This Day In History: African-American Officers Join The Atlanta Police Department

A conversation with Dr. Clifford Kuhn

Tomorrow is April 3.  If we were to turn Atlanta’s clock back 67 years to that date in 1948, we’d witness the first African-American police officers being appointed to the Atlanta Police Department.  

The effort to integrate the city’s all-white police force had long been sought by the black community.  

In a conversation with Steve Goss, Georgia State University Associate Professor of History Cliff Kuhn explained how several developments in the 1940s paved the way for the change.