HISTORY

 

 

"In 1973 there were twenty African American males troopers in the Maryland State Police (MSP), today there are 243.  The Original Twenty as they called themselves met in one of their homes to unite and discuss their common problems and develop solutions to the harassment and racism they were fighting.  They later officially organized and called themselves the Coalition of Black Maryland State Troopers (CBMST) and this is their story.

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A special thank you...



The CBMST would like to thank Janet E. Harrison with the help of her mother, Jayne Hood Simms.

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The Original Twenty: The History of Coalition of Black Maryland State Troopers

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HISTORY OF THE MARYLAND STATE POLICE (MSP)



The Maryland State Police has served the citizens of Maryland since its inception in 1935. Troopers consider themselves the best law enforcement officers because we are extremely proud.  The MSP core values are Integrity, Fairness and Service and are taken very seriously and with extreme dedication and commitment to the agency and to the citizens of Maryland .



The following is the history of the Maryland State Police as told by Jayne Hood Simms (my mother); one of the lifetime citizens of Maryland and a resident of the community of Sandy Spring, Maryland and it was relayed to me periodically throughout my life.  It goes:

The history of the Maryland State Police is also part of the history of Sandy Spring, Maryland.  Sandy Spring Bank located on Sandy Spring Road was robbed in the 1920s, by the Scocco brothers.  One of the tellers in the bank, Mr. Hollowell, was deaf and didnt understand the bank robbers instructions to, stick em up, and he was mortally wounded.  A large sum of money was stolen and the robbers escaped in a Hudson, Super 6.The Governor of Maryland, Governor Ritchie, established this law enforcement agency to investigate this and other serious crime and crack down with a statewide sweep for criminals.  Mrs. Simms added that she and the community of Sandy Spring respect Troopers and hold them in the highest esteem.  They have a reputation for fairness, she often says

In the 1970s, the Maryland State Police still enforced height and weight requirements for potential applicants.  These requirements reduced the number of applicants that were female. 



The minimum height was five feet ten inches and the minimum weight was 170 lbs. Perspective applicants were required to come into one of the Barracks and talk to an MSP Recruiter.  The recruiter was required to weigh and measure the interested applicant first.  If the height and weight requirements were met, an application could be given.  Prior to changing the hiring practices to height in proportion to weight in 1980s there were very few female Maryland State troopers. Minorities didnt fair much better than females in this area either possibly due to the intimidation factor involved when a Black would enter an unfriendly environment and ask a White Trooper for an application.  Recall that this was just after the 1968 race riots in this area and around the country.  In 1973 there were fourteen Black Maryland State Troopers.  I was number thirteen, said Douglas Deleaver who was recently interviewed, the thirteenth African American ever hired to the Maryland State Police.



The first African American to be hired was Milton Taylor who was hired in 1958.  He attained the rank of Captain before retiring.  Trooper Taylor was an extremely intelligent man.  He had graduated from Morgan State University with a major in accounting and criminal justice before becoming a state trooper.  Taylor had to endure the difficulties of being a trooper coupled with the difficulties of being an African American male in the White males world of the Maryland State Police.  Promotions came slowly for Taylor and transfers seemed designed to keep him from attaining his own command.  For example, most Lieutenants are commanders of a barrack, but when Taylor was promoted to Lieutenant, he was transferred to a division where he was the assistant commander under a Captain. 



The Original Twenty and the CBMSTs won their suit and a Consent Decree was placed upon the MSP, mandating that they promote the Original Twenty, and among other things that the Black to White ratio of the State Police reflect the ratio of the community of Maryland (then around 23%).  Once the MSP reached its target goal of 23% the Consent Decree automatically dissolved.   Floyd Jones indicated that the suit dissolved when the number of Blacks troopers reached the representative percentage of the community which at that time was approximately 23%. 

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Current statistics provided by the Maryland State Police show that the representation of Black troopers to Whites troopers is very low and does not come near to the representation of  the community which was approximately 23% in the 1970s.  There are no more academy classes with 15 or more Black members.  And the Black members hired in the 1970s (the Original Twenty) are retiring and are not being replaced. There are 1531 member of the Maryland State Police, 1120 are White males, 98 are White females, 243 are Black males and only 33 are Black females.  Blacks represent 4% of the sworn employees of the Maryland State Police.  



HIRING PEOPLE OF COLOR



In 1985 when this writer joined the Maryland State Police, the agency was well on its way to changing the population of the workforce to a diverse group.  Academy classes were large and almost twenty percent were Black recruits.  Within five years Diversity Training was mandated.  Personnel were ordered not to attend Diversity Training in uniform to avoid intimidation and to minimize any hostile actions or accidents that might result from having weapons in the class.  Diversity training did not work toward providing education about how to manage our differences and as this writer recalls the instruction centered on informing us that diversity was here so accept it and learn to work together.  It appeared to more of a culture shock to some of the non minorities, and it felt as if we were being forced upon them. 

