Tyrone Anderson
By Kenneth Mullinax/ASU
An alumnus of The Alabama State University, Captain (retired) Tyrone Anderson (class of 1969), and two other men became the first Blacks hired by the Alabama Department of Public Safety as State Troopers (Trooper) in 1972. The three men joined a law enforcement agency with more than 950 Whites. At the time, Alabama Troopers still carried the stigma of brutality against minorities from their actions during the Civil Rights Movement.
Anderson, a Montgomery native, graduated from Alabama State University with a degree in Fine Arts. His first career was as an instructor in Covington County, Ala., where he taught art-related subjects, ranging from painting to sculpture, in what was a recently integrated school.
His next job placed him in the history books.
"When I joined the State Troopers in 1972 in a cohort that included myself, Elbert Dawson of Tuskegee and Leon Hampton of Birmingham, we entered the Trooper Academy that was then near Montgomery's Garrett Coliseum (it is still located there) as the first-ever Black State Troopers," Anderson said with a wry-smile. "We immediately turned almost every head in the building and rattled the entire state law enforcement agency, which had only before seen Blacks working for it in custodial positions. We were all very proud to step into these big shoes while being most careful to adhere to all of the rules because we were representing ourselves, our family and our race — and our every move was observed as though we were under a microscope."
Anderson explained that traditionally, Troopers enforced state laws, including the Alabama Legislature's "then" segregationist Jim Crow laws that had repressed generations of Black citizen's constitutional freedoms, from voting rights to being able to eat in the same restaurants with Whites.
COURT-ORDERED EMPLOYMENT LED TO THREE DECADES OF SERVICE
At first, Anderson thought he would hold the law enforcement job for "maybe two years;” however, the two years morphed into a 30-year career with the State Troopers. His stellar career included earning the rank of captain, and becoming the state's top criminal investigator and commander of the Alabama Bureau of Investigation (A.B.I.).
Anderson’s accomplishments also included holding the state record for the largest number of hard drugs seized at one time in Alabama, which occurred at the Montgomery Airport in the 1980s when Anderson’s confiscated several hundred pounds of cocaine en route from South America.
FEW INCIDENTS OF RACISM
Anderson shared that he was pleasantly surprised that only a handful of the nearly 1,000 White troopers - from patrolmen to the director - ever said a harsh word to him or his two fellow Black troopers.
"While no one called us names or treated us unfairly, I must say that in the first year, very few of the Troopers had much of anything at all to do with me or Dawson or Hampton (both of whom are now deceased) except for in the line of duty," stated Anderson. "However, most all of the officers in charge of us were very fair and cordial, which might have been influenced in part because we were only hired because of a Federal Court order forcing the integration of what had once been the personal domain of segregationist Governor George Wallace, who in 1972, was still advising his state attorneys to fight the hiring of Black troopers, as was ordered by Federal District Court Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. The order mandated Governor Wallace to hire one Black trooper for each White trooper until the agency had one‐quarter Black employees."
In a New York Times article dated March 30, 1972; Col. Walter L. Allen, director of the Troopers, played down Judge Johnson's order by explaining that the motivation behind Anderson's hiring was due to the fact that "the state had a 'critical' shortage of State Troopers.”
The article stated that Judge Johnson's order was “the very first to specify precise hiring ratios to achieve a racial balance in a state agency.” Johnson's desegregation order for the law enforcement agency was appealed by Governor Wallace, who lost his legal action after a review by the judges sitting on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
ASU'S COL. RICHARDSON INSPIRED BY ANDERSON
ASU's aide to President Ross, Col. (Ret.) John E. Richardson, said the bravery of Anderson and his two fellow Black troopers inspired the Lee County native to join the State Troopers in 1985. Richardson himself also made history as he became only the second Black director of the Alabama Department of Public Safety/State Troopers in the agency’s history.
"Capt. Anderson did a very brave thing by joining the State Troopers during a time when it was still dangerous for a Black man to wear a Trooper uniform. Tyrone Anderson and his two fellow Black Troopers in 1972 set the foundation for men and women of color to become state law enforcement officers,” stated Richardson, an Opelika native.
"I salute Capt. Anderson and his two fellow Black Troopers. All three men deserve to be acknowledged during Black History Month."
ASU HISTORIAN CONCURS HIRING WAS HISTORIC
ASU's acclaimed Civil Rights Movement expert, Dr. Howard Robinson, characterized the pre-1972 Alabama State Troopers as the very embodiment of evil in what some refer to as “the bad old days.”
"The hiring of ASU alumnus, Mr. Anderson, and his two associates, was such a novel and refreshingly big deal nationwide that it evoked a feeling of hope among our Black residents and made us believe that due to this important addition to the ranks of the State Troopers of Black employees that Dr. King's vision of the 'Beloved Community' might just be taking hold," Robinson said.