One Righteous Man

March 1, 2015
A veteran New York City journalist relates the dramatic saga of the first uniformed African-American police officer.New York Daily News editorial page editor Browne (co-author: I, Koch: A Decidedly Unauthorized Biography of the Mayor of New York City, Edward I. Koch, 1985) never met Samuel Battle (1883-1966), but he decided to write Battle's biography due to an unusual resource: an unpublished manuscript based on Battle's conversations with African-American poet Langston Hughes. In 1949, Battle hired Hughes to interview him and produce a manuscript. Hughes needed money, so he assented. However, according to Browne, Hughes' detachment led to a low-quality work that was rejected by multiple publishers. As a result, Battle died without a wide readership understanding the impressive accomplishment of a courageous cop who broke the racial barrier, at frequent risk to his safety. Battle rightly feared street thugs encountered during his daily work, but mostly, he feared the white police officers, most of whom exhibited overt racism. Some New York cops aimed racist comments at Battle, but most of them gave him the silent treatment, literally never speaking to him, hoping he would feel so isolated that he would quit. Reared in small-town North Carolina, Battle had learned how to deal with racism, and he felt determined to show the police command and the New York City mayor that his performance could match or outpace any other cop's. Eventually, enough powerful New York City individuals recognized Battle's abilities, and he was promoted to the rank of supervisor, where he was in charge of many white officers. Browne also explains Battle's major role in the New York Fire Department's racial integration, as well as the friendships he developed with prominent figures, including first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson. An occasionally rambling but especially timely book, given recent tragedies involving certain police forces across the country.

May 1, 2015

In 1952, poet Langston Hughes finished a draft of a manuscript titled Battle of Harlem, which was a commissioned biography of Samuel Battle, the first African American officer in the New York Police Department. The manuscript failed to find a publisher, and Battle, a civil rights pioneer, died forgotten in 1966. Browne (I, Koch) retells Battle's fight for integration in New York City during the first half of the 20th century. The subject's time on the force brought him in contact with everyone from Booker T. Washington and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt to writers from the Harlem Renaissance and athletes such as track-and-field star Jesse Owens and boxer Jack Johnson. The author provides a rich overview of the civil rights struggle in Gotham, and its place in the city's cultural and political history, but sometimes his attempts to include a wealth of material results in long digressions that detract from Battle's personal and professional difficulties. VERDICT Of interest, and recommended for, readers of civil rights histories, but the fractured narration and detailed accounts of secondary characters may turn away those seeking a more straightforward story.--John Rodzvilla, Emerson Coll., Boston

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