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The training was most likely mandated as part of the suit and no one wanted to attend, because it changed nothing and groups stuck together, even during the training.  This was the first time many of us (Blacks and Whites) had ever spoken about race issues together and about the cultural differences between us.  These were very uncomfortable times because Blacks were entering the work force and assigned to locations that had always been reserved for Whites prior to the Consent Decree.  For those of us not heavily involved in the Coalition of Black Maryland State Troopers, the details of the suit were not known, but it was common knowledge that the suit was won, and the Maryland State Police were being required to promote and pay money to those that had suffered due to injustices.



AFTER ACTION RESULTS:  A COUNTER SUIT IS FILED BY THE MARYLAND TROOPERS ASSOCIATION



AFFIRMATIVE ACTION is based on a set of 30-year old premises that badly need revising.  White males are no longer dominant at every level of the corporate (statistically, they are merely the largest of many minorities), while decades of attack have noticeably weakened the racial and gender prejudices (Thomas, Jr., 1990, p.1).



Morale was low and there was hostility in the air among troopers.  There were small gathering of groups segregated by race and conversations that began, We dont thinks its fair that they  are able to get something.  Black Troopers mistakenly walked into such gathering and were immediately met with a very uneasy quiet and angry stares, having heard talk of how Whites felt about Blacks and their suit. 

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Taken from a December 1994 FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin:



            On May 6, 1993, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision in Maryland Troopers Assn, Inc. v. Evans, (1) holding that the Maryland State Police had discriminated against non-blacks by complying with the terms of a court-approved consent decree entered into with the Coalition of Black Maryland State Troopers, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII).   (FBI Article, 2004, p. 1)

The Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States, under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment says that, No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United Sates; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. (United States Constitution, 1868)



Unless we are to compromise our standards, a thing no competitive company can even contemplate, upward mobility for minorities and women should always be a question of pure competence and character unmuddled by accidents of birth (Thomas, Jr., 1990, p. 5)  But White males do dominate at every level of the corporation in the Maryland State Police.  The Maryland State Police need to, . Work not merely toward culture- and color-blindness but also toward an openly multicultural workplace that taps the full potential of every employee without artificial programs (Thomas, Jr., 1990, p. 2).  Since the MSP has not done this, do they need an artificial program, like Affirmative Action or another Consent Decree?



Our textbook, Managing Differences, in its Exploring Differences chapter informs us that, Conflicts may arise when differences are not acknowledged, dealt with and resolved. 

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The four sources of differences are:



•Facts and Information;
•Methods;
•Goals;
•Values.



Goals are a more difficult source of differences than Facts and Information and Methods.  The members of the Maryland State Police need to determine the goals of the organization with respect to diversity; and to determine what should be done and what direction to take to achieve the goals. To do this the MSP needs to realize that collaboration will be needed, negotiations, give and take, working together to a common goal, a better organization.  Diversity is good, because it brings new and different ideas, which produce better answers to problems.  Collaboration takes buy-in and contributions from as many people as possible so that the messages will be accepted with less conflict and divergence.

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SUMMARY:  WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?



Covert conflict often involves societal differences such as gender, race and religious discrimination.  These differences are highly sensitive and must be handled with extra care and consideration.  Laws and business regulations that guarantee equal opportunity can do little to change deep-seated attitudes (McArdle, 1995, p. 9).  Working together conflicts can be resolved, but that takes understanding and communications.  From our Managing Differences textbook, the stages of conflict are I win- you loose; Lose-lose; or Win-Win (McArdle, 1995, p. 56).  Win-win situations are known for being action-oriented, enabling an individual (or group) to move toward an active problem-solving mode (MdArdel, 1995, p. 57). 



And the beat goes on; the more things change the more they stay the same, as my mother says.  Minorities cannot hope to be treated fairly, attain the ranks, numbers and represent the community when non minorities claim to be discriminated against.  On Affirmative Action, Thomas says to continue Affirmative Action Programs (Harvard School of Business, 2004, p.    )  I say, Whites will never know racism as long as their race is the one with all the position and the power to affect other races so negatively.  Cultural Diversity will gain all of us differing voices and opinions and hopefully a better chance for all to be treated fairly. 



References



1.Bill of Rights, (1868).  Constitution of the United States of America.

2.Coalition of Black Maryland State Troopers, By-laws. (2001).

3.Deleaver, Douglas (NMN). Interviewed May 30, 2006.

4.McArdle, Ph.D., Geri E.H. (1995).  Managing Differences: A Guide to Proactive Management

5.Skills. Crisp Publications, Inc.

6.Jones, Floyd C. Interviewed May 27, 2006.

7.Retrieved May 23, 2006 from the World Wide Web

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_2194/is_n12_v63/ai_16548142 (Federal Bureau of Investigation Law Enforcement Bulletin, the: Preferences in hiring and promotion: courts. 

1.Retrieved May 30, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.mdsp.gov, Maryland

2.Department of State Police website.

3.Thomas, R. Roosevelt, Jr. (1990).  From Affirmative Action to Affirming Diversity. Boston, MA:

4.Harvard Business School Publishing.

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