Tyrone Anderson 'paved the way' for Black law enforcement officers

The Alabama Highway Patrol hired three Black men in 1972, the first Black troopers to work for the law enforcement agency. Ret. Capt. Tyrone Anderson was one of them.

He might not have become a trooper if it had not been for his brother, Marshall. Marshall had wanted to become a trooper, but he was too short to apply. So he pressured Anderson, who was working as an art teacher, to put in an application.

“He kept on bothering me. He kept on bothering me," Anderson said.

So alongside Elvert Dawson and Leon Hampton, Anderson made history.

What did this mean?

Alabama state troopers were known throughout the nation as a force against the civil rights movement.

“It was seen as an arm of a white supremacist government," said Howard Robinson, the associate director for the Archives and Cultural Heritage Services and Levi Watkins Learning Center at Alabama State University.

So when this organization began to hire men of color, it was an important moment in Alabama's history.

“The selection and employment of Black men — these three Black men, he was one of them — to the Alabama State Troopers really marked a watershed in the experience in the state of Alabama," Robinson said. "For a long time, the Alabama state troopers were seen as a paramilitary law enforcement, state law enforcement force that supported, not only really supported, but was stood in the bulwark in the line against desegregation against the attack on white supremacy."

Being the first to break the glass ceiling for a profession, opens the door for those behind you, Sheriff Derrick Cunningham said.

Cunningham is Montgomery County's first Black sheriff.

“So when I got elected, you know, you’re still full of excitement. You’re still full of everything. But then knowing you’re not just the sheriff, but you’re the first African-American sheriff ever to be elected here. That really hits home when you look at Montgomery and you look at the history about Montgomery with Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and the people that really you know pretty much paved the way for African Americans to be able to vote. And then being right here in the same county in the same city where those people lived, oh yeah, that’s significant," Cunningham said.

Cunningham puts Anderson up as one of those people who broke barriers for Black people.

“He really paved the way for others that came in," Cunningham said about Anderson.

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Anderson served 26 years with the Alabama Highway Patrol

“My tour with the department, my 26 years, it was pretty good," Anderson said.

During his first three years as a state trooper, Anderson spent his time on highway patrol. He toured Elmore, Montgomery, Autauga and Lowndes counties.

Most troopers spend the bulk of their careers on highway patrol. But after those three years, Anderson joined the Alabama Bureau of Investigations.

“The reason I actually decided to stay with the department was because I was able to adjust from the highway to the bureau," Anderson said.

With the bureau, Anderson investigated those in the medical field who were breaking laws and misusing prescriptions. He also worked in drug enforcement and at the academy, and he helped develop theories in drug enforcement and investigations in tandem with the FBI.

Anderson was involved with a drug bust in 1982 that led to the arrest of 18 people charged with violating state drug laws as well as the confiscation of marijuana valued at $6 million, an airplane and several other vehicles.

After retiring from the agency, Anderson, now 75, has spent the past 22 years working with the Montgomery County Family Court in its probation services.

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Alex Gladden is the Montgomery Advertiser's public safety reporter. She can be reached at agladden@gannett.com or 479-926-9570.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Tyrone Anderson 'paved the way' for Black law enforcement officers