By Audrey Werth/tr news editor
“Integrating the Police in the South,” a Feb. 17 seminar, will provide background information to highlight current problems between American law enforcement and blacks.
Marvin Dulaney, history department chair at the University of Texas at Arlington, will speak noon-1:30 p.m. in the Energy Auditorium on TR Campus.
“Historically, the police are doing what they have always done with the support of the white community — overpolice people of color in order to keep them in their place,” Dulaney said.
Dulaney has had an interest in this topic for more than 40 years.
He said the subject is important because of its relationship to crime, a major problem in the black community.
His dissertation and first monograph both focused on African-Americans working in law enforcement.
“Historically, crime has always negatively affected the African-American community because white police officers ignored it,” he said, “and because they consciously pushed vice into African-American communities.”
In his book, Dulaney focuses on black police in the South.
“In the 20th century, most African-Americans lived in the South, and that was where the police were the most oppressive and brutal,” he said. “Southern police departments consciously excluded African-Americans from police jobs because of the role of the police in enforcing racist segregation laws and white supremacy in general.”
In his presentation, Dulaney will use recent case studies to explain why there is still an issue of making police respect the people they serve.
The theme of TR’s Black History Month events is local legacies.
Dulaney was chosen because he fit well with this theme, said student development associate Axel Leos, who helped organize events for Black History Month.
“I hope students come to the event and understand that there are issues that may not affect them daily but that are equally important,” he said
