One Of LAPD's 1st Black Officers Reinstated More Than 120 Years After His Firing

Seeking to correct an injustice from more than a century ago, the Los Angeles Police Commission voted to posthumously reinstate and honor one of LAPD's first Black police officers.

Robert Stewart spent 11 years on the force before he was unjustly fired, the commission said.

The five-member police commission voted unanimously to reinstate Stewart, Richard Tefank, the executive director of the commission, told NPR.

Fred Booker, a special assistant to LAPD Chief Michel Moore, said Stewart was born into slavery in Kentucky in 1850 and eventually came to Los Angeles where he was one of two Black officers to join the department in 1889, according the Los Angeles Times.

The police department hired both Stewart and another Black officer, Joseph Henry Green, the same year, as there was pressure to diversify their ranks, Spectrum News reported. Both officers were relegated to custodial duties, such as cleaning the station. They were also assigned to direct traffic.

During his career, "almost any story that mentioned Stewart, even when it praised him, had some racist dig," Los Angeles historian Mike Davison told Spectrum.