according to Davison. "I saw Negroes sold on blocks, like cattle, and I know what a great boon freedom is. While he worked many jobs, his local Colored Republican Club activity gave him stature. Stewart arrived in Los Angeles by 1886, where he got settled before sending for his wife and their son. Robert William Stewart was born on March 1, 1850, in Garrard County, Ky., as the eldest of 11 children - or at least, that's the best estimation: Stewart was born in slavery and believed to have been the property of farmer Sabritt Doty.Īfter the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, Stewart married a formerly enslaved woman, Louise Coffey, in Lincoln County, Ky. He should be remembered like Biddie Mason or any of the other early African Americans in Los Angeles.” “He suffered what happened to him in silence…he’s a pioneer. “He was very courageous to take the job that he did, and I think it took courage just to leave Kentucky,” Davison said. Instead, much of his history was detailed in official documents and newspaper records. It’s not clear if Stewart kept a diary or any records of his thoughts if he did, they have not been found. “ did an outstanding job of writing and chronicling not only his story, but where he lived it’s just incredible,” Thomas said.ĭavison and his colleagues were able to collect a record of Stewart’s accomplishments without his own, first-hand accounts. He once took a hack at researching Stewart’s time with the department, but repeatedly hit pre-digital age roadblocks. Thomas is a 21-year veteran of the LAPD, having retired in the mid-2000s, and a scholar of the LAPD’s Black history in his own right. Yet his research is considered authoritative by John Thomas, the chief of the Department of Public Safety at the University of Southern California. Everything he found went onto his blog, “Previous Los Angeles.” Although his research on Stewart has been published in a few places - including the Los Angeles Police Museum’s newsletter - he’s had very little luck getting Stewart’s name back into the world. There, Davison learned, was where LAPD’s first Black police officers - Stewart and Joseph Henry Green - worked.īut in his initial searches for more, Davison found that each source had the same information: that Stewart started at LAPD in 1886 (which he later found to be incorrect), that he was on the force for a few years, and that no one quite knew what happened after that.ĭavison got to digging. City Hall - not the one now, and not the one before that, but the third building,” Davison said, at the corner of South Second Street and West Spring Street.Īfter City Hall moved (again), the building stood as police headquarters for 11 years. “I was researching the history of an old building that has been used as L.A. Then, about 2015, historian and architecture buff Mike Davison stumbled across Stewart’s name. Historians are seeking to ensure that Stewart and Green's stories will be properly acknowledgedĪlthough LAPD has continued to name him as the first Black officer in the department’s history, very little detail has been available – and even some of those details, such as his hire date, are wrong.Stewart's career ended in 1900 when he was accused of rape by a white 15-year-old girl although he was eventually acquitted, he never regained his badge.Stewart, who was born enslaved, was lauded in newspapers for his ability and personality. Green were the first two Black officers appointed to the Los Angeles Police Department
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