The Black cops who forced the force to change

By Lester Holloway

IT TOOK almost 20 years after the arrival of the Windrush ship in 1948 for Britain to get its first Black police officer.

There were many immigrants from that pioneer generation who had a background in law enforcement back in the Caribbean, and applied to join the force only to face rejection.

The British police, who were in conflict with the newly-arrived Black community from the start, simply didn’t want cops who looked like the people they were oppressing, it seemed.

Then, in 1967, came the breakthrough. Twenty-one year-old Anguilla-born Norwell Gumbs enlisted, and was first stationed at Bow Street in Covent Garden, London. A year later, he changed his surname to Roberts after colleagues consistently misspelled and misspoke his name.

Five years after Roberts became the first Black officer, there were 11 across Britain. Still a tiny fraction of the 28,000 force, but those early pioneers each went through their own battles.

One of the 11, and the first Black officer in Lewisham, was David Michael. Born in Dominica, he was fascinated with police at a very young age since witnessing cops dealing with a road traffic accident.

After moving to Luton, in Bedfordshire, he became an avid watcher of TV police drama series like Z Cars and The Sweeney He recalls two detectives visiting his secondary school, who “forced a very positive impression on me”.

The schoolboy then went on a three-day summer course put on by the Bedfordshire and Luton Constabulary, which involved being part of a motorway patrol in a panda car and observing an underwater search unit at a local canal. joined Lewisham’s Ladywell station, Monica Goode started at Catford, and the late Ron Hope followed.

After joining the Cadets in 1971, the 19-year-old opted to start his policing career in London, initially at Woolwich before moving to Lewisham.

During his first days on the beat he encountered a mixed reaction from the local Caribbean population. “I met people who said they were really proud to see me wearing the Metropolitan Police uniform on the streets of Lewisham. But young Black people who are actually at the brunt of heavy handed policing, they were not opposed to me, but they really asked me the question ‘do you really think you as one person can make a difference in the policing environment that we’re in?

Mr Michael recalled being inspired by meeting Roberts, the first Black officer in Britain, and Clayton Neblett who was also a policing pioneer based in Peckham. But life inside the police was hard. “The police environment was inherently racist”, he said. “So 24/7, I would hear the most vile racist language you can imagine and the behavior.

“It permeated every aspect of the police environment; it was in the police station, in the canteen, in police vehicles. And the most vile racist language you may have heard, or could imagine, was just regular.

“Nobody in a position of leadership management or supervision ever challenged it. So later on, when I spoke out vociferously about police racism, I had all the information and intelligence to be able to speak authoritatively about police racism.”

In the years before the 1976 Race Relations Act, Mr Michael was painfully aware he had no legal protection against racism at work, and fearful that if he spoke out he would almost cer- tainly be sacked.

“Many people asked me, ‘how on earth did you manage 30 years in that environment? I used coping mechanisms. I didn’t respond to every single thing but one of my sergeants said to me he could see me clocking everything.

“I used to smile a lot to mask my disapproval. I had a steely determination. I was not letting anybody distract me from a career that I was already good at.”

Mr Michael became a cofounder, and first elected chair, of the National Black Police As-

BREAKTHROUGH:

Norwell Roberts became Britain’s first Black police officer when he enlisted in 1967

(photo: Getty Images); below left, David Michael on the beat in Lewisham in 1973, and, below right, the late Ron Hope (photos: South East London Mercury, Getty Images) sociation in 1994, working with the likes of Mike Fuller, George Rhoden, Paul Wilson, Jennifer Donaldson and others. tive Sergeant — was hauled in had said nothing wrong and es-

And he got into hot water with his first speech to the Association’s conference, when he said the Metropolitan Police had its own Mark Furman’s — a reference to the famous case of OJ Simpson, in which Furman, who was revealed as a racist, had planted evidence.

His remarks were widely reported across the media, and Mr Michael — by then a Detective Sergeant — was hauled in to Scotland Yard for a meeting with top brass. But he knew he had said nothing wrong and escaped without punishment.

“I have real satisfaction about my part in forming and leading the Black Police Association and the legacy that’s left for others to continue”, he told The Voice the Black Police Association and the legacy that’s left for others policing because of the atmosphere in policing at the time, especially

“I think they had every right because of the atmosphere in policing at the time, especially in Lewisham and certain other areas of London.

“In my heart I knew that we had to start somewhere and it transpired as time went on, I think one person can make a difference and 11 people can make a big difference.”

Soon after constable Michael been singled out, and the body track record of achievement in- became a Labour councillor in Lewisham before retiring back to

The NBPA quickly became a major player in policing and although some members have been singled out, and the body has struggled with some chief constables, they can point to a track record of achievement inside the force.

Mr Michael retired in 2002 after serving three decades, and became a Labour councillor in Lewisham before retiring back to Luton where he unsuccessfully bid to be the county’s Police and Crime Commissioner.