NYPD Honors First Black Cop

Posted: 2009-08-05 16:20:00

Filed Under: Top News

NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Police Department's first black officer is being honored.

An intersection in Harlem -- West 135th Street and Lenox Avenue -- was renamed Samuel J. Battle Plaza this week. It's where Battle saved a white officer during a racial clash in 1919.

A plaque bearing Battle's likeness will be displayed at Harlem's 32nd Precinct.

Battle joined the department in 1911. In 1926, he was promoted to sergeant after being passed over for it three times. In the 1930s, he became the department's first black lieutenant.

During his 30 years on the force, he often endured threats, racism, hazing and marginalization from white officers. Battle lived nearby on 138th Street. He died in 1966.

Our History Remembered

November 16, 1967
'The Cosby Show' alum, actress Lisa Bonet, was born in San Francisco. After leaving 'Cosby' she enjoyed a run as the star of her own show, 'A Different World.' During the '90s, this quirky actress legally changed her name to Liliquois Moon.

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November 16, 2001
Nigerian Agbani Darego became the first black African woman to win the coveted Miss World beauty pageant title.

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Nancy Green, the corporate model behind the Aunt Jemima logo, was born a slave in Montgomery County, Kentucky. From 1893-1923, Nancy Green gave live cooking demonstrations across America as "Aunt Jemima" that drew crowds requiring police control, thus building the pancake brand into a national sensation.

November 16, 2004
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November 20, 1866
The nation's largest predominantly black college, Howard University, was founded. As the foremost producer of African-American PhDs in the country, Howard University is often called the "Black Harvard."

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November 19, 1973
Actor, tap dancer and choreographer Savion Glover was born in Newark, New Jersey. Glover has worked on screen and stage with creative giants such as Spike Lee and George C. Wolfe. His dancing was also motion-captured for the recent animated flick 'Happy Feet' (2006).

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November 16, 1930
African author and educator Chinua Achebe was born in Ogidi, Nigeria. Achebe's first novel, 'Things Fall Apart' (1959), is the most widely read and highly esteemed piece of literature by an African writer.

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Circa, November 17, 1723
African-American trader and laborer Crispus Attucks was born a slave in Massachusetts, but escaped from slavery as an adult. Attucks was the first person to die in the American Revolution, and the first to die for this country's freedom.

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November 15, 1950
Arthur Dorrington became the first black American to be signed to a professional hockey team, the Atlantic City Seagulls.

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2008-07-03 20:38:40

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