D.C. Native Son Remembers When City Prepared Black Youth for Success

Clarence Edwards, Maryland’s first African American county chief of police, served in Montgomery County until 1994, is a graduate of D.C. Public Schools and went on to become a leader in law enforcement. 

His book “From D.C. Streets to Chief’s Seat” tells the story of Edwards’ journey from a native Washingtonian to a barrier-breaking local leader.

Former WI Managing Editor Sonsyrea Tate spoke to Edwards about his life, journey and new book.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

WI: Growing up in segregated Washington, D.C., in the 1940s and ’50s sounds colorful and rich in your book. You write about your life as a student at Banneker Jr. High and life lessons you learned from your football coach at Cardozo High School. What were you learning that prepared you to excel out in the world? 

Edwards:  I was raised in close proximity to Howard University and Miner Teachers College. I attended D.C. Public K-9 Schools with many children of Washington, D.C.’s preeminent Black families. Some students attending Benjamin Banneker Junior High School during this era subsequently went on to attend prestigious Ivy League colleges and universities and the nation’s military academies.

 Outstanding students in my 1955 Banneker graduation class included J. Paul Reason, a Naval Academy graduate and America’s first Black four-star admiral and commander of the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet; Dr. Charlene Drew Jarvis, scientist and D.C. councilwoman; and Wesley S. Williams Jr., first African-American to serve as legal counsel to the United States Senate and president of the Harvard Law School Association. 

My Banneker homeroom and English teacher Mrs. Helen W. Harris provided me with this quote by David Walker: “For colored people to acquire learning in this country makes tyrants quake and tremble on their sandy foundations.” This quote helped me understand white supremacist opposition to Black education. 

Francis L. Cardozo’s High School football coach Sylvester R. “Sal” Hall taught me that preparation, performance, perseverance and resilience were keys to success on a football field and in life.

WI: Your book shows how your parents and other adults instilled a certain code of ethics, and you describe allowing others to go ahead of you in the barbershop because you wanted to stay and listen to the men telling their stories.  You also watched the professors and students going to Howard University, near where you lived. Why was that so important to you? 

Edwards: I always had family, teachers and neighbors during my youth who were excellent ethical role models. Black professional athletes in the 1950s and 1960s were cognizant their behavior was being closely watched by friends and foes. These athletes were not afraid to be involved in efforts opposing white racism and actively participated in Civil Rights Movement activities like the 1963 March on Washington. 

Far too many of today’s Black professional athletes are more concerned about their advertising opportunities than they are about expressing their opposition to police [officers’] excessive uses of force against fellow Blacks. The failure by Black NFL players to support Colin Kaepernick’s protest against [officer] excessive uses of force against Blacks exemplified this attitude.     

WI: You wrote about your childhood jobs helping you gain an “understanding of the impact of income inequality on Black people living in the nation’s capital and the importance of work.” You also wrote about how growing up in D.C. prepared you to treat men and women you had to arrest with a certain dignity and seeing their humanity beyond their mistakes. Is that something that can be taught in police academies? 

Edwards: Observations and personal experiences in my youth reminded me when I reluctantly became a cop to treat people as I would want to be treated, even when making arrests for serious crimes. Once while shopping for books at D.C.’s Sankofa Video Books and Cafe, one of the owners — overhearing a conversation by Nkechi Taifa about my well-known concerns about how Blacks were treated by law enforcement — paid me a huge compliment. He likened me to Sam Greenlee, author of “The Spook Who Sat By The Door” (1989). He said I was “the cop who sat by the door.” 

WI: I know you have a rich D.C. history, what do you remember most about this newspaper’s founders Dr. Calvin Rolark and Council member Wilhelmina Rolark, and their work to empower the Black community?

Edwards: The Washington Informer’s founder Dr. Calvin and his wife Council member Wilhelmina Rolark provided Black people in the Washington, D.C., area with important community information and insights major area newspapers wouldn’t. Their newspaper and other works in the city impacted the political, educational and economic lives of Black citizens during a period of conflict and struggle over racial equity. The Washington Informer was never afraid to report on incidents when citizens alleged they had been mistreated by law enforcement. 

As a Washington, D.C., native just starting a career in public safety I carefully scrutinized articles published in The Washington Informer to determine community concerns